There is so much to think about. Even if you think you are pretty read up and prepared, you still have a mind melt.
Other things to think about is what you need for your stable, paddock and for your horse.
As I said, it’s lovely to have a thumb through the catalogues and on the internet for what colour rugs you want and do you want matching bandages etc, and believe me my Rideaway catalogue is very well thumbed (www.rideaway.co.uk), and believe me when I say I have been one of their best customers in the last few months!
The practical items are the things you really need to take in to consideration. Are you going to have rubber matting? I decided to as it’s kinder on their feet, so I opted for a matting which is similar to children’s play mats with jigsaw edging. It’s light, durable and easy to wash down, although I didn’t use the jigsaw bit as it didn’t lay as straight enough as I wanted it to. Do you want to do the whole stable or just half? I did half rubber matting and half bedding because of the brick columns in the stable would mean cutting out bits and that was just too much like hard work. So half matting and half shavings was my first option.
Along with this you need the tools to be able to muck out and feed. The essentials are:
- Gloves for Poo picking
- Straw/Shavings fork
- Wheelbarrow
- Shovel
- A poo tidee
- Broom
- Haynets
- Food buckets
- Water buckets
- Hosepipe
- Grooming Kit/Tack Box
- Storage Bins for Food
- Feed scoop
- Weigh Tape
- Height tape
- Weigh scale (for weighing hay nets)
- First Aid Kit (I will discuss this more in another blog)
- Fire Extinguisher (A good idea)
Got all that?! If you want you can obviously choose to have a pink wheelbarrow if that floats your boat, but personally I go for practicality rather than colour. What you also want to think about is where you are going to store your rugs, tack and other essentials.
Now food is obviously essential for your horse, and it’s important you get it right, as trust me when I tell you that if you don’t you will have a grumpy horse! When Bart & Bono first arrived my paddock was lovely and green with good grass, and obviously this will go quickly, and if like me your paddock space is limited, then it is essential that you have good paddock maintainence . As well as the paddock you have the hard feed.
To work out how much your horse will need it helps to know: How tall are they? How much do they weigh?. Now you can buy height measuring tapes and you can buy a weight tape. Unless you are fortunate to live near to a weigh bridge then the weight tape is probably the best option. Although not totally accurate, if you use it regularly it will give you an idea of whether they are losing weight or getting porky or staying the same. You also have to have a look at what you are actually doing with your horse. If you are doing a hack and a couple of schooling sessions then your horse will still be in ‘light work’.
There is an accurate way of working out how much food a horse requires, but basically a horse needs to eat about 2 1/2% of it’s body weight a day. If your horse is:
- 10hh – 6lbs of food
- 11hh – 10lbs of food
- 12hh – 14lbs of food
- 13hh – 18lbs of food
- 14hh – 22lbs of food
- 15hh – 26lbs of food
- 16hh – 30lbs of food
- 17hh – 34lbs of food
10% of this is hard feed and 90% is bulk (hay/haylage/grass). So if like Bart your horse is 17hh then they require 34lbs of feed, so that is 3.4lbs of hard feed and the rest bulk. If you prefer to work in Kgs then 2.2lb is 1kg. If like Bono you are 10hh then they require 6lbs of food, 0.6lbs hard feed and the rest bulk, however, it does depend on the type and breed of horse as Shetlands can get fat on fresh air.
You then divide this up in to Breakfast, Dinner and Night feed. For my boys they have breakfast at 7.30am/8am, having half of their hard feed in the morning, mixed with supplements and a carrot or two, then when they are out they are munching away on grass. If the grass is not great then you will want to give them hay/haylage for them as well. They come in for dinner about 6pm and they have the other half of their hard feed. For night time they then have their hay nets which will keep them going.
As I mentioned earlier, if you don’t give them enough overnight then you will have a grumpy horse. I made this mistake and boy was Bart grumpy! Remember they are trickle feeders so eat little and often (well nearly all the time). Once I kicked myself up the bum and worked it out then he was happy, and so was I!
As for what hard feed you want to use, it is a good idea to find out what they were on before and slowly change it if you want them to be on something different. I sought advice from friends who had a wealth of experience as to what they fed theirs on. I decided to put them on Dengie Alpha A and Top Spec Balancer (Non heating). Its a good idea to ask friends where they buy their feed from, and if you have the space, you tend to be able to get a bit knocked off if you buy in bulk. If you can’t fit it in your car/trailer then you can have it delivered, however generally there is a charge which can make it a little more expensive. Same with your hay/haylage. It’s important to get good quality, non dusty hay, or a good haylage. I decided on hay as they wouldn’t get through haylage quick enough and it would start to go off, and it’s more sugary so I didn’t want them bouncing off the walls. It’s good to get to know a local farmer who will be able to deliver it for you. Don’t leave it until you have only a couple of bales left (Yep! Done that too!!), otherwise you end up panicking and having to ring around to see if you can get some there and then. You will soon get to know how much you get through a day so you can work out how long it will last.
Your hard feed does need to be stored somewhere where the rodents won’t get to it. I bought a feed bin with partitions so I could fit a bag in each section which is really handy. I bought mine from Ani-mate, a small friendly company, and Martin who runs it is great. (http://www.ani-matefeedbins.co.uk).
The other thing you want to consider for your stable is where you are going to keep your tack. If you are on livery then they will have a place for you to store your tack away. I bought a tack locker (again from ani-mate), which holds everything. Make sure you screw it against the wall otherwise even if it’s locked then they can still pick it up and walk off with it!
As I also mentioned a Fire Extinguisher is handy and a first aid kit (more of which I will cover on another post), oh and of course you also want to have a kettle – handy for cleaning, bathing and of course a cuppa!
So are you still up to speed? It’s a mind melt – I did tell you that!! Just remember the 5 P’s – Preparation prevents piss poor performance!
Next post: Different bedding and how to save yourself a lot of work when mucking out.
trialsandtribulationsofafirsthorse 