Since the snow will begin to fly before too long, now is a good time to get your barn ready for winter. Keeping your barn a safe and healthy environment for your horses, but organized and practical for you is the key to winter barn preparation.
1. Spring Fall Cleaning
Giving your barn a good thorough cleaning before winter has many benefits. A clean barn has fewer allergens, reduced fire risk, and fewer rodents.
Allergens are a big problem during the winter for horses kept inside. The dust, old hay, and cobwebs can all affect horses with sensitive respiratory systems or allergies. Clutter and debris can also create a fire hazard.
When cleaning your barn, be sure to be thorough. You don’t have to Shop-Vac® everything but you should clean stalls out completely, knock down cobwebs, pick up trash, sweep alleys, and pitch old hay or straw.
2. Order Hay Early
Ordering hay before the start of winter can save you a lot of headaches and money. Depending on what the year’s hay crop has been like, ordering hay late in the fall can drastically increase the price.
Ordering early allows you to unload and move hay during decent weather. Unloading hay is hard work and it’s even less fun when you’re battling snow or ice. Getting trucks to the barn for delivery can also be a problem once the weather turns cold and wet.
3. Organize Your Feed Room
When the cold hits, the goal is often to do chores as quickly as possible and retreat to the warm indoors. Organizing your feed room allows you to have an efficient process for chore time. How many nights have you had to spend a spare minute or two searching for a wayward feed scoop, kicking old grain bags out of your way, or tripping over misplaced buckets? Having your feed room clean and organized can help you get in and out of the barn and back to the house where it’s warm.
4. Buy Sand
Having a bucket or bag of sand in the barn comes in handy during winter. Snow and ice buildup can create a safety concern for you and your horses. Sand is an inexpensive way to breakdown ice and increase traction.
5. Ready the Blankets
If you plan to blanket this winter, it’s a good idea to go through blankets, clean them up, and check for straps that need repaired or tears that need sewn. You might also find that some blankets need replaced and this is a great time of year to shop for sales on winter horse wear.
Since the weather is turning colder, you can also pack up and store lightweight sheets and blankets so they won’t be in your way.
6. Sort Through Your Products
Look through your cupboards and tack room for products that might freeze. Move things like shampoo, dewormer, liniment, and other liquids or pastes indoors. Now is also a good time to throw out any products that have expired or that you no longer have a use for.
7. Make a Plan for Water
Breaking through frozen ice and carrying water are the worst parts of winter choring. If you use heated buckets, do so with caution and be sure to check the cords for damage before plugging them in. Also be sure to keep the cord protected from horse contact when they are in the stalls. Horses can step on, pull, or bite at cords, causing them to fray and become a fire hazard.
If you have a hydrant that freezes, you can use heat tape to keep it thawed or insulate it with polyurethane foam insulation.
So what are you all doing around the barn to get ready for winter? Any special tips for keeping water thawed or winter horse tips?
