Creating my horse barn

[EddieWalker]

If you had it to do over... anything you would have done different... keep more land... location?

The only thing I really dislike about my place is I can hear the train that is one mile away. I'm on a state highway and that's nice for access, but who knows if it would be a priority or deterrent if I was buying again. It's nice being able to get onto the Interstate in a couple minutes and being 30 minutes away from Tyler. I spent too much money on bringing in a 6 inch water main. Same thing with my commercial electrical account. I need to change that, I'm paying too much for electricity, but I need to sell the land to myself as a farm and change ownership in order to get it all straightened out. I also have my land listed as timer for an ag exemption. I want to get it changed over to livestock, but it's a battle getting out of timber. I probably spent too much time on laying out my roads and RV sites, but what's done is done and I'm going to take advantage of it in opening up pastures and thinning the thicker stands of jungle. Lush isn't right for how thick it is here, it's impassible in areas with vines covered in thorns that make blackberries look nice. More land would be nice, but in all honestly, 68 acres is a nice amount and it's more then I can maintain with just mowing what's cleared already.

My business has taken off and I'm making more then I expected, so that is also another reason to not pursue the RV Park angle. I'm already making what I had hoped to make with the park, and I rarely work an 8 hour day. Of course that's not counting time on the computer doing bids and paperwork, but I'm at home then and also on here and watching TV, so it's not like I'm doing real work.

I do have one RV space that my parents used for years. Not sure how easy it is to get to, especially when the weather is bad or after a storm. Friends are always welcome, but sometimes it's easier and better on their RV is they stay at one of the local RV parks.


Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

We have a really strong storm coming through right now and we saw it coming about half an hour ago. We went out to the pasture with some sweet feed and encouraged the horses to come to the barn. Then we gave them some more feed to keep them in there. This storm is taking out power, trees and people on FB who have already been hit are saying there is some good sized hail. It's not uncommon to get an inch of rain in half an hour here and this one has the potential to do twice that!!!! All the lights are on, and everyone is under cover. Just have to hope they stay in there.

 

[ultrarunner]

Saw pictures of golf ball size hail out from that storm... I was thinking of you.

I remember the power and 6" water line and know they don't come cheap... a service fee for a 6" line we have a work is over $5,000 per year before a drop of water flows.

Maybe you could set up a farm Trust or Corporation?

Brother's place is 65 acres and he loves doing the chores and improvements... just finding the time is the challenge... says he would not want any more unless it was range or grass land for grazing...

At least I know a few people that are living the dream and making it work.

A few years back the American Austin/Bantam club had a National meet in Tyler...

I bet Dad and especially Mom are loving the new addition...

 

[todd walker]

salt block would be nice...grass is a lot of water salt helps them pee....

 

[EddieWalker]

The storm stalled out about ten miles before us and we only had a quarter of an inch of rain. More mud, but none of the damage that some of my friends got from it and the hail.

We named the filly Diamond.











Eddie

 

[ddbackhoe]

We named the filly Diamond.

View attachment 421645 Eddie

She's a good looking girl. Just for fun, an old horse guy told me that the measurement from the center of the knee to the top of hoof will be the height at the withers at maturity. So far, 4 out of 6 were spot on, one was 1/2 a hand off and still waiting on number 6. She was 16 1/2 inches at birth, at 3 years she is 15.3.

 

[riptides]

...I've seen the rope and the tape used for horses and temporary pastures. I'm thinking the tape would be better because it's more visible. Can I get away with just one row of it? How high should it be? Is there an ideal height? The horses do not seem to challenge the fence where they are now, and the place they where at before had one strand of barbwire on top of four strands of smooth wire that they stayed behind....

Am I thinking in the right direction?

Thanks,
Eddie

I use poly-tape and rope on standard t-posts. The rope is charged. Tape height starting is about two feet off ground, then rope, then another tape line.

t-posts have caps on them.

Since buying the farm, we are still in the process of removing all barb-wire. It was a dairy farm in the 20's. Had a friend who had some wire for some cows, horse found it. Enough said on that.

 

[bobm6996]

Eddie - we use the poly wire with 6 ft. T posts, we run 3 strands; at about 5 ft. to keep the horses from trying to lean over to eat outside the fenced area, about 12 inches off the ground to help deter coyotes and wild dogs, the middle just in case they try leaning. We take torn up white material and tie short strips to the fence when we first put it up so the horses will see it. After a few days we remove it, once they know where the fence is, they will stay away. We do use horse fence (either 4' or 5') for the outside perimeter of the property/pasture and run a strand of poly wire on top. We use either T posts or the temporary electric posts (looks like 1/2" rebar) with an insulator on it to split pasture area to keep them from eating areas completely down. Have always been told you need to keep horses off of newly planted pasture for a year to give it time to root good. We split our small pasture down the middle with temporary electric fence and rotate them between the two every 30 to 45 days to allow the grass/ground time to rest and keep growing. We keep them off of the pasture when it is really wet so they don't tear it up. We have a sacrifice lot that we keep them on when the weather is bad and keep hay in the feeders for them since they do not have the grass. If you use T posts make sure you buy the plastic caps to put on top of posts.
We are getting ready to begin building a new home, horse barn, pastures and hay production ground this summer on our retirement property we purchased two years ago. We have 15 acres and living the past several years with 3 horses on 4 acres we have learned a lot. Key upgrades; more pasture, a barn with easy access to water at each stall, easy feeding methods in the stalls (swing out feeders), heated water in the stalls, a sacrifice lot that will not turn to mud (part covered) and plan to use high ground with clay removed a few inches down replaced with some sand and then lots of ground up wood material from a tree trimming company (some woods cannot be used they are toxic, research if you decide to do it). Good pasture management is key to healthy and happy horses and will finally we will have the room to do so much more. We are in our sixties now and we want to keep the horses for as long as we can, so we need less labor and hard work.
Have also read some things in this post I had not thought of, so thanks for starting this great conversation. I will be starting a construction thread to share with everyone the progress this summer as we get busy and begin to build our dream property. Will be asking you questions at times I am sure based on your strong knowledge and experience in the construction trade, so thanks in advance for any help/advice you can offer.

 

[EddieWalker]

I went with the 1 1/2 inch white horse tape from Kencove. We measured it out and came up with almost exactly 2,000 feet, which gives them 6 more acres of grass to eat. It took the entire weekend to set the corner posts, drive in the t posts and trim all the trees and branches back. Then between storms, I cut the grass down along the fence line and then hit it with the weed eater. When everything arrived, it took a full day to run two rows of the tape and attach all the connectors to the T posts and corner posts.

The horse where afraid to walk through the gate. They have been zapped by the hot wire and they have a lot of respect for it. After some coaxing and encouragement, they slowly worked their way out. It was like a switch went off all of a sudden, and they all took off on a run into the middle of the field. That first day, they pretty much stayed in the same area, the at 6 pm, the all came back to the barn where Karen gives them their evening feed. Same problem getting past the gate, but the lure of the sweetfeed was enough. It was funny because each of them sped up a little as they passed the open gate.

The next day was better, and they wondered around more in the field. They also came back earlier and where waiting on Karen. Now they go out there easily and spend as much time just standing around as they do eating. The most fun is seeing little Diamond take off on a run. It's incredible how fast she is!!!

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Eddie

 

[ultrarunner]

I use Kencove too... good service all the way to California...

Couldn't view the pictures for some reason.