As it started becoming more and more of a reality that we would be bringing home some horses on June 18, it became an instant preparation process!
To Read All BLM (Bureau of Land Management) facility requirements and frequently asked questions related to adoption for both horses and Burros: Click Here!
The Location
After weighing our options for where to keep our new additions, we settled on a property that is owned by Paul's mother and step-dad. The property is in the Beaver Dams area and has a lot of acreage. Room for expansion. They have a nice big barn on the property that hasn't been finished with stalls yet, so it was still open inside. On the far end of the barn, the door opens up into a nice big pasture (roughly 20 acres) currently occupied by cows and fenced with electric. While this doesn't meet BLM standards, it does mean once I have the titles, we have 20 acres of already fenced in pasture for the horses. This also meant that we had some sort of double fence outside the barn, making the setup easy!
After weighing our options for where to keep our new additions, we settled on a property that is owned by Paul's mother and step-dad. The property is in the Beaver Dams area and has a lot of acreage. Room for expansion. They have a nice big barn on the property that hasn't been finished with stalls yet, so it was still open inside. On the far end of the barn, the door opens up into a nice big pasture (roughly 20 acres) currently occupied by cows and fenced with electric. While this doesn't meet BLM standards, it does mean once I have the titles, we have 20 acres of already fenced in pasture for the horses. This also meant that we had some sort of double fence outside the barn, making the setup easy!
The Setup
We decided to attach a 40 foot round pen to the outside of the barn, and put round pen panels on the inside of the barn to make our home for the horses. The open barn on the inside was perfectly setup for us to bring in round pen panels and use the barn as a run in. We couldn't find 6 foot tall round pen panels without having to pay outrageous amounts of money or taking over a month in shipping, or both! Our solution was to take 2"x6" boards and secure them to the top of the round pen making an additional rail at just over 6 foot tall. We put in a gate at the door of the barn to separate the round pen from the run in, to make it easy to clean without handling the horses.
We decided to attach a 40 foot round pen to the outside of the barn, and put round pen panels on the inside of the barn to make our home for the horses. The open barn on the inside was perfectly setup for us to bring in round pen panels and use the barn as a run in. We couldn't find 6 foot tall round pen panels without having to pay outrageous amounts of money or taking over a month in shipping, or both! Our solution was to take 2"x6" boards and secure them to the top of the round pen making an additional rail at just over 6 foot tall. We put in a gate at the door of the barn to separate the round pen from the run in, to make it easy to clean without handling the horses.
The Preparation
As we didn't have a functioning horse barn prior to bringing horses home, we needed lots of basic supplies to get the barn up and running.
- Water Buckets - We decided to use muck buckets for water in the round pen and in the run in.
- Extra Buckets - We also made sure we had 10 gallon and 5 gallon buckets on hand for emergency use and to be extra prepared.
- First Aid Kit - A must for every barn! Ours includes gloves, epsom salts, vetwrap, betadine surgical scrub (antiseptic), ichthammol (drawing salve), rolled gauze, non stick gauze pads, rolled cotton, ice packs, duct tape, diapers, thermometer, Benadryl, SMZ's (Sulfamethoxazole, an antibiotic) and Bute (Phenylbutazone, an anti imflammatory and pain killer).
- Feed Pans - Fortiflex makes fantastic mini pans to feed grain out of!
- Trashcans - We need a trashcan for actual trash, but also to keep grain in.
- Food Scoop - Yep! We need one of those too!
- Muck Rake and a Wheelbarrow - For basic housekeeping needs.
Equipment
We wanted each horse to have their own color with both buckets and equipment. This makes everything simple, and appeases Mallory's color OCD.
- Rope Halters and Leads - We chose to use Parelli rope halters and leads. While we might not use 100% Parelli or endorse them, their equipment is AWESOME!
- Nylon Halters and Leads - We chose halters and leads from Weaver leather as the quality is high and their color choices were amazing.
- Parelli Carrot Stick - We needed a whip/arm extension of some sort, and with a natural horsemanship background, this seemed like a logical choice.
- 12' and 22' Lines - Once again, we chose Parelli equipment to fill this void.
- Polo Wraps - This is a cheaper alternative to boots and provides an excellent back up for leg wraps in case of injury.
- Rope - This is a 24 foot rope with a lasso on the end. Helpful for roping feet and general roping the horse.
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