Winter-y Days, and a Tour

This is where Jack and Arabee have been spending most of their time lately:




And since lately it's been doing a lot of wintry precipitation, they've been standing in the shed, watching the icicles grow.


This is where they live. It's an add-on to the back of a corn crib/tool shed on the farm. There are two 10x12' stalls, and a 12x16' run-in shed that they ALWAYS have access to. In front of the stall doors is a little overhang, it's 3-4 feet, I can't remember for sure now.


The horses are only in their stalls for about 30 minutes AM and PM while they eat their grain and we do the rest of the chores, feeding the goats and dogs, checking water, putting out hay. In the winter they only get "pasture" turnout if the ground is really frozen, but really they have 23/7 paddock access, in the area you now see them in. In the summertime, they get pastured during the day, but we shut them out of the pasture at night.



My "tack/feed room" is actually a section of the old Corn Crib that the stalls are built onto. I have a 1.5' step up into the wooden floor, and that area has been "coon-proofed" by chicken wire, so the racoons can't get in there and eat the feed. To put the feed in the horses' stalls, I just open the little sliding doors from inside the tack/feed room and pour it in their bucket that's mounted to the wall, then go around and let them in to eat. Very handy.

I've got an old office desk with drawers that I keep odds and ends in, plenty of hooks for misc. horse stuff, saddle racks. Matt welded me some hooks out of old horseshoes (aren't they cute?) for the inside of the door, and he nailed on a wire basket to keep brushes and hoof picks in.

I just "park" Arabee in front of the tack room door, and everything is in reach. She ground ties very well. Jack tends to wander.....but then he is really ridiculously spoiled - I've let him get away with way too much. He ties to a post reliably though.

It may not be the equine "Ritz" but it is perfect for what we need!