February 1, 2012

Horse Barn Designs to Keep Your Ponies Safe

Whenever looking at horse barn designs there are plenty of points to consider. Just what would you like it crafted from? Precisely how many stalls do you need inside it? Where on your own property would you want to construct it? What extra, non standard characteristics do you want to include?

But there’s one particular extremely important aspect of horse barn design that a lot of people neglect…until it’s too late.

That one, commonly disregarded aspect, is actually barn safety. Most people are more concerned with how great the barn looks, & don’t give a second thought to precisely what might occur if there’s a barn fire.

But, they say, if there’s a barn fire I will just run down towards the barn and also let all of the horses out, or the fire fighters may go in and get the horses out whenever they turn up. That just about all sounds nice in principle, however did you know:

  • Generally in most barn fires, the barn may end up being completely engulfed within flames in less than fifteen minutes.
  • Even if you do manage to open the stall doors, the majority of horses won’t move, or if they do, may most likely go out then come back to the same or another stall as that’s their own ‘home’, that’s where they feel safe and sound.
  • The roof of the barn will usually collapse inside 10 to 15 minutes.
  • It will take five to seven minutes minimum (longer inside rural areas) for the fire brigade to come.

So once the fire fighters get there, the roof of the barn may already end up being on the point of collapse therefore there’s no way they’ll end up being letting anyone in there to get your own horses out. It doesn’t matter just what the roof of your own barn consists of - timber or perhaps metal - it will nevertheless collapse within exactly the same period of time.

The result?

Most horses may most likely end up being dead - ideally absolutely no human casualties.

So whenever looking at horse barn designs, precisely what features should you include to help reduce the risk of fire, as well as enhance the outcome if a fire does occur?

1. Exterior doors to each and every stable, leading to a ‘safe area’ from the barn. That way, individuals may let the horses out in relative safety with no risk of the roof collapsing on them.

2. Satisfactory roof ventilation. It’s not so much the fire burning the roofing structure that results in quick barn roof collapse, however the heat coming from the fire below. A well ventilated roof area may assist to keep your roof area much cooler in the event of a fire, which means the roofing won’t collapse so swiftly.

3. Almost all electrical wires in conduit. Almost all electrical wires in the barn must be run through conduit pipe to lessen the risk of them creating a fire.

We hope this gives you a couple of points to think about if you are looking at horse barn plans and designs for your own property. Don’t wait till your own barn’s burnt to the ground to think over it, take action now before it’s far too late!

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A Check List To Use If You Are Viewing Horse Boarding Stables

Unfortunately not many of us are usually fortunate enough to have our own property where we could maintain our own horse or pony. In these kinds of scenarios, our only other choice in the event that we would like to keep a horse, is to make use of horse boarding stables.

At the moment, I’m needing to make use of horse boarding facilities for my personal pony, however we have had our own property in the past, therefore I’ve been on both sides of the fence - whenever we had our own property we supplied horse boarding for people, however I’ve additionally had to utilize horse boarding stables on several different events.

So what do you need to try to find whenever you must board your own horse?

1. Superior fences - the very last thing you would like is your own horse wounding itself in poor quality fencing, specifically barbed wire. Make sure that the fences & gates are usually undamaged with no sharp edges. If at all possible, the fencing ought to all end up being electric as well as post and rail.

2. Secure stables & shedding - these have to be examined exactly the same as the fencing. Ensure there aren’t any kind of holes in stable walls, no sharp bits of metal poking out or anything else a horse could injure itself on. In the event that horses can discover something to injure themselves on, they will!

3. Weed free pastures - a few weeds in any kind of horse pasture is definitely inevitable, however try to avoid places where the paddocks are usually just brimming with weeds (in particular toxic weeds) along with no grass whatsoever. A few horse boarding facilities don’t offer you paddocking (just yards or stables) therefore in the event that this is the case then you don’t need to worry about this.

4. Someplace to ride - stop and think, where will you ride your own horse? You definitely don’t would like to try along with ride your horse inside a 10 acre paddock along with 10 other horses running totally free around you…that’s a recipe for devastation! At the minimum you’ll need a paddock that doesn’t have horses in it to ride in, or even easy access to peaceful roads however the best thing is a proper riding arena.

5. Stables or somewhere to put your own horse in the event that they’re ill - in case your horse is going to be inside a paddock on a regular basis, you still have to be able to put it somewhere alone in the event that it will become sick as well as injures itself. Stables are perfect for this, however an extremely small yard might do too.

6. A knowledgeable, horsey person residing on the property - horses can become ill or even become injured at any time of the day or even night and in the event that you live twenty minutes away, you can’t end up being there constantly to keep an eye on them. When you get there the following morning to feed, it may be too late! Someone, who can call you in the event that there’s a challenge, needs to live on the property.

7. Shelter in the yards or even paddocks - an excellent paddock shelter or lots of trees is vital.

So if you are able to find a place that ticks all of the boxes, then consider yourself very fortunate! However, you may well discover that you don’t want every single thing listed above in your horse boarding facilities or possibly are pleased to go without a few of those facilities - everything is based on your personal needs!

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