Instead of cruising along on autopilot, take a minute to walk through your barn chores and see them with fresh eyes. You’ll find ways to save money—as well as time!—with a few simple one-time tweaks to your current system.

Below are our top gizmos that will save you big over the long run.

15 Equestrian Hacks Amid Inflation

1. Cushion From the Cold

Make winter watering easier with insulated buckets and tanks. While tank and bucket heaters are nice, a single tank heater can increase your electricity bill by $30 a month!

For those of us living in northern states, insulated bucket holders, either purchased or homemade, make barn life easier. A little bit of insulation means no more swinging a rubber mallet at the side of the bucket to break up the ice every day.

Large, outdoor tanks can be set inside a heavily insulated box with a piece of floating hard insulation on the water surface. My 100-gallon tank in Maine stays amazingly ice-free most days in the winter. There are no extra electricity expenses (perfect for dealing with inflation!) and no extension cords crisscrossing the farm.

2. Magnetic Tool Strip

A hammer, leather punch, screwdriver, or knife: How many times do you find yourself needing to quickly grab a tool but end up digging around for long stretches to find one? You may have even given up and thrown money away on a replacement simply because you couldn’t find it when you needed it.

For less than $25, you can purchase a three-pack of heavy-duty magnetic strips. Designed to hold heavy metal objects, they can be mounted on the walls in the tack room or feed room to keep the tools you use most at hand.

3. Invest and Save

My best tool investment was a portable air compressor; small ones start at $100. Air compressors are worth their weight in gold, especially if you add up all the tires at your farm. Tallying up my truck, horse trailer, hay trailer, lawn mower, tractor, utility trailer and wheelbarrows, I have 26 tires on the farm, and at least one of them always needs air.

4. Cord Control

Keep your barn aisle neat with a wall-mounted extension cord reel. These cord reels keep power at the ready, yet neatly put away when not in use. This way, you don’t need to go looking through the tack room for the last place you saw an extension cord or deal with tangled, twisted cords, and you won’t have dangerous tripping hazards in the barn aisle.

5. Collect Rainwater

Here in the U.S., we have some regions that are desperate for rain, while others are wishing it would stop. Whatever the situation, we rarely take advantage of harnessing this natural resource.

Rainwater can easily fill your troughs, and you don’t need a fancy system. If you have buildings with metal roofs, just add a gutter and downspout directed to the water tank.

Numerous websites can help you calculate how much water can be collected based on the size of your roof and the amount of rainfall you receive. For example, my small run-in shed has a 24-square-foot by 16-square-foot roof. That’s 55,296 square inches. Multiply this by a 1-inch rainfall, and I can collect 55,296 cubic inches of water. Divide that by 231 (the number of cubic inches in a gallon), and the result is 239 gallons of water—not bad for a small run-in shed! This is actually more water than my trough can hold.

If you have horses in remote pastures with run-in sheds, you can add a storage tank to collect the water and a float valve to let it automatically fill the tank when the level drops.

Think about the time you save not having to lug water or drag out hoses as often, not to mention savings on your water bill. You can find plans online for building a simple rain barrel or a more complicated rainwater-catchment system.

6. In Hot Water

For less than $250, you can have hot water on demand in a system that is so portable, you can even take it to shows or to trail rides.

These portable systems can easily save you money over a permanent fixture (which runs at least $600-$1,000) if you’re not using it every day.

7. Clean Up Your Act

Washers and dryers at the barn are luxury items, but it sure is nice to not have to drag hairy blankets and sopping-wet towels into the house or off to the laundromat.

Thankfully, you don’t have to buy new, expensive machines to wash smelly blankets. My appliance repairman advised me to shop for used washers circa early 2000s; he said they last forever and repairs are inexpensive. Perfect for dealing with saddle pads and blankets! Check online classifieds like Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace for used washers and dryers near you.

8. Take Note

For less than $10, you can turn any wall in your barn into a chalkboard. With some chalkboard paint and a few strokes of a paintbrush, you can create a fun board for writing notes, phone numbers and feeding schedules.

Compared to the cost and hassle of buying and mounting a dry-erase white board with markers that can dry up or permanently stick to the board, this old-school system won’t let you down.

9. Simplify Cross-tying

Get your cross-ties out of the aisles and put them in your stalls. Many barns now have cross-tie hardware in the stalls, or they designate the wash stall as a grooming area.

By eliminating cross-ties in the main barn aisle, there is less debris that needs to be continually swept up, and you’ll have more room for others to navigate around the barn when bringing horses in or out. You also don’t have horses in the way when doing routine barn chores like mucking or feeding.

10. Reinventing the Wheelbarrow

When it comes to wheelbarrows, the design hasn’t changed in the past 100 years. You have your basic choices of a single- or dual-wheeled (I prefer the single because it turns corners easier), and plastic versus metal tray.

Until recently, you could only find basic wood stump handles that seem to be designed for ridiculously large hands. Finally, someone realized actual handles would go a long way toward making the wheelbarrow better. Even when fully loaded, this type doesn’t feel like a runaway train when going downhill because I can keep a firm grip on the handles.

11. Bright Ideas

If you’re guilty of leaving on lights after you’ve left the bathroom, tack room or feed room, install motion sensors and watch your electricity bill go down. This, combined with energy-efficient LED lights, is a money and aggravation saver. Exterior lighting on motion sensors also saves money. You may hear that motion sensors are unreliable, but if they are set up correctly, they work great. I’ve used them on my farm for more than 25 years.

No power in an outbuilding? A battery- or solar-operated motion-sensor LED light is the answer. The one in my hay barn has been operating on the same set of batteries for seven years.

12. Shelve It

Roll those grain bins out of the way. Shop for used kitchen cabinets with slide-out bases, or just add a countertop and mount your grain bins on barrel dollies, then roll them under the counter. You’ll wonder what you did without this additional work and storage space until now.

Metal trash cans are 100 percent rodent-proof, and being able to move them around allows you to keep the floors swept clean.

13. Open-Door Policy

Another old-school idea is to put solid board rails in doorways when barn doors are open. Fit the boards into slots so they can be dropped down easily for people, yet keep a loose horse from leaving the barn.

Good ventilation is key to your horses’ health, and these board rails will allow you to leave the doors open, even if you own an escape artist.

14. Save on Salt

Instead of buying small salt bricks or spools, buy a 50-pound block and place it in a corner of the stall. It will keep your horse happy and provide a source of salt for more than a year.

On a pound-per-pound basis, you will save $40 or more a year. As a side benefit, many horses that chew up the smaller bricks will just lick the larger block.

15. Nothing But Net

For years, I fed hay outside on the ground, but when horses had their fill, they wasted the remaining hay and trampled it into the dirt. (With today’s inflation-induced hay prices, this could easily add up to hundreds of dollars wasted per year.) Hanging hay nets reduces hay waste, but wrestling the hay into the nets each day is time consuming.

At a dressage farm that I visited, I noticed they had hay-net hoops. This was the best of both worlds—no more hay waste and no hassle putting the hay in the net.

Become an idea shopper! Hundreds of ideas like this abound at stables that you visit. Keep your eyes peeled and look for them. By sharing ideas and looking at the ways that other equestrians are doing things, we can all benefit—especially amid inflation.

Also Read: Beat Inflation at Horse Shows

This article about hacks for equestrians amid inflation appeared in the January/February 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Dealing with Inflation as an Equestrian appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

We all have a tendency to do things the way we’ve always done them, living life on autopilot. Take a moment to walk through your barn and look at it with fresh eyes. A new perspective can give you the opportunity to streamline your operation and save both time and money. From adopting some of the simple, old-school ways to taking advantage of the latest and greatest modern equipment, let yourself see the possibilities of doing things a new way.

1. Organize on the Cheap

A hammer, leather punch, screwdriver, or knife: How many times do you find yourself needing to quickly grab a tool while at the barn, but you have to look through a cabinet or tool box to find one? (And rarely is that tool where it’s supposed to be.) For less than $25, you can purchase a three-pack of heavy-duty magnetic strips. Designed to hold heavy metal objects, they can be mounted on the walls in convenient places to keep the tools you use most always at hand.

2. Invest and Save

My best tool investment was a portable air compressor; small ones start at $100. Air compressors are worth their weight in gold, especially if you add up all the tires at your farm. Tallying up my truck, horse trailer, hay trailer, lawn mower, tractor, utility trailer and wheelbarrows, I have 26 tires on the farm, and at least one of them always needs air.

3. Cord Control

Keep your barn aisle neat with a wall-mounted extension cord reel. These cord reels keep power at the ready, yet neatly put away when not in use. This way, you don’t need to go looking through the tack room for the last place you saw an extension cord or deal with tangled, twisted cords, and you won’t have dangerous tripping hazards in the barn aisle.

4. Collect Rainwater

Here in the U.S., we have some regions that are desperate for rain, while others are wishing it would stop. Whatever the situation, we rarely take advantage of harnessing this natural resource.

Rainwater can easily fill your troughs, and you don’t need a fancy system. If you have buildings with metal roofs, just add a gutter and downspout directed to the water tank.

Numerous websites can help you calculate how much water can be collected based on the size of your roof and the amount of rainfall you receive. For example, my small run-in shed has a 24-square-foot by 16-square-foot roof. That’s 55,296 square inches. Multiply this by a 1-inch rainfall, and I can collect 55,296 cubic inches of water. Divide that by 231 (the number of cubic inches in a gallon), and the result is 239 gallons of water. Not bad for a small run-in shed! This is actually more water than my trough can hold.

If you have horses in remote pastures with run-in sheds, you can add a storage tank to collect the water and a float valve to let it automatically fill the tank when the level drops. Think about the time you save not having to lug water or drag out hoses as often. You can find plans online for building a simple rain barrel or a more complicated rainwater-catchment system.

5. In Hot Water

For less than $250, you can have hot water on demand in a system that is so portable, you can even take it to shows or to trail rides. These portable systems can easily save you money over a permanent fixture if you’re not using it every day.

6. Clean Up Your Act

Washers and dryers at the barn are luxury items, but it sure is nice to not have to drag hairy blankets and sopping-wet towels into the house or off to the laundromat. You don’t have to buy new, expensive machines to wash smelly blankets. My appliance repairman advised me to shop for used washers circa early 2000s; he said they last forever and repairs are inexpensive. Perfect for dealing with saddle pads and blankets! Check online classifieds websites like Craigslist for used washers and dryers near you.

7. Take Note

For less than $10, you can turn any wall in your barn into a chalkboard. With some chalkboard paint and a few strokes of a paintbrush, you can create a fun board for writing notes, phone numbers and feeding schedules.

8. Simplify Cross-tying

Get your cross-ties out of the aisles and put them in your stalls. Many barns now have cross-tie hardware in the stalls, or they designate the wash stall as a grooming area. By eliminating cross-ties in the main barn aisle, there is less debris that needs to be continually swept up and you’ll have more room for others to navigate around the barn when bringing horses in or out. You also don’t have horses in the way when doing routine barn chores like mucking or feeding.

9. Reinventing the Wheelbarrow

When it comes to wheelbarrows, the basic concept hasn’t changed in the past 100 years. You have your basic choices of a single- or dual-wheeled (I prefer the single because it turns corners easier), and plastic versus metal tray. Until recently, you could only find basic handles that are like stumps of wood that seem to be designed for ridiculously large hands. Finally, someone realized actual handles would go a long way toward making the wheelbarrow better. Even when fully loaded, this type doesn’t feel like a runaway train when going downhill because I can keep a firm grip on the handles.

10. Cushion From the Cold

Make winter watering easier with insulated buckets and tanks. While tank and bucket heaters are nice, a single tank heater can increase your electricity bill by $30 a month!

For those of us living in northern states, insulated bucket holders, either purchased or homemade, make barn life easier. A little bit of insulation means no more swinging a rubber mallet at the side of the bucket to break up the ice every day.

Large, outdoor tanks can be set inside a heavily insulated box with a piece of floating hard insulation on the water surface. My 100-gallon tank in Maine stays amazingly ice-free most days in the winter. There are no extra electricity expenses and no extension cords crisscrossing the farm.

11. Bright Ideas

If you’re guilty of leaving on lights after you’ve left the bathroom, tack room or feed room, install motion sensors and watch your electricity bill go down. This, combined with energy-efficient LED lights, is a money and aggravation saver. Exterior lighting on motion sensors also saves money.
You may hear that motion sensors are unreliable, but if they are set up correctly, they work great. I’ve used them on my farm for more than 25 years.

No power in an outbuilding? A battery-operated motion-sensor LED light is the answer. The one in my hay barn has been operating on the same set of batteries for seven years.

12. Shelve It

Roll those grain bins out of the way. Shop for used kitchen cabinets with slide-out bases, or just add a countertop and mount your grain bins on barrel dollies, then roll them under the counter. You’ll wonder what you did without this additional work and storage space until now.

Metal trash cans are 100 percent rodent-proof, and being able to move them around allows you to keep the floors swept clean.

13. Open-Door Policy

Another old-school idea is to put solid board rails in doorways when barn doors are open. Fit the boards into slots so they can be dropped down easily for people, yet keep a loose horse from leaving the barn.

Good ventilation is key to your horses’ health, and these board rails will allow you to leave the doors open, even if you own an escape artist.

14. Save on Salt

Instead of buying small salt bricks or spools, buy a 50-pound block and place it in a corner of the stall. It will keep your horse happy and provide a source of salt for more than a year. On a pound-per-pound basis, you will save $40 or more a year. As a side benefit, many horses that chew up the smaller bricks will just lick the larger block.

15. Nothing But Net

For years, I fed hay outside on the ground, but when horses had their fill, they wasted the remaining hay and trampled it into the dirt. Hanging hay nets reduces hay waste, but wrestling the hay into the nets each day is time consuming.

At a dressage farm that I visited, I noticed they had hay-net hoops. This was the best of both worlds—no more hay waste and no hassle putting the hay in the net.

Become an idea shopper! Hundreds of ideas like this abound at stables that you visit. Keep your eyes peeled and look for them. By sharing ideas and looking at the ways that others are doing things, we can all benefit.

Dusty Perin is a freelance equine photographer based in Maine.

This article originally appeared in the April 2016 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post 15 Ways to Save Time and Money at the Barn appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

This completed the first half of Ende’s latest journey, which began in Montana on April 1, 2014. She will now winter in New York state and then start out again in the early spring. The second half of her trip heads north into Canada on a westward journey across the provinces to the Pacific before re-entering the U.S. and completing her travels back home to Montana. The trip, an estimated 8,000-mile journey, will take her two and a half years to complete.

Long riders are an amazing yet little-known segment of the equestrian world. The Long Riders’ Guild is an invitation-only association with hundreds of members worldwide. Their website (www.thelongridersguild.com) is one of the best resources on the subject. To be considered a long rider, you must make a journey of no less than 1,000 miles by horseback. Many people might be surprised to learn that Olympic gold medalist David O’Connor is a long rider. He earned that status when his mother, Sally O’Connor, took her two young sons, David and his brother Brian, on the trip of a lifetime and rode from Maryland to Oregon.

Long riding is a lifestyle and a life choice; it is neither a competition like endurance nor a hobby like trail riding can be. For the most part, long riders follow roads. Ende does not use GPS; instead, she is a big fan of using gazetteers (map books for each state that show all the roads, not just the main ones) to find the best routes and perhaps less-traveled roadways. Ende has been living this lifestyle for 10 years and has logged over 20,000 miles criss-crossing the U.S. and Canada.

Her current horses are Montana Spirit, a 5-year-old Norwegian Fjord/Percheron cross mare, and Essie Pearl, a 12-year-old Fjord mare. During her travels, Ende rides one and packs the other. She also stops, completely untacks and rests the mares three times a day. The panniers on the pack horse are evenly balanced, and she tries to keep the weight that the pack horse carries at 100 pounds or less. Other than a small box with her computer for blogging that she ships ahead, she carries everything with her. Life is all about the essentials: a tarp, a tent, cooking gear, candles, a bedroll, gear for the horses, a change of clothes, a sharp knife, a headlamp and a gun.

Long riding is a way of life. It requires discipline, attention to detail and focus. You have to be mentally present at all times, especially while riding on roadways. You also have to be flexible and adapt. When you are long riding, things happen, weather happens, and there is no advance plan on where you will stay or find water, shelter or food.

While crossing the western states, Ende often stayed in the abandoned homes and barns that dot the landscape. She has a tent and has camped in cemeteries and backyards; many times horsepeople along the way offer her a place to camp. She ties or stakes her horses and gets up numerous times in the night to check on them, but the only time she gets a good night’s sleep is if she has a corral to put them in. She gets her meals along the way—when I saw her, she had just ridden to a local pizza shop and the horses were untacked and left grazing out back while she went in for lunch.

People reach out to her frequently during her travels. Many folks have seen her interviews on TV or are aware of her through her blog. Most of the time as she rides through a town, she is referred to farms or stables. As word spreads about her, her new friends connect her with their friends farther down the road. To travel this way is an exercise of trust and faith in the kindness of strangers.

I was lucky enough to catch up with Ende in Maine to attend one of the many talks and slide shows she does as she travels. The theme of Ende’s current ride was inspired by the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote in Montana. She has been honoring the American women’s suffrage movement by visiting historical landmarks associated with these women along her route. Ende’s traveling slide presentation is an educational journey about Suffragettes as well as lady long riders.

I first became aware of long riders when I read A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird, one of the earliest lady long riders. If you have a fascination with this type of riding and would like to follow along with Bernice Ende, visit endeofthetrail.com/blog. You can find her current location and maybe even meet her in person and attend one of her presentations when she is in your area. Each time Ende sets out on an uncharted journey, she always leaves a trail of friends behind her.

Liked this article? Here are others you’ll enjoy:
Camping with Your Horse
Ultralight Horse Packing

DUSTY PERIN is a freelance equine photographer based in Maine.

This article originally appeared in the February 2015 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post The Longest Ride appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.