Basically this.
It actually worked pretty well, and for several years. Unfortunately it's my gelding Sam's favorite toy. He is very fond of flipping it over with his nose and then turning around and backing up into it until he is standing in the gaps. We don't know why he does this (I freaked out the first few times he did this thinking he'd panic, now I just yell at him to quit breaking things) we think he may be trying to hitch himself up to a 'buggy' because he'll look back and then realign himself. Because of this irksome habit he's basically destroyed it. So We've been looking at mounting blocks- real ones.
Well real ones, especially 3 step ones, are damn expensive. My family has never been into buying something new if we can find it used or make it ourselves. ( My father is a professor, my mother is stay at home and they had 5 kids. Two biological and three adopted from India- two around age 10. At one point they were raising all us on about 12-13 grand a year. And we had dogs, cats, chickens and yes, horses. Because of this we had to get pretty creative with what we could get our hands on and what we could make ourselves. Now that we're making considerably more than that we don't have to pinch as much, but man are those habits hard to let go of.)
Anyway, I actually found a real mounting block at a garage sale- but it wasn't for sale. :( So I've been looking into building one out of wood.
The problem being..... well, I'm not all that good with building shit. My father is, but I'm.... less so.
Anyway, I'm avoiding putting away my laundry so I'm going to share my favorite cheap horseman and future goals. You can thank pinterest for making me all crafty and giving me ideas. They all look so easy but pinterest can lie like that.
One of my own:
Make poles for practicing pole bending or improving flexibility and turns:
Need: Quick mix cerement- 1 bag
Several old one gallon size ice cream tubs
Around 4 pvc piping- as thick as you want- these are usually pretty long so you can cut them in half
Step: Cut the piping
Step 1: Mix the cement and pour it into the ice cream tubs.
Step 3: Add pipes to middle of the tub.
Step 4: pour some cement down the middle of the pipe
Step 5: let it dry. The longer the better.
Step 6: Let it sit a few days then remove it from the ice cream tubs.
Bam, cheap poles from fun or practice. They'll still move and fall, and it costs about 8 bucks for all of it.
Now onto others I want to try:
Waterproofing old blankets with wood protector. We've got some old crappy blankets that we don't use anyway, and I'm going to try this on one of them. If it works, I'll do it to others. I'm skeptical though.
The downside is that they won't be breathable. However I only blanket when I really have to: sudden temp. drop or freezing rain, etc. So basically I'd like to have an extra waterproof blanket on hand if I have too many horses and not enough good blankets.
We have 3 nice, new waterproof heavy blankets. One was a gift and we bought the other two on sale for like $40 each or something ridiculous since it was out of season. We should have got 3 of them, ah hindsight!
We have 3-4 non waterproof heavy blankets, most old and dusty, one light non waterproof one, and two waterproof (I think) thin blankets/sheets.
So I figure, if I wreck one of the ones we never use, I'm not really out much (A gallon of the walmart brand stuff cost me $10.) and it if actually works, hot damn!
(Update: I tried it. While it may help a little- especially with light rain, I would not call it waterproof. Don't get me wrong, it's more so than it was before, but not worth it overall.)
The links to these are all wacky and messed up, so if you see something you want to try... ... ... use google.
Build a mounting block:
We also want to make slow feeders:
Easy fill bags- this is for sale but I don't know why you couldn't just make it yourself with twine.
lol! This one just makes me laugh
Keep feed off the ground
This is the kind we're trying to make, getting a hold of the barrels is annoying though, unless you want to pay full price.
Tehe, my horses would destroy this in minutes, but it's a neat use of a plastic tub.
This is an idea... if you have horses that get along and won't monopolize the hay.
Make your own hay bags from bailing twine (So making these! I hate when I send a horse home with someone and they have no hay place and a decently long drive)
Make your own saddle rack
Clean non leather halters
Make horse safe scratching posts
Tackle-box first aid kit
Blanket hanger- not a DIY but I bet it wouldn't be that hard to make one...
De-sensitizing ideas
Heck, I'm kind of scared of this thing. Mainly because I don't like spiders...
Genius!
Streamers
And I saved the best for last!
What about you, oh faithful readers and lurkers, what things have you gotten creative with and what things to you want to try?
These are amazing! I wish we had an arena and actual space at the place my little mare lives at! I've used bailing twine to make the holes in a haynet smaller to slow her down, we use a large net over the round feeder to slow all the horses eating, used cheap human shampoo for bath time, made a knot halter myself, using big ugly builder's jackets and Hi-viz vests for a couple of pounds instead of 20 quid from an equestrian place and on the pony I used to have ages ago we used a normal duvet with a surcingle as a stable blanket until he had his own. Oh yeah and mineral lick for cows rather than the horse ones - Madame loves that one
ReplyDeleteA picnic table makes a good mounting block (overkill, but I'm facing knee replacement & need ALOT of help). I did make a mounting block from 2x6s with two steps up either side, not super handy so it is not beautiful, but I love it. Downside is, it's not portable :(
ReplyDeleteOne of my favourite subjects!! I use a toilet brush to scrub out water buckets, nailed an old dandy brush to the fence post to clean the mud off my boots, use a pool skimmer to take off the layer of hay chaff that blows into the trough in the winter, and use a little broom and dust pan combo to brush out feed pans. We made a rope gate out of some scrap wood we had to get rid of. We also built a wall-mounted rack for six saddle blankets. Luckily I have a handy husband but I've learned how to use an impact driver. I've got some old pool noodles that'll get used too. Our next project is to make some sort of hay holder. I've got two "nibble nets" which have kept piles of hay from being wasted, but it would be good to have a hay feeder that doesn't hang off the wall. They seem to prefer to eat off ground level, which makes sense seeing as how they are built that way! I'm pretty picky about safety though, so I'm always trying to figure out how we can build it so there are no sharp edges or loose things that can trap a hoof. I'm also cheap. Hate spending money if I can build or repurpose something. Why buy new stuff when you could spend that money on hay instead, right?
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post! Very good ideas. (Although my budget fly mask would probably only fit a mini!! haha!)
Haha, the brush idea is great! I'll have to try that. We do the same with with our trough and an old skimmer- it also works great for bugs.
ReplyDeleteThankfully auctions can also be a great place to pick up stuff- I got a wood saddle stand for $3-4 bucks that I use as a saddle pad rack. We also built our own saddle rack but it keeps leaning... probably because it has more than 3 saddles on it.
My favorite are horse people garage sales, I got two trough water heaters (one round bottom type and one bottom plug type for $10- not sure if each or total, still a steal. Which reminds me, I've got to go install one since they're not drinking as much now that it's cold.
Dental floss works to repair holes in blankets. And those fun noodles are fabulous until the barn dogs decide to chew up your obstacle course, but at least they are cheap to replace :-p
ReplyDeleteDental floss- I never thought of that! That's a great idea, much better than my many uses of twine..
ReplyDeleteNice post love reading it
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