The 10 best handy horse tips and tricks for making life at the yard easier and saving some money – ideas such as making your own rug rails and dealing with dimly lit stables, and much more…
Top horse tips and tricks for on the yard…
1) Put a year planner up on the wall of the tack room and fill it out (and highlight it) for a quick point of reference and clear reminder of important dates, such as vaccinations and farrier visits
2) For working around the yard I recommend getting some cheap gloves and cutting the thumbs off (even just the right one if you’re right handed) – it’ll give you more dexterity for fiddly tasks and makes using a touch screen phone much easier
3) Cut the tops off of feed bags neatly – they’re great to use as a bin in your tack room, and for collecting ragwort and weeds from paddocks
4) Anyone who’s spent anytime on a yard will know how invaluable baling twine is! To make the most of it, when cutting the twine off of your bales, find the knot and make the cut next to it – you’ll end up with a full length of useful twine. (If your knife or scissors have gone missing, you can get twine of by sliding a prong of your fork under the string and twisting it, or you can also usually pull twine off by putting your foot on the side of the bale and pulling at the twine)
5) Frozen pipes are the bane of winter so make sure they are well insulated. There are times, however, when it seems no amount of insulation stops them freezing – when this is likely, fill up spare buckets and water containers and keep them inside a tack or feed room to stop them freezing so you have a back up supply
6) Be organised – especially if you have several horses. Colour coding or clearly labelling rugs, etc, makes such a difference and saves confusion. Same goes for grooming kits; to prevent any potential infection spreading, each horse should have its own clearly labelled or colour coded kit
7) For dimly lit stables, dark mornings and evenings (and for when light bulbs or electric goes out) a head torch like this one, is a great tool that you’ll be so thankful for
8) Trimmed lengths of pipe insulation, or pool noodles, are great for makeshift boot trees to keep tall boots upright
9) A metal tube, or tough plastic tube, with a chain or rope threaded through and attached at each end to the wall, makes a great DIY rug and blanket hanger
10) If your rugs slide off hangers and racks, wrapping vet wrap around the pole is a great way to stop them slipping
You May Also Like…
If you liked these horse tips and tricks, check out these…
Horse Tips and Tricks for The Stable
Top Horse Tips and Tricks for Fields & Paddocks
Horse Tips and Tricks for Tack Care & Cleaning
Horse Tips and Tricks for Rugs & Equine Equipment
Miscellaneous Horse Care Tips and Tricks