Grooming Stall Complete-ish

There has been so much going on preparing the farm for winter (which is arriving today apparently), that I haven't had much time for blogging. Given that outside the storm is on it's way, evident from crazy wind right now, I am hiding out inside my house with a nice warm fire burning and zero desire to go ride my horse. Gentry is fine in the wind, but I really don't like riding when I have a false sense of speed do to the wind and zero ability to hear anything that may potentially be life threatening, like vehicles driving down the road. I digress.

Prior to Hugo's arrival, with the help of my Father In-law, I finally got the grooming stall in the barn all finished up. It is finished "for now". I would like to add rubber mats to the floor and more boards to the half wall, but that will require digging up the few remaining pressure treated boards in the second garden bed. We are not planning to remove that garden bed, which will be come a gravel parking area for trailers, until next summer AFTER I have harvested my garlic and shallots that I JUST planted. See my farm blog (Fast Forks Farm) if you want to hear more about that.

Without further adieu, here are the before and after photos:

Grooming stall - before. 10' o.c. pole barn posts.

Grooming stall - after. 

I wanted a good separation between the horses and the hay stack, to avoid them trying to desperately spin around and eat the hay. I also wanted a half wall on the other side to separate the grooming stall from the "feed" area and also to keep the horses from spinning their bums out the other way. Once that was complete, I finished the area out with a cross ties, collapsible saddle rack, and a bridle hook.

The boards came from the garden bed that we demolished last month, to convert to more lawn area. I do not wish to spend that much of my time in a garden. At least not at this point in my life.

The saddle rack was built by Hubs years ago when we were dating, and when he was desperately trying impress me. The fact that I had a saddle with which I needed a rack, yet no horses in my life at the time, should have been his first indication that he was in trouble!

I found the bridle hook in one of my many plastic tubs which hold my tack hord, and has been laying around unused from some tack sale at some point in history. As for the crossties, I built them last month. They actually did cost money to build, and you can click here to read the post about that.

For this project I was on a budget that consisted of $0. If I wanted a grooming stall I was going to have to use what we had on hand. Why you say? Simple; buying an old farm that has been vacant for over a year and hasn't had much maintenance in the past five/six years, requires a lot of things NEEDING to be fixed prior to winter and thus unexpected expenses. Luckily, I was able to do this project mostly within my budget. I did have to pay about $17 for the materials to make the cross-ties.

However, for now I am looking forward to having a warmer and wind-free location to play with G-love during the winter!


Happy trails and swooshing tails!
•Renee•