Barn Operations · #how-to

Barn Operations guides tagged “how-to” from the Apex Equine resource center.

• A daily barn routine that survives a short-staffed morning — The real test of a barn routine isn't a fully staffed Tuesday. It's the Sunday someone calls in sick and you have to feed 28 horses with two people. Here's the order of operations that holds up.
• Barn fire: the prevention checklist worth doing this weekend — A barn full of hay, shavings, and dry wood is a tinderbox, and most barn fires start from causes you can eliminate in an afternoon. Here's the walk-through that actually moves the needle.
• Mucking out: doing it faster, cleaner, and with less bedding — Most people muck stalls the slow way and throw out good shavings doing it. A better technique cuts your bedding bill, speeds up the morning, and keeps stalls drier and healthier.
• Writing an emergency plan before you need one — Fire, flood, a loose horse on the road at midnight, a colic with the owner unreachable. The barns that handle emergencies well wrote the plan on a calm afternoon, not in the middle of the crisis.