Stable fans?

ElleSkywalker

ElleSkywalker

As excited as Kitty about to be a bridesmaid
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Poor ponies cooking nicely in their stables so thinking of installing some fans soooooooo, who has them? Any comments good bad or in different?

Where is best to put them?

Are they best attached to the apex of roof or sat in the over hang angled down?

Should they be static so horse can choose to stand directly in line of fire or oscillating?

Am obviously thinking of fans with metal casing so horses don't get caught in them and would be getting then fitted by an electrician so each stable can be controlled individually.

:)
 
Do they not just have the option to go out and make there own choice?

I would think large desktop fans hung up high or perhaps ceiling fans, cheap and cheerful from Argos perhaps? Would need wiring in etc and it will only move the hot air around!
 
Antw23uk said:
Do they not just have the option to go out and make there own choice?

I would think large desktop fans hung up high or perhaps ceiling fans, cheap and cheerful from Argos perhaps? Would need wiring in etc and it will only move the hot air around!
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Please don't put ceiling fans in your stable, this is an accident waiting to happen!
 
I think AFB is meaning that most ceiling fans don't have metal cages round the blades so horses (and tiny birds) could potentially get shredded by them.

They can't go in and out sadly as the stables are in my garden and the field is behind the house so there would be carnage!
 
I don't use one personally but on a hot day I hose my girl off before putting her in her stable whether I'm riding or not then come to groom her later for a bit of fresh air.
 
One year I had this idea of putting one of those huge fly sticky papers up (Like a small kitchen roll size)
Later I found I had captured swallows although after a bit of care they were set free and no harm done
but if they had been there for a while they probably wouldn't of survived

I have so many nests and fans have been considered and the idea shelved, when the babies start exploring the stables I hate to think what a fan would leave me to deal with, the cage around the fans would have to be absolutely tiny mesh
 
I have put sheep hurdles in front of door (so door can be kept open) and placed a fan outside the box. It does help to cool the box a bit and helps keep smaller flies away. Not sure best way to have them inside stables but no doubt it can be done as often recommended for sweet itch suffers for example.
 
They use fans all the time in the USA ceiling fans are in most stables and stand alone are also used so don't see why they can't be used here sensibly.
 
Rowreach said:
Oddly enough there's a thing going round Facebook today about stable fans in the US catching fire on a fairly regular basis.
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It's something that bothered me and I guess having one is more of a risk than not having one especially if it is not properly maintained and cleaned. It doesn't seem to stop people there from using them though. All the barns I've seen in Virginia have a ceiling fan per stable but it's about 100 degrees with 100% humidity in the summer which is pretty unbearable compared to what we normally get here. My sisters stables even had an automatic fly spray that sprayed every so often. Can't imagine having anything like that in this country :)
 
We have a fan from a 1960s computer that my dad built in one stable (big industrial fan) and a modern pedestal fan tied to the upper bulkhead of the stable. They are both fixed direction. They do worry me slightly (more the modern one) from a fire point of view. We had a similar one in our bedroom that kept sticking and my husband said the motor would overheat if not turned off. So I only put them on for 2 hrs in the midday heat and when someone is around. Today I sponged the horses down and left them soaking wet too.

We also cover up skylights with car windscreen reflecting covers and we have chains on the doorways and leave doors open. I also wet the wood outside the stables and the yard on hot days. I find this weather tougher than winter!
 
Sussexbythesea said:
They use fans all the time in the USA ceiling fans are in most stables and stand alone are also used so don't see why they can't be used here sensibly.
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Same here is Australia, ceiling fans are in most racing stables and some race tracks have the caged fans hanging from the eves in the stripping stalls so horses can be kept cool on race days. They help cool by evaporation, moving air will evaporate the sweat/moisture quicker with the air circulating rather then being still, thus cooling the blood vessels close to the skin and dropping the core temp.

In all my years I have never seen a horse injure itself on a ceiling fan and most have not been very high above the horses head. One stable I worked in had close to 100 horses all with their own fans!
 
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Sussexbythesea said:
They use fans all the time in the USA ceiling fans are in most stables and stand alone are also used so don't see why they can't be used here sensibly.
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All the fans that I saw in the US were box fans that were attached to the grill on the side of the box. I rode in GA and SC, it gets nice and hit there.
 
Horses see things differently to us - like water they can't gauge how deep it is and for some reason fans can be super scary for them (forget the technical explanation), so if you do use one, be prepared to introduce it gradually.
 
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