Time Saving Ideas for Winter

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mcnaughty

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Anyone got any to share with the rest of us???

Holiday_Horse gave me this one - Water - I have a tank which I fill at the w/e & use a bucket to dip water out of it during the week, much quicker than waiting for a bucket to fill under the tap. Genius.....

Anyone for any more??
 
Insulate your water taps and pipes, drain hose after use.
Get a bag of grit salt now.
Make sure your winter rugs are mended and ready to go (or dig out of storage!).
Mare sure horses go into winter in good health with jabs, teeth, worming etc up to date.
Put batteries in your torch and make sure yard lights are working.
 
Fill plenty of haynets up to last a good few days.
Make sure your batteries have loads of life in them for your torch/head torch.
Make sure your winter rugs are ready.
Make sure you have plenty of spare feed.
Make up enough Speedibeet to last a few days if your in a rush.

XxX
 
keep them out 24/7 365 ;)
invest in good quality rugs
fill old chaff bags with hay at weekends so easy to take hay out to field on work days
 
I would be wary of making up speedibeet too long in advance, it is advised not to keep it soaked for longer than 24hrs as it can start to ferment. To hurry mine up when I'm doing feeds I measure out the speedibeet, then put a kettle of boiling water on it and stir well, then put the rest of the water onto the beet and stir. It soaks up the water much faster, and because the hot water went on first and was stired in, you don't get too hot food or food with hot spots in. It seems to take for ever otherwise, particularly when I'm freezing and wanting my own tea!
 
shysmum said:
sell the horse and use the money for a holiday in the caribean ? :)
Click to expand...

That's not time saving! Takes up so much time: applying sun screen, oggle hotties, head to bar for cocktails, then repeat. Sigh, so much work!!!

(would sooooo love a hot hol!)
 
Out 24/7 preferably unrugged
Automatic, heated water troughs
Round bales in field
Binoculars to check from house

The last is tongue in cheek, but I do that too. The others are practical and save me a wodge of time.

Otherwise all that is mentioned.
I used to make up a weeks haynets at a time, also feeds.
I just measured DRY feed into bags and took out what I wanted.
Collect rain water into tanks from gutters (clean them first) especially useful in fields.
 
Do a load of haynets in the daylight/ weekends so you're not scrabbling round in the dark on evenings. If feeding haylage, make a hay bar from an old piece of rubber matting.
Hang up useful items like brushes, hoof pick etc on baler twine outside your stable.
Have 2 turnout rugs so if wet you can hang it to dry and put the other one on the horse.
Put down salt/grit BEFORE it snows so it won't lay on top - saves a lot of hard work.
Be careful where you drip water when it's cold as it could turn to ice.
Stock up on supplies before it snows.
put an apple in water bucket to prevent ice forming/entertain your horse (depending on how good at apple bobbing he is)
Keep ski gloves, hat, thick socks, Rambo chaps, warm coat at the yard - it would be miserable if you forgot them one day.
Invest in a headtorch- leaves hands free.
Keep warm clothes and a shovel in the car boot in case you get stuck in the snow.

Keep the horses out, rugged, as long as possible!
 
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