I Love My Barn

[MountainWoman]

I just love tucking the horses in at night in the barn and evening feeding especially in winter. It's so peaceful watching everyone enjoying dinner and getting ready for the night's rest. Just makes my heart glad. Anyone else love their barn ritual with their horses. Want to share?

 

[Rhondaalaska]

I love going out and hearing Diva nicker at me before I open the door. Then I get to love on her while she eats a bit.

She is so fluffy right now she is like a giant teddy bear. Lol

 

[atotton]

I let my horses into the corral for the night. They get their evening meal of hay and feed when I bring them in. My barn is a 10' x 20' with 2 stalls in case I need to stall them.(farrier visits, injury, very cold weather) Mostly they just use the barn as a run in. If we leave them in the big pasture at night my mare Hope is a begger and likes to run the fence line and jump the fence. She can clear a fence basically from a standstill like a deer...

 

[bevann]

I LOVE my barn.I love going down in the morning and hearing the whinneys and nickers when they know I'm in the barn.My dad bought this farm where I now live in 1949 when I was 10 yrs old.I didn't grow up here(my mom didn't want to live again on a farm).My cousin lived here&I used to come out here to play.It was and still is my favorite place on earth to be.I moved here in 1966 and plan to be here until I die.After I'm dead and cremated I want a service here in this big old dairy barn(converted for my Minis)with all my friends bringing their horses and dogs, everybody in boots and blue jeans, and lots of country music.,I hate to miss a good party.Plan to have my ashes,several special dogs and horses spread on the fields with all the other manure.Want them all to say "She had a good time" I LOVE MY BARN!!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Bevann, you're my kind of woman! I'm always happiest at the barn. I've told my hubby and kids to just prop me up in a stall when I'm gone, cause that's as close to heaven as it gets!

 

[MountainWoman]

Thanks for sharing your stories! I LOVE hearing them.

 

[Scooter]

Hi Bevann, Can I please come to your funeral?

 

[Carolyn R]

I hear you! My barn isn't anything over the top, but I love it. Love the horses and the nightly routine, and my all time favorite is to walk out when I am done feeding look up and there is a sky full of stars. ESP. In the summer when a warm breeze gently rolls across my face as I walk out and gaze up at the starry sky, it is a reminder of how blessed I truely am.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

Even when I'm tired and just want to go to bed, I just feel so peaceful and lucky when I put my horses to bed at night. Happy horses contentedly eating in their stalls are only a part of that. The night sky, full moon on snow, summer rain when its been dry and the sounds, the wind whispering thro the fir trees, the soft hoots of the local owl and the coyotes singing off in the distance are my pay for getting up off the couch and heading out in the dark. Sometimes I just pause to let the night wash over me and feel the wonderful calmness off it.

 

[Marty]

I love my barn too. Its not fancy and doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles but its servicable and clean. Its good shelter and I love tucking my little guys away in there especially when bad weather is about to hit. I love watching them eat and knowing they are protected from the elements. This is one of my rituals before a winter storm:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsV0EZ4a1Kg

 

[bevann]

My barn is definitely not fancy.It is a big old dairy barn converted for the comfort of my Minis.It ism very old and is peg contruction.In some spots you can see some of the wooden pegs.It had a cedar shake shingkle roof, but is now covered over with more modern shingles,.Probably close to 100 yrs old since my house is very old and built on flatened off big logs.I* have the deed to my farm 1856 but no mention of buildings then.In bad storms everybody can be tucked in safely.I use a monitor and i can hear if anything is not right in the barn. Did I mention I LOVE my barn.We have attached run in sheds and several ways for horses to come in for feeding,.The loft is huge and will hold several thousand bales of hay and straw,.Nothing nicer than the smell of nice hay unless it's the smell of a nice horse.

 

[Knottymare]

Barn time for me is magic. I go directly out to the barn after work... pull into the garage and put on my coveralls and out I go. If it's not raining hard, we'll go for a walk or play with toys. Most nights I muck the stalls and just hang out with my kids. I love to just sit there while they play with my hair and nuzzle me for treats. They are able to run in or move into the gravel paddocks at night. During the day I open all the gates and out they go to their big area. It's under big fir trees and just dirt which is GREAT since I have one who gets fat on air. But nothing nicer than being with my babies. NO matter how crappy I feel, it all melts away out in the barn.

 

[misty'smom]

I love my new little barn!! It is not big or fancy but just right for us!!! I also love my nightly routine of bringing my babies, Josie 9 months and Misty 8 months in for the night. I give them their feed bowls and plenty of hay. Sometimes they get a few cut up apple and sweet potato pieces in with their grain as an extra treat!!! I like that they are safe and sound for the night!!

 

[REO]

I LOVE everyone's writtings about what their barns mean to them, and seeing your barns.

misty's mom, that lil barn is lovely!

 

[MountainWoman]

Yes, I love this topic. Everyone's barn is beautiful but more importantly the time we spend with our horses is magical. Thanks everyone for such an uplifting thread.

 

[Magic Marker Minis]

Where we live now, their is no barn(AZ for you). What they call a barn is a roof being held up by eight steel poles. All open, no sides. I think they call it a mare barn.

It helps with shade, but is worthless during storms.

When we move to CO this summer, we are going to have a barn. When Kari looks at pictures of property, she ignores the house. She looks for any barns or outbuildings. She has even thought about having a barn with living quarters but on property.

One of the places we looked at, when we had to move from OK to MO, we only saw pictures of the house. The landlord would never send us pictures of the barn. We where in a hurry to find a place(had been living in a motel for 6 weeks), so we went for it. The barn was huge(16 stalls), but the landlords 16 big horses had damaged it(a lot). The barn needed to be bulldozed and a new barn put in it's place. We didn't live their long, three months.

 

[Genie]

We are living on the farm where I was born and raised 72 years ago. In 1988 when both my parents passed away the farm had to be sold as the will instructed, so we "bought the farm".

We hadn't planned to end our years working harder than we ever did in the business world, but here we are.

I love my barn and all the memories from years ago when we milked cows.

We retrofitted the old cement stalls to a nice group of oak board stalls of various sizes.

25 horses can be housed but having a group of 15 makes things easy and enjoyable.

I could never see it empty and love spending my days fiddling around with things in the barn. Show me a clean barn and I'll show you a messy house

 

[Lil Eowyn]

ah...just sitting in the straw, listening to the electric fence box tick.......

 

[Cupcake]

I can so relate to that! I just realized the other day that I get to relive my childhood. I grew up on a farm and my family bred warmbloods for generations. We always had our horses right by the house and I grew up in the saddle, equestrian vaulting, dressage, jumping etc. I swore I would never do any more farm work once I grew up and now? I NEVER complain having to go out there in the morning no matter what the weather - I'm grateful for being able to! There's nothing better than sipping your first cup of coffee on the patio and a horse greeting you 20 feet away! My mini is very verbal, she greets everyone coming to the stable I enjoy my ritual and "tucking them in" at night, my gelding tries to sneak into the feed room when I'm not looking to grab a bit of alfalfa and the look on his face when he gets caught is priceless! (it's a misconception that horses don't like tight dark and narrow spaces- at least they don't mind when there's food involved!)

I just had a nice ride with my big guy with the mini watching us from the pasture, let him graze afterwards (the only green grass is literally on the "other side" of the fence) then brushed him down, cleaned stalls, filled hay bags and brought in the little monster. My therapy

 

[little lady]

Nothing fancy here as a barn goes but I love it. I love bringing them in for the evening to their nice clean stalls, feeding them and then either sitting with them or gooming them as they happily munch away. So theraputic after a long days work.