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CCC

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which do you prefer for your Miniatures? if you want to share pictures of what you have that is home made that would be great!

for grain-

those round rubber tubs that sit on the ground, mangers, buckets hung up or other??

Hay-

hay nets with small holes (tied up high of course) , hay racks, something home made, mangers?

for barn floors-

dirt with mats, cement with mats, Wood floors, other?

fencing/pastures-

metal posts with many strands of wire, many strands of poly rope, cattle fencing, pens etc?

how large do you prefer your mini dry lots to be?

how large do you prefer you pastures?

general Care-

How many hours a day are you Miniatures not stalled?

how many times a day do you feed? (Hay & Grain)

Thanks! Will be interesting to see everyones input!
 
for grain I like the rubber tubs that sit on the ground, they flip them over and move them around a lot but its a more natural position for them to eat off the ground like grazing.

I put my hay right on the ground in the stalls but have a large round bale feeder for the pasture horses

I like cement floors with mats, dirt is harder to level to make the mats lay nicely and if they dont lay nicely the horses can get ahold of them and rearrange their stalls.

I have woven wire with wood and metal posts, I do two metal in between the wood posts.

I like mudlots and pastures to be as large as possible. Mine arent as big as I would like but I work with the small amount of land I have.

My pasture horses are never stalled unless of course it is foaling season then mares come in for foaling. Stall horses are brought in at night and let out in the morning after they finish breakfast.

I feed twice a day.

Great topic
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for grain-

Plastic feed pans that are easily cleaned. I actually bring them in the house to clean them. I would LOVE those new Nelson feeders, but our pans are sufficient.

Hay-

We believe that horses should be fed in a natural position so that their sinuses drain. Horses were designed to graze on the ground, so most of our hay is just on the ground. We thought about getting mats to put in the paddock, but we were concerned about them being slippery when wet. They seem to push the hay around off any surface you put it on, so it would be a losing battle anyway. I like to feed in the "hard packed" areas vs. looser soils. We have a couple of "snack bag" hay feeders, but only use those for horses that are locked in stalls.

for barn floors-

We have hauled in gravel for our barn floor. We have one stall that is rubber matted in a corner with a truck bed mat, and would like more. In a couple of other stalls, I have a piece of plywood on the floor in the corner that I feed on. We would like to rubber mat the entire barn including the aisle for dust purposes (my husband is allergic to dust), but that will have to wait.

fencing/pastures-

The area in the front of the property has 3-board white plastic fencing with an electric strand on the top and bottom boards. The back of the property is 3-strand smooth electric. All T-posts have post covers. Some fencing between paddocks is cattle panels. The ONLY time the horses have gotten out was through a gate, never a fence.

how large do you prefer your mini dry lots to be?

Bigger than it is. Right now, their paddock is about 200' by 80'.

how large do you prefer you pastures?

Bigger than it is. It is about an acre. It isn't enough for the 2 big horses and five minis. (Yes, they are all out together and they like it that way. We literally had depressed horses when we separated them.) In the summer, they are out on pasture about 4-6 hours/day. It keeps them less bored, supplements their feed, but doesn't let the minis get too fat. We will be clearing more space next year for more pasture/arena. We want a regulation Driven Dressage arena.
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We do have 18 acres of woods that we use for training/trail driving, too.

general Care-

How many hours a day are your Miniatures not stalled? 22-23. They are only in for graining once a day. Each has it's own stall. Since they are used to standing there while we work other horses, they are comfortable in their stalls, which is good for when we go to shows and they are stuck in there.

We will keep them in when the precip is swirling and they can't get out of it even in the shed. Otherwise, they are healthier outside, I don't have to spend a lot of time cleaning stalls, and they like to be out. I may keep 1-2 in that are on the bottom of the pack if they don't find a spot in the shed, so they don't get too wet and risk getting rain rot.

how many times a day do you feed? (Hay & Grain)

Two for hay, one for grain. I realize that more would be good, but it isn't logical unless you can actually do it all the time, including finding someone to do that when we are gone.

There are photos of our facility on our website.
 
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which do you prefer for your Miniatures? if you want to share pictures of what you have that is home made that would be great!

for grain- I have the plastic no-tip feed pans for most of my minis (I think they are called Low Pans). One has a bucket screwed to the wall of her stall and one has a hook-over feed in her stall.

Hay- Large round bale feeder in one paddock, usually just fork feed to the girls, but really cold weather often put in a whole bale. I have 3 or 4 wood feed boxes I put hay in for smaller pens. And, I'm trying a Health EZ hay feeder for one mare ( http://www.healthezhayfeeder.com/ ), just got it about a week ago, so far, so good.

for barn floors- Just dirt. Some shavings for stalls when they are in them longer than meal times.

fencing/pastures- metal posts with mesh cattle panels

how large do you prefer your mini dry lots to be? the bigger the better, but as I only have so much space to use for the minis, I have... two 50x100' drylots (one is exclusively for minis; the other is part of our cattle working set-up, so is used 3-5x per year to work cattle, mini home the rest), one 48x48' drylot, one 16x48' drylot

how large do you prefer you pastures? the more the better, but as I don't have permanent pasture for minis, I just move the portable panels around all summer.

general Care-

How many hours a day are you Miniatures not stalled? Mine are only long enough to eat their hard feed, they share hay in the drylot. So, out of stalls for 22-23 hours per day, depending on how long they take to eat.

how many times a day do you feed? Hay and grain 2x daily year round, add a mid-day soaked beet pulp meal in winter.
 
which do you prefer for your Miniatures? if you want to share pictures of what you have that is home made that would be great!

for grain-

those round rubber tubs that sit on the ground, mangers, buckets hung up or other??

Hay-

hay nets with small holes (tied up high of course) , hay racks, something home made, mangers?

for barn floors-

dirt with mats, cement with mats, Wood floors, other?

fencing/pastures-

metal posts with many strands of wire, many strands of poly rope, cattle fencing, pens etc?

how large do you prefer your mini dry lots to be?

how large do you prefer you pastures?

general Care-

How many hours a day are you Miniatures not stalled?

how many times a day do you feed? (Hay & Grain)

Thanks! Will be interesting to see everyones input!
For grain: We either feed in rubber tubs or dish scoops onto piles of hay.

For hay: We feed on top of rubber mats or on the pastures. (Some of our paddocks have "feeding mats".

Barn Floors: They were started with dirt with a layer of fine gravel and sand. All leveled before laying down 3/4 inch rubber mats.

Fencing: We have lots of different types but I prefer the metal panels with either T-posts or wooden posts. Some of our paddocks are made with noble panels which I also like, but they are spendy. We got them second hand. Larry likes to back up a lot of our fencing with a line of electric down low. (Dogs and Coyotes tend to dig UNDER fences.)

Our paddocks range hugely in sizes from 40x60 to 1/4 acre. Our pastures range from 1 acre to 20 acres.

We only formally stall horses when they are either sick or foaling or need some special care. We have "run in" sections to the barn and sheds.

We feed twice a day.

(We own 50 minis/ponies and 4 riding horses which means different management practices.)
 
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for grain-

those round rubber tubs that sit on the ground, mangers, buckets hung up or other??

We use round rubber tubs outside and stall feeders on the sides of the stalls inside.

Hay-

hay nets with small holes (tied up high of course) , hay racks, something home made, mangers?

We feed on the ground. We have clay in the paddocks here and rubber mats in the stalls so dust/sand is not a problem. If we were in a sandy area I would do it differently but it is healthier for horses to eat from the ground.

for barn floors-

dirt with mats, cement with mats, Wood floors, other?

Dirt with rubber mats over top. Shavings for most and straw for the brood mares and foals.

fencing/pastures-

metal posts with many strands of wire, many strands of poly rope, cattle fencing, pens etc?

T-posts with 2 or 3 strand heavy wire electric fencing. I have tried many kinds of fencing and this is the most economical, easily mended, best confining for us.

how large do you prefer your mini dry lots to be?

I have a range of sizes. 2 large ones for the majority - mares and geldings in one of them and stallions and geldings in the other. I have several smaller dry paddocks for turning out the show or training horses individually or in pairs depending on who they are. I also have 2 quarantine paddocks for new animals coming in that are separate from all the other paddocks.

how large do you prefer you pastures?

We have 9 smallish pastures that are all connected so that I can rotate horses from one to the next as they eat the pasture down. This helps with preventing overgrazing as well as parasite infestations as the paddocks have a chance to regrow and be sterilized by sunshine.I also have a small pasture that is well treed for turnout of the show horses.

general Care-

How many hours a day are you Miniatures not stalled?

Everyone that is not showing or in training is pastured/paddocked 24/7 with turnout shelters. Only the show and training horses are brought in out of the bright sunshine or severe weather. They all get daily turnout for at least half a day on a regular basis.

how many times a day do you feed? (Hay & Grain)

3 times for all the horses, 4 times daily for the show horses and horses in training except when I am away at a show. Hubby feeds then and it is twice daily.
 
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for grain -- some eat out of the rubber pans that just sit on the ground. One has a polyurethane pan that is made to hook over a fence rail--we just set it on the ground for her. She will dump a rubber feed pan in a moment, but this plastic tub she doesn't bother putting her feet in it (or if she tries she doesn't succeed) It's about 10" deep. Some others have pails tied in the corners of the sheds.

Hay-pasture horses are fed on the ground, on a clean section of ground. Some of the dry lot horses also get fed on the ground. Some have feeders (we use a couple of big water tanks as feeders). one corral has a couple of mangers along the side of the hayshed.

for barn floors-cement, sometimes with rubber mats; if no mats then just a deep bed of straw. However, our horses aren't shut in stalls in the barn--currently one horse has use of the front part of the barn aisle and the front box stall--he uses that as a run in shed so can be in or out as he pleases.

fencing/pastures--all wooden posts. Pastures are fenced with field fence. Corrals are fenced with spruce rails or wood planks. We do have a few sheets of stock panels on a couple corrals, but not a lot of those. We don't use the metal T-posts because they cost twice as much as wooden posts--wood posts are so much more economical for us. We have one pasture that is not permanently fenced for the Minis yet; that one we do use some plastic temporary posts and hot wire (the poly rope variety) for some of the horses to graze out there. We won't have them out there full time until the perimeter is fenced with field fence.

metal posts with many strands of wire, many strands of poly rope, cattle fencing, pens etc?

how large do you prefer your mini dry lots to be? 60 x 120 at least; we do have several that are a bit smaller than that but those horses get turned out in a bigger area for exercise.

how large do you prefer you pastures? We have one 5 acre pasture and two pastures that are about 2 acres each. That works well--I just wish we had a few more 2+ acre pastures!!

general Care-

How many hours a day are you Miniatures not stalled? - ours are never stalled. All are out 24/7 with loose housing sheds for shelter

how many times a day do you feed? (Hay & Grain)- twice a day
 
which do you prefer for your Miniatures? if you want to share pictures of what you have that is home made that would be great!

for grain-

those round rubber tubs that sit on the ground, mangers, buckets hung up or other??

We have plastic square dishes, like Marty's for the mares where they come into their run in, attached onto horse panels. The boys have heavy duty troughs on the ground.

Hay-

hay nets with small holes (tied up high of course) , hay racks, something home made, mangers?

No hay nets to me can be dangerous, so we are lucky and feed hay cubes in their dishes

for barn floors-

dirt with mats, cement with mats, Wood floors, other?

Dirt floors with pellet bedding

fencing/pastures-

metal posts with many strands of wire, many strands of poly rope, cattle fencing, pens etc?

Out in the 5 acres just 4 strands of electric tape, around the barn horse panels.

how large do you prefer your mini dry lots to be?

Our dry lot is around the front of the barn is 100 X 150 feet.

how large do you prefer you pastures?

 

Our Pasture is 5 acres

general Care-

How many hours a day are you Miniatures not stalled?

 

They are out all day and brought in at night, and go in the run in when ever they please or have 2 calf huts also for coverage.

how many times a day do you feed? (Hay & Grain)

 

Twice a day and sometimes in the colder weather a third feeding.

Thanks! Will be interesting to see everyones input!
 
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For feeding my minis I have the feeders that were 55 gallon drums with a hay rack in it. I have them fastened in the corners of the stalls. grain goes in the bottom and the hay in the rack. No tipping and no pawing the grain out.

My Stall floors are dirt because of the location of the stalls in relation to a hill.

Fences I have chain link on the sides. Across the back I have 6 foot tall 4"x4" stock wire (it was here when I moved in). I am changing my stallion pen to hog/sheep panels.

I have one stall with a gate. The rest are run ins. Even durring show season (I show performance not halter) they seem to do better being outside.

My horses are fed 2x's a day.
 
for grain-

those round rubber tubs that sit on the ground, mangers, buckets hung up or other??

Buckets on hangers. 3 of my 4 girls are "bucket bangers". They're food would be on the ground if we didn't hang the buckets. I have to replace a hanger this weekend because they *broke* it from their banging.

Hay-

hay nets with small holes (tied up high of course) , hay racks, something home made, mangers?

We bought two iron corner hay racks last year and plan to add two more this year. We use these on wet days and when we have to stall them due to weather. Otherwise, I spread the hay out in their dry lot area to try and get them graze. We pulled them off the pasture a month ago to give the pasture a rest. We only have a small pasture (1.25 acres) so we don't want them to chew it down too far. When on the pasture, we don't feed hay.

for barn floors-

dirt with mats, cement with mats, Wood floors, other? D

Dirt, no mats. We've talked about getting mats and/or pouring concrete in the two stalls but have yet to do either.

 

fencing/pastures-

metal posts with many strands of wire, many strands of poly rope, cattle fencing, pens etc?

I don't have a preference.

 

how large do you prefer your mini dry lots to be?

Our dry lot is about .25 acre. It's sufficient for my four.

 

how large do you prefer you pastures?

Our pasture is 1.25 acres. I wish we had another couple of acres to be able to create separate pasture area so we could rotate them. It may come at some point down the road. We do own farm property that is adjacent to our home property but it's jointly owned with my BIL and currently leased to a local farm for raising corn and soy beans.

 

general Care-

How many hours a day are you Miniatures not stalled?

We only stall when it's severe weather (i.e., snow storm or very cold). I will stall the ones I'm taking to a show the night before after I've finished grooming them. Otherwise, they're free to come in and out as they want.

 

how many times a day do you feed? (Hay & Grain)

2x a day for both

 
 
i use rubber tubs on ground for grain

hay bags hung in stalls

shavings in each stall

fencing we are redoing for our mini cuz i had wrong kind of fence up I was told to use cattle wire and thats what we are replacing our mini's fence with now.

My mini was a rescue very very under weight so i let him out for three hrs a day to play and then he is up the rest of the time. I started out as a hr and we have worked up to three hrs trying not to burn all his cals up but a hr didnt work he hollered and paced so bad so we kept moving up now we are up to three it seems to work much better for him.

My big horses come in and out I dont lock up except at night.

I feed twice a day but they have all the hay they want to eat in pasture and in stalls.
 
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I use rubber feed bins on the ground.

Hay is placed on the ground, too. I've never considered feeding up off the ground (except when transporting big horses, we used hay nets). Dust and bits of hay can be inhaled and cause problems.

Stalls are cement floors. I considered getting mats but they really don't need them as I use shavings topped with lots of straw; they've got a very nice soft bed at night. I used to not like straw, but we have tons of it every year and I love it now...esp. in the winter.

We have one dry lot paddock that is made up of cattle fencing.

My paddock is large enough for 4 minis to be comfortable in and run around in and be silly.

No pasture.

My miniatures are out for about 10 hours/day. Stalled the rest. (if it's really nasty out, they stay in)

I feed 4x/day. Hay and balancer in the am/hay at noon/hay and balancer at dinner/hay at night.
 
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for grain- I use rubber tubs on the floor except for the ones that paw. They get feed tubs attached to the wall but inches off the ground.

Hay- I use metal hay racks for in the stalls and I feed either small squares from metal feeders on the ground or round bales in a feeder depending on field/paddock.

for barn floors- We have dirt floors with rubber matts and we bed with shavings except for foaling and then we use straw.

fencing/pastures- We have a page wire style of mesh with electric at butt height so no one rubs. lol We have a mix of wood and metal posts. the pens are in different sizes but range from 100x60 to 200x60 for dry lots and 2 acres for pasture that is alternated between the different groups through the day. Usually 4-5 hours of pasture/group/day. They are all in dry lots this time of year though.

general Care- My minis aren't stalled normally because we have large run in sheds in every field for them, but when they are close to foaling they come in. They also come in in bad weather.

- They have free choice hay and the ones that require grain are fed 2 times a day.
 
I love reading the replies to this post....For years I have brought my 30+ horses in every night and anytime bad weather threatened....a few months ago I had surgery so was unable to bring my horses in as I was accustomed...they now are out 24/7 and can come in to the barn whenever they want. This past year the grass was sooooo good that mine are all rather "fluffy"...so they are getting very nice, soft first cutting hay in the morning...on the ground...and in the evening they get second or third cutting hay...The weanlings are fed grain twice a day with their hay...and I use the plastic feeders that hook over the fence....the weanlings can come and go as they please also...but prefer to stay in the barn at night...I bring my stallions in at night..We have about 5 or 6 different pastures/paddock areas...
 
I use whatever I have to feed the mares....mostly pig troughs (I think it suits them!) I use clip on individual, BH feeders for the foals and the boys, Rabbit has his own HUGE (as he roots around) bin.

I use small holed haynets for all the hay. I used to use big mangers but had too much wastes, same with feeding on the ground. I would use a round bale feeder if I had one, and if I used round bales.

In the stalls I have dirt floors with straw. I have concrete in one big, adapted for four, stall but I do not like it, I prefer dirt or compacted chalk.

All my horses are out 24/7 in winter, so they just have sheds, and I put down straw in these. The grass stays pretty much all year, I strip graze with the mares, through the winter, the boys and the foals just graze the whole field.
 
Great thanks for all the replies everyone!! I got some great ideas and info too!

I was wondering for those of you who's minis are out most of the time and not stalled.. I was wondering what kind of winter temps /how deep of snow do you get??

also do you not worry about coyotes and such?

My big horses stay out 24/7 and only come in for feed morning and night and in for storms, wet /cold weather, ice storms and such. but since getting the minis we've been stalling them all night.. worried about dangers of coyotes and such (even though they're paddock is DIRECTLY beside our house and behind us)

I also figure that the snow will be eventually too deep for them unless hubby plows a spot for them :p

I've been using Hay nets for the minis so far, I just tie it up fairly high and they 've seemed ok.. and they only eat a flake each in the barn at night. but I think after reading some of your posts about dust and hay bits being breathed in, I might look for a different solution. I guess I could keep an area of their stalls swept back and clean of shavings and feed them on the floor.

I've also been using the big rubber dishes and am pretty happy with them.
 
Great thanks for all the replies everyone!! I got some great ideas and info too!

I was wondering for those of you who's minis are out most of the time and not stalled.. I was wondering what kind of winter temps /how deep of snow do you get??

also do you not worry about coyotes and such?
I live in NE Montana, we get to 30 below and sometimes colder in winter, anywhere from a few inches to several feet of snow. They are still out 24/7. So far, even in years when we've had deep snow, the minis have been able to get around; either their pens don't have much snow or they walk on top.

Last year, one pen was very deep with snow, but at the time it housed my half-Arab gelding, and we moved him to the calving barn area til calving season, then at that time we plowed out his pen so he could move back in. I lost him this summer, so now his pen houses two mini boys. We'll have to see how this winter goes; I built a new shelter and put up new windbreak, so perhaps that will keep the snowdrifts at bay.

My mini pens are fenced with metal posts and mesh cattle panels, so far, so good.
 
I was wondering what kind of winter temps /how deep of snow do you get?? also do you not worry about coyotes and such?
Our horses are outside no matter what the temp unless they can't get out of the precip and the wind. If the wind gets swirling, the sheds can really be "too small". Our main one is 10'x30' attached to the barn, and we also have a triple size calf shed. We have two big horses and 5 minis. In lousy weather, I will keep a couple of the minis in the front paddock that has it's own 10'x10' stall and another 10' of shed. That way, there is more room under the shed for them to move around even if it is raining. If I were to build it again, the shed would be at least 15 ft. deep.

carts_005.jpg


It can get to -20 here some winter nights. Sometimes I think the minis handle the winter weather better than our big horses!
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We had a 100 in. snowfall winter a couple of years ago, but most of the time the horses just trample down the snow enough in between snowfalls that we don't worry about it. We do have to plow the snow that comes off the roof so that the horses can get in the shed and the spring melts don't back up into the barn. If we don't plow that snow, the horses could also step over a fence that separates paddocks!
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I don't worry about coyotes. We are in a populated enough area (somewhat surrounded by a country subdivision) that they pretty much stay back around the cornfield behind our woods. And we have a couple of very aggressive horses that don't tolerate even our Yorkie in their paddock, nevermind a stray dog. I have seen one of my mini geldings tear into the back of a dog that got into the paddock and then couldn't get out because of the hot wire on the inside. I've actually thought about putting a hot wire on the outside of the board fence so that the dogs can't get in, but stupid people walking by might touch it, too.
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I will just add a couple of things I didn't see listed.

We feed hay on rubber mats that get swept just before feeding. Some minis are stalled (mats over dirt/stone dust) and some are in a run-in type situation that allows them use of a 12X12" stall plus an 18X12' matted overhang area with a divider. There is also a mat (or two) for hay outside the overhang area for use in nice weather.

This means our minis get turned out for about 10-12 hours a day in any weather so they can socialize and move around (and make paths in the snow). My big horse Target lives in an adjoining area and is out 24/7 with stall & overhang area.

Photos of stall (full of minis):

P1010216.jpg


overhang area (before painting):

herd_outside.jpg
 
Here we are much like Chanda in Montana - we can get very cold weather (30 and even 40 below) and snow can vary from "not much" to "an awful lot". We can get up to a foot of snow in one dump (often we don't get that much at one time and it's not often that we get more than that all in one storm, thank goodness--we don't see snowfalls of 3 feet like they do further east where they get the lake effect snow)--our deepest snow is usually due to drifting. We can get snow drifts that are over the fences, and sometimes some of the corrals get very full of snow.

Last winter we had one corral that was deep in snow (2' to 3' in most areas)--the snow was packed hard enough that the Minis could walk on it. Fences were about 8 inches high in places. Fortunately they stayed in. When the spring thaw came & the snow started to soften up they learned to stay off those drifts because they'd sink through. Other times they just make paths through the drifts--if the snow is softer they sink through & then get a trail packed down.

As far as the cold goes--they cope very well as long as they have shelter where they can get out of the wind when they want.

Coyotes--we don't have too much problem with coyotes. There are plenty around but for the most part they do not come into the pastures or yard. Or if they do pass through, they don't stop to cause any problem with the horses. About 8 years ago we had 2 coyotes that were coming in here & stealing cats--that year we had one very small weanling here & we made sure he stayed in the corral by the barn--if there were several coyotes coming around & if they were very hungry, and if I had weanlings or very small Minis I would be more concerned--the game wardens will say in that situation to be sure to keep the horses up in a more secure area--in the barn, or in a corral closer to the house. In various areas at various times here there is a major problem with coyotes stealing calves--often the calves are not small ones, some of them are bigger than a lot of Minis--so if coyotes will kill those there is the chance that they would try to go for a Mini as well. That is rare though.

We are fortunate to not have much of a problem with stray dogs in this neighborhood.
 

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