If you have horses at home, or plan on owning a horse farm in PA you know that taking care of horses isn’t cheap, and it’s a lot of work!
Michele Klesmer at The Pitchfork Chronicles is a life-long horse owner who has put together a website filled with information and tips to help make horse farm management easier and cheaper. From advice on how to managemud, to step-by-step instructions on building jumps and cleaning tack, The Pitchfork Chronicles is filled with “I didn’t think of that!” advice. And her location just across the river in New Jersey makes her advice very pertinent to those of us here in PA.
One of the best ideas I saw on her site was instructions on how to insulate water buckets against the cold! With just a few simple, inexpensive materials and a few minutes, it’s possible to keep ice out of your horse’s water without expensive electric buckets or pricy ‘cozies’. Who knew all you’d need was some bubble wrap and duct tape to give your horse a frost-free drink?
Yet another ingenious tip from Michele is to keep a magnetic pickup tool on hand in the barn. Whether you’re cleaning up horse shoe nails in the barn after the farrier visits or searching for lost shoes in a turnout field, one of these magnets-on-a-stick can be incredibly helpful.
She also brings up some great points to consider when planning your PA horse farm, including thoughts on farm layout, fencing, hay storage, and composting. Michele stresses safety, ease of care and clean-up, and efficiency when discussing farm design. For example, using rubber mats under an overhang attached to the barn gives horses a clean, dry place to stand out of the weather, and the area is much easier to clean than a fully-bedded stall or run-in shed. And while split-rail wooden fencing is easy to install and inexpensive, it can be labor-intensive to maintain and replace, and some horses like to chew it! Michele has found that, while pricier, Centaur brand fencing is the most durable, low-maintenance option out there, which can end up costing farm owners less in the long run.
If you’re in the midst of checking out PA horse farms for sale, check out The Pitchfork Chronicles while you’re at it! I guarantee you will learn something new and find lots of tips and hints to make farm life easier and more efficient.
small horse farm owner, PA small horse farms