Wow Another Award!

Another Award!

It seems this is the week for awards! Callie at Midwest Horse has designed a beautiful award for great horse tips. What a great idea and a way to get everyone thinking of their favorite tips to pass along to other horse persons. I can come up with a few that we find useful around the barn. Mrs. Mom at Oh Horse Feathers and Twisted Tails had a great post-called My Turn For Tips that everyone should read concerning barn fires and fire prevention. There are so many good tips there it is hard to add to it but here are some extra precautions we take:

• store hay away from the barn
  

• I put those outlet safety plastic thingies into unused outlets in the barn to prevent barn dust getting into the outlets (or get plates with covers built in)

• make sure to vacuum out the motors of stall fans, etc. and don't leave them on all night when unattended - replace every year or two

• similarly, things like refrigerators, vending machines, etc. that may be in the barn will also need to be vacuumed out

• if you use a bucket heater, don't trust the thermostat to turn it off when the water gets hot - boiling water will evaporate and the heater will set the bucket on fire if not unplugged

• contain all wiring inside a metal tube/conduit to prevent chewing and contain any potential fire

• be very strict about the no smoking rule

• a woman we know whose barn burned down with her horses inside has since insisted on leather halters after all of the nylon halters melted in her barn fire - seems like a good idea

• it sounds crazy, but that's also one of the reasons I leave them with just stall guards - I know they can break free in a panic and not get trapped in their stalls

• we have installed heat sensing alarms in the loft (the company said dust could trigger a regular smoke alarm) and a fire panic button in the tack room

• oh, and cover light bulbs with glass domes, etc. (dust collects on them and can burn...)

This award is being passed on to Victoria at Teachings of the Horse because I’m sure she has any number of good tips to pass along to all of us and to Jackie at Regarding Horses who always has something interesting to write about.