If you’re setting up your own yard, or simply want to make your life easier, there are 20 must haves for your yard that you shouldn’t be without.
No yard is complete without these labour and time saving gadgets, gizmos, and helpful products. Some of which you possibly won’t even know you need until you try. From first Aid kits to haynets, tool organizers to washing spray guns, these are must haves for every yard.
This article will show you the way to an easier and less stressful life, and hopefully free up some extra time to spend with your horses. Read on to find out more…
First Aid Kit
A first aid kit for humans and horses is an absolute must have. Make sure that you include purple spray, antiseptic cream, and vetwrap. A pair of scissors that are only for the first aid kit….you don’t want to use the same scissors that you use to open feed bags and hay bales!
Haynets
You may not usually use haynets, but it’s always a good idea to have a few in the tack room in case your horse has to be stabled at any time. If you’re worrying about your horse, the last thing you’ll want to be doing is spending time buying lots of new items when the vet is busy totting up your bill..
Wheelbarrow
Get the best wheelbarrow you can afford – you’ll be using it daily, so don’t skimp! Remember that bigger isn’t always better. If your field is on clay, you won’t want a large bulky barrow that’s going to get stuck in the mud on the first wet day of winter.
Garden trolley
This is one of the best things I have ever bought! For moving hay and straw bales, delivering soaked hay to the field (believe me this weighs a ton and will damage your wheelbarrow in no time), and millions of other tasks it really is worth its weight in gold.
Hosepipe
We all use hosepipes whether it be for only hosing or washing your horse, to filling barrels to soak hay for your pony. I have found that it doesn’t matter what you do, a loose hosepipe will always be trodden on by your equine friend. You’ll then spend hours wrapping up your hosepipe with duct tape so it doesn’t leak, and being annoyed that it leaks in a different place each time. With a retractable pipe it’s easy to put away without a thought, and the casing provides protection against the frost so it doesn’t break in two at the first sign of winter.
Hosepipe washer attachment
If you’re fed up with using a whole bottle of shampoo to wash your horse, try this. It mixes the shampoo with the water for you, at a rate of your choice. It makes washing so much easier and quicker, and means that you don’t have 20 buckets sat around ready to trip you up. The different types of spray are useful for different tasks. This is one of those must buys that really is just that!
Tool hanger
A nice and tidy yard makes everything easier and more convenient for everyone. If you’re fed up of tripping over your shavings fork, or just want everything to have a home, these are the way to go. Forks, brooms, poo pickers, they all fit beautifully, and the hooks all you to hang up all manner of things so that they’re to hand when needed.
Sudocrem
Antiseptic cream for everything you can imagine; cuts and scrapes, to treating sunburn, or clearing up mallanders and sallanders. No yard should be without it.
Baby oil
Baby oil doesn’t always spring to mind when thinking about life on a horse yard, but it’s actually quite useful and handy to have around. Wind-knots, protecting tails and feather, adding a little shine at show time, and popping onto old leather to soften it up if you’ve run out of leather conditioner.
Yard Gloves
You don’t want to get your riding gloves wet and mucky around the yard, so a pair of yard gloves that are waterproof are a boon, especially in winter.
Head torch
When those nights draw in and you don’t have electricity at the yard, a good head torch will keep you and your horse safe. It can even be used to lunge in the field if you’re feeling brave!
Mini clippers
These are useful for legs, moustaches, and tricky bits that larger clippers can’t easily get to. They are remarkably quiet and useful for nervous or young horses to get them ready to larger and louder clippers.
Headcam
Headcams are a wonderful invention. Not only are they a godsend on the road; helping to keep us safe, but they can capture wonderful footage of your hacks out into fabulous countryside. At the yard though, have you thought about just wearing it whilst doing your chores? All those episodes of your horse pulling a funny face, barging through your newly taped fence, rolling happily in the mud straight after a bath? All those times that you think to yourself, ‘I really wish I’d caught that on camera’. Well, with a head-cam you can record all of these special moments.
Water-butt
We all need to make an effort to preserve water, not simply because it costs us money, but for the sake of the environment too. Using water-butts to collect rainwater from your stable roof is a wonderful conservation measure, and has a multitude of uses:
- horse drinking water
- hay soaking
- bit cleaning
- yard cleaning
- boot-rinsing
- grass watering in summer
- watering your own carrots and herbs for the ponies
There are probably far more things that you can use this water for, but one thing is for sure, it doesn’t need to go to waste.
Shavings fork
Getting the right shavings fork for you will honestly transform your mucking out routine. If it’s too tall you’ll find it too cumbersome to use, and potentially strain your back; that’s no good if you want to ride! Too heavy and the same will be true.
Personally I’m not keen on the plastic ones as I find that the prongs snap off, but maybe I’m a hard taskmaster. The metal ones are light and the one below is good for vertically challenged people like myself.
Poo scoop
A good poo scoop can last for years, and they come in so many different colours that you can even make your yard matchy matchy if that’s your idea of heaven. If you have a large yard, each horse can have its own colour and you’ll always know whose tools are whose; saves those irritating arguments when someone else ‘borrows’ your things.
Rubber mats
Rubber mats both in and out of the stable/shelter can help protect your ground, and your stable floor. Another benefit is that you can use less bedding and as such it will pay for itself in no time.
I’ve used thin matting that’s supposed to be used on a garage floor for a tie-up area. It’s lasted for the past two years and is only beginning to look a little tired. As it’s used almost daily for two ponies and is subject to being outdoors in all weather, I don’t think its held up badly. I’d certainly look at replacing like for like in the future.
Hat holder
If your tack room is more like a garden shed, or indeed, if it is a garden shed, then you’ll appreciate that it can get a little damp inside. Add this to a damp forehead during a strenuous ride, and you’ll know how difficult it is to get your hat dry afterwards, especially in the winter.
This hat holder keeps your hat safe, easy to get to, and more importantly allows ventilation. It doesn’t dry your hat, but is an absolute boon in a cramped tack room.
Portable saddle rack
These saddle holders fold down and are brilliant for road-trips and general use at the yard; no-one wants to put their saddle on the dirty floor where it risks being kicked or knocked about. These are light, portable, and easy to put up and down as needed. They don’t take up much room and are just one of those ‘must-haves’ that I wouldn’t be without.
Electric fencing kit
Even if you have post and rail fencing, there may come a time where you need to put up a temporary fence-line. Most horses respect electric fencing so you could just have a small energiser with integrated solar panel for those unforeseen emergencies.
Some ponies aren’t so forgiving so a more powerful energizer, battery, and solar panel are required. The set below will keep even the most ardent Houdini in the right field; the energiser is the most powerful I’ve found that will run off a leisure battery if you don’t have mains electricity. Just remember to have several strands of tape to ensure that your pony doesn’t consider jumping over, sliding under, or simply barging through to get that ‘must have’ green grass on the other side of the fence.
Larger set up:
Conclusion
Over the years you’ll almost certainly collect lots of bits and bobs for your yard. Some will be of more use than others. The selection above though, in my opinion, is absolutely necessary, and no yard is complete without them.
One response to “20 Must Haves for your yard”
Very informative thanks 😊