I use vice grips for moving mats. Serve the same purpose but can use for other things, too.
That is what we do, saves your back to be able to pull loose, scoot, turn over and drag the mats while standing up, as using C-clamps and a long hay hook or a chain to pull from:
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Yes, in horse specific built or in converted dairy barns the gutter or “box” is covered with wood planks so you don’t have horses pulling Stupid Cow Tricks. At each stall door there is a trap door made of a few planks so you can lift a big enough section up in one piece to muck the stall directly into the gutter.
There are all sorts of different ways to treat the end of the track. I’ve been at a barn that had a 3-sided concrete holding area built that was emptied and spread a couple of times per year. Where I currently am the track spills directly into a dump truck for carting off to the compost pile.
I tried it the other week and failed miserably. Did a great job of cutting the string I was using as the cutter and didn’t even rough up the string on the bale. I tried twice. I gave up. Maybe if I tried a few thousand times I’d get the technique down pat, but, scissors fit in my scrubs pocket just fine and work with almost zero effort.
You need the string you are cutting to be tight. Put your foot on the bale and push down and away to hold it down to tighten the twine you are cutting. You don’t need to do this if the twine is very tight on the bales.
Then it depends on the twine. There is one type of twine that is harder to cut with twine, the other kind is really easy to cut with twine
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Still loving them, although they aren’t idiot proof it seems! A student went to catch a lesson horse on Saturday, brought mine in instead…saved me a walk at least 
When I went to put him away she had managed to twist the chain somehow so it was nearly impossible to lift the latch to open it…
They also are not so great after being hit by a cow!
Ha! I used to think cows were sweet, sedentary animals. Then I worked at a dairy farm for a day. 20ish years later still working in dairy, my revised opinion holds strong. “If they can break it, they WILL break it.” At least they are slightly less into self-destruction than horses lol
My opinion, around horses, you don’t want anything that has any part of it that sticks out and can snag or scratch a horse in any way, because it will happen.
Especially in gates, latches should be chains, bars, anything that when open is nothing there to hit or a horse will hit it.
Three items, all in the weighing category, in order of increasing cost.
I have a couple of horses who tend to put on too much weight, and these help me in diet control. I do not have the ability to accurately eyeball weights.
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A fish scale, which can be found for under $10, for weighing hay. I use a clean muck bucket, and pick it up with the scale by its handle.
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A kitchen scale, for weighing feed. This one is about $30. A push of a button zeroes out the weight of the feed bucket,
- A 2,000 pound large animal scale, which I indulged in at around $500. My weight tape was about 200 pounds off, compared to weights taken with the scale. I added a rubber mat over it and built side rails.
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Nearest commercial scale to me is around 35 miles one way.
What type of horses are you weighing? Clydesdale for me. I don’t think the weight tape was designed with them in mind. As it is, I’m near the limits of my one ton digital scale; wish I’d gone with bigger but the one I picked could be home delivered by Fedex, and I didn’t want to go through the freight truck delivery hassle. Plus, it’s nice to get weights at home anytime I want.
My vet has suggested that I weigh horses at a fee for other people in my community. No way am I going that route.
Wow, how cool is that?! Where do you have that set up in your barn? I assume it has to be on a concrete pad?
I’d love to have something like that but don’t have room in the aisle. Super curious where you have it set up!
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I have it set up in the aisle across from the wash stall. The scale itself is 30" wide. The rails I built are 2 pieces. Each unit slides under the space under the scale. I could have built them more compact, or just built one and used the aisle wall on the other side to save space. The scale seems to weigh accurately on top of my 3/4 inch rubber mats over the concrete floor.
I am still trying to figure out how to post the picture.
Our vet clinic has one of those close to the wall, no sides, but set in a narrow aisle between adjoining barns.
Horses seem to step up on it fine, stand there to be weighed and then walk off, similar to a bridge obstacle.
Those sides makes it be safer, thanks for the picture.
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I am coveting the scale! I’ve been going back and forth about buying one for years.
When I was a kid we rode onto the truck scales at the garbage dump. It was pretty slow there in the afternoons, the guys in the little office shack always indulged us.
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My understanding with the weight tapes is that they are not all that accurate for getting actual weights. However they are reliable. So once you tape your horse and record the results, you can do a pretty good job of monitoring weight gain or loss over time.
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Agreed. When you think about it, of course they aren’t accurate. Imagine if we used the same technique for humans, regardless of gender, ethnicity, height, athletic ability, lifestyle, LOL.
Here is my scale. It weighs accurately sitting on top of the rubber aisle mats. I tested using tractor weights. The weight display is instantaneous, so if you have the display positioned right, all the horse needs to do is walk across, and doesn’t need to stop as long as all four hooves are somewhere on the scale.
When I am not using it, the rail assemblies can slide out and the scale itself can be tipped up against the wall. But, even with rails, it takes up only half the aisle width. And, I use the side rails for hanging wet blankets to dry if it’s raining.
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