My area is windy and my stalls all open out. In real life applications, will placing a kickboard on the inside of the outside-exiting stall door help keep bedding in? Or will it just become a trip hazard?
I have 2x4 thresholds on my stalls and they 100% help keep bedding from walking out.
Not sure about wind, though. Are you using shavings or pellets? We’re not windy here, but when we lived with wind, I needed to close the stalls to keep the pelleted bedding from blowing out. Small thresholds didn’t cut it. They might make more of a difference with heavier shavings, though.
We have kickboards on our stalls that open out to a covered overhang, and from there to my gravel paddocks. We didn’t want to make them real high as we have to push the wheelbarrow in and out there, so they are just an inch or so tall, but even that does help to keep some of the bedding in the stall. We don’t really deal with wind on that side (prevailing winds here are from the east and stalls all open to the west), but I can’t see it helping much in that regard.
Pellets I thought as much. The barn is aligned with the street, which is aesthetically pleasing but not so great with the wind directions. Oh well.
Could you add a wide broom screwed to the kickboard, bristles up? Easy to walk thru and push barrow through, holds bedding.
That is a cool idea!
My thresholds are removable. Open bar holders are great for this use.
This style:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Hillman-Bar-Holder-Open-in-Zinc-Plated-5-Pack-851903-0/203809718
Or this style:
”‹”‹”‹https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M24X7AN/
A 2x4 is great to keep bedding from walking out, and horses don’t care about the height. Pops right out for taking the manure cart outside.
But wind doesn’t just drag broken down pelleted bedding along the ground…it picks up the small particles :-/ Putting in a threshold sure won’t HURT but not sure how much it’ll really help the wind issue…
We live in the second windiest spot in the US and have many wind farms to attest to that.
What helps to cut wind to stalls open to prevailing winds is to have something outside as a windbreak.
Many use treated boards in their pens, some hang used industrial belting, that is what our vet uses in his pens, even wind screens work.
See if you can put some panels in the right places and hang something on them to cut the wind directly going in the stall doors, make a windbreak for those doors?
That broom idea is awesome! :encouragement:
Longevity might be an issue, but cheap enough to replace.
What drags bedding out here is not so much wind, but horses who refuse to wipe their feet, going in or out! :mad:
Problem is mitigated by 2X4 synthetic (leftover deck flooring) boards attached just inside the sills.
Even the mini has no problem stepping over & less pelleted bedding goes out with them.
I was thinking of the open bar holders, @Simkie :yes: But even so, the wind… our first “wind event” is coming tonight (yay, my Monday at work too) with estimated sustained winds 20-30mph and gusts into the 40s. We shall see what happens to the pony’s stall, hers is the only one bedded right now because her outside door is shut in an attempt at a quasi-quarantine for a couple weeks. The wind scours the mats of bedding.
I honestly think the only thing that might work is those big translucent rubber …things?.. that hang from the ceiling that horses have to push thru to walk in and out, but even then those are gonna start blowing and flapping around and probably give the horses a heart attack in our bigger wind storms. I had a recorded 89 mph gust last year on my weather station that is 20 feet up on a pole. A solution would be to close the doors during those, I suppose. Anyone know what those rubber things are called so I can google?
Yep, SCOUR is certainly the right word. When we lived in windy land, I closed the barn doors during the day when the horses were out, and didn’t worry about the scour factor overnight. A deep overhang off the barn helped quite a lot.
Those plastic strips are called strip curtains: https://www.globalindustrial.com/c/material-handling/dock-truck/doors-strip
They’re called “strip curtains” Available in different thickness & width. Depending on how much they’re over lapped or not , they are easy to push through or not.
I have a friend with the strip curtains, and she loves them–she said in really windy weather (WY, 60 mph wind can be the norm for days at a time) she puts a rope behind them to reduce flapping, and her pigs, goats, etc. can still get in and out of their shelter. I have considered doing short ones to help keep some of the weather out of my one run in stall, but I think between my red mare and my donkeys, the strips would have a short life.
Ooh… synthetic boards. Do those hold up longer than pine or pressure treated pine?
I haven’t found that my strip curtains help with wind. If it’s blowing straight into the stalls, it just blows the curtains in with it. Thankfully the horses get used to them pretty quickly!
Mine are going on their 3rd year & aside from bowing outward a bit, still doing the job.
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FWIW, my untreated, cheap, 2x4 thresholds are also that age with zero sign of rot or failure. It’s not like they get wet, so I expect them to last a long time!
I have the brooms, installed upside down on the threshold. It works for keeping bedding from getting dragged out, but unfortunately the horses do like to chew the bristles. And where they constantly step over them they are pretty worn down. Cheap to replace though and very safe as they don’t trip on them!
I have my own project where I’ve been trying to figure out how to make sure the shavings stay in the stall and not drug outside. Not to my building phase yet, just contemplating various solutions. One way I thought of doing it was making a sill with two 2"X2" boards and sandwiched between them a strip of rubber that sticks up like 4". It may be too much work… but something I am considering.
https://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/83039545
I love the broom head idea. But knowing my luck, I’d trip over my own feet, and end up face planting right into the broom.
For what it’s worth, my stalls have a massive concrete step the horses have to walk over to get in/out of their Dutch doors due to the foundation. It’s like 18” yet the wind still manages to blow my bedding around.
Also, before moving here, my last boarding barn was oriented with the barn openings to the east/west with no doors on either end. The barn owners tried to hang strip curtains to reduce the wind tunnel affect. Not only did the curtains not help, but the first major wind storm took out several strips. On the plus side, they were great for desensitizing the horses. :lol: