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Routine Stall Work for an Aging Owner With a Bad Back - Help!

Around The Farm
#1

Question for all you farm owners/horse lovers who have dealt with a deteriorating back (disc problem) but who have no choice but to keep going…

I have four horses, they live in stalls at night this time of year, and I am trying to make my operation less labor intensive (I am having back issues from lifting). Right now I have a Newer Spreader which I pull with a small JD Lawn Tractor. My old bank barn won’t allow a large tractor in the barn. When the weather cools I drag the muck buckets out and put them in the bed of my old truck which I then take and dump in a manure pit. The lifting of the buckets is killing my back. My stalls are very big (12 x 15).

I am considering buying a 4-wheeler which I get into my barn, buying a flat cart that is not too big, not too tall, which I can easily put the muck buckets on, take them too the pit and then dump them without heavy lifting.

To matters worse, I work full-time, so being able to do my chores in a timely manner is of huge importance. I need to be able to do my chores in an hour or less.

Questions - has anyone else found an easy way to do this with some of the same issues I have? Will a 4-wheeler start in the dead of winter in 0 degree weather? Leaving my horses out 24/7 is also not something I want to do. I don’t have run in sheds.

Thanks!

#2

I am 63 with four horses also, and when weather is bad they all stay in stalls. Lots more work when they are in stalls for sure!

For me, the simplest and easiest on my back is to use a big Rubbermaid two-wheeled wheelbarrow. It holds quite a bit, and rolls so easily. You can just roll it right up to the stall door. I roll the wheelbarrow out to the pastures and spread the manure/shavings with a straight rake, but if it is dark, or I’m in a hurry or the weather is bad, I have places closer to the barn where I put the shavings/manure as fill and erosion control.

I have though about various tractor and spreader solutions, but it always seems to involve lifting muck buckets, which seems so much more difficult than rolling a wheelbarrow.

#3

My horses always preferred run ins over stalls in every kind of weather.
I think there are benefits too, they stand nose to tail in inclement weather and bond more deeply, imo.
We used deep bedding and used the loader to scrape the litter when it got too deep.
Hth.

#4

You can’t just spread the manure somewhere?

#5

Two possible solutions, you can drag a little bitty dump cart behind the mower and you can fill it, they are low to fill with muck buckets, or clean directly into it and go dump it, even if you have to make several trips.

Another, get one of these sub compact mowers that have a loader in front and you can clean directly into the loader or dump muck buckets in it and drive it to the place you dump, or dump and spread with the loader:

https://www.deere.com/en_US/products/equipment/tractors/sub_compact_utility_tractors/1_series/1023e_sub_compact/1023e_sub_compact.page?

Here is an older one, the new ones are a bit stronger, bigger bucket, not so little:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dYuCZIVbQg

Be sure you can change the mower to loader easily, that connecting the hoses on the side is not hard on your back.

#6

I have a small dump cart I pull behind my garden tractor. Bought at TSC: http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/ohio-steel-professional-grade-poly-swivel-dump-cart-12-1-2-cu-ft?cm_vc=-10005

You can pull up in front of your stall, scoop directly into it, drive where you can spread, has a release you can push with your foot, cart dumps, drive off and it will spread as you drive away. Granted it may come out in a pile but usually you get a smaller pile and then the rest will come out as you drive off. Once empty relatch the cart and done. Just need someone to put a hitch on your tractor or 4 wheeler. Not a perfect “spreader” but doesn’t require any lifting either.

#7

I’m 65 have 3 degenerating dics in the lower back so I know exactly how you are feeling and I clean out 8 straw-bedded stalls. I use the wheel barrow when I muck and wheel it directly to the muck pile. Other than the mucking into the wheel barrow there is no lifting. I also try to keep my back straight and use my legs.

#8

I am with Bluey, get a small tractor with a loader bucket, clean right into the bucket, then dump the load. If you don’t have one, starting a manure pile for dumping onto is an idea, then clean and spread it come spring. Having the loader will make THAT a lot easier as well. You can spread the bucket loads with the bucket, make them a thin layer on the field later on.

Almost everyone with tractors now makes a small tractor with loader, they fit everywhere a riding lawn mower goes. Even if you can only clean one stall at a time with the small bucket, still is better for you than lifting and dumping muck tubs up into a wagon. If you like using the tubs, get enough to just stand them beside the stall door after cleaning, then dump them when you are done with work and have a bit more time to spare. I am not sure how easy it would be to dump from bucket into the spreader, if you want to avoid the manure pile idea. Just that a pile is faster to dump onto, when doing a quick cleaning on limited time. You can’t let the manure sit all day in the spreader before spreading if there is any chance of manure freezing during the waiting time.

Yep, a small tractor like that will cost, but you will be amazed at all the things it can do for you to save your back. And they resell for good money, should you want to do that later on. You don’t have to get one with all the accessories, just need the bucket now, though a PTO might come in handy later on.

#9

I call those sub compact tractors toy tractors.

I still think that several trips with the loader, even if a little one that only holds a few buckets full, may be easier on your back.

Our Craiglist here had a 2006 shedded one, looked very clean, for sale not long ago for $2300.
New they run around $10,000.

#10

Hire help?

#11

[QUOTE=SharonA;8403426]
Hire help?[/QUOTE]

That was my first thought also.

Sooner or later we will have to either get help, go to boarding or quit, if for health or age reasons.

#12

I can spread the manure but I have to get it into the spreader first. Lifting…

#13

I live in a rural area that is well-known for no work ethic. If I could find reliable, reasonable help, I would hire it.

#14

You can’t pull the spreader into the barn with the lawn tractor or a 4 wheeler and muck directly into it?

#15

I can’t get a small tractor into my barn. Too many posts, tight turns, etc. in an old bank barn. Just will not ever work.

#16

First hiring help is a big joke where I live. They want more money than a brain surgeon gets, they don’t even have to handle the horses, and they don’t want to get sweaty in these SE humid summers.

I am retired and DH has a middle class paying job; we aren’t in any position financially to hire some nitwit who wants all the money but doesn’t want to work for it. Even though I now walk with a cane, I can still outwork some of these fools

That said, I am 68 and had to retire in 2011 for the very issues OP is dealing with.

Sadly I laid my two geriatrics to rest this past year but I still have two horses in their early 20’s. Some days it seems like I still have four.

Here is (and was) how I get my stalls cleaned, which my horses come in at night as well:

  1. 4-wheeler and yes they start in cold weather but they need choked a little more and gassed at the Sam time. Keep it inside.

  2. 17 CuFt JD poly dump cart that will tilt to dump. I roll it down the aisle way which is barely 4’ wide.

  3. Roll it down the aisle to the door of each stall and start heaving manure:)

3.1. Fill the front first. Filling the back first makes it tippy and you could lose some of what you have already loaded if it tips back.

  1. You should have a hitch on the 4-wheeler that only requires a pin be dropped in. Wheel cart to 4-wheeler, drop pin thru tongue of dump cart, add a heavy duty yard rake and broom, head out to your dump spot and dump.

I have a trip rope on the tilt lever.

If you want pics, I’ll get them, happily.

  1. Try to find a good used 4-wheeler that is automatic. DH uses our automatic shift Kawasaki and I kept the old Honda Rancher with the suicide shifter.

  2. I wear “The Cincher” back brace. It supports my spine down thru my tailbone, although it does slide up.

  3. If you have insurance get a script for Lidoderm patches. I cut them in half and use them on my tailbone and one hip joint. They are out of reach for any of us middle class folks without insurance.

Medicare won’t pay for them unless one has shingles. I’m glad DH has such a bad shoulder and gets them on his insurance;)

I hope these suggestions are of some help to you.

Again regarding the 4-wheeler, try to find an older one that has been well cared for. Our Honda was a product of divorce and the Kawasaki was sitting in a barn, brand spanking new because the man had a heart attack and never used it. The new nubs were still on the tires.

#17

I have that cart, plus this one – it’s a smaller dump cart with 4 wheels and is very easy to maneuver in a small barn by hand. Then the handle turns around and hooks to my mower with a pin-hitch. You could use it in the barn by hand and hook it up outside. Heck, buy two if capacity is the problem, and just make two trips, if your manure pit isn’t too far away.

I’ve seen ATV’s and UTV’s with hitch receivers mounted on the front used to move boat trailers around at local marinas – maybe this could help you move stuff around without dragging anything by hand.

Full muck buckets are the worst – I’m still struggling with a perfect method to just use my dump carts. I need a better manure location and wider gates to make that simple

#18

Any way you can make your stalls accessible to horses from turnout?
That’s how I setup my barn & it has cut way down on stall cleaning, even in Winter.
Horses prefer Out over In in any weather.
I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve shut them in (excepting for vet or shoer calls) in the 11yrs I’ve had this setup.

If that is not doable, the cart js shows looks like a good solution.
There’s also a cheaper version:

http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/groundwork-heavy-duty-dump-cart-1-400-lb-capacity?cm_vc=IOPDP1

I have a metal dumpcart I pull behind a riding mower & it does a decent job, can fit in my aisle & is not so high that filling it requires a lot of bending.
“Someone” :uhoh:(me) damaged the flap that dumps the load, so it is a struggle to empty, but I shovel out whatever I loaded - I know, not a solution for you.
My budget does not allow for purchasing a subcompact tractor, much as I covet a FEL…
Ideally I’d like to get a used riding mower in decent condition & adios the mowing deck so it can be used exclusively for pulling the cart.

#19

[QUOTE=monalisa;8403496]
I can spread the manure but I have to get it into the spreader first. Lifting…[/QUOTE]

Have someone build you a ramp that you can pull the spreader up to.

#20

use a garden tractor i.e. riding mower, that’s what I use

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