Thank you for the tips! Very helpful
Thank you for sharing!
Lol! I’ve been calling my place “mare motel plus” lol.
I think I will want solid walls everywhere eventually; mostly for the rain. I live in FL so no real winter
Thanks so much for sharing your experiences!
Is sisell twine the looser spun green stuff? If so, yes that’s what I mean by grass string. Lol. That’s pretty fancy making your own hay. Yup most hay here is baled with orange nylon string.
I’m not particularly concerned about a horse pulling back in a wash rack, like you pointed out the back wall mitigates most of that risk. It’s the freak rear or fall or other weird crap that I’m worried about. I think I’ll try the Velcro ties another poster mentioned up thread.
We used the nursery type screens and they didn’t work at all in our windy storms.
You can’t really stretch them enough, unlike those made for windscreens, they let thru rain and snow.
We have replaced those with polycarbonate panels, as we already had above them, with windows built every other bay and that is working very well.
There is a channel of several inches below that between the bottom pony wall that helps with airflow across the arena, the chimney effect and keeps dust and heat at bay.
Pictures of the greenhouse screens, they were cheap.
Real wind screens cost more, but also protect properly:
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I didn’t link the crossties only because the price has sky rocketed on Amazon. Surely you can find a similar model cheaper than what they currently cost on Amazon.
I understand your concerns about baling twine, as I have had it fail to break once in my life. A yearling lost her marbles over a plastic bedding bag and went to bolt. One side broke, the other didn’t and she went over backwards. Thankfully she was fine.
With that said, I think that is pretty rare.
Since I’ve had these velcro crossties, no one has tested them. It would have to be a really out of the ordinary situation for any of them to have an incident these days, but better safe than sorry. I have baling twine on the end of them, too.
Re: the screens shredding. To be fair, I don’t know what type of screens they were (wind, nursery, or otherwise). They looked like they were installed well to my untrained eye, but who is to say what the BOs did or didn’t do properly. It was sad how quickly they met their demise.
Thank you so much for sharing your pictures. You have a beautiful arena!!!
I appreciate you sharing. Exactly the info I needed regarding the type of screens to get so they will function as best they can. It sounds like the right screens will block some of the driving rain and provide shade. Perfect!
I think the greenhouse screens are called shade screens and woven loosely, the others are wind screen and are stiff.
Both of those also come in different kinds, some shade 50%, 70%, 90% and so on.
The company linked to has been doing business for decades and know the differences and can advise which would be best for your needs.
Wish we would have gone with them, but at that time the greenhouse ones is what the fellow building the barn wanted to use, so much cheaper and well, they just didn’t work.
Others can learn from our mistakes.
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My mild mannered gelding completely checked out over styrofoam boards flying in a stiff wind (understandable imo). That was the last time I hard tied a horse. Thankfully he was in his everyday (read cheap and flimsy) leather halter and the stitching gave. He was also fine, physically, afterwards. He remained suspicious of that general area though until we moved to another barn.
A friend of mine boards at a facility where the BO has a rule that only breakaway halters can be used on her property. Guess that BO is over tie wrecks too.
I hear you regarding the Amazon thing. It seems like Dover sells intrepid stuff. I’ll do some sleuthing, nbd!
But right now I gotta go build more fences. Fun fun lol
I have the velcro ties in my trailer and they saved my butt once when I had a momentary lapse in common sense and unloaded my horse before detaching the tie. They pinged right off when he hit the end of them and yanked. That said, for in the barn?
Cross ties with panic snaps, Safe T Ties, or blocker rings are all better and more affordable in my experience. I use Safe T Ties and blocker rings on the outside of the trailer and panic snaps in the barn aisle. I like the velcro, but I feel like its just not as long lived in the elements, whereas just a plain old tie w/ a panic snap (or any of the other options I mentioned) will give in plenty of time and don’t show their age nearly as quickly, with the added bonus that it takes two seconds to hook them back up versus the time it takes to patch the velcro ties back together. I’m lazy. If there’s no need for more work, I don’t do it. 
I also only use leather halters. That’s been more useful than any type of type.
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I’ve always used hay string for breakaway in barn & trailer, it’s been “tested” a few times & always worked as it should, a single strand won’t hold a pulling horse, even if they are not panicked. I actually use a double loop on xties bc single was too easy for young fidgeter to break. If you are worried, it’s easy to pull/unravel into half strands too. Or use actual string, which is pretty wussy.
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This is what I do - fray it into half strings.
