Barnboy Equine Services

08/09/2016

Effective immediately, Barnboy Equine Services has gone into retirement. Barnboy is feeling the pain in his back, legs and arm and taking care of more than the six horses, eight dogs, eight chickens and four cats at Silver Mark Farm with Elaine is quite enough. I am NOT retiring from my real job, just BES. To our clients, we say thank you for trusting us with the care of your animals. We have tried our very best to provide quality worry-free service so you can enjoy your time away from your own farm and animals. Over but not out, Barnboy.

07/03/2012

Adding powdery supplements to your feed? Want to be sure your horse gets every last drop? You can either add a small amount of oil to the supplements themselves, stir, then add the supplements to the feed. The oil will add a shine to the horse's coat, but will also allow the supplements to adhere to the feed. Worried about additional weight? Just use water. Wet your supplements separately, then add them to the feed and stir well. I prefer to stir the wet supplements into the feed right in the feeder. All of our horses will stand back and wait for the stirring to end before they dig in! Supplements are costly. Do not let them lie at the bottom of your feed bucket.

05/05/2012

Signs of a Healthy Horse:
• Hair is shiny and sleek
• No grass belly can be seen
• Muscles are well fit
• Horse shows signs of interest in surroundings
• Horse acts energetic
• Horse is not too thin or fat
• Normal riding does not produce sweating or heavy breathing
• Horse does not act tender footed and walks normally
• Horse eats all he is given
• The horse has bright eyes, alert ears, and normal vital signs
• The horse does not act tired, sluggish, or lethargic
• The horse has a thick or shiny mane and tail
• The horse has strong hooves that are shaped normally

03/03/2012

Broken Fork Tip: You know how irritating it is when you break a tine off your mucking fork and stuff falls through the resulting gap? Try this temporary fix: take a plastic zip strip (color is optional so knock yourself out), loop it and slide about 75% up the two tines on both sides of the gap and tighten the loop until the wide gap is closed to the same width as the other tine gaps. To keep it from sliding down, form a "T" using another zip strip (second greatest invention after duct tape) by looping through the first strip and around the perpendicular plastic cross piece of the fork and tighten (not too tight). Trim off excess and muck away. I know it sounds goofy but experiment and you'll see it works until you can get a replacement fork ... or not and make sure you grab the good forks first.

02/04/2012

Lone Water Bucket Tip: Ever need to place a water bucket for your horse in an odd place and there's nothing to hang it on? Get yourself a square milk crate (not sayin' how), place the bucket inside and lay it on the ground. While not foolproof, most horses can't knock it over until empty ... try it, it works.

07/18/2011

Water Drinking Tip: In hot weather horses need to drink plenty of water ... impaction colic is just one reason. If your horse isn't drinking 10-12 gal/day, add 1-2 tbsp table salt to their feed daily and things should pick up.

06/28/2011

Snagged Tails Tip: Often find long strands of horse hair hanging from your water buckets? Wrap the small gap where the bucket handle ends curl back upon itself with duck tape and that will end this problem. Try it, you'll like it!

05/12/2011

Hello all you with horses at home in NE PA. Don't forget Barnboy is your answer to the question: "Who can we entrust the horses to if we want or need to leave town for a few days or longer?" Check us out. Money well spent for peace of mind while you are away.

Barnboy Equine Services is not like other help “covering” for the northeast Pennsylvania home-based horse owner. While you are away, we just don't turnout your horses and muck stalls. You...

05/10/2011

With so much rain this Spring it's a good time to check out drainage issues around your barn, other buildings and paddocks while they are so obvious. Take photos now because you may not remember specifics when you can undertake corrective measures. While all this rain and mud sucks, you might as well learn something that will help improve you and your horses reality.

03/19/2011

Grooming Tip: Dollar stores are the best places get brushes and rags that seem to be endlessly disappearing. Horses don’t care if the brush is a ‘horse’ brush or a scrub brush just as long as he gets brushed. Buy inexpensive people shampoos and conditioners to use on your horse rather than the marked-up horse shampoos. If your horse has particularly sensitive skin you can use baby shampoo or mild dish detergent.

01/29/2011

Recordkeeping Tip: Purchase a binder for each horse. Put official documents, Coggins test results, etc. into the pockets, and record all other relevant info (shots, worming, show results, etc.) on the loose-leaf paper. The idea is to have all of the horse's vital papers and info readily available in one place. Start a binder for farm/barn maintenance notes, important dates, expenses, feed/hay delivery, etc.

01/15/2011

Abscess Soaking Tip: Add a few drops of lavender and some bran flakes to the usual mixture of warm water and Epsom salts. Lavender kills infection, calms tissue and pulls abscess out much faster, without digging. Rather than a bucket, try a bag (battery disposal bags from auto supply store are very heavy duty) and duct tape closed. Warning - Your horse may not like sounds associated with bag soaking, so be alert.