Barn hacks – part three!

 

And the list of barn hacks keeps growing and growing and growing! So here are some more of my favorite tricks for making barn life easy. Many are suggested by you guys, so keep up the excellent brainstorming and send over your ideas.

 

Jump to shopping

 

For the ultimate barn hack list, 93 Easy Barn Hacks! has you covered.

 

baling-twine-sweat-scraper

Is there anything that baling twine CAN’T do?

 

  • Use baling twine as a sweat scraper. It’s nice because it can go over lumpy, bumpy, bony areas. And baling twine is everywhere. Just hold it taut over your horse and squeegee along his body. You will want to use a towel on his face and legs, but the baling twine is great for other parts.

 

  • Keep a tennis ball on the end of the cross ties to avoid the super annoying CLANG. Also, it may give your barn dogs something to stare at for hours. This can also discourage a mouthy horse from chewing the crossties when he’s being groomed.

 

tennis-ball-on-cross-ties

 

  • Use a fair amount of detangler product on your horse after a bath and before a clip. This makes your clipper blades glide through the hair! You can also use a grooming oil, like No. 1 Light Oil. Sheen products also help protect against tangled tails and stains.

 

Magic-sheen

Make the clippers glide.

 

  • If your horse gets dented hairs from the blanket on his chest, use a leg quilt over the blanket’s neck opening to alleviate this. You shouldn’t need another blanket to hold it in. If it comes out, at least it’s soft and maybe your horse will use that as a pillow and not a pile of manure.

 

groom-and-horse

 

  • Use old clipper blades to shorten a mane. Backcomb (aka rat up) the hair and use the old clipper blade to chop off the end of the hair. Some clipper blades can only be sharpened once or twice, then they can live on in your grooming kit as a mane tool.  

 

  • Use a pool skimmer to clean water troughs. No long handle needed. This is especially handy after a windy day, anytime in fall, or if there are a lot of bugs floating around.

 

  • Using a dish brush with soap in the handle is a great way to scrub buckets or horse legs. For buckets and feed tubs, fill with dish soap. For legs, fill your brush with shampoo.

 

kitchen-scrub-brushes

 

  • Toss limp carrots into a bucket of cold water to revive them. Only takes a little bit of time! Throw out or compost any slimy carrots. This actually works for just about any piece of veggie. You can even perk up your salads at home in some cold water.

 

  • Use a dog hair slicker brush to fluff up sheepskin and fleece. And maybe your dog, too! This is especially helpful after the sheepskin has dried, the sweat and crunch are easy to remove.

 

  • When it’s super rainy and yucky, you can use big chunky mulch at gates. This is also great for shows, just outside of the stalls. Help keep the mud and water outside and not in your horse’s house.

 

  • When clipping your horse, toss your hot blades on an ice pack to cool down quickly. Be sure to wipe any oil or spray lube from the ice pack before it goes back in the freezer. Also know that hot clipper blades are a sign your clippers are working really hard, which happens if they need sharpening or your horse is not super clean and slick. You may also need to add OIL, not coolant. If you use coolant, follow up with oil. In fact, you can never really use too much oil.

 

hot-clipper-blades

 

 

go-shopping

 

And if you are interested in some amazing Magic Sheen, you can pick some up here. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases, this comes at no additional cost to you! I thank you!\

Magic Sheen Spray 1Qt
$23.00 ($23.00 / Count)
03/13/2024 02:08 am GMT
Shapley's No.1 Light Oil
$19.99 ($0.62 / Fl Oz)

For shine, conditioning, detangling, and stain protection.

03/11/2024 08:33 pm GMT
03/11/2024 05:34 am GMT

 

 

 

 

Thank you!

 

For more barn hack ideas, these should have you covered.

 

PART ONE

more – PART TWO

PART FOUR

even more- PART FIVE

PART SIX

Dollar store edition PART SEVEN

PART EIGHT – WINTER EDITION

Horse show edition – PART NINE 

PART TEN – COLD WEATHER BARN CHORE EDITION

still going – PART ELEVEN

PART TWELVE

finally done? PART THIRTEEN