| Rafter Diamond K Livestock Located south of Sherwood Park, Alberta which is near Edmonton, Alberta |
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| We are mostly an outdoor facility where a horse is a horse. Our horses rarely wear blankets, usually do not have shoes and yet are healthy and happy. Our large outdoor riding pen is where we prefer to spend our time with youngsters, weather permitting. We ride in mud, snow, rain, good weather... but extreme cold, strong wind and ice are just not safe. Once we feel more confident with the horse we move to the grass arena that is sprinkled with a variety of trail and jump items but not yet fenced. After that we head down the road and into the bush. There are some cleared trails, but also lots of opportunity to "push bush" as we call exploring uncut dense bush and negotiating fallen logs. New horses to the property are isolated in 24' X 48' Electrobraid pens away from the remainder of the horses to assess their health. We are gradually replacing the wood, high tensile and barbed wire fences on all our pens with Electrobraid as we like the open look and the horses don't eat it. Boarded horses are then moved to join the main herd. The main herd is fed grass hay twice a day from round bales. We fork the hay over the fence so we can monitor the quality. They have free choice access to an electric waterer. We watch the herd politics and horses that are unable to compete are moved to a less competitive pen. Occasionally a horse that is having difficulty maintaining weight may need to be moved to a pen with free choice access to a round bale of hay. Some horses are more sensitive to dust than others, so we try to have one or more pens available for horses that are fed grass/alfalfa cubes instead of hay. Although people say horses like consistency and routine, we find that being "consistently inconsistent" results in horses that are more calm and adaptable as there is no routine to break when trail rides or shows run overtime. We have had many comments from people who have found their horses are happier here. Horses here for training are usually kept in a separate group from the remainder of the horses. This group is generally fed grass/alfalfa hay cubes twice a day and also have free choice access to an electric waterer. Most receive additional cubes and/or oats after a training session. All pens have a salt and/or a mineral block. Additional supplements are the owners' responsibility. Behind the two colts in the picture to the left are the sheds for tack storage. They are lighted but not heated. We need to build another one as all spaces are occupied at the moment. Preparing for shows can be a challenge as we have no indoor facilities or stalls to stay clean. We do have an outdoor hot/cold set of taps to supply water to our three stall outdoor wash rack, so we can give them a good warm bath, then blanket and hope for the best. We normally rise early enough in the morning to rewash legs and faces. Most times the rest stays surprisingly clean. Our many first place ribbons and certificates in halter showmanship prove that you can make do without a lot of "stuff". As much as we prefer to be outdoors, colt starting and problem horse rehabilitation requires good footing so we have started work on a 60' X 136' covered riding arena with sand footing. With no ceiling or doors yet, we are "blessed" with the company of a number of pigeons during our riding sessions. Hopefully the ceiling, doors and proper lighting will be done within the next year. We are not planning on insulating and heating for a while, but a space heater is available for spectators for those cold winter viewings. With more and more good mares coming to visit our stallions we have added a covered wing to the west side of the arena to eventually provide 9 covered stalls that will each be 12' by 20'. 5 stalls are now available and we have portable panels making up the rest so the ladies are out of the mud. Boarders may have overnight use of these stalls for shows, etc. when they are available. A 10 stall barn with AI facilities, indoor wash rack and a classroom are future plans for the east side. Stay tuned. |
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