Dear Friends,
 
Welcome to spring! This time I would like to share with you how the Lucky Three Mule Ranch became the beautiful facility that it is today. Many people believe that I just had enough money to spend, but that really wasn’t the case. I started with a small 10-acre sheep farm, barely usable for equines. I had to start by digging manure from the 2-acre area where I wanted my barn to be. We did not have a tractor and it took two years doing it with a shovel (then my neighbor came and hauled away the pile). We replaced the hog & sheep panels, barbed wire and broken boards with new boards, wire fencing and a hot wire on top. Our equines still chewed the wood on the fences, shed and barns, so we had expensive maintenance costs. 

By the time I had saved enough to get a loan and build my 14-stall barn, I decided that although it was more expensive, I would invest in an all-steel Port-A-Stall barn. Off the stalls, we used steel panel runs and over the years, bought more land and replaced the wire fencing with vinyl fencing with hot wires run along the top rails. In some places, we needed to put hot wires midway down the fence as they did learn how to remove the boards.

Initially I did not put hotwires on the vinyl fencing and when we finished the first 2-acre pen, we left 13 mules in the pen overnight. When I came out the next morning, they had removed ALL the rails between the posts and left them laying on the ground! They did not go anywhere. They were all standing in a bunch in the middle of the pen. It must have taken them all night to do what they did, but they all seemed quite pleased with themselves and happy that I had provided them with the best “Tinker Toy” set ever!!! We put the fence back together again and then drilled holes in the top of the posts to run the hot wire through. 

We built a barn for the minis behind the garage with an overhang roof, lined with steel panels inside and coated the walls with corrugated metal sheeting. The panels in the runs were lined with steel grating to keep the minis in and the coyotes out! I also learned quickly that they can undo latches, so we put chains with carabiner snaps that they couldn’t get their teeth into on all the gates and put bars on the stall doors so they could not reach the latches inside the barn!

In the turnout areas, we installed steel Port-A Stall loafing sheds, but after a few years, we realized as the temperatures increased, that they got pretty warm inside, so we installed fans in the roofs. By this time, we had another 10-stall Port-A-Stall barn and installed fans overhead in the alleyways to keep the stalls cool in the hot summers. In the smaller turnout pens where we only turned out during the day, we built turnout sheds with frames of steel and used vinyl boards spaced slightly apart to allow for air-flow on the two sides where most of the weather came through and left the other two sides open. This made for a really cool place for the equines during the hot summer as well.

In the runs, we put four inches of pea gravel down that makes for good drainage, hoof health, doesn’t chip their feet and is soft enough to lay down. In the stalls, we drill a hole in the middle that is 4’ deep and 2’ wide, then fill it with 1 ½” rock. Over the top, we put four inches of pea gravel and rubber mats on top. We hold the pea gravel in the stalls with 2” X 6” boards trimmed with angle iron. We also keep the summer shed done the same way without the four-foot center hole, just pea gravel and mats held in with angle iron.

The initial investment for the first barn and the first 2 acres of vinyl fencing seemed costly, but we slowly built more and more from steel and vinyl and we now have a facility 41 years later that is practically maintenance free. No fencing replacements, rebuilding sheds, lining sheds with chicken wire, restringing hot wires and digging mud out of the sheds and stalls. We only need to replace a few vinyl boards during the course of a year. It's amazing how much money we have been able to save (and put the money toward more replacement of wood and wire with steel and vinyl!). We have finally reached the point of ALL METAL and NO MAINTENANCE!

I just thought I would share this with all of you as you endeavor to design and improve your facilities! There is much to consider, as I have learned over my many years with LONGEARS! They will certainly keep you on your toes!

Best wishes and Happy Trails,

Hearts & Horses is dedicated to providing opportunities for youth to grow, learn about themselves, and build relationships with others. Our Changing Leads programs and partnerships with local middle schools are designed to support young people facing adversity and improve their well-being. Equine-assisted learning can be helpful in addressing mental health concerns because it helps youth build meaningful connections with equines and volunteers, and it facilitates introspection. Addressing the mental health needs of our community’s youth is especially vital during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

COVID-19 has created a very isolating environment for everyone, and kids are highly vulnerable to isolation. They need support from peers, service providers, and a breadth of positive adults, especially when navigating crisis and distressing experiences. The impact of COVID-19 on mental health is so strong because it has increased stressors, anxieties, and other harms—all while decreasing access to services. At Hearts & Horses, we are dedicated to providing access to the most effective programs and services we can while ensuring safety of our riders, volunteers, and staff through this pandemic. 

Summer Alameel, Development & Communications Manager
summer@heartsandhorses.org

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