Horse Care - The Basics

For Natural Horsecare and Barefoot Horses

The basic essentials for natural horse care and barefoot horses.

Contents

Shelter for Horses.

Another essential horse care requirement is, providing some shelter for them in their fields and paddocks. They may need this to protect themselves:-

• In the summer months, from sun and flies,
• In the winter months, from driving rain and snow.

It maybe just some:-

• Trees and overhanging branches
• Or a timber field shelter.

You can now buy 'mobile' field shelters which in the UK require no planning permission. You can put them in your field and if you wish, you can put some rubber horse mats inside to protect the ground so it does not become too poached.

Our Shelter Experience

First we did not have any real sheltered area, but the horses survived. Then gradually they showed us where they liked to stand and shelter.

There were some large over hanging branches in several areas around the field and these have provided quite a bit of shelter. Interestingly, they use it much more in the summer than the winters which surprised us.

The picture below shows one of these areas. The area is quite a bit deeper and more protected than it appears in picture.

Finding Shelter in Your Fields

It is worth spending time looking at how the ground lies, where the wind comes from and where they tend to stand. From this you will then be able to work out:-

• Whether there is enough shelter already,
• Or whether you need to buy or build a field shelter for your horses.