Fixtures and Fittings

Provision should be made for storing feed buckets and spare mangers and a cupboard provided for keeping feed additives and supplements cool and dry.

A feed chart is an essential feature of the feed shed. The most practical type is a blackboard on which every horse's diet, including exact quantities and time of feed, can be written. It is vitally important to keep the feed chart up to date and ensure that any changes, however small, are noted, even temporary alterations such as when a horse is rested and put on a laxative diet. Failure to do so can have disastrous consequences where the same person does not make up the feeds.

An electric socket is useful for boiling a kettle for a mash or for an electric boiler, commonly used for cooking barley, oats and linseed. A fire extinguisher must be kept within easy access of the feed shed, preferably inside it.

Some larger establishments, especially farms, have their own oat crusher which enables oats or barley to be rolled at regular intervals. This is particularly useful because rolled oats and barley will have lost some of their nutritional value if they are more than a week old when fed.

Storage

Storage bins, made of wood, plastic or galvanized steel, must be vermin-proof. They should be cleaned out regularly to prevent damp and mould forming, thereby contaminating the feed. Feedstuffs do not keep indefinitely and it is sensible to order small quantities at frequent intervals to avoid wastage. Bins with compartments which will hold two or three different types of feed are practical and space-saving. Feeds such as bran, sugar-beet and nuts which are sold in paper sacks must be stored off the floor, e.g. on wooden pallets, to safeguard against damp and mould.

Nuts should be kept cool and dry, preferably in metal bins which have been raised off the ground. Old nuts should be cleaned from the bottom of the bin before refilling with fresh nuts. Even if you buy your food in bulk and your bins are large, only put into the feed bins enough feed for, say, a week and store the rest unopened in the sacks in which it is delivered. Never put fresh food on top of old otherwise the old will eventually become stale and may go mouldy making it both unpalatable and dangerous to feed. Nuts, particularly, will soon develop a foul smell when they go stale and should not be fed under any circumstances as they may cause colic. Many horses will not eat stale nuts but this must not be used as a measure of their staleness.