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Blog By Nikki Alvin-Smith

Winter is around the corner but it’s not too late to get prepped with a quick cleanup of your barn and paddocks. If you live in a hot climate then preparations will not be the same as those tasks your fellow equestrians in the colder regions of the country face, but a good fall clean up is beneficial for all barns regardless.

Clean The Barn From Floor To Rafter

If it’s not too cold to use water, the easiest method to clean down...

Blog By Nikki Alvin-Smith

When you shop for a new barn it’s important not to let excitement get the better of you and become blinkered instead of looking at the big picture. While many horse trainers and owners are detail oriented regarding anything riding and horse care related, when it comes to buying a new horse barn details that matter may be overlooked.

On the topic of having a 7^th sense, i.e. ‘good business sense’, don’t fall short of shopping successfully just because you aren’t minding our p’s and q’s.

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Notes from Nana Nikki ~ By Nikki Alvin-Smith

Becoming a grandparent is a joyful event that promises lots of fun times ahead for the entire family. Sharing in the new life and making a valuable contribution to your grandchild’s development is rewarding in so many ways. As proud grandma - “Nana Nikki” - I ponder what’s the best gift I could give the new baby aside from the usual mundane items like diapers, a crib, highchair or car seat?

As...

Blog By Nikki Alvin-Smith

It’s easy to overlook the reality of having a construction site ongoing for weeks and weeks or even months at a time on a horse farm. New barn structures come in all shapes and sizes, and their build can certainly be a long and arduous task if the work is all completed on site. Barn building projects invite more than a few dangers to the horse owner and the building site can quickly become a noisy nightmare day in day out with a seemingly never-ending horde of horrors that horses and their owners would rather do without.

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Blog By Nikki Alvin-Smith

The advantages of a shed row barn are mirrored when you add two together at a right angle for an L-shape barn. Not only are your horses delightfully on show, with their beautiful heads in view as they gaze contentedly out at the horizon while munching on their hay supply, the fresh air is everywhere.

While their minds are kept busy with watching their surroundings, their lungs are being filled with high quality oxygenated...

Blog By Nikki Alvin-Smith

After eons of keeping horses on our own farm and experience through our training and clinic giving at barns big and small worldwide, I’ve seen my fair share of tack and feed rooms. Fantasy feed rooms with rows of feed bins, well-organized shelves stacked with every conceivable supplement and space to dance a Viennese waltz, tack rooms that sparkle with expensive tack and smell deliciously of well-kept leather and emote the feeling that you have found yourself in a tack shop not a tack room are fine and dandy. But a useful tack room...

Blog By Nikki Alvin-Smith

Like most good horse owners, you’ve probably considered the need for shelter from the sun, wind, rain and snow for your horse. The humble run-in shed offers a flexible and inexpensive solution for horse housing that enables your equine partner to seek cover when it feels the need.

Horses are surprisingly adaptable to weather changes especially when we don’t over manage their needs. In winter our desire to “take care” of them by...

Meditation. Mindfulness. Thinking time. Daily reflection.

Whatever you want to call it, there is loads of research pointing to the many benefits of spending a little bit of time every day in quiet contemplation.

Schools are adding meditation for kids to their curriculums because it improves mental health, behavior, and brain power, too.

Silence is an important daily practice in many religions that helps cultivate deeper personal faith and self-reflection.

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Blog By Nikki Alvin-Smith

Building plans and permits are an important part of your new horse barn purchase. While some towns don’t require any plans or permit applications submitted for an agricultural construction project, many regions are increasingly requiring property owners to apply for permits to protect both themselves and their neighbors from unsightly or unsafe buildings.

While at first these requirements may seem unnecessary, the ordinances are...