Make My Horse Life Easier Tip #12

Here's another tip/tool that I use in my horse life: a putty knife.  

Specifically, one with a metal blade, not plastic.  This is another one of those things that you can buy for less than a foo-foo coffee drink, and use it for years to make your horse related life easier.  Especially if you are maintaining a barn.

In the horse barn, it is not used for caulking, or spreading drywall mud (er, joint compound).  But it can be used for several other uses.

Like scraping poop from the stall walls.  To be blunt, shit happens.  And, occassionally, runny shit that ends up on the wall happens.  A putty knife is an excellent tool for scraping it off, especially after it has dried.

A putty knife is also excellent for scraping down sawdust/bedding build up in the seams or under the corners of the mats on the stall floors.  The tighter the seams on your mats, the less problem buildup is.  My floor mats were put in by DH and I, with engineering precision and construction knowledge.  In nearly three years of existence, they have not shifted.  However, I've worked at a lot of barns where the mats weren't put in with a micrometer, as it were, and over a period of months those mats tended to shift in tiny increments allowing sawdust and other small particles of things to get under them and push the mats up over time.  A putty knife is handy for not only getting into narrow spots, but also for scraping those packed lumps of stuff under the edges of the mats down to the actual floor so that the mats can lay flat again.

Similarly, I use mine for scraping out/removing pieces of pine shavings that tend to get worked between the stabilizer board and the bottom wall board of our stall dividers. Especially the ones on either side of the stall of a particular horse who likes to occasionally body slam or otherwise shove on the wall.  Such sudden impacts of force tend to push out the bottom of the stabilizer board just enough, say 1/4" to 1/2", that shavings end up behind it, then get packed together and I can't just tap the wall back into alignment with my rubber mallet. So, out comes my putty knife, and I use it to push or otherwise work the shavings out from behind the stabilizer board.

Before using the putty knife;

note the gap between the vertical board and the lowest 2-3 horizontal boards.

After, shavings removed and boards put back tightly together.

All is right with the world again ;0)

A putty knife is also good for scraping loose (so it can be swept up and removed) the buildup of fine hay chaff that tends to accumulate over time--in stalls-- where the wall meets the floor, especially in corners.  Some people just ignore that crud, leaving it there.  Not me.  Because that, with the addition of moisture (which could be simply from humid air), is the formula for mold to grow.  And we all know mold is not good for horses (or us) to breathe in or otherwise ingest.  So removing that cruddy buildup with my putty knife is a part of regular barn maintainence.

Chaff/dust crud

Inserting putty knife from the underneath.

Lift and loosen.

Repeat other side

Ahh, clean and healthy again.