Horse book reviews: Stablekeeping by Cherry Hill

...a fantastic book... June 2006, Nanaimo B.C.

So far it's been a fantastic book. Easy to read with tons of photos to help create the right picture in the reader's mind. It made me start organizing my barn better! Thanks! L.D.

...Little Things are Important... December 7, 2000

I recently read this book to brush up on my horsekeeping skills...The information helped me to plan our new barn. By reading this book I was able to pick out small things to help me design and lay out my barn and corral areas...It's very helpful to be organized, have a tack room designed to take care of all my expensive tack and have things easily available in case of an injury or emergency.

...cherry hill does it again... August 29, 2001

a very good book, with very detailed pictures. would recommend to any one that has a horse stable, or is thinking of building one.

The Gaited Horse
Spring 2000

Leave it to Cherry Hill to cover everything! She covers every aspect of keeping horses, from safe and adequate lighting to foiling gate opening Houdinis. The book is jam packed full of ingenious ideas, obviously the result of having been there/done that. Consider a saddle cleaning stand design that puts everything at just the right height and angle, a tack cleaning hook positioned over a scrub sink, a properly prepared site for your farrier to do his best work, cures for common stable vices including cribbing, pawing, chewing, and more, pest control, tips for feeding and watering, bedding, mud prevention, even earth quake preparation! It's all about safety and convenience. A true gem of a resource.

Western Horseman
August, 2000

The "Klim Team", as Cherry Hill and husband Richard Klimesh are known, continues to provide clear, concise, and well-illustrated information for horsemen. The couple's latest efforts include Stablekeeping and Trailering Your Horse. Both offer plenty of solid how-to information in easily understood copy with sharp black and white photographs.

Want a new barn? Need to make changes to your old one? Stablekeeping addresses almost every aspect of horsekeeping--barn lighting, flooring, and ventilation; stalls; tack room amenities; work, storage, and turnout areas; and even stable vices. Chapters also discuss feed and water management, Pest control, safety precautions, emergency situations, and seasonal maintenance routines.

If you've never housed a horse before (and even if you have), Stablekeeping provides a great overview of the available options and plenty of sound ideas to help minimize maintenance so you can enjoy your horse. --FS

A Day at the Stables
by Amy Penney at bellaonline.com
July 2000

I recently had the opportunity to read a wonderful book on keeping up a barn and the horses in them. The name of this book is "Stablekeeping" by Cherry Hill.

I can't tell you how valuable this book is around a stable. You can find everything in this book from the best way to design a barn to seasonal tips.

No matter how long you have been in the horse business there is always someone out there who has a better way of doing something. I found many new ways of doing things easier around the stable.

She goes over the various popular flooring for stalls and the prices per foot for each. She also mentions the advantages and disadvantages of them all. Such as Draining Flooring. The cost is between $2.20 to $3.50 per sq. ft. and requires less shavings but that urine can accumulate under flooring. She also talks about Clay, wood, Rubber Mats, Conveyor Belting and several others. Hill even has a section at the end of this chapter that goes through installation of Stall Mats step by step.

I loved her section on tack rooms! I love to have a nice neat area with everything in place and all the saddles lined up on saddle racks and bridles on hangers. Cherry Hill has some great ideas and wonderful pictures of neat tack rooms. Every tack room should have some basics. Like saddle racks, bridle hooks, a blanket rack or two depending on the number of horses stabled, a wrap rack is also nice. She talks about several ways to heat and cool the tack room and how important good ventilation is. I personally have found that a tack room that is lined with a good wood and well insulated is the best. It will be warm in the winter and cool in the summer. The insulation also helps to keep out the dust and rodents. She talks about the importance of a small refrigerator for vet supplies such as penicillin and vaccines. If you can afford it a washing machine and dryer are also nice to have. If there are going to be a lot of boarders then I would suggest some sort of rest room facilities. And an added luxury would be a shower added to the rest room!

I want to jump forward to a chapter in her book on " Vices and Prevention". I see so many horses in stables that have been allowed to develop bad habits. Many of which can be avoided or managed. Do you have a wood chewer? You have to pretty much out smart the horse because he isn't going to stop. You can try antichew products. But if they don't work Cherry Hill has some ways of covering the wood in stalls and keeping the horses off the tree trunks in her book. Have a Cribber? This can come from parasites, boredom, imbalanced diet or several other things. Hill mentions that there might be drugs in the future to cure this. But for now you will have to use cribbing straps or muzzles.

This book also covers the various types of bedding for stalls. She had comments, conveniences, comfort and absorbency of each. Like did you know that some people use sand as bedding? But it is a very poor bedding because it can cause colic and is abrasive if not deep.

There are so much great advice in this book that I can't fit it all in. She has a chart that tells you how to" Calculate Cold Weather Hay Increase". What to keep in a first aid kit. The "Heart Girth vs. Weight" and how to calculate the hay ration.

I could go on and on but why don't you just see for yourself.

Chronicle of the Horse

Often people involved with horses learn only one way of doing things.

Perhaps they've always bedded on straw or always worked on a dirt aisle. Perhaps their horses have lived on sweet food their entire lives. Although these practices may have never posed a problem, there may be other methods that are better.

Cherry Hill's newest book, Stablekeeping, discusses the best methods in keeping an organized, well-run, safe stable. From stalls to the tack room and storage areas to turn-out areas, Hill covers every inch of a barn.

One of the book's best features is Hill's use of comparative charts for topics such as bedding, lighting, flooring and stall deodorizers. Hill does all the dirty work of comparing each and organizes it into a neat list of pros, cons and comments on each option.

Hill's chapter on feeding practices offers guidelines for calculating hay rations, as well as how to evaluate a horse's condition. Chapter 15, "Emergency," is one that every horse owner should read. Do you know where your main electric service panel is and how to disconnect it? Do you have a list of emergency phone numbers posted? Do you have a fully stocked first-aid kit, and do you know what should be in it? What about a plan in case of fire, flood or storm?

An emergency is not the time to wonder about these questions. Hill covers all of these with tips and action plans. The chapter is comprehensive and invaluable.

Stablekeeping isn't just for the new horse owner. Although some of the topics may seem basic for an advanced horseman, the entire book should not be dismissed. It's a good refresher course as Hill offers not just the "how," but the "why" of horsekeeping. --Michelle Gstattenbauer