Stall Fork Preferences
Posted by Bill on Dec 14 2006 at 03:01 pm | Tagged as: The Barn, Product Reviews
It doesn’t take long to figure out what products and procedures work well for horse chores. Last night while shoveling horse stalls (it’s more like forking horse stalls), Mikki grabbed the manure fork I normally use and I in turn took hers. After a few minutes, we happily swapped back again. Neither of us found it easy to work with a manure fork weren’t familiar with using. That might sound silly but we each use a different size and style fork and that makes more of a difference than I would have thought. Mikki uses a smaller fork purchased at a tack shop for around $20. It’s the typical style you see for manure duties, with a nice smooth aluminum handle. We bought the fork I use specifically for use with pellet bedding such as Woody Pet and Equine Pine. In fact, I think it’s actually manufactured by the Woody Pet people (I think they call it their “Fine Tines Fork” - around $26 at Tractor Supply). It’s tines are closer together for catching small manure pieces. It’s also quite a bit larger than the one Mikki uses and as a result picks up a LOT of horse manure, which makes it quite heavy to use. For those who use sawdust or pine pellets, cleaning stalls is part scooping big chunks of horse manure and part sifting to separate the good bedding from the little pieces of manure. The larger fork does a great job as a “sifter”, since it’s deep and the sides adequately keep the payload from prematurely escaping the fork. The smaller fork Mikki uses doesn’t work as well as a sifter because the payload keeps falling off the sides. At least it does for me. Mikki has it down, though and much prefers it over the larger stall fork.
Here’s what they look like. Even though the larger one looks like it’s carrying less horse manure, remember it’s deeper. You just can’t see the depth in the photo.
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On the left is the smaller fork, with the larger Woody Pet fork on the right. While shooting these pictures, I lost some of the horse manure from fork on the left.
Incidentally, we’ve been using both stall forks for at least 6 months without any of the tines breaking. They’ve fallen down in the barn and used as rakes and shovels (not recommended) and have proven to be durable, despite being plastic. The bolt holding the fork onto the aluminum handle of the smaller one needed tightening once.
It’s great to see this posting on stall forks. I have a wide shovel and a leaf rake and how you can use just one tool at a time is a great mystery to me! But never the less, I am always trying to figure out a better system. Lately I have tried replacing the shovel with a janitors dustbin hopper and it would be good if the dustbin were wider. I am picking up muck from bare dry dirt, so it is different than picking it out of bedding. I am also wondering if keeping some muck buckets stationed around would make it more likely for me to pick it up every time I notice a new pile instead of waiting for that formal moment when I have the wheelbarrow at hand.
We really do get used to a tool (or set) and think that anything else is not as good. Is that human nature or what!?!
Yrs,
Patricia
Patricia,
Well as much as I’d love to tell you we’re picking out of bedding, the truth is we’re often on bare dirt ourselves. But those forks work pretty well either way, in my experience. Most people I know seem to use muck buckets. We don’t have any of those. We sort-of have a system going using a wheelbarrow. BUT…we need a new system. Actually we need a whole new manure management system…on the cheap. Please tell us what works for you and we’ll be sure to do the same. Surely between all of us we should come up with some good ideas!
Now me, I envision some kind of complex machine we’d scoop onto, that sifts out the good stuff we want to keep (clean bedding) and then carries the rest away to a composting area that’s cycled out once a month or so, as the manure breaks down into usable and safe fertilizer. Mikki prefers something more simple but just as effective. We’ll figure it out eventually I hope.
WE USE FINE TINES PICKS TOO.