Redstone Arsenal Saddle Activity
Redstone Arsenal Stables, Alabama
We struck a deal while visiting
some friends at Maxwell AFB.
It was our standard agreement, we'd head north to Redstone Arsenal
where
my hubbie would get in a round of golf while I checked out their stables.
I already had Restone's basic information posted on my website,
I expected to find the standard 20 or so horses, so I
hadn't made arrangements to connect with anyone.
Quite
frankly, I figured I'd mosey around for a few moments, take a few pictures,
and head back to the golf course's Club House for a snack.
I had no idea that I'd come across a facility housing seventy plus
horses and mules!!
If I counted correctly, there are 5 rows of barns with 7 barns per row.
The
barns are duplex styler with a stall on both sides of a tack and feed room.
I can do the math 5 X 7 X 2 = 70 although I'm pretty sure
one of the boarders mentioned 80 horses on property.
Regardless, this was quite a find!!
These pictures give you an idea of one side (call it the back-side) of the two-horse
barns.
Photos taken from the side and front give you
a better visual of the barns.
From these photos, you can see the runs that are
attached to each of the stalls.
A concrete manure depository-bin is located at the end of each row.
In the far background, take notice of the horses grazing in one of
their spacious pastures.
Quick peeks inside the stalls show shavings,
pads, hayracks, etc.
These photos give
you an idea of how nicely kept the stalls can be.
Stall cleaning is self-help here, everyone is responsible for
cleaning their own.
The judges stand and dressage arena are in
the same proximity of a smaller arena.
I'm not sure if the
roundpen I found was functional, so I skipped the picture.
It has been years since I've been to this part of Alabama,
the mountains in the background caught me a little by
surprise.
I was having fun trying to get photos of the jumps with the
mountains in the background.
Mares and geldings are pastured separately and there were many large fields for rotating.
I found a sick pen / pasture
and a few Q-Pens for Quarantine.
Parking for trailers was plentiful and I found all shapes
and sizes.
The farrier
shed was clean and spacious.
And -- as I
approached the storage shed, I noticed piles of new lumber.
New building materials almost always mean good things!
I snapped photos
of these two barns -- currently being reconstructed with some of the new wood!!
Boarding at a Self-Help Stables on a Military Installation is a lot like
living in Base Housing.The Housing Office
gives us standards to maintain -- our lawns have to be mowed,
our leaves have to be raked etc. All (or most) of our yards can pass the inspections
but some pass the inspections with flying colors
and are shoe-ins for 'yard of the month'!
In the case of this stables, there were some clear candidates for 'barn of the month'.
The boarders have clearly invested time and energy into
making their barns shine.
There was no way that
I could walk away from this stables
without sharing
some of their photos!
THANK YOU!!!
