Field Shelters: Ideal For Providing Shade In The Summer
Horses can easily suffer in the summer heat. Field shelters provide an economical and effective means of shade, as they can be moved to shady and breezy areas.
Just like us and any other animal, horses and ponies can readily overheat in the summer sun. For this reason, it is crucial that you provide them with a shaded and well-ventilated haven during the summer months.
Horses often get sunburnt on the muzzle and around the heels, where they have pink skin. They can also suffer dehydration and heat exhaustion if left in the sun or in a hot, stuffy stable block. In extreme cases, the horse will become very ill and you will need to call the vet immediately to provide treatment.
This happens when the mechanisms used by the animal to cool off - sweating through their skin and exhaling warm air - fail.
Moreover, midges and horse flies are a real nuisance to the animals in the summer. These bothersome insects prefer the sun to the shade, so being able to escape them is a welcome relief for the horses.
Field Shelters Can Be Moved To Shady Spots
With peak summer temperatures rising year after year in the UK, it is time to upgrade your field, paddock, or yard to deal with the new, more extreme weather conditions.
Because horses need warm, sheltered stalls in the winter and shady, breezy stalls in the summer, it can be hard to find the perfect location to build a single fixed stable block.
A mobile field shelter offers the perfect solution to this problem - you can move it around your property throughout the year to provide the best conditions for your animals to live in.
For the summer, choose a spot with lots of trees, which offer protection from southerly sun, and that is exposed to the prevailing wind. For the winter, place it in a sunny spot that is sheltered from the strongest winds.
If you already have a good, solid stable block that is in a great location for the winter, you can use a mobile field shelter as stalls in the summer and storage in the winter.
When the horses are in their winter stalls, use it to store hay, farm machinery and vehicles, wood, and more. If an animal suffers an injury, you can separate them and leave them to recover in peace in the shelter. Alternatively, a field shelter makes for a fantastic movable workshop, which allows you to work on your fence and other projects around your property without carrying the tools with you every time.
Mobile field shelters do not require planning permission generally (although you need to confirm this with your local authority first), which makes it a lot faster to buy and erect one. The build process is also more economical than that for fixed stables, as you will not need to carry out any groundworks or hire a builder.
Bear in mind that a field shelter needs moving every few months to be classified as such, so do plan to move it a few times a year. Field shelters are equipped with a metal towing chain, skids, and anchor points, which allow you to tow them around your field or paddock with a small tractor or 4x4.
Because they need to be moved regularly, our field shelters are built to the same specs as our fixed stables in order to be solid and durable. Simply make sure you move yours slowly (at 5mph maximum) and that all the bolts and screws are tight once it is in its new position.
For all the reasons explained above, a mobile field shelter is the best, most economical, and swift solution to the serious problems posed by the heat.
