June/July 2023 Issue

Page 14 June/July 2023 EAST COAST EQUESTRIAN Please submit your events to steph@eastcoastequestrian.net . Please provide event name, location, city, state and contact information for inclusion at no cost in East Coast Equestrian's calendar of events. Attention Event Organizers! Shelter Your Horses with a Crickside Barn Crickside Barns’ shelters and barns are perfect for the hobby horse owner to provide shelter to their animals all year long. For large farms, their shelters provide places in the pastures for weather protection in winter months. Units can be moved from pasture to pasture as needed. Crickside Barns, located in Loysville, PA, builds shel- ters for use in pastures, along with horse barns, and other timber-framed structures. Their board and batten style buildings have many custom features available. The timber-frame style struc- tures provide a superior frame structure. “We are horse owners ourselves and understand how much wear and tear they bring,” said owner Amos Riehl. “We build our structures to withstand large animal use. We can cus- tom build to match current farm buildings. With careful attention to detail, you can be assured our structure will provide many years of use.” Crickside Barns serves the Mid-Atlantic region and can ship structures beyond that area. They can custom build on-site in the southern PA, MD, VA and NJ areas. For more information visit CricksideBarns.com or call (717) 789-4728. From Farm to Barn: Getting Your Hay Worry Free By Haley Ruffner Amidst the rolling green farm country of the Hudson River Valley, a high-end performance horse training and breeding facil- ity near Aden Brook’s headquar- ters had faced an overwhelming challenge for years: finding consistent, high-quality Western hay for their horses with effective and reliable delivery. They would be stuck feed- ing local hay that had a lower nutritional value than the pre- mium irrigated Western alfalfa they needed to fuel their show horses, forced to pay high retail prices from feed stores, or end up with labor-intensive 2-string bales rather than their preferred 3x3s or 3x4s. Having inconsis- tent hay can have a huge impact on a facility like this—adjusting horses’ feed programs with each new load of hay creates added stress and increases risk of colic and ulcers, and dealing with different sized bales adds hours to farm workers’ chores and puts pressure on otherwise efficient schedules. Dealing with this issue also puts a strain on the owners’ and trainers’ valuable time when they have to allocate time to sourcing hay for their performance horses, broodmares, and foals. Eventually, their search for hay led them to Aden Brook. They matched up with one of our experienced agricultural sales brokers working out of our Montgomery office. His exten- sive background in the horse industry made him the ideal guide to understand their needs, help them find the hay they were looking for, and arrange delivery in appropriate time frames to ensure they never ran out. Using Aden Brook’s market knowledge and wide network of farmers has allowed that facility to simplify their feeding program and reallo- cate their time and resources back to the most important piece of their business: their horses. If you find yourself having to take time away from your horses or your program to search for consistent hay, straw, or shavings, consider giving Aden Brook a call.