This post will share my 8 top ways to get ready for spring on a Virginia horse farm.

Each season of the year brings its own particular set of chores to anyone who has a Virginia horse farm.  While the rest of the Charlottesville community is busy spring cleaning their homes, Virginia horse property owners are doing a little spring cleaning of their own.  I will list the main items on my spring to do list for my Charlottesville Virginia horse farm.  If you have additional items that are musts on your equestrian property, please share them with us.

1. Spring Vaccinations – On any Charlottesville Virginia horse farm the first priority is the horses.  Like most horse owners I vaccinate my horses in the spring and the fall.  There are some shots that are only given once a year and others are given more often.  Also certain shots such as the Potomac horse fever vaccination are most effective when given in a certain season.  Chaec with your veterinarian to set up a vaccination program to suit your horses.
2. Take ponies and easy keepers off of the lush pastures.  Rich spring grass can be harmful for ponies and overweight horses.  Too rich pasture can cause certain horses to "founder" which is a potentially life threatening disease.  Prevention is key.  Either removing at risk equines to paddocks with less grass or limiting their turnout time is important.
3. Spring can be a good time to fertilize and seed your fields.  Your extension agent will be able to assess your pastures and help you determine the best plan to maintain them.
4. If you did not service your tractor and bushhog in the fall, now is the time to perform this maintainance.  Having this equiptment in prime working order is crucial with all of the mowing that you will be doing throughout the growing season on your Charlottesville Virginia horse farm.
5. Now is the time to send off your horse blankets to be washed and repaired.  Then when they come back they will be ready to be stored for the remainder of the summer until they are needed in the fall.
6. Get out turnout sheets, stable sheets, and fly scrims.  While it is not cold enough to need heavy blankets anymore, we are still seeing cool nights and some cool days.  This is the perfect weather for sheets.
7. Get the fans out of storage and put them on the stalls.  Make sure that all are in working order and that you have enough for each horse.  It seems like box fans don't have a very long working life in the environment of a stable, so it is a good idea to have several extra.
8. Plant Flowers – This is my favorite task.  My barn always has whiskey barrels of flowers out front, hanging baskets on the shed row and window baskets on the office windows.  I love picking out combinations of annuals for these planters to dress up my barn.

Once I am finished with all of these tasks, I know that my Virginia horse farm is ready for spring.  Now its time to ride, train horses and focus on this year's show season.  Happy riding!

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