Part of our major overhaul of the barn area for the horses is an improved barnyard area to park the horse trailer and a grooming area where we can wash the horses. We brought in some gravel that we intended to use in the paddock but decided to use it in other ways (we’ll get more later). We put down road cloth and spread out the gravel along the south side of the barn and the western drive area. This helps keep the mud down near the barn door and gives us a better space to park and store the trailer in the winter months.
For the horse grooming area – I built a hitching rail from pressure treated 4x4s, black T-plates, and rings. We came across a friend that had a propane powered instant hot water heater on a cart. Using that idea, I found a small camping propane water heater from Amazon for about $120.00 and set it up on the side of the hitch rail The water pressure is adequate and the water gets warm enough to make bathing more comfortable (who wants a cold hose bath???).
We’ve used it a couple of times and it works well – I did have to reset the posts after the first run to make them more secure – Stanley pulled back and loosened the posts. The revision is working much better.