Guest Author: Martha Stewart
Find the Original Post on the Official Martha Stewart Blog.
Three stalls in my stable are now more donkey and Fell pony friendly!
I share my Bedford, New York farm with four Friesians, five Sicilian donkeys, and one Fell pony. All of my equines reside happily in my large stable. Recently, I decided to change three of the stall gates, so that the smaller animals could have better views of their stable-mates and all the daily activities. We called on the experts at American Stalls in Fairfax, Virginia to make us three heavy-duty steel half-size stall gates. Once the gates arrived, I sent them over to our friends at Patty's Portico: Outdoor Furniture Restoration & Powder Coating, so they could be painted in my signature "Bedford Gray." I'm happy to report the gates are now installed and Rufus, Clive, Billie, Jude "JJ" Junior, Truman "TJ" Junior, and Banchunch love them.
Enjoy these photos:
Here are my two female donkeys – the only females in the stable. Billie and Jude “JJ” Junior share one stall. Until now, they did not have a good view of the wide aisle outside their enclosure. And to see them with their stall gate closed, one had to look over and view them from above.
Here’s Truman “TJ” Junior with his front on the step looking at his “girlfriends” next door (left photo). A few stalls down, Banchunch looks over his stall gate to see what’s going on (right photo).
Not long ago, three gates from American Stalls arrived at the farm – these are made of all-steel materials and designed for smaller horses, donkeys, and ponies. Helen takes a look at the gates after they arrived from Patty’s Portico, where they were powder-coated “Bedford Gray.” They look like they will fit very well.
Each gate was adjusted to accommodate heavy gate hinges. My property manager, Doug White, installed the hinges to the gates and then marked where they would be installed on the existing gate posts. These gates will not interfere with the existing wood and metal ones. Doug secures two hinges on the side of the gate (right). He uses a twist bit to drill through the metal.
Here is the new Stall Gate – this one installed at just the right height for the donkeys. The gates are designed with European-style yoke openings. The vertical bars are closely spaced. Beneath the bars is a metal mesh bottom.
Billie and “JJ” can see everything so clearly now (left photo). The donkeys can look over very easily to see everything that is going on in the rest of the stable (center image). And so can Banchunch (right photo).
Read the original post and watch a special video on the Martha Stewart Blog.
