# Am I weak?



## ClearDonkey (Nov 27, 2016)

Stacked three high, with no help, is plenty. 

I hated being told to throw bales over my head when I would help put up 400 bales when I lived with my parents - its a good way to get hurt! My stepdad has been a roofer all of his life, and one thing he would always say is "until I have you carrying shingles on your shoulders, up a 30 foot ladder, you can't complain!". Now he hobbles around, and regularly feels aches and pains...maybe he should've complained a bit more in his life. :lol:


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## Sanzia (Mar 19, 2019)

Heck no you did great! 
The bales around here are at least 100lbs and I have to either drag them or put them in my wheelbarrow. It makes me feel like a weakling but I guess I only outweigh the bales by 15-20 lbs 🤷‍♀️


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## SilverMaple (Jun 24, 2017)

Three or four high is about all I can do without injuring my screwed-up back. Any higher than that and I put a trailer or another bale layer down so I don't have to lift as far. Gone are the days when I could throw the bales in place on the last layer up by the ceiling. *sigh*


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## Feathers7 (Jun 11, 2019)

Yep, same here. 3 high is plenty. I have a hard time managing that - usually call in the muscle so I don't kill myself. Used to be able to do more! Haha.


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## Acadianartist (Apr 21, 2015)

I take out my hay for the week from the equipment bay or the loft, and stack it in a small space I designed specifically for this purpose. It is a long, but narrow area between a stall and the tack room so I can stack up hay pretty high. I have gone as far as throwing 6 bales high, but generally I stop at 4. I admit that beyond 4, it gets harder to throw them up there, but I can do it if I have to. I'm about 5' and 115 lbs, and I've noticed that I've gotten a lot stronger since having horses at home. 

When we pick up our hay for the winter (we usually do it in several separate loads), I prefer to toss them off the wagon onto the truck and trailer and let my husband stack them up high though. Throwing them over my head is a bit too hard on my back.


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## ACinATX (Sep 12, 2018)

@Acadianartist I'm the exact same size as you. Maybe once we get our horses on our own place I'll get to be as strong as you, too. Maybe. 

It's actually kind of why I asked -- I feel like people who have their horses at home are a lot stronger than I am. I'm worried that I'm too spindly and weak to do the work myself. But hopefully if I ease into it, then eventually I'll develop the strength.


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## Acadianartist (Apr 21, 2015)

ACinATX said:


> @*Acadianartist* I'm the exact same size as you. Maybe once we get our horses on our own place I'll get to be as strong as you, too. Maybe.
> 
> It's actually kind of why I asked -- I feel like people who have their horses at home are a lot stronger than I am. I'm worried that I'm too spindly and weak to do the work myself. But hopefully if I ease into it, then eventually I'll develop the strength.


You will, you'll see. At first, you'll be exhausted. I remember feeling like I was going to collapse after a full day of bringing in hay the first time. Now my husband and I can do it alone and it's not that big a deal (meaning I can still walk at the end of the day, lol). It's the day-to-day stuff that builds muscle. Carrying water and hay, lugging bags of feed (if I relied on hubby, I'd always be nagging him), hauling bedding, not to mention manure - oh the manure muscles you will build! Fun fact: horses poop on average 50 lbs a day. I have three, and I pick up ALL the manure from the pasture, stalls, and paddock, so that's 150 lbs of poop I have to move each day. Even when I use the ATV and wagon (usually because I missed a couple of days and have too much catching up to do so I don't want to use the muck bucket), each pile has to be picked up with the manure fork. I feel it in my back, but over time, it does get easier. And then there's the frozen manure! I have a special metal fork for that because you have to sort of pry it loose. 

You'll get stronger. I'm just grateful that I did this before I got too old for my body to adjust (I'm almost 50). As a bonus, in the summer, people comment on my muscular arms and shoulders now  And I don't have to go to the gym.


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## Caledonian (Nov 27, 2016)

I think you did really well.

I had limited space for a time and had to get my hay delivered every month or two. The tractor would pull-up outside the barn door and the farmer, who was a young fit guy, would start throwing the bales off the flatbed and into the barn. I was supposed carry them inside and stack them by my stables. Plus, I'd to do it at speed so that I didn't block the door. I struggled carrying them down the passage then had to lift them in stages as the stack got higher. I could manage to four but no further and not without a lot of huffing, puffing, wheezing and groaning. By the end, my back and arms would be aching.


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

Long gone are my bale carting days! Last few years of working we had the very big bales of haylage, polythene wrapped. Cut them open cut strings and load it onto the back of the ATV. 

The art of lifting bales high is to use your thigh to help boost them higher. 

Back when I was fit I could toss bales onto the trailers about five high (plus the height of the trailer) using a two prong fork.


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## Woodhaven (Jan 21, 2014)

I am in my late 70's and three high is as far as I will lift them but in my younger days I slugged so many bales of hay.

I would go and load a truck with 50 bales and bring it home, sometimes three trips in a day, and put it in the barn as high as I could put them to the roof. Maybe six high. But to get the last bales up that far I would stack some in front maybe two or three high and climb up and stack higher from there. Kind of a two stage lift, up three high then climb up and lift them two or three levels higher. Having help was great but not always available. For some places I lived and didn't have much pasture I would need about 200 bales per horse for the year and if you have 3 or 4 horses that's a lot of hay to haul.

Is it any wonder that I suffer from so much back pain??? The last few years we have been fortunate that the hay is delivered and put in the barn, it's more expensive but I think it's great and worth every penny.

As foxhunter says use your thigh to boost the bale higher, I have worn out many pairs of jeans on the right thigh, gloves also help protect the hands.. AND don't ever wear shorts when stacking hay.


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## Acadianartist (Apr 21, 2015)

Woodhaven said:


> AND don't ever wear shorts when stacking hay.


This. 

I also use my thighs to push the bales up. And if I have to stack them more than 4 high, I usually get my shoulder into it too. I kind of heave them up and catch them with my elbow, then push up with my shoulder. I'm slower than hubby who can just chuck them, but I can do quite a few this way.


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## ACinATX (Sep 12, 2018)

OMG yeah don't worry I wouldn't wear shorts. Even wearing shorter sleeves today I got some pokes and itches in my arms. I like the idea of using my thigh, too. I am thinking maybe I could get to four bales high that way...
@Woodhaven your post is making me wonder whether I shouldn't just start out by having people deliver AND stack it for me. My back is fine now, and I'd like to keep it that way.


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## ACinATX (Sep 12, 2018)

I went out there today and got a fourth level on. The top of the stack is now about level with my eye. So if I wanted to put another layer on, I'd either need to toss it (which I don't think I could do) or use some sort of step ladder or something, right? I am for sure not strong enough to just pick up a hay bale, lift it above my shoulders, and just place it on top.

Also I tried to leave some room between the bales so it would be airy and not moist, but it just made my stack wobbly. Even though I made each layer perpendicular to the one below it. I may need to take care when removing the bales from that top layer...


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## therhondamarie (Sep 18, 2019)

The bales I've been buying are around 100 pounds, and we stack them 3 high. Our BO is 83 so he doesn't need to be climbing high to get bales down, and my arms are not what they used to be!


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## JCnGrace (Apr 28, 2013)

Prefer to go no more than 3 high, can go 4 without too much effort, have to wrestle the bales if I go 5 high and any higher than that I have to make a stairway out of hay bales. This is with 50-60 lb. bales. We used to get them from a supplier that made 80+ lb. bales and I struggled with those at any height. I'm 5'2", overweight and in my late 50's but I haven't been without a horse on my property since 1985 so it's work I've done for a very long time and my old, worn out, decrepit muscles function on muscle memory. LOL


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## Acadianartist (Apr 21, 2015)

ACinATX said:


> I went out there today and got a fourth level on. The top of the stack is now about level with my eye. So if I wanted to put another layer on, I'd either need to toss it (which I don't think I could do) or use some sort of step ladder or something, right? I am for sure not strong enough to just pick up a hay bale, lift it above my shoulders, and just place it on top.
> 
> Also I tried to leave some room between the bales so it would be airy and not moist, but it just made my stack wobbly. Even though I made each layer perpendicular to the one below it. I may need to take care when removing the bales from that top layer...


More than four will not stand up very well on its own unless there is a supporting wall or two. We stack them to the ceiling in the loft, but only leave one very narrow aisle down the middle (it's open on both sides with just the 2 x 4 studs holding the hay in so still lots of ventilation). Even then, the hay often falls down and I lose my aisle. We stack another 140 bales or so along the side wall of the equipment bay. It's about 6 bales high there, but stacked against the wall and two bales deep so it doesn't fall down.


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## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

If you're not used to it then that is a good start and if you have the room then plenty high. Our peanut bales are 75+ and I do 4 high on a trailer from the ground but I'm fairly tall and I've also been doing this for 30 years whether it is for my own or helping a friend who stacks to the roof of an open, effectively, two story barn. We use a ladder as well and stack using the bales themselves to work up then fill out.. No throwing with my shoulder.


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## Avna (Jul 11, 2015)

I used to wrestle those 100 lb California bales around by myself -- these lil New England bales feel like boxes of air! I can do a stack of three with little effort and four with some logistics (the thigh boost etc.). I'm 5'1" and 63 years old. I don't stack five high. We get all our winter hay from my neighbor in one go, he drives his wagon up here and throws the bales on the hay ladder for us; my husband and I both stacking in the loft we can keep up easily. Could not do that with western-size bales. 

I toss down a dozen or fifteen at a time down the hatch and restack in a nook off the barn aisle. Works great. I love my barn to pieces.


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## Blue (Sep 4, 2011)

I can no longer stack hay because of a health issue but has anyone used the stair step method I used to use? 

I would go 2 high, then a row of 1 in front. Use the front row to roll a bale up to the top of the second layer making it 3 high. Then do the same to go 4 high. I used to stack a full bard of hay that way.


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