1.Let it breathe!
a.Your indoor air filter should be visually inspected at least once a month. It doesn’t have to be replaced that often if it is clean, but the amount of airborne particulates fluctuates with each season and within each facility (i.e., a system serving a room next to an indoor arena will accrue far more dust than one serving a conference room in your administrative offices) so filters will typically experience varying accumulations. Additionally, air filters having a higher MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value) rating, or a finer degree of filtration, will typically require closer intervals for replacement. Advanced filters are more beneficial because they capture far more particulates than those on the opposite end of the continuum, despite their premium cost, but their one downside is the frequency of replacement. The following is a link to AAF International which provides a brief explanation of MERV ratings: https://www.aafintl.com/en/residential/resources/efficiency-ratings.
b.Consequence: a clogged air filter will seriously negate your system’s airflow across the indoor coil thereby hindering its ability to internally evaporate its refrigerant. This will cause liquid freon to inundate the compressor and eventually cause serious harm to your system’s “heart”. Just think of an air compressor trying to pump water instead of air.

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3.Keep it clean!
a.Visually inspect the coil of your exterior unit once a month. This is a simple step I would say less than half of my clients over the years have realized need be done. Your outdoor unit can collect all sorts of debris depending on its vicinity to loose dirt, shavings, or uncollected trash, and allowing its coil to remain dirty can cause the highest electrical costs during the summer heat, not to mention the increased burden to your system’s compressor. Cleaning your outdoor coil can safely be done with a water hose and a high pressure spray nozzle, but remember to disconnect the power first! Ultimately, I would recommend contacting your local dealer or referring to your owner’s manual if you’ve never performed this operation before.
b.Consequence: significantly reducing the airflow across your outdoor coil will disallow your unit to properly condense its refrigerant thereby causing significantly higher than ideal pressures and providing your indoor unit with overly heat-laden refrigerant.

​Hello everyone, and welcome back to Avalon Equine! For those of you who have never made my acquaintance, my name is Josh Milledge and I work full-time for Jos and Kathy. Since this is my first BLOG posting for this site, I'll tell you a little about myself before endeavoring further.


First, I married into horses. I didn't spend my formative years learning the intricacies of horsemanship. I spent them as a Navy brat whose family of four consistently moved every three years until my father finished his eighteen year enlistment and we resettled near Oklahoma's panhandle, also the place of my birth. Consequently, the closest we ever came to owning a 1200 pound animal was an egregiously overweight feline named Hobbes fellowed with an eccentric hamster named Calvin (both titled after a beloved boyhood comic series to which I related most). The only exposure I had with the equestrian field before I met my future betrothed was scant, at best. Nevertheless, since meeting my wife three years ago and opening Pandora's equine box, I have learned much from her as well as from my current employers.

The first impression I had of Avalon Equine when I started last year essentially mimicked the first experience I had in the military nearly sixteen years ago. Of course, it didn't follow that of the basic training experience that every military member has when they first enlist because I went to boot camp nine months after joining my unit, like many Army National Guard personnel do. Contrastingly, my first experience I had with the military was that of a three day Live Fire Exercise (LFX) in Ft. Chaffee, AR attempting to perform a variety of tasks that were otherwise antithetic to normal civilian life in an atmosphere where everyone already knew their job. Likewise, my first workday occurred after the height of breeding season yet still in the thick of it when dozens of broodmares were being managed and several stallion collections were being conducted aside from the normal daily operations of any horse ranch.

To put this into perspective, my Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) involves emplacing and firing 105mm howitzers into an unseen area within any given theater of ground operations. It essentially amounts to aiming and shooting an oversized rifle except the rounds are only expended with an outside observer's guidance considering the intended target's distance, unless the howitzer crew can see their target such as in the rare direct-fire situation. So, as you may imagine, firing a howitzer is more complicated and requires the coordinated effort of far more people than simply aiming and firing a rifle. I quickly learned during my first LFX in 2001, this same type of realization encompasses my first impression of Avalon Equine. Ultimately, throughout my first days of work, I was impressed with the coordination and knowledge each member displayed, including the seasonal interns that were working there at the time. Everyone knew their specified job during each task, such as stallion collection, mare management, and general horsemanship activities.