Do You Ride Horses?

[stirrupirons]

@Fencing: I see nothing wrong with electric fencing, however if you should use it or not depends on the horse you're fencing in. Obviously not electric fencing drafts; one of my coworkers has a Percheron and he bites the fence, gets shocked, keeps biting it, and then tears through it. When I had my horse we used electric fencing and we had deer run through it a lot and tear it down; on more than one occasion we found my horse grazing in the part of the paddock he wasn't supposed to be in. Barbed wire is a big no no for me because Thinker had an accident with it and tore his chest muscles all up. I prefer solid wood fencing over anything else.

@Dolphin: welcome back! Memphis sounds awesome. Congrats on doing so well :) I don't know if you heard but I broke my collarbone in a riding accident in late April and haven't been able to ride since. I've since started working at a western theme park with the ponies and trail/cowboy horses there. Even though its western and I'm not the biggest fan of it I still love it <3 I should be able to ride again next month and I'm going to be showing Thinker in first level dressage :)

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Here's that picture of Dollar I promised! At work today I spent some time with him, he's really growing on me :)
http://stirrupirons.tumblr.com/image/53316186873

[deerly.]

@fencing ~ welp my uncle uses barbed, but he does set up small electric fence pastures for him for grazing sometimes. I wish he would not use barbed though, i have heard some bad stories of horses getting caught in barbed wire and having to be put down But Cisco really respects the fencing and he has a huge pasture to run in if he gets spooked.

[kathwren]

@ Fencing;
I would NEVER use barbed wire anywhere around horses.
Any barn that used barbed wire for anything horse related.
That is a huge no-no.
Electric fencing is okay-ish, but I still prefer seeing wood fences.
Wood had dangers too, but way less than barbed wire.
Electric (rope and pegs especially) just doesn't seem sturdy enough for me.

But if you use barbed wire, I won't ride at your barn.
Plain and simple.
Barbed wire + horses = a lot of bad news.

[AnimalTraining101]

Barbed wire-

Yeah I feel extremly bad for them having barbed wire it's only a little spot but
It dosent matter no wonder the horses stay on the sides without it!

[deerly.]

@ Barbed Wire~ me to, but its not my farm and i have no choice over it. I understand how bad it can be for horses especially younger horses.

[eventing.]

Fencing: My farm has wood and plastic white fencing with electric wire across the top. The electric wire is not on though. I will not use barbed wire for ANYTHING horse related. My old farm had wood fence with electric wire across the top. One of the mares would try to jump the fence and adding the electric wire got her to stop. If I got to choose I would white plastic fence with the wire on the top.

[Sadie~Bronson~252]

Well, jumping in on the fencing topic I've used pretty much all types-

Heavy wire- only really works if it's kept tight and only has about 8 inches between each wire. If it gets loose, horses will learn to crawl through, or just tear it down by leaning on it.

Barbed Wire- NEVER. I've seen horses get cuts down to the bone on barbed wire, and my aunts horse actually died after getting cut on the neighbors fence (a tree fell on my aunts fence and the horses got out). It's just heavy wire with barbs. Plus horses will rip out their entire manes on them.

Wood- eh. It's okay if it's put up right. Screws are a must, and the boards need to be strong enough to not break I'd horses lean on them. Plus the bottom board needs to be high enough so a horses leg can't get stuck underneath. My other aunt had a horse slip in the barn and her leg got stuck under the divider. She had to be put down because she broke her cannon bone.
I'm not a fan of wood. I've also used railroad ties, which hold up well, but if they get knocked down they're impossible to fix quickly.

Electrobraid/Rope- crap. Even the heavy electric stuff gets torn down. It's nice as a top strand, that's about it.

Electric Wire- VERY nice. The trick is to have the voltage be high enough the first few times the horses touch it, so they associate the fence with that shock. After that it can be turned down a little so it's not so painful if you accidentally touch it. The horses up at my current barn won't even touch the fence if you force them. But drafts seem to be immune to shocks- my friend just had to replace his fencer after his horses got out AGAIN. He's got the most severe fencer you can get and they will still break it down. And that fence is kinda scary. No one will dare to touch it, it's that bad. But other than his drafts I've never had a problem with it.

[Hooligan.]

I can see that there is obviously much controversy on different types of fencing. With the ranch and everything, I'm going to prefer barbed wire-it works for us and its cheap to cover a lot of ground, plus, it's cow fence. Almost everyone around here uses barbed wire. It's just the way it works out here. At our location, you're very lucky to find a place within 250+ miles that sells panels of any sort. Or almost any other fencing. Even barbed wire we have to travel almost 200 miles to get. It's easy to mend when it's down. Cows don't mind sheep fence or smooth wire or wood. Our horses run with cows a lot. There's accidents, but we suffer maybe 2 at most on a regular year, and they've never been awful. It's tough country out here, it creates tough animals. Our stock have been through almost everything we can think up to throw at them. They rarely spook, and they avoid the fence if they do. We have big enough corrals, hour home corrals are roughly 8-15 acres each. Anything smaller is panels or wood. Plus, ive grown up around barbe wire, its run throughthe generations. I've found that a lot of people who havent grown up around it, and around horses who really really respect it, dont quite have the same understanding as people who have been raised around it and around horses that really really really repsect it. It can be dangerous, especially with flighty horses, but thats one of the many risks we face with horse out here. we have many more dangers that are quite worse than barbed wire fencing. we have never had a horse die from it, althoigh we have had aome pretty ba wrecks. Although with the crazy amount of time training and working these horses to really respect and be calm in situations, we have hardly ever ha any panic so terribly that they are cut up bad. Of course, the risk is still there, the risk will always be there. Thats just another d the many reasons that we ride ever fence at least once a week, if not more, to check for any problems. I know no one was pointing anything at me when talking about the fencing but I just wanted to help you all better understand my position. I know there are risks with this type of fencing, but it's the best choice for my lifestyle. Without it, nothing would function correctly around here. It's just another piece of the puzzle to us. Around here, even $45,000 barrel horses are kept in it (my friend's horse was around 50$K, and kept in it), and those horses don't have even a tiny bit of the training we put into our horses to be calm when tangled and such.

ANYWAYYYY,,,,,
I was going to do a type of little booklet thing for my friend. She will be going on her first drift this year. It's quite short, only 3 days long and around 5 hours a day. She doesn't have a clue how to do any of it, and quite frankly she's scared she won't do very good. You see, when you go to a working ranch's drift, as apprised to a dude drive, the ranchers can be a little tough on newcomers. Nothing terrible, and everyone's happy at the end of the day, but they will get after you if you aren't pulling your weight in the drift. If there's a stray that escapes uou, you better go get it type of deal. She isn't necessarily the best rider, and she's scared she'll get yelled at a lot. So I figured I would create a list of things to help her out. So, can you guys check this out and see if it makes sense, like so it's not confusing? Thanks in advance!!!

Drag-The back of the herd. Usually where most of the calls are along with the babysitter cows.
Drag Riders-Riders who control drag. Sometimes called "dust riders".
Swing Riders-Riders who control the upper sides of the herd. They keep the herd tight and keep strays in line.
Flank Riders-Riders who control the lower sides of the herd, they keep the herd tight and strays in line.
Range Roper-A horse that will watch your back when you rope. Such as when you are doctoring a cow or calf and you rope it, as soon as you step of the horse he will keep the rope tight until you have control of the calf on the ground, when he will then come up and watch your back, especially watching for the calls mom so she don't stomp you.
Slick-A calf without a brand.
Ride Up-hurry up.
Push Em Out-usually when you are using a drift fence, one of the flanks might be pushing the cows too hard against the fence so they'll be scratching themselves on the wire or they can try to crawl through it.
Drift-A longer cow drive. Usually lasting over 5 days.
Drive-A cow drive lasting only a few days.
Drift Fence-A fence which serves as a crutch for long or big drives, to keep one flank of the herd in line.
Trail Boss-The person in charge of the herd, it could be a hired trailbloss, or ranch manager or even the rancher. Usually rises at the front of the herd.
Scouts-riders who ride ahead of the front of the herd to check for danger or rough patches. Not usually present unless in new country or in especially hard country.
Baldy-a cow with a white head.
Basic Cow Colors: red, black and brown. If a stray runs you'll need to know which one they are talking about.
Stray-A cow that leaves the herd and heads out on its own.
Circle-a ride you will take whn you bring your part of the herd in. New people usually get small circles, while seasoned riders with circle horses will ride big circles.
Long or Full eared-A calf without an ear mark or tag.
Maverick-a cow who has holed up in rough country and hasn't been gathered or handled in a long time. Makes them hard to handle.
Rodear-working cows where a corral isn't present.
Remuda-The herd of horses taken on a real drift where you spend overnight inthe range. You'll get a new horse out of the remuda each day.
NightHawk-The rider who keeps watch of the herd during the night. Usually changed out every few hours.
NightWatch-the rider who keeps watch over the remuda throughout the night, usually changed every few hours.

That's all I can think of at the moment:) how does it sound?

[deerly.]

@SmokeyIsCool~ That list is really good! This would help me a ton if i were starting out. Isn't that hard to understand either.

@Fencing~ Sorry i have one last point to say on this XD. I totally agree with Smokey on this one, all of the horse farms i have been to around here have barbed fencing and i have grown up around it. Not saying i will use it on my personal horses in the future, but i understand why it is used. Plus when we were finished building the second pasture it had no barbed and Cisco jumped it to get out... twice. It can be dangerous, and i wish my uncle didn't use it, but can understand why other farms use it to hold horses.
~hides back in corner~ XD

[Hime]

@Rehab: How come the picture of your horse on fencing manufacture's website? Or more like why do you need to get it from there to post it here...

@Fencing: lol I forgot the shetland pony we have at the stable... Electric fence doesn't stop her and wood doesn't do much better job either. The only 100% holder has been a enclosure made for dogs. It's made from high metal net like thing(my vocab sucks I know....) so she can't run under, over or through it.
Also the oldies and some of the yougsters are smart and kinda test the fence once in the while to see if the power is still running. Like they put their nose reeeeal close to it and somehow sense if there's power or not.
In collage they had metal pipe paddocks(probably fairly expensive, but long lasting and durable, though in early winter the gates sometimes froze...) and then the small 'pastures' were wood fenced, some of the bigger ones were at least partly wood fenced as well I think. Though most were still just electric lines. Then one stallion paddock was made of wood and has electric lines on the inside of the planks.

@smokey: I think in your case using barbed wire is very understandable. Like I doubt you could even have power running on such big area from one spot, and wood fencing would probably be expensive and hassle to fix....
That list looks like very good one, simple as well. At least now I understand what you're talking about much better. XD
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Foal number 4 was born this morning, probably around 4-5am. Another sneaky mare who wasn't due until next week didn't show any signs at all and this was not her first foal either(had the itch rug on as well, so little risky foaling). And yet another filly by the way. XP Tývar won't have any boy buddies to grow up with(unless the WB's going to have a colt, but still it would be a WB and not Icelandic)... Oh well I was going to send him off to grow up in some colt group anyway, but it would have been nice if he'd had a 'childhood' friend to go with him... You know traveling would have been nicer and then they would have each other to stick with in the beginning.