Hello Friends and fellow horse women and men (and best bloggers in the world)
I have a question I am hoping to get some advice on.
We have reached the point with my pens where we need to decided if we are going to add more panels or leave them as is. It is the impending storm due to hit this weekend that has brought us to this dilemma.
As they stand now, if we just threw on the gates for now, each horse would have a 9 x 40 run to his or herself. 24 outside 16 inside.
Is that enough room for a horse to reside in and remain emotionally and physically healthy? Keeping in mind that 2 horses a day get let out to the pasture for exercise. No one would spend more than 24 hours at a time in those runs.
Once we put the gates up they will stay that way till next spring when it warms up. Then we can continue our project and extend the runs another 24 feet. We could have them done in a few hours and be totally prepared for the storm
Plan b is wait out the storm and hope for one more weekend afterwards that will allow us to finish the original design. (another 24 feet)
It seems to me that it should be big enough for now, but I don't KNOW that it is so I worry, I guess.
I would sure appreciate any input anyone has for me.
Thanks
Cindy
Heres the way I see it : There are a lot of horses that only get a 12x12 stall, or a 12x12 stall and a 12x12 paddock, so no matter what you do, your horses are already doing a lot better off than horses that are 'privileged' (ie, fancy racehorses that barely have enough room!)
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that is a good space 'for now' and even if 'for now' lasts a few months!
I guess it depends on your horses. Mine would get really bored in a 100x100 foot corral and start tearing things up. Well, Tonka and Scout would, Bella wouldn't. She'd just itch her butt on any solid structure.
ReplyDeleteI hate to come off as overly paranoid, but those panels, with horses on either side, make me nervous. Not only my Tonka died because of them, but a playful 2 year old (rearing) and a pissy mare (kicking) both died in panels like that at my sister's place. Yours are probably safer since you raised them off the ground though.
Like Marissa said, they are much luckier than a LOT of horses, even with the smaller space if you don't extend the runs. And they have daylight, and can see each other. I feel so bad for horses who can't even see their neighbors, in dark box stalls with their only "freedom" happening when their humans come to antagonize them on a lunge line.
I think your horses will be fine, no matter what you do, because you care about them.
I think your horses will do fine, especially since you turn them out to pasture.
ReplyDeleteWe had Hughes Net satalite internet and it sucked! We really had to watch over use. The Hotspot we have with AT&T seems to be ok. Stop in the store and ask the Tech's. I can upload a picture in under a minute but Im not not really a computer tech guy. I dont understand how these things work. Hope this helps.
Thanks for your responses.
ReplyDeleteAndrea, I want you to know that after reading all the posts of what you went through with Tonka, I really had to think long and hard about using those panels. We had considered using poles to make an all wood fence, but 3 of my horses are pretty bad cribbers so we decided not to do that. My horses have all been penned before, in various different kinds of fencing, and they seem to do ok as long as I don't put anyone in together. Well that isn't totally true, I can put Danny and Trax in together without issue. These types of panels are not new to them. I have seen Danny paw at a gate (at feeding time) like this before which scared the crap out of me, but I know now that my gate was too low. These gates will be high to avoid that issue.
Even though they are not as big as I would like, I suspect we will have to just deal with it for now. I am just running out of time. Darn full time job is always getting in the way! LOL!
Thank you again everyone for your input.
I really appreciate it.