|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
 |
|||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||
| Thanks to Randy & Mary for suggesting this article. Electric fencing can work well to prevent chewing. You can run one strand along the top rail, but the horses may still chew the lower rails. You can use PVC pipe or small pieces of wood to extend the wire well inside the rail fence - this helps to prevent fighting over the fence with the neighbouring horses as well. You can string your wire between the rails, which helps prevent the horse from leaning through and pushing on the fence (especially when green grass starts growing outside their pen!) and rubbing their manes out. You can also string wire directly above each rail, or at least the top and bottom ones. This leaves you a little more open to electrical arcing (from the fence wire touching the wood and grounding itself out) but is very effective to keep the horses from chewing the fences. If the horses are chewing primarily inside your shed or barn, consider these tips. Try wrapping corner posts in chicken wire - but be careful with the sharp edges (secure them behind the wall edges where the horses can't reach them). On the exposed edges of boards, try installing metal outside corner molding. It is light weight, easy to handle and can be cut with a pair of tin snips. We installed corner molding on the water shed to secure the tar paper and used roofing nails - perfectly easy! Again, be careful with the sharp edges, make sure that none are left where the horse can get cut on them. If you have a floor that collects urine (rubber mats, concrete, wood, etc) you can try this rather gruesome sounding method in your barn as well. Dip a broom in the pee spot, then swish the urine onto the walls where the horses chew. They won't touch it afterwards (and you might not want to either!). I don't know that I'd try it, but I guess it would depend on how tired of replacing boards I got! Apparently the commercial product "Chew Stop" does work well indoors, though it has to be repainted every few years. It is more costly but also more sanitary than the above method! Next week we'll look at some ways of relieving your horse?s boredom in an effort to stop his chewing. |
|
I have to take this week's column to make a plea for help. While many of our readers are not local, a lot of you are from the Bulkley Valley and surrounding areas. I'd like to ask all of you for your help and support. I am the coordinator this year for the Bulkley Valley Exhibition Light Horse Show. This Fall Fair horse show is the 3rd largest of its kind in all of BC! As exciting as that may sound, it also means that we have a huge amount of work ahead of us. I am in dire need of volunteers. I am trying to get a handle on all of the various organization of the Fair, and so far am coming up short - one person just can't do it all. As well as volunteers to run the actual show, held August 22-25, right now I am looking for people willing to put in time behind the scenes ahead of time - just because you are showing doesn't mean you can't help organize things before the Fair. These jobs are at varying levels of skill and effort. Some take very little thought but just need some time put in. Others need a firm commitment to putting together a specific area. One of the potentially very rewarding positions is that of education director. The education director will be responsible for overseeing the Light Horse Show's contribution to the educational content of the Fair. Sounds pretty fancy! In reality, this means finding someone willing to delegate several small projects, such as considering a guided barn tour (which will help teach the general public about how to safely approach a horse stalled in a barn, why it is so important not to feed someone else's horse, and that certain horses should not be approached at all (ie, stallions)). The education director can enlist the help of people willing to make posters detailing information for the public regarding the horses and the horse show, and can help find written information for the announcer to read out during quiet times. If there is something you would like to contribute that would add to the educational aspect of the Fair, please let me know! Another couple of people could really help me out by taking on several projects as I come across them. These might be helping enlist volunteers for other jobs, assisting with paperwork or ordering items ahead of time, and so on. If we can get going on this now, we will have it well under control by the time the Fair rolls around! If you can donate a bit of your time now, or between now and the Fair, or even at the Fair itself, please email me at kristi@hiway16.com and let me know. Thanks in advance! ~ Kristi :) |
|||||||
|
If you have tips or questions you'd like to share with other local equestrians, please mail them to kristi@hiway16.com
|
|||||||||
