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Working electric fence - in winter!
Last week, Shirley gave us a tip to help with our heated water troughs and this week I'll be using another of her ideas, this one for a better operating electric fence.
Ever notice that in the winter, your horses just don't seem to respect the electric fence the way they do in the summer? You catch them in the hay shed, or heading down the road, or maybe just leaning over the lines to get that little bit of hay you spilled - it is frustrating to see your hard work going out the window, not to mention the fear of having your horses get hurt while they are not where they belong.
What happens in the winter is that our ground dries out as it freezes. An electric fencer relies on a ground wire running to a ground rod, a rod usually hammered into the ground at least several feet, which completes the electrical circuit.
If this ground rod is in very dry or frozen earth, the circuit is not completed well, and the fence lines may work with minimal current or none at all. Shirley has a great tip to prevent this!
She puts two ground rods in, about two feet apart, and leaves a chunk of salt block next to each rod. This keeps the ground from freezing completely under the salt, keeping enough moisture in the ground to allow the fencer to work properly. If the ground is already frozen when you put the fence in,
Shirley suggests pouring hot water over the salt blocks. She has found that loose salt does not work as well as salt blocks, so save those pieces that get left behind when you change pastures and so on - store them somewhere dry until you need them.
My hubby Dan has another suggestion for electric fencing in the winter when you can't get a ground rod into the ground easily. I'll share that with you next week!
If you have tips or questions on equipment care, purchases, fit, or anything else to do with equestrian equipment, please mail them to kristi@hiway16.com |
If you are new to Northern B.C. Horse, check out all the previous issues on the Archive page.
Kristi is building a great knowledge base about horses, with the emphasis on our area of the world.
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Weigh your horse quickly and accurately!
From time to time, it is important to know how much your horse weighs. When you dose them with dewormer for instance, you dose them by weight. Some drugs are also administered by weight.
And in the winter, when your horse is too fuzzy to tell, you may need to know his weight instead of guessing at it - so that you can tell if you are feeding enough, not enough, or too much.
You can purchase a weight tape at most any tack store. These are very simple to use and are reasonably close to the actual weight of the horse. Directions for use are usually printed on the side of them (the measurements of course are on the other!).
If you don't have access to a weight tape, you can use a regular measuring tape (I have joined together two shorter sewing tapes). You'll measure the girth of the horse, by putting the tape around his body just behind the withers and just behind his elbows, just where the girth would sit.
Pull it snug but not tight, and read the measurement in centimetres.
To measure his length, you'll measure from the point of his shoulder to the point of his hip.
This IS different than a blanket measurement, which goes from the center of the chest to the center of the buttock under the tail.
I've found the most accurate readings for length come from standing your horse as close to square as possible. Again, read the measurement in centimetres. Now take the measurements and complete the following formula: [girth (cm) x girth (cm) x length (cm)] Divide this number by 8700 to get your answer in kilograms (deworming syringes these days measure the horse's weight in kilograms)
Divide this number by 3955 to get your answer in pounds (the measurement most of us are more comfortable with!). I found this most helpful if I did it once a week, usually during that weekly check over I suggested you do of your horse in the winter months.
Keep track of it on the calendar, in your day book, or in your horse's health record book - it can help you to start seeing minimal changes in body weight, even through that fuzzy coat and take steps to correct the situation.
If you have tips or questions you'd like to share with other local equestrians, please mail them to kristi@hiway16.com |
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Clicker training - Targeting
Targeting is another clicker method that I think looks like a lot of fun. First you start by rewarding the animal every time it touches the target.
For a horse, you could use a small orange road cone, or something else similar in size. Then you could get more specific and ask the horse to touch it with his mouth, or with his lips, maybe waiting for him to grab at it.
Build on that behaviour by waiting for him to actually pick up the cone. From there you can move to all sorts of responses - you could teach him to fetch, or to throw it, for example. I tried something similar to this with my filly, who is still very skittish since getting her straight from her dam off the range in September.
She is very nervous around ropes, so I held it out in front of her. As soon as she tried to sniff it, I rewarded her. Soon I had her touching the rope, that dangerous scary thing I had walked into the field with only minutes before, no matter where I moved it to. She would even walk a step or two to get to the rope. Now that to me was progress!
What I aim to do with her now is to teach her to put her nose in the halter, so I can put it on... should be interesting!
The best part of it though has been that we are having fun and she is learning that people and ropes aren't always bad and scary things, that sometimes we can be good too.
I'll keep you posted as I continue to work with Lena, using positive reinforcement instead of more negative methods, as time goes by - wish me luck!
If you have tips or questions you'd like to share with other local equestrians, please mail them to kristi@hiway16.com |
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