Ridecamp: Re: [RC] electric fences

Laura...

It's whatever you conscience tells you is right. Bottom line, it's
TRAINING and good judgement. I teach my horses to hobble; I teach them
that "when you get hung up, STOP AND WAIT FOR ME TO GET YOU OUT OF IT.
It's not hard...just basic training. Spend some time tangling them up in
rope, hang it around their feet, hang crap all over them...if you think
you might encounter the situation at a ride, you damn well better train
for it. Claude Brewer and I were tooling along one day at a ride and he
told me the story (don't know if it's true) about the rider who was
leading in the Tevis...till they arrived at the American River..the
horse wouldn't cross, so didn't finish. Can't believe that...would
anybody be so stupid as to ride the Tevis without KNOWING ahead of time
if their horse would cross water? Gimme a break!

One of MY pet peeves is that people CONDITION the CRAP out of their
horses but don't take the time to TRAIN them to deal with conditions
they are going to encounter at an Endurance Ride. They show up with a
fit, well conditioned horse who mentally doesn't have a clue! As the old
joke goes, "Let me show you what a 1000 pound, physically fit horse can
do when suitably inspired."

Scary...I'm scraped a bunch of them off the ground.

Jim, Sun of Dimanche, and Mahada Magic


Laura Hayes wrote:
> 
> You can add to the list of electric pen casualties, the nice little bay
> gelding that was euthanized at a Pennsylvania ride last year when several
> horses broke out and ran down the hill into 8 or 10 pens.  They were
> dragging a rat's nest of electric tape of all different colors and widths.
> The bay horse ran off a stone retaining wall in the dark.
> 
> We were all in a indoor arena when the horses came down off the hill in a
> herd.  I have never run so fast in all my life as I did up that hill to
> check on Music, who was tied to the trailer, munching his hay.  My heart was
> beating so hard I thought it would come out of my chest, and there was the
> big clown just chewing away.....brought tears to my eyes.
> 
> I will NEVER put my horses in an electric tape pen - and I routinely use it
> around the farm to rotationally graze my horses.  We have unhooked the semi
> and used it to picket when there are no trees (did that at NC) If you have
> ever seen me at a ride, I hand graze my horse ALOT.  At Ft Valley, I stood
> with my mare for hours the night between the two days of the 100, because I
> couldn't bear to tie her back up away from the grass.
> 
> laura hayes aerc #2741
> 
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-- 
Richard T. "Jim" Holland
Three Creeks Farm
175 Hells Hollow Drive
Blue Ridge, GA 30513
(706) 258-2830
FAX (706) 632-1271


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
 Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
 Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

 If you are an AERC member - PLEASE VOTE in the Director at Large 
 and By Laws Elections.

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