portable corrals

[cberto@juno.com]

Johnna, I'm copying to ridecamp because of what I think is a safety issue
with  many portable corrals.
   One of the worst wrecks I've ever seen at an endurance  ride  involved
a free-standing metal corral.  The horse stuck its neck through the rails
to eat some grass, pushed against the rails, and the whole thing folded
up on him like an accordion.  Crashing,  kicking, horse upside down---the
owner rushed over to try to stop the action,  got a broken jaw from an
accidental kick.   Horse got badly skinned cannon bones.   It was pretty
awful.
    My six home-made, 3-rail,  PVC pipe corral sections anchor onto
eye-bolts on either side of my trailer  (which acts as the 7th side).   I
tie the sections together, two-three ties each section, with stout nylon
cord.  Here's the important thing:  my husband made  me four 16" rebar
rods with wooden handles.  They look  like screwdrivers.   So, first I
set up the corral.  Then  I pound those into the ground at  alternating
legs and then slip the pipe over the wooden ends.   One will act as a
hinge.   Result:  that corral simply does not move, even if my horse
pokes his head out for some snippet of grass and pushes.   That's the
most important safety factor.
    I've used the same PVC sections for 13 years on a few hundred 
overnights.  I store them out of the sunlight.  I was told that cold PVC
can shatter into dangerous shards if hit.  That hasn't happened even on
the coldest of  XP rides.  Once Billy hit a rail with a hoof while
rolling and the rail broke cleanly  with no harm to him;  it was easily
repaired.  Another time a cow walked right through a panel going after
Billy's hay---we fixed that too.  (The cow strolled away.)  
  The panels fit into the other side of my straight-load trailer OR fit
on the floor of my short-bed PU truck, secured with bungee cords.  They
are  easy for me to handle, they were inexpensive to make, and I wouldn't
trade them for anything!   
   Whatever type you buy, for safety's sake I would make sure that there
is a way to secure the sections to the ground or otherwise anchor them 
so they can not move.   Cheers (;-), Connie B. (CA)

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