Re: Portable corrals

[BMcCrary27 <BMcCrary27@aol.com>]

In a message dated 98-05-04 21:58:44 EDT, you write:

<< The worse wreck I have seen is two horses tied to a trailer one on each
 side.  One horse got his rope under the back door, paniced and pulled back.
  This flipped the door off its hinges which flew over and hit the other
 horse in the neck, thus breaking it.  Needless to say the horse had to be
 put down.
 
 There is no foolproof way.  For my money I'd much rather use an well
 grounded and well positioned electric corral than tie to the trailer.
 
 Truman
  >>


We use steel livestock panels, once painted, now galvanized. They are about
4.5 feet high and hook together with a pin system at the ends.  They are very
heavy, but they are too strong to break and too high to jump.  My husband
won't have anything else!  One year we were camped at Panamint Springs at the
completion of the Death Valley 5-day ride, and we were about the only people
left in the camp area. Since it was very quiet at about 11:00 PM, the wild
burros figured it was OK to come up off the desert and glean the leftover hay.
Our horses panicked and were bouncing off the walls of the trailer and off the
panels. We drove the burros away, but they returned. We finally had to pack
everything up and drive to Valley Wells, 50 miles away, and were lucky there
were no burros there. Had it not been for the strength and height of those
panels, we might STILL be looking for our horses out on the desert!
Incidentally, our trailer is also livestock equipment, a 20 foot aluminum
Barrett gooseneck, which we have converted. The front section is our living
quarters, the back section will carry 4-5 horses tied to the side rails (no
dividers). We prefer not to carry more than 3 horses, but it can take five in
a squeeze. In the off-season, the back section hauls cows, calves, or a bull.
We simply hose it out with a fire hose with lots of water pressure. We just
recently had one trunk of a very large oak tree (near which it was parked)
break off at the root and fall against the trailer. It hit the edge of the
overhead (gooseneck) and a 6-inch branch was broken in half by the impact. The
trailer sustained a small dent! It really isn't so very heavy, either, about
3200# net, before conversion. Of course, a refrigerator, cabinets, 3-burner
cooktop, and a 50 gallon water tank add considerable weight.  We love it, and
feel very secure with our setup - trailer and corral.

BMc