The Joy's of trying to protect land and livestock

[emjaybee]

We have NO barbed wire anywhere, none of the cattle or sheep are controlled by it and most people take a dim view of using it now.

Wire netting is bad enough with greedy sheep stuffing their heads through a six inch square to get to a better bit of grass. Many an hour spent tipping them to rotate their heads out!!

As for keeping any one out, they just cut through anything in their way, nothing less then a 12bore tapped on their kneecaps deters them.

I can attest that letting a shotgun off 'in the air' (honest  ) increases the performance of a 20something youth by approximately an additional 4mtrs/sec above average.

I can also verify that if more acceleration is required a second barrel aimed at a section of fence rail gets pretty good results. Although the wife did grumble about the fence needing repairing.   

[PGN]

But did you hit the rabbit??

Waste of a cartridge if you don't get a rabbit pie out of it ... or at least a couple of nice juicy pigeon breasts

[exmouthcraig]

I dont seem to recall any horse ever even getting more than a minor gash at the  40 plus inmates livery yard where I did a lot of work in the early 90s... I also recall no one randomly wandering around their fields.
Then again, most of those fences were built properly not just thrown up...

If you really needed to, putting rails on the inside face of the posts kept the horses from all except the top and bottom string of wire.
I should also add that most of "our" fields were surrounded by drystone walls, which did present an obvious obstacle to the equine mind, so they didn't generally try to hard to get out or over, but not to the human one....

None of our fences are "just thrown up" but as with every topic theres always an expert that has to believe that their knowledge is far superior!!

Regardless of how successful you believe a barbed wire fence is we will never be putting them up. Our extremely hard working and very well respected and cared for horses will only ever get the best that money can provide, something that when your good lady carries a BHSI title (as it was before the changes last year) sometimes the best isnt good enough.

And when they reach the end of their lives with us they are ALWAYS treated by the vet with lethal injection rather then a knackerman and a gun!!

[acko22]

@exmouthcraig

I hope it is more a clever horse than foul play!
But if it is the second and you wish to discourage that short of using a 12 bore a surefire million candle power torch with adjustable focus really is a useful tool! even at 200m you can still feel every bit of candle power warming you up rather quickly 
I few moments of that and well either you will have a good sun tan or require the assistance of another four legged friend and well "you were just using a torch to check your horses"

[JasonBz]

I wasn't trying to be an "expert" - when it comes to working with horses and their owners I left that game a long time ago - but after 30 years of doing a bit with various fences I do probably know just a bit about em....

Sorry for trying to be positive....

[exmouthcraig]

You imply that I have a two bit livery yard with shoddy fencing and it's my fault I have people trudging through my fields.

We are one of the top 'Places to Train' awarded by the British Horse Society, we run accredited events with
British Dressage
British Showjumping
British Eventing

In the last 7 years we have invested £1.7m in surface upgrades, complete new arenas and our own equine rehabilitation centre. All 37 horses are owned by us, we dont have liveries, even though we must receive requested for such many times a week.

99% of Liveries think they know everything, think their horse is the best, think they deserve the world gifted to them and they trot round the yard like they own the joint.

[joe cassidy]

Craig, when my wife goes walking she has an application on her phone called Pacer that traces her movements.

Would it be possible for you attach a phone to your horse to trace its movements ?

[Bob G]

Craig, when my wife goes walking she has an application on her phone called Pacer that traces her movements.

That sounds like stalking to me.

[dannyboy]

when my wife goes walking she has an application on her phone called Pacer that traces her movements.

Does she get the train whilst walking? 

[exmouthcraig]

@joe cassidy the problem with anything attached to a horse is easily removed. Even chips under the skin can be found and knowing what this sort are like theyd happily cut a chunk out of your horse to get rid of it. Any form of tracker on the horse like his head collar can be removed and were no further forward