Safety with gates and troughs and other paddock features
Gates are responsible for many horse leg injuries each year. Our horses often stand at gates waiting for dinner, or to watch other horses come and go. There are a few simple things you can do to minimise gate injuries:
1. Do not have gates that a horse can get a leg hooked in. I highly recommend mesh gates for horse properties. You can buy a mesh gate for around $140.00 at your local farm outlet.
2. Do not have gudgeons or latches where a horse can bump into them. Latches can be placed on the outside of gates, and all gudeons should flush with the post it is mounted into.
3. If you horse pushes excessively against a gate in the paddock - I would recommend adding a single breakable hot wire to the top of it - this will help him to respect the gate.
Horses rolling to close to fences are another significant cause for entanglement. The best practice here is to try to eliminate the roll spot if it has formed to close the fence. You can do this by setting a temporary electrified fence up around the roll spot to prevent the horse going to the same spot. In addition to this - go to your local landscape supply store and buy a trailer load of coarse sand, to create a new roll spot in a safe place in your paddock. It will cost you less than $50.00 to do this but if you are faced with an entanglement your vet bills will be far more than this - if your horse survives!!
Horses need to rub - especialy if they are in a paddock alone and dont' have a buddy to groom with. A horse rubbing on fences and posts can also cause injuries depending on the way that the fences are set up, from splinters, eye injuries or getting heads stuck between an outrigger and a fence.... the best thing to do is to have some trees that can cope with a horse rubbing itself against it, or alternatively provide an area in your paddock that can provide a safe scratching area. We have a section of very smooth and very strong post and rail on our paddocks, which serves two purposes - one it provides a scratch area until the trees are big enough and secondly it is a handy place to throw rugs and feed bins as the rest of the paddocks are electrfied. I have seen properties set up solid posts and road sweeping brushes mounted onto them - the horses thought they were in seventh heaven with that set up!
Troughs can be set up in many ways - if your fences are electrified you will need to make sure it is no where near your fence - otherwise you may risk the current jumping to the the tub and giving your horse an electric shock. Round troughs are best as they have no sharp egdes on them, old bath tubs are frequently used as water troughts and they can be good if they are securely mounted and there are no sharp edges on them. I tend to put my troughs in the most raised part of the paddock and surround with some river rocks to prevent them getting overly muddy in winter.
