Winter Woes -- Bought a heated muck bucket! :)

[accio! chickens]

OKAY, my nan gave me money to get heated muck buckets and we're buying them now and setting it up. The pony will be moved by the weekend to a field with a heated muck bucket and all will be well hopefully.

I have two smaller fields that share a direct fenceline and are within 200ft of the barn so running extension cords is an option and what I WILL do. I'm filling the holes in the west paddock and moving Mylie over with a heated bucket and then bringing Luna up to Mylie's current field which is right next to the barn. It'll give them a chance to touch over the fence and then I can still work with them seperately and open the gate between the two fields when I feel that I have a handle on both of them.


Thanks everyone. I'm also going to look into giving them some mash in the evenings to warm them up and provide a bit extra water.

 

[patandchickens]

accio! chickens :

moving Mylie over with a heated bucket and then bringing Luna up to Mylie's current field which is right next to the barn. It'll give them a chance to touch over the fence and then I can still work with them seperately and open the gate between the two fields when I feel that I have a handle on both of them.

I know you don't appreciate my injecting cautionary comments, but I am afraid I'm going to do it again here - be aware that having two horses separated by a single fenceline (so they can touch noses and so forth over the fence) will considerably increase your chances of injuries and of fence damage (the two things sometimes happening all at once). You have an electric fence charger, don't you, if I remember right? It would be seriously worth putting multiple strands of electric on that shared fenceline, or even using step-in posts to create a rope or tape fence that is set back 10' or so from the existing fence so that an alleyway is created to separate the two (you CAN still put them in this time of year, the ground is not that hard if you use a sledge and rebar to 'predrill' the hole, or even use a cordless drill, then pour a little water in to freeze the step-in post's spike in place).

Obviously many people in the world do have horses in adjacent paddocks separated by only a single fence, but those tend also to be the people who have higher vet bills and demolished fencing. An alleyway between the paddocks is much safer. Also likelier IME to lead to an amicable introduction if you try to put the two in togther someday.

Just throwing that out there as something to think about,

Pat​

 

[accio! chickens]

Don't worry Pat. I'll post a photo of that fence tonight for you, it's actually taller than my girls. They can only touch over the gate which has a stand off electric gate on either side. I over-fence LOL.

 

[patandchickens]

accio! chickens :

Don't worry Pat. I'll post a photo of that fence tonight for you, it's actually taller than my girls. They can only touch over the gate which has a stand off electric gate on either side. I over-fence LOL.

Nonetheless, unless there is a lot of electric wire keeping them well off the fence, they can and will snake their necks through, or paw, or any number of other things that can end annoyingly badly.

Just saying, having seen it innumerable times,

Pat​

 

[accio! chickens]

Yep, I understand. They have *sort of* been sharing a fenceline this whole time with a 20ft gap between them and no problems thus far.

This is my fence... I have electric on either side of the fence.

You can see Mylie in the bottom left corner of the right hand field. The smaller one in the foreground is our riding ring (it doesn't have a gate on it). The field RIGHT in the foreground is the goat pasture.

And in the background here, you can see the fenceline...Ignore the super cute Palomino

 

[KinderKorner]

Totally off topic. But why keep your horses separated. They are herd animals. They enjoy being together.

Although I could see separating them off one at a time to feed for special diets, full time solitary is against their nature.

Just saying. I'm not looking to start a fight. I'm just curious at why someone would do it.

 

[accio! chickens]

Luna gets kind of lunatic-ish if I try to seperate after I've put them together. And, I don't know if you saw Mylie's story, but she's very spooky and wary of me. I'm trying to gain some trust in her and if I put her in with Luna, I won't be able to work with her seperately. I'm slowly working them up to being together. Right now they can see each other over the fence but not touch. By next week they'll be able to touch, and hopefully in a month they'll be in the same field together. Neither seem to care much, they hang around by the same spot in the fenceline, SOMETIMES, but otherwise they're off on their own business. Both were not in a herd beforehand. Luna has been alone all year, and Mylie was seperated from her herd because she was being picked on and had been away from a herd for over a year with no issues.

I figure, don't rock the boat, yanno? Mylie is 4 and not trained, very little ground manners, and I'm trying to get her to trust me and be handleable but I can't do that if she's with Luna all the time as Luna doesn't lead so I can't take her out (working on that!) and Mylie won't let me touch her enough to lead.

Thats the explanation

They're not pining and don't even seem to care much. My big gelding didn't have a herd for 3 years, no issues. Infact, for 3 years he was the only horse for about 40kms. Really though, I've known lots of horses on single turnout who have never had any problems. I worked at a barn that had 4 horses on single turnout when really they could have been in the big herd but for whatever reason, be it age, training, ground manners, ease of catching in a solo turnout -- they were out alone. It's not like my 2 mares can't see each other. They can. For the first while they were glued to the fence, but now they don't even care. They stand together at the fence in bad weather but otherwise, don't care! They'll mosey on over to their respective hay piles and go for a trot around, or graze in the left over grass from the year. *shrug* I had my gelding on solo turnout even at a big barn anyway, never hurt him.

 

[KinderKorner]

Oh so it's jsut temporary. I see. We slowly merge new horses together too. And my mare has been alone for a month or so ebcause she kept escaping the other pasture.

But I do have a friend who only has one horse. And it's so unsocilized with other horses it freaks when it's up close aorund them. Really agressive. I actually got kicked by him a few weeks ago when we trail rode together.

 

[accio! chickens]

My gelding was alone for years, and then off and on with no issues. I think it has a lot to do with the horse, yanno? My pony was alone all year and in August got a buddy for a month and they were 'buddies' but not attached at the hip.

Temporary.. maybe. I won't put them together until we have worked out issues in BOTH of them. Luna needs groundwork, Mylie needs groundwork and breaking and until the point at which they have both been worked with and I believe they are ready to go together, then I will put them together.