Hey Roper.....

[Deerslayer]

....have you ever used hobbles on your horses while way back in on your overnights.
I really don't wanna do the electric fence unless I have too......and now I either use corral panels when close to a road....or use a 200' rope horse line and move them up and down it. Mine have never gotten off but this outfitter I use to work for had some of his get loose at night, so I have been a little paranoid, and wondered if Hobbles would be better, and maybe still tie them to the line.....they sure don't like the hobbles, but they can't go far with them on. I have just used them in the pasture to see if they work well. I would really like to not worry every night while we are 8 miles or so back in the wilderness hunting this year. I hate to tie them directly to a tree because they fidget too much when I have done that......the tie line has worked well, but as sure as I depend on it, one will get loose. What do you do to make sure you have a ride waitin' on you the next day
DS

 

[Elkhunter]

Is there a reason you don't want the electric fence DS? The set up I have i can run a friggin mile of wire off of a lawn mower battery. Our horses have be zapped pretty good and stay away from it. When they have eaten the grass down it is easy to move also. We had it hooked up for 3 weeks last year and battery was still like new.

 

[Deerslayer]

Elky......I have an electric fence here at home, and it works great.....but I just was afraid they might get spooked at night up there and run right through it. It is merely a mental thing for them, because if they run through it they wouldn't feel a thing. I just don't wanna worry about them leavin' us in there. I haven't heard of the lawn mower battery deal......how do you hook it up....the wire to the pos and the neg to the ground wire?
DS

 

[Elkhunter]

DS, it is a transformer (don't know what else to call it) on a spike that you stick into the ground. On this is 3 wires with alligator clips, one on + and one on - and one to the fence. This transformer will work on any eletrical sourse at all. I can run it off of a AAA battery, 9volt battery, car battery or household current. That is the beauty of it. The tranformer with the spike is about 1 foot long and about as big around as a tube of caulk. You can get 1/4 mile of wire for about $8. It is a mental thing with the horses. Once they know what an electric fence is all about, they avoid the wire. You can also get orange ribbon that has wire through it to make it more visable. I know what you mean about them running through it though. Tough call. The camp that is set up where we actually hunt is just about 9 miles in and that is all they use and have never had a problem. They use the orange ribbon and have a small stream running through the middle of their electric coral. As the grass goes down, they mover the fence. Our setup is a little different, we have a log coral for night as it has been there for as long as I have been going there. Our electric fence goes from the south side of the coral about 50 feet, then over 25 feet, then north about 200 feet and work it back along some of the trees to the norht side of the coral. It works good for bears also, or at least I am told. This year the electric fencing will encompas about twice the area as last year. Roper is the one that put me onto the electric fencing at a place called Outfitter's Pack Station in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

They have a website at http://www.scenic-idaho.com/outfitterspackstation

The one I got from them was not in their catalog nor on their web site. It is one they had developed for themselves and had them refurbished last year and then sold.

 

[Deerslayer]

I am using electric fence now here......so I guess they would recognize and respect it...I may to a test drive on it before I take 'em in deep.
And I do have name tags with addys and phone numbers on their halters.....
DS

 

[Elkhunter]

I run mine on white fiberglss posts and tie orange surveyors tape to each one. I also tie some orange on the wire between each post, sometimes two, depending on the distance between them. The last two posts are pretty close together to allow us to put in a gate. We disconnect the battery then open the gate. We had to make our gate bigger last year as they did not want to go through it because of the wire on each side of them. Now our gates are 8-10 feet wide.

 

[roper]

DS.. it just kinda depends on where I`m at when we stop for the night ..if I`m going to be there for a few days then I do the fence thing.. if I`m leaveing the next day then i use hobbles so they can eat. but i still tie at least one up (use the leader) for the night.. as far as the horses getting spooked and running they will take down a high line faster than a fence because there is no escape from a high line and they start to pull back. in a fence they can move away. if we have a horse that wants to leave us i use 3-way hobbles never seen one run in those. I had one once we put in a 3-way then in a fence because there were no good trees around (we were on a ridge)and he is a known escape risk. my horses spend alot of time (days) tied up to things so they're used to it.

 

[Deerslayer]

I have never had any problems with mine either....either tied or fenced(corral panels) but I just have a funny feeling about the wilderness hunt Dan and I are doing in November......I'm not sure why.
I would love the added security of the hobbles if they are effective...what is a 3-way hobble? I have hobbles but have never used them when back in.....but from what I've seen in the corral, it makes it real difficult for them to move around much.

I have heard some horses can still leave your ass even with hobbles on....is this true. I can see him getting far.

I'm thinking of hobbles, ....maybe front and back feet .....with one ;eg tied off to a ground stake?......he may be all tripped up in the morning, but at least he will be there

Anyway, my experience has been if they get in a bind, they wake my butt up with the rukus they make. I may give the electric fence a go....but the hobbles sure would be easy if they work......
DS

 

[roper]

D.S.. I tried to post a pic of a 3-way hobble here... but it would`nt post. it worked in the test spot...wtf.???anyway there`s a pic there if ya need one.

try moving your ponys further away from camp you`ll sleep better.. their way to noisy for me

 

[Deerslayer]

Roper...looks like about 3 feet between the front hobbles and the back????

I have a set of double hobbles and then some singles, so I could make that pretty easily......so could you measure the distance and tell me?
Thanks....

Oh, and I like having the ponies close to the tent so I know when some shit is up........their great ponies but I don't plan on getting stranded
DS

 

[Elkhunter]

I was thinking the same thing DS, about 3 feet. I like that idea Roper. Thanks.

 

[Muledeer4me]

DS,I had one horse that could really boggie with hobbles on.
The three way would of been the thing for him,but he never went far and all we had to do was get out the feed bag ,shake it and he would darn near run you over hobbles and all.
He was the only one I have seen that had it down so good.
The guy that broke him used hobbles and a feed bag when starting all his colts,and all of his learned to take being tied up ,hobbled,or left in a elec. fence.
Our problem was that we were to attached to the darn critters and I stilled worried about them .

Have fun,all this talk about horses makes me miss having our's around.

 

[Deerslayer]

Thanks Miss Muley, I knew I had heard someone on here last year saying that certain horses could still move out pretty good with the hobbles. Mine are like two big ol' oafs in them.......go tripping and falling all over the place .....hell, I'm afraid they may break something!

Elky, I may do the elctric fence and hobbles!.....double jeopardy! .......that way they can hobble over and fall into the hotwire.....that should really get 'em going!
DS

 

[Elkhunter]

That would be a sight for sore eyes DS. Double jepordy is why we put them into a coral at night when we hit the hay. It is a coral roughly 20x30 feet. We are like 100 feet from the creek so we fill 2 5 gallon buckets just after we put them into the coral.

 

[roper]

d.s& elky.. i just put a tape on those hobbles and their 42 inchs plus 2 2inches rings so the total would be somewhere around 46 inches. they work great on horses that know how to move in a 2-way
BUT.. d.s if your horses are not real used to the 2-ways the 3-way might just cause u a bigger problem...just a thought

p.s elky how did u get that pic to work??? i tried everything... u must be a wizard

 

[Elkhunter]

Roper, I went to your picture and uploaded it onto my server for you.

Thanks for all the great info and help.