A fencing contractor came out today to give us an estimate on a nice wooden rail fence. While he was there, we asked his opinion on my Tposts.He looked at me funny and said "I know you."
HM? He looked like any other German (all Germans look the same to me (*cackle*).
He said "You were seeking a horse lease and you rode one of my horses."
Oh really! OH dear, that 3 year old warmblood, that was no fun....I ran away fast! Who wants to pay to train someone's baby? Not me!
He was grinning, and said "The world is small!" and I replied, "Deutschland is small."
My man was giggling, "Look, lytha, he knows you!" *sigh*
He paced out the meters with his meter machine, and wrote notes in his book.
My man impressed me by giving him the centimeter widths we want on our posts, and the different widths we'll need on our gate posts. I admit, I'm clueless. But my math teacher husband knows his fence post diameters.
My man asked "What do you think of Tposts?"
The contractor is a horseman, so I was happy his opinion was educated. He said "This fence will hold your Arab. You simply need to reinforce the corners and ends." My man gave an equally educated reply: "We plan on purchasing the corner stabilizer sets and end sets." Good. Then you have nothing to worry about. I see your wire is very thick - make sure you stay with quality, the UV protected kind. Yes, Check, gotcha.
My man wiggled the Tposts I had so carefully installed and noted that they shift a bit, due to the soft earth. We'll be ordering the even taller posts for our field, because we want to be able to drive them even deeper into the earth. However, I think my man is happy that he was unable to easily pull them out. He tried. He said, "OK, they move if you tug on them, but no one will be walking by and idly pulling them out of the ground."
(So....anyone....is it common to be able to tug on a Tpost and have it shift a bit? Or should they be rock-solid in the ground? I'd honestly never noticed while I was back home. How much movement is "normal" in a Tpost?)
The contractor said he'd get back to us this week with an estimate. He is also looking into a supplier, because he might be able to get a better deal than what we have with that horse sport firm that has recently disenchanted us. 
Did you notice in those photos - no scary animals at all?! In the daytime, it's such a innocuous place, our hang.I tried to make a video of my man tonight, feeding his trout, but none of them leaped spectacularly out of the water, no, they just roused the surface and skittered playfully. Dangit, I'll try again next week.
My man totally totally impressed me tonight, with his prowess at wiring our new lights, and he fixed our screwed up front door! Now it opens fully, and doesn't scrape along the tiles. Wonderful, I can't stop thanking him! I asked him if there's anything he can't do, and he said "Have a baby." Hm..we'll see, maybe he can do that for us too, cuz I'm not gonna.
One week? Really, on the 13th, we move officially. One week? OMGoodness, OMGoodness...
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8 comments:
I love t-posts. When you're not Kroesus (you've heard that expression over there, no doubt), you make do with the best and cheapest option.
Girl, your fence looks great! You did good! Plus you have the wire fencing behind it. I wouldn't worry much about my horse going through that fence- they're not dumb. Unless he's on a suicide run... which I doubt Baasha will ever be.
T-posts can last a long long time. You just have to walk that fence periodically and check on them. When your ground is so soft, a little wiggle is normal- but even if you tried to throw yourself full-weight onto one of them, they may lean over but they won't just come out unless they aren't deep enough in the ground. The great thing about T-posts: If ya stick it in the wrong spot, you pull the sucker up and stick it in the right spot.
Congratulations on a job well done.
I'm in Kentucky and you wouldn't believe some of the fencing my horses have seen at places I have kept them- a 5 year old could have stepped over some of those without stumbling and yet the horses never even attempted to leave. And all of them were TBs.
It's a great feeling to finish a task like this, look at it and be proud.
We are looking at some land in our area and I was wondering about fencing, so forgive me if these are dumb questions.
Is your wire hot? Does wire have to be hot with tposts? how thick (guage?) does the wire need to be. I don't like to get all my information from those fencing companies since it's not exactly... unbiased.
Looking great Lytha! Our t-posts have abit of give to them here in the south, but where we are exactly is soft and sandy based soil. They hold very well though. In fact--- they give just enough to NOT get one of our guys hurt should they get a wild hair. Now, a bit ago when Sonny took off running loose on me, he came back around and tried to get into the fence. The wire stretched, the posts gave just enough, and he was unscathed and the fence was fine too. When I had t-posts in mountain country/ Tundra Country, they were pretty solid and I did see and hear of horses getting some pretty bad injuries and two deaths from them too. But no matter what kind of fence we use, we have HORSES. That tend to be HEAVY. And some are more accident prone than others are.
Your fence looks fantastic though, and that bit of give would only serve to make me (were it mine) feel better actually.
Holy Racehorse - Thanks for the tips, it's really good to get some feedback on this as I'm really alone out here.
Breathe - Our wire will be hot but we kept Baasha for years behind woven wire on Tposts. There was also one electric wire but he didn't challenge the fence even when it was turned off. Woven wire is just a couple strands of regular smooth wire, twisted around each other. Safer would be to use no-climb/diamond mesh horse fencing on your Tposts. We would do that if we could get it, but a horse-safe mesh fence is not available here. Good luck on your project, please do heed the safey warnings on the electric fencing websites. I'm learning a lot on those sites - like, I just learned my grounding rods need to be 50 feet from a utility line, but within 20 feet of the charger. Tricky for us, hope we manage it!
Mrs Mom - Were the injuries due to uncapped posts? I haven't heard any stories yet about injuries besides those due to uncapped posts. I'm curious!
Is that Friday 13th Lytha? :P
Hey! I'm not seeing much blackberry rambles by the fences. You all have been working hard!
Weird how the man knew you...and it wasn't in the best way. Well, maybe he'll cut you a break on the costs...since you know each other..and all that. lol!
We have T-posts and are will move a bit...but only at the top. They do not shift at all nearer to the ground. But our ground turns into concrete all on it's own with our lack of rain here in the desert.
~Lisa
(I'm getting excited for you with your impending move in!)
Word verification: 'Lintisms'
Cute little stories and thoughts about Dryer Lint.
O yah! And speaking about crazy fencing, like H. Racehorse said...one of my neighbors keeps two geldings right beside a busy county road with only two strands of wire.
He started out with one strand of barb wire (only 14" high!) and one of the horse kept walking over it. Can't imagine why...
And then he added a single electric strand above the barb wire at about 18" high. He's had the two boys in there with no troubles now for several months.
I can step right over that wire...even with my messed up knee.
And after watching Pouissance Jumping with Val, I'm amazed that any horse could be kept in with a single strand of anything less than 4 feet high. lol!
~Lisa
Phew, that time sure went by quickly!
thanks for the tip. In another month we'll be looking for horse property. Prices are falling all around us, so the time is good to buy.
Someone has to restart the economy around here. I've been doing my part. New used car (mine went tires up), now land and a house... Pretty soon I'll be buying stock or something. LOL
My verification is loganive. Is that german? :)
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