Riding Ring

[horsespoiler]

The PVC pipe comes in different diameters and thicknesses and the pipes slip into the fittings. There are elbows, Tees, caps and straight joints. If you are using them for plumbing you use a special primer and glue to hold it all together. All my outside plumbing is PVC instead of metal pipe. I have had to repair lots of it(we're good at hitting it with lawn mowers and such) and you can cut it with a hacksaw and just replace what you need to. My DH says I'm the Queen of PVC. I even replaced some bad bathroom plumbing with it. It's fairly cheap and so easy to use. There are lots of other things you can use it for, like a greenhouse frame, because it flexes some. When you cover metal t-posts it makes them safer, no sharp, pointed top and it looks like vinyl fencing. We usually buy it at Lowes or the farm store.

[cyndi]

What a great idea, and it's nice and visible for the horses...just not always visible to lawnmower operators

PVC would also be great to make obstacles, such as a base for "curtain" and "hoops". It's nice and light enough to move around.

[ghostrider]

We built a "cage" to go around a floor heater vent in our old house to keep the babies from stepping on the grate. Didn't look too bad either although now they have special "plastics" spray paint.

[cyndi]

Would love if someone would take some pictures of their PVC fences, and the joints. How do you put them together if you don't want them to be permanent? You can't use the glue then, so what do you do, just fit them together and leave it?

[ghostrider]

Don't know we always glued everything and if you needed to take it apart you'd have to saw it somewhere other than the glued part.

[horsespoiler]

Yes, you can just slip them together and leave it but I would use a non-permanent adhesive, like silicon, to hold it. Once you use the PVC cement there's no going back. It's needed when you run water under pressure. We have blown out a few joints by forgetting to glue them after test fitting.

[ghostrider]

I'm reading Richard Shrakes "Resistant Free training" in it he talks about building a CHEAP RP.
Starting with those cheap landscaping posts (replacing them later on) and instead of the cost of footing you can till the ground about 4" down. He talks about putting down some type of fencing I've never heard of and is inexpensive and takes a licking from horses. Have not heard of it but I can post the name when I bring my book home from work if anyone is interested.

[horsespoiler]

That would be great. In order to till the ground 4" down we would need to get a tiller or disc for the tractor, I don't think I could survive running the rototiller that long.lol We're trying to find a 4' PTO mower to mow our pasture with that doesn't cost a fortune.

[cyndi]

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday at the barn! The barn owner comes over to me and asks if I still want that space for a riding area. We talked a bit about it, then he said how it's a hassle for him to pass through that area with his tractor whenever he needs to, because he has to pull a few electric fence posts out to do it. So...he said that if that's where I want the area, he's going to put in some real posts and a board fence, and a 12-foot gate!!! WOW!!! That would become a nice safe place for any newcomer horses as well. And if Fanny shows any signs of laminits, I can put her in there. I feel so humbled that he'd do all that work for me...and more than a little guilty for looking at another barn last weekend :/

[ghostrider]

That's really nice of him, but also improves his horse property. I went out to survey where I want the new fence and got side tracked. Still haven't been out to figure out where things need to go.
It shouldn't take long to do a 50-60 foot area with the tiller right?. We have a new one that my SF bought for the garden. I don't need a big area just an area basically for RP work.

[horsespoiler]

I hate running the rototiller, it makes my shoulder ache. We are looking at 60-70 X 100-120 for our arena. The neighbor has both a mower and a disc-er but I would need his tractor too as ours isn't big enough to run them. I've used the mower before and it is kind of a pain because it only turns one way very good. The other direction bumps the mower deck into the rear tire if you try to make a very tight turn.

[ghostrider]

we have a tractor and a box blade that might work.

[horsespoiler]

We have one too with rippers you can drop down. Our tractor is small and needs under 18hp attachments. We love our loader on front too! Once we thought something major was wrong with the motor as it kept dying but it turned out it just needed a new fuel filter. A friend's dad came out and looked at it for us.
With the problems with the lush grass my DH has no problem tearing up some ground. We may even get a good crop of arrowheads since there was an Indian camp here once. We find everything from crude stone tools to fine arrowheads. The gophers and ground squirrels dig them up. Most of the heads are jasper since obsidian was in lands controlled by their enemies.

[cyndi]

That is SO cool about the arrowheads and other relics, Horsespoiler! We used to find the odd one on our farms when I was a kid. I think my uncle once found an old pouch that still had some pemmican in it.

[ghostrider]

Mom has an arrowhead she found in the woods. I never think to look for them but then there's so much grass or leaves you can't find the ground anyway.
Rich came over today and used his auger to dig me holes for the hedge poles and got them all in where my new gate goes. We bought a 12' gate. We will leave it set up (quickcrete) and put the notches and cross timber on tomorrow. I'm supposed to go through and mark the trees I want to start with. We decided to cut down 5 at a time, cut, remove, clean and build the burn piles out of the rest. He can also use his equipment to remove any stumps that would be in my riding area. YEAH