> pretty awesome, a ground tie system where they have
> a long rope
> threaded through a 25-50 ft length of water hose
> swiveling from a
> stake driven deep in the ground. They just graze
> all day, lay down
> etc, and surely they must get tangled in it at
> first?
Hi Janice:
I have lived and worked downrange on an island called
Antigua in the Carribean. I was fresh out of college
at 21 yrs old and had been horse deprive all of my
young life. My parents would not let me have a horse
as long as I lived under their roof. Well, as soon as
I found out there were horses on Antigua there was
nobody to stop me. My first horse was a mare less
than 2 yrs old picked out of a herd running fairly
free on the island. She had never had a rope on her
as I could tell when they roped her for me. Don't ask
me how I got her back to the base because it was too
long ago. I did get her there somehow with just a
rope around her neck and no she was not trained to
lead. I must have fashioned a sort of halter with the
rope around her muzzle. There were no stalls to keep
her or corral for that matter. All sorts of animals
roamed where ever they wished most of the time. The
cows (most anyway) had a long chain they were
dragging. If a car ran into one and caused damage, if
they could determine who the owner of the cow was,
they would reply that the cow pulled up the stake in
the ground and got loose. That was how they kept
their animals. I did too. You just kept your horse
"staked out" and every few days you would move it to a
new patch of grass. I hauled water in the back of my
Datsun car. Yes, there was a period of time of
getting used to the rope. The rope didn't have a hose
on it but that is a very good idea. She was just my
first. I ended up buying another mare and then a
stallion and then had foals and I was in hog heaven.
They got used to being tied and also learned how to
scratch their backs with the rope. It really did not
seem like a bad way to keep them to me at the time. I
did get permission after a few years to bring them on
the base. I had to pick up the poop and place it
around the palm trees (like mulch) and I did so
gladly. We did have occasional hurricane scares and I
always got permission to let my horses loose within
the chain linked transmitter site. They also got
occasional weekend stays within our radar yard. It
was a good life for me. The folks that lived in the
barracks that looked out over my horses always said it
made them feel like they were somewhere else. I met
my husband there. He has always told me he had
watched me out his window pushing a wheelborrow
everyday and he knew I would be a good worker. Ha Ha.
Well, that is my story on a horse on a rope.
Denise
____________________________________________________________________________________
Looking for last minute shopping deals?
Find them fast with Yahoo! Search.
http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping
