How to connect a rope to a halter.

For leading and riding.

Another lesson in understanding your horse.

See also the Pygmalion effect.

You can fit 20 bales of hay into your truck if it has an eight foot bed.  Start with four bales in V-formation.

Next, lay six bales in the valley, all with the same orientation.

Repeat the process in the rear half of the bed.

 

The finished stack will resemble a cube.

It doesn’t obstruct your side-view mirrors and if you’re not going too far, ropes and straps won’t be needed.  The feed store offers a price break at 20 bales so this is really great!

If your ranch has trees, you’ll probably want to keep a chainsaw around, along with fuel, cutting oil and a spare chain.  Some day a tree will come down, due to age, weather or disease, and it won’t be the one at the far end of the pasture where nobody goes.

That’s your driveway and gate under there.

A case like this should be handled by professionals.  It’s too much work and for an individual and too dangerous.  You’d need a boom truck, bucket truck, chipper and variety of saws.

Don’t worry though, there will be cases where you can do the work:

• A smaller tree comes down on the access road to your barn.  Use your chainsaw to cut off large branches and drag them out of the way with your tractor.  Same for the trunk.  When time permits, burn or dispose as needed.
• Low-hanging branches on one of your riding trails.  Trim them back as needed.
• Chaparral is taking over your pasture.  Cut it back with your saw and remove the stumps with your backhoe.  Or just plain dig the whole thing out in one piece.

Incidents like the one above can cost over $5000 in cleanup and repairs, and you can’t put them off due to their location.  Another reason why you want to have some cash in a savings account.

If you have the right equipment however, expenses like that can be minimized.