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Building a shute to back pastures

weedsportpete
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Oct 24, 2005, 11:30 AM

Post #1 of 3 (598 views)
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Building a shute to back pastures	Can't Post

Does anyone have shutes from barn to pastures? Any comments on their usefulness? At first thought, it seems like a good idea - you can open the pasture gate and let the horses go down the shute without you having to take them down. But thinking more about it, you still have to walk the shute yourself and somehow get around the horses now milling around by the gate (and probably having minor fights there). Any solutions to that problem?

Any recommendations to how wide a shute should be? Do they really save labor or time?

The shute I am building runs past one pasture and down to a spot where three paddocks/pastures come together - there are three gates opening onto this shute. Horses and gates are always possible trouble so this may be bad.. My wife thinks it will save her time and make it easy, because some horses may act up and jerk her around as she leads them, and she doesn't always have help in getting horses in or out.

Pete

FFC_Fencing
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Oct 25, 2005, 6:38 AM

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Re: [weedsportpete] Building a shute to back pastures [In reply to]	Can't Post

Weedsportpete: A chute to allow horses to be "turned out" with as little effort as possible is a wise addition to any facility. In many situations time is short when taking care of horses before work and the ability to simply open a gate and let a horse go is preferable to leading it out 500' to the pasture gate. There are some considerations to keep in mind when planning a chute:

A chute should be wide enough to allow a horse to easily turn around and still feel comfortable, we normally will not build one less than 12' wide.

If more than one horse is to be turned out using the chute keep in mind that the chute itself will create a tight area that could cause problems if the horses get to fighting and the dominant horse wants to chase it's pasture mate. Two horses running full speed into a narrow alley is a problem. For that reason the fence forming a chute that may see that type of activity must be constructed with safety as the number one concern.

Sometimes it is better to plan the barn location as to allow for a number of pastures of various sizes and shapes to actually touch the barn. This eliminates the need for long narrow chutes and still allows for quick turn out of horses.

weedsportpete
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Oct 31, 2005, 11:30 AM

Post #3 of 3 (544 views)
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Re: [FFC_Fencing] Building a shute to back pastures [In reply to]	Can't Post

Thanks.. how many times have I wished that I could have designed my barn, arena and pastures from scratch.. Oh well. We will go with 12 feet wide except for a spot where trucks enter the shute on the way to the manure pile. It will be all new posts and 2x4 non-climb fence, but we will also create some kind of stile so that my wife can climb out of the way/out of the shute so she does not have to walk up to the gate inside the shute while horses are there.

Any ideas on a stile that is safe (for horses)?

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