Hazards for Home

[Conesminded]

I am looking for ideas for a friend who has caught the driving bug and has limited space to set up hazards on his property. I think he may have room for two and ideally the design/materials should be so that it can be moved (possibly) or reconfigured (definately).

I found on one personal blogsite, pictures of very big blue barrels with slits in them so that you can slide the pvc boards in them. We also have the awesome portable hazards that were used this year at the Tampa Trials to pull from but I don't know how well the material (coroplast?) would hold up in the florida sun.

what have you all seen out there at shows or used yourself that worked out well?


Thanks in advance!

Hilary

[Thomas_1]

If space is at a premium then you want something that is easily portable.

I'd suggest using just something like the road works warning boards. They're a bit like horse show jumps with stands and slots for the boards to go in and you can virtually do whatever you want with them.

They're cheap too so when they get damaged just get some more.

[kearleydk]

Use what you have available. In Wyoming they have big square bales of hay that worked pretty well.

At home I'm in the plant nursery business so we have built hazards by placing fairly large potted shrubs. We drove a fiberglass rod down through the pot to keep them upright in the wind and under light contact from the carriage. We used some overgrown Hibiscus and they were suprisingly durable even when completely run over by team and carriage.

We have also built disposable hazards a la Tampa from cardboard. They hold up for a couple of days before the humidity gets to them.

If you have un cleared land you can carefully leave trees at the correct spacing to create all sorts of hazards.

Have fun

Dick

[kearleydk]

I'm looking at all the lighted lawn ornaments and thinking "Wow, cool hazard at night." Shame on me.

Dick

[pricestory]

I only have 5 acres and the only really flat space is the arena, which is ridden dressage size, not driven. I use ground poles, on the ground, left over from when my daughter was eventing. You can put them in any arrangement in no time. We had built a couple of cross country fences and I use ground poles and cones to make hazards.
I also use blue barrels. If you fill them about half full with water, you can still move them but they are stable to drive around.
The best idea I have heard but not seen is to build a grid of holes in the ground, about 4" wide and maybe 6" deep, whatever it takes to sink PVC pipe in, basically level to the ground. Cap the ones you arent using, stick pipe in the others. Then you have movable post to create just about anything. I can't remember what they used for cross bars.

[War Admiral]

I'm usually boarding at huntery-jumpery-eventery sort of places, so I just use jump standards and poles for arena hazards. HRH Avery is biiiiiiiiiiiiiiig for a driving horse, so I set them pretty high! :)

Here's a pic (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v280/goonrgrrl/avery/Avery_Nancy_ArenaHazards.jpg) of HRH taking a beginner driver through an arena hazard at a decorous walk. ;) This is actually my favorite configuration for a small space: if I were a Stick Horsie Artist I could depict it better, but it's basically shaped like an X but with a long wide alley down the center of the X. Sometimes I build alleys on the crossbars of the X, sometimes not. You can drive around thru this one any way you want. With HRH, being able to vary it is a necessity, b/c if you drive a hazard the same way twice, he memorizes it, and then HE tries to drive! :eek::cool:

Sorta like this:

\ /
/ \

[LostFarmer]

I have a nearly endless supply of 5 gallon buckets and 115 gallon blue barrels. They work pretty well. LF

[Happy Feet]

I also have a ridden dressage arena, and roads to work the boys on so this is a great resource of ideas for portable and easy hazards!!
I got old road work barrels and plastice barricades that can easily stacted up and hidden (the DQ's aren't impressed with my wide range of hazard materials!!) and are very light weight, and brightly colored! Anyway I will be checking back and writing all these ideas down!

[Drive NJ]

One very simple but effective obstacel design is to place 9 objects in a square (3 rows of 3 objects) with the paths between set at 2.5meters

This gives you lots of options for straight thru and turns around the outside. and once you are really good - zigzags thrut he middle

Your objects need to have some substance (blue barrels works) They also should have some height (chest high on horses) so the horse gets used to the bulk of a hazard and not just the space

We saw a hazard demo with Sem Groenewoud using this system, some years ago. He drove the horses all around and thru the system in a calm trot or walk until he considered them to be truly relaxed, listening and responsive - THEN he worked on really working in the hazard. Then he would go back to just calmly trotting thru.

One thing so many drivers forget is that you have to keep the attention and focus of the horse on you and what you ask for - not just blazing thru the hazard with X's for eyes.

Another top driver from years ago would also practice stopping and standing in the middle of a hazard while doing the quick runs thru. This kept his horse in a mindset to keep listening for the next command and not making decisions for himself.

All said - you dont really need a lot of stuff or space to practice effective hazard driving

[Cartfall]

I have used step in fence posts (the tall ones, and then add 2 or 3 horizontal survey tape strands between them to get a hazard. If you want to add some strips that will fly in the wind, it is good practice for de-sensitizing.

I don;t practice a lot of hazards. I did that with Looker and it took a long time to get her settled enough to drive dressage. Luckily she now turns it on and off as request.

[hobbyhorse23]

...where do you GET those blue barrels?? I asked around at all the local hardware stores, feed stores, etc. this spring and all anyone had were those metal burn barrels which are now merrily rusting away in my arena. :( And they were expensive.

Also, how do you get those road barricades and orange barrels without resorting to a ski mask and the dark of night? I've pondered it, believe me, but I sort of like my clean record! :lol: I've contacted the companies who rent them but they won't even sell me their old beat up barrels. I don't know anyone in construction. Help! I'm on a budget.

Leia

[Cartfall]

...where do you GET those blue barrels?? I asked around at all the local hardware stores, feed stores, etc. this spring and all anyone had were those metal burn barrels which are now merrily rusting away in my arena. :( And they were expensive.

Also, how do you get those road barricades and orange barrels without resorting to a ski mask and the dark of night? I've pondered it, believe me, but I sort of like my clean record! :lol: I've contacted the companies who rent them but they won't even sell me their old beat up barrels. I don't know anyone in construction. Help! I'm on a budget.

Leia

Well, Leia, I do not know where you would get them in WA, but here we can get them from all the places you asked. One local gal sells them out of her farm, she has literally hundreds stacked up--someone tole me she gets them from a hospital.

The traffic barricades could be be purchased from a safety store--they also should sell fire equipment--or go on line. But they will NOT be cheap. The step in fence posts is what I had on hand. I also have 3 barrels, plastic.

[Drive NJ]

Another thing people around here use is those jump cavaletti "ice cubes" - sort of a long white block with cups indented in various places. You fill with water for heft and they are stackable
Add some rails and you can build lots of things

I have a bunch of screw lid buckets that hold 35lb supplement (taller than usual) that would also make good bases for building stuff

[pricestory]

Around here, Western NC, you get blue barrels from the apple juice processors. Evidently they don't reuse them. I can get them for $2 each. They also make great field waterers, cut in half and washed well. They last better than most any muck bucket. I've had one in the barn for over 10 yrs.

Just a heads up, or you may have a heads down. Be very careful if you are using jump standards. The feet, when run over, can bounce you out of the seat. I know from experience:o:eek::o

[Ashemont]

Hey Price, wish I had known about those barrels when we were out that way. We'll have to pick some up on our next trip west :). We just cleared a section of land for a driven dressage arena and some hazards - the front dressage arena is sand, and the front field is not completely level and has some bumps.

In the meantime I've been using trees and bushes and anything else on the property. I also go down the street to my neighbor's and use her jump field. She has LOTS of jumps set up all of the time and the spacing she uses for ground poles is sufficient for me to just get my carriage through between them ;)

I really though Maggie would be spooky at the strange hazards at Pine Tree but apparently we had done enough prep work. As you told me, she never looked at anything. She just went forward and stayed focused :D