A line of grass…!

“A line of Grass”…! Canterbury, NZ

This the Lochinvar Hut, and in the back country, it is typical…… not a stock fence for miles to overnight our trekking horses, so years ago I devised a way to allow the horses to graze, and lie down if they wish and yet have them contained as such…

Some riders have used horse leg hobbles, which is a comfortable band that is fastened around each of the horses front legs and a very short piece of rope ( 6 inches in length ) couples the legs, however I have seen a smart thinking horse actually learnt to canter with these on so its not ideal..

My invention is a soft leather band lined with sheep skin that is fastened to one of the horses front legs with a large D ring sewn to one side of this… this in turn we hook a soft long 10 metre rope to and the other end I drive a metal stake with a swivel head  into the ground…

This gives each horse a twenty metre feed circle…

We have six horses that are alternated for trekking, and have found we only need to leg tie the “Alpha” horse of the trip .. the rest are happy grazing free, as they wont leave the boss horse..

At night, just before we head to bed, I tie all the horses up on what we call a ” high Line ”  , a rope tightly tied two metres off the ground between two trees, and each horse is tied to this… it is secure and doesn’t hurt the horse in any way,,  early next morning before a continuation of the trek we untie and back on the leg tie for an hours morning feed… it works for us and no horses are harmed..!