Horse safe bridge?

kerrieberry2

kerrieberry2

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I need to have a little bridge made for my field so that the horses can cross over the ditch to get into their shelter!! the horses are fine walking through the ditch but my mini shetland is a big wimp and is too scared to walk down the scary hill. Also it got quite wet in the rain a few days ago, so would be best to get a bridge put there so they can cross it without losing any shoes and getting muddy legs.

Have any of you ever built your own? if so how did you go about it, obviously it would need to be really strong to hold their weight? or did you find a company that were able to do it for you?
 
I've never done this but the first thing that spring to mind would be railway sleepers maybe covered in mesh or rubber and contained either side by boarded sheep hurdles or similar
 
I second the railway sleepers covered in a grippy material, but I would preferably use something with solid sides for the barriers on either side.

The thought of your mini being too scared for the descent of the Everest ditch is adorable :p
 
Could you get in some large pipes for the water/drainage and then make a soil/hardcore "bridge" ... i.e. a mound under which the water can drain away? might erode a bit but you can keep it topped up and would seem safer than a bridge and more natural
 
speak to a local famer about putting one of the massive concrete pipes in the ditch and covering it with hardcore/soil, whatever you do you need to make sure the ditch can still drain, it may be expensive
 
Shetland sounds adorable, forget the bridge, just get him one of these;


o-VISIT-SCOTLAND-570.jpg
 
dogatemysalad said:
Shetland sounds adorable, forget the bridge, just get him one of these;

o-VISIT-SCOTLAND-570.jpg
Click to expand...

I'm not sure he'd be best impressed. Would prob be scared of that too. He needs to come in as they have a shoot on the farm so they need to stay in on a wed when that's happening. Would rather them in the shelter than their stables as it has large area to move about.

Plus he so scared I struggle catching him haha.
 
We have 5 railway sleepers laid into the bank and covered with metal small mesh wire. Farmer didit for us and its fab. Had to be that wide so we can turn two horses round on it to shut the gate. No sides and no problems as yet, its been there 8 months.
 
CBFan said:
Put a drainage pipe 4/5 metres long in the ditch and fill over the top of it with earth...
Click to expand...

This ^^

I have lots of little streams in my fields and we use this system above. Our pipes are about 18" diameter, dig down, place pipe a quarter in the ground with three quarters out of the ground. Put a thick layer of small stones above and then soil and grass seed.

Here's a link for the type of pipes we use (they are VERY heavy duty so they don't crush under the weight of tractors/trucks etc). Most of ours are heavy duty polypropolene or aluminum - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culvert
 
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