This message is from: Marsha Jo Hannah <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > "william M. Coli" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > We have had a 50 foot powder-coated metal pen with gate [...] > Ours has rounded corners to each panel, and some > folks have suggested that this is a problem if a horse were to rear or try > to scale the fence since there is a gap that a hoof could get caught in. > They do make round pens that have square corners to each panel that > would not allow the potential problem to happen.
I don't have a round pen, but have made my corrals (run-out pens, attached to the barn) from pipe-corral panels. Mine are the type with square top corners, which are implemented by having the top horizontal rail welded to the sides of the upright pipes, then putting a plastic plug in the top of the uprights (Powder Mountain brand, I believe). This year, I noticed a couple of places on bottom rails where a sheet of the powder-coating had come loose, and was flapping in the breeze. Closer inspection revealed that the lower pipe rails had bulged and split there! Apparently, the plastic plugs allow a little water to get into the pipe panels; over the years, this had built up to the point that it filled the lower pipe rail, then freezing weather burst that pipe. My husband's suggestion was to drill a few little holes in strategic places to let the water back out. Indeed, some brands of pipe corral panels have such holes, on the underside of wherever horizontal pipes connect to verticals. We have one gate of that variety---on which we had to plug the holes, because it became wasp habitat, and they got PO'd whenever anyone opened that gate. My neighbor, the brand inspector, says that defensive resident wasps are an "occuptional hazard" of loading cattle out of pens made of some brands of panels. Priefert panels seem to have addressed these problems by running the vertical pipes up past the top rail, then bending them over, mashing the ends flat, and welding the end to the top rail. That design should prevent water from getting in, without creating the hoof-trapping "Y" shape where 2 panels meet. However, Priefert panels are not particularly "inexpensive".... Marsha Jo Hannah Murphy must have been a horseman-- [EMAIL PROTECTED] anything that can go wrong, will! 15 mi SW of Roseburg, Oregon The FjordHorse List archives can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw
