Thursday, May 29, 2008

Tools of the trade

I have heard stories of some of these things for years, but this was the first time I have ever seen them--and they are pretty dang cool. This is a squeeze chute. A mustang enters it by going through "the snake", which is a wierd winding tunnel where they line up, I guess.

At the end of the snake is the squeeze chute. Above is what it looks like when it is turned to the side. This is how they trim feet, castrate colts, or do anything that might be necessary to a wild horse. It is amazing, they said that most horses take to it just fine.
This is the side of the squeeze chute when it is up right. They can raise and lower the floor as needed, and each of these doors open to allow access to whatever part of the horse they need. It is really interesting how it works.
I found it hard to believe a horse would put up with this, so they used Rondee to show me how easily they take to it. She went through the snake, and got in the chute. This photo was taken from the front of it, she looks like she is in jail.
Here she is with one of the side doors open, smiling for the camera.
Here she is getting her blood drawn (something she is not a fan of). Since she was in there, she obviously knew she was not going anywhere and stood still like a big girl and had no issues at all. She also got an intranasal strangles vaccine, which no horse likes, and it was no big deal.


When they are done with the horse, they open the front gate, and they move through the next pen to another area which leads to what is essentially a bucking chute. Through there the horse moves, and is then right at the loading area. The floor can move so that the horse can walk straight into a semi level trailer, or stay down so they load into a regular horse trailer. Rondee moseyed through, and Dr M led her to the trailer and told her to get in, so she did.

It was the craziest thing, I have to admit. She was like a spokesmodel demonstrating how the snake and chute worked.

It really in ingenuis, and designed so neither the horses or the workers get hurt. When dealing with untouched horses, that is quite a feat and I was really impressed.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a remarkable "contraption" to help horses! It is good for the horse's health and well being, but safe for the "care-givers"

I am learning sooooo much

Horse Student Carol

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