Horse bridge for trail class

[TheMan419]

So my wife wants me to build a horse bridge for trail class. One set of plans is here Build Your Own Trail Bridge - AQHA

I don't know why this is confusing me so much. Plans call for 3/4 inch "CAT Rated Sheathing plywood". How is this different from "plywood"? I have some 3/4 inch plywood in stock from another project. However I don't want to use it if it is not going to suppor the horse.

All the other materials I have. Not opposed to going and buying a sheet of plywood. Just never heard of the difference. Also when I punch that item into Lowes website alot of stuff comes up but nothing that caims to be "CAT rated".

Am I missing something?

 

[gsganzer]

It just means load bearing rated plywood. What you have should work.

 

[ponytug]

I am not sure what your intended use is; functional bridge or obstacle.

This is meant to be helpful, but that "bridge" sure looks like a show / pen obstacle bridge. It looks to me like it was designed to sound "hollow" and give horses a hard time. It will not be durable outside in my opinion. If this is for use in a ring, go for it.

Personally for exterior use, I would not use plywood in a horse bridge. I would look for a design with large timber or I beam supports, and 2" decking with gaps to shed dirt and water. Horses will skid out less on it, and won't be as nervous because the sound is deeper. I ride arabians out on trails with lots of obstacles, and I appreciate their concerns for good footing as I am the one who is going to be flying... I prefer lag bolts over nails around horses, for obvious reasons, but that's just me.

All the best,

Peter

 

[TheMan419]

I am not sure what your intended use is; functional bridge or obstacle.

This is meant to be helpful, but that "bridge" sure looks like a show / pen obstacle bridge. It looks to me like it was designed to sound "hollow" and give horses a hard time. It will not be durable outside in my opinion. If this is for use in a ring, go for it.

Personally for exterior use, I would not use plywood in a horse bridge. I would look for a design with large timber or I beam supports, and 2" decking with gaps to shed dirt and water. Horses will skid out less on it, and won't be as nervous because the sound is deeper. I ride arabians out on trails with lots of obstacles, and I appreciate their concerns for good footing as I am the one who is going to be flying... I prefer lag bolts over nails around horses, for obvious reasons, but that's just me.

All the best,

Peter

No it is not functional whatsoever. It's purpose is to demostrate the horse has the confidence in you as the rider to walk over that thing as scary as it may seem to a horse. THey cannot fathom the sides are only 3 inches off the ground. They think if they step off the sides they fall off a cliff.

I realize it would not be actually usefull as a bridge over a river or something.

 

[ponytug]

Excellent! Should work perfectly.

All the best,

Peter

 

[WM75Guy]

Obstacles like that are important training aids. At a dressage barn playday my daughter was riding her 20 y/o quarter horse. One of the challenges was a white bedsheet staked down in the arena. Our horse was the only one that would trot across it. First time he slowed a bit before crossing it, after that he went right across. The rest were mostly warmbloods. Some of the dressage divas ended up in the dirt trying to get their horse to cross across it. Their horses didn't have the trust in the rider they thought they had instilled in them.

 

[ponytug]

That bridge will be great training. A tarp is another one, especially a tarp that catches wind... just sayin'... oddly enough a short rope gets a lot of horses (fear of snakes?).

From what I have seen, a lot of warmbloods never get the opportunity to get out and experience more of the world. I have a vivid memory of one dressage rider telling another warm blood dressage rider to leave the practice arena because the second rider's long hair was bothering the first rider's horse... Um yeah...

House rules are that you are allowed to flinch, but you have to touch the item with your nose afterwards. Teleporting sideways is frowned upon.

In the words of the wise one, "There is do. Or do not. There is no try."

All the best,

Peter

 

[ning]

That bridge will be great training. A tarp is another one, especially a tarp that catches wind... just sayin'... oddly enough a short rope gets a lot of horses (fear of snakes?).

From what I have seen, a lot of warmbloods never get the opportunity to get out and experience more of the world. I have a vivid memory of one dressage rider telling another warm blood dressage rider to leave the practice arena because the second rider's long hair was bothering the first rider's horse... Um yeah...

House rules are that you are allowed to flinch, but you have to touch the item with your nose afterwards. Teleporting sideways is frowned upon.

In the words of the wise one, "There is do. Or do not. There is no try."

All the best,

Peter

Ages ago, my wife wanted to get me a horse.. I got on this horse, not super steady (I rode maybe a couple times as a kid?), and started riding it around this little ring. My hat was wobbling on my head (I wasn't posting and my head was probably wobbly too) so I grabbed it and frisbee'd it out of the ring.

Found out later that the fact that the horse completely ignored this UFO helped convince my wife that it was a steady horse!

 

[gsganzer]

My oldest daughter trains horses and she's always out doing things to help desensitize the horse and build confidence/trust. She does playdays often and we routinely haul a younger horse with us (long before they're old enough to ride) just to expose them to things.

At one of the playdays/clinics, they had one of those tall gumby things that stays erect with a fan and bends and darts with the wind, like you see in front of used car lots etc. Every horse was sure that thing was going to try kill them.

 

[TheMan419]

My wife trains for a living. She is a dressage rider but does a lot of cross training. She even works cows and ropes.

Desensitization is a big part of it. Tarps, umbrella, poles, all kinds of odd things.

one horse in training just has a hard time backing out of our step down trailer. So she is thinking the bridge will help. Makes it a lot easier to train him on that than having to hook up and move the trailer all the time. Then when he is used to this we can go back to working with the trailer.

should be a very easy thing to build.