Can any farmers tell me why.......

UpTheLilies

Some farmers paint the top of some of their field gates? about 12 inches or so usually painted white, why not paint all the gate? Often wondered why this is.

arctictree

UpTheLilies wrote: »

Some farmers paint the top of some of their field gates? about 12 inches or so usually painted white, why not paint all the gate? Often wondered why this is.

Makes the resale price much lower...

UpTheLilies

arctictree wrote: »

Makes the resale price much lower...

just for you

Farmer

er.....we don't stoop that low

Conmaicne Mara

Never seen a gate painted that way here, or anywhere I can think of.

Farmer

Never saw it either. Anti-climb paint I wonder?

lakill Farm

lots of places that have horses do it. Mr Ryanair has some of the gates like that.

Rho b

I have seen stud farms with gates painted like that. Visual barrier for horses while saving on costs??

UpTheLilies

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

Never seen a gate painted that way here, or anywhere I can think of.

It's a quite common sight around Rural Ireland.

fredweena

I've never seen it either but i'd imagine it's to discourage jumping. Either that or it might be something to discourage wind sucking. More likely the first one.

UpTheLilies

Wind sucking could be a reason because I live in an area between Kildangan stud and the Irish National stud in Kildare town and and there are a few smaller stud farms in the area so a lot of local land is stud owned.

reilig

UpTheLilies wrote: »

It's a quite common sight around Rural Ireland.

Maybe in horsey country but "real farmers" don't do it! :P

onyerbikepat

Would it act as a deterent against theft. :rolleyes:
"New gate Boss, bran' new gate....'cept for the white paint"

bogman_bass

never seen it round these parts

hugo29

maybe its in the middle of a road, is it broken or continuous white

bogman_bass

UpTheLilies wrote: »

It's a quite common sight around Rural Ireland.

ah yes! Sorry, folk round these parts wouldnt have much experience of rural Ireland! :rolleyes:

silly

i've seen it quite alot and often wondered myself! I used to think that it was their local GAA colours or something, but that just sounds stupid now i know...

dar31

Some places around our wider area would have had black and white gates
Would have assoated it with pedigree herds

Conmaicne Mara

reilig wrote: »

Maybe in horsey country but "real farmers" don't do it! :P

Oh, oh, oh, now you've gone and said it, there'll be trouble!

J DEERE

I've painted a few like this. Green at the bottom and white for top two bars. Lovely job I think, only do it for gates on the lane and in the yard. No reason here only seen it one day and thought it looked nice, breaks the monotony of the green

who the fug

J DEERE wrote: »

I've painted a few like this. Green at the bottom and white for top two bars. Lovely job I think, only do it for gates on the lane and in the yard. No reason here only seen it one day and thought it looked nice, breaks the monotony of the green

Expect you wear green wellies as well

UpTheLilies

So basically nobody knows!

moy83

Its feng shui for farmers but none of them will admit it :P

Conmaicne Mara

moy83 wrote: »

Its feng shui for farmers but none of them will admit it :P

Exterior design, prettifying the countryside

TheFarrier

Only ever seen it in places that had horses, and the odd clown that liked to portray the impression that he was minted enough to keep horses(I sh1t you not).

sea12

A neighbour around here had it for years. Never had horses I think he just liked the look of it. It was black on a red gate.

UpTheLilies

fredweena wrote: »

I've never seen it either but i'd imagine it's to discourage jumping. Either that or it might be something to discourage wind sucking. More likely the first one.

I'm gonna go with the wind sucking theory or "cribbing" because of ur suggestion I consulted Dr Google and found this article and it's as close as I'm gonna come to gettin an answer I suppose.

Rho b

I doubt that colour is going to make a difference to be honest. If a horse is going to wind suck/crib bite its going to do it one way or another. Nasty habit.
I would think that a horse in a field would latch onto the gate post, post and rail or any solid piece of timber faster that a steel gate.

UpTheLilies

Rho b wrote: »

I doubt that colour is going to make a difference to be honest. If a horse is going to wind suck/crib bite its going to do it one way or another. Nasty habit.
I would think that a horse in a field would latch onto the gate post, post and rail or any solid piece of timber faster that a steel gate.

yeah i thought that too but seemily they mix some sort of cayenne pepper or another type of repellent into it.

TheFarrier

Rho b wrote: »

I doubt that colour is going to make a difference to be honest. If a horse is going to wind suck/crib bite its going to do it one way or another. Nasty habit.
I would think that a horse in a field would latch onto the gate post, post and rail or any solid piece of timber faster that a steel gate.

I've a client with a pony that windsucks something chronic, so they fenced him in such a way all he could reach was the wire. So he stood there windsucking without biting anything

fredweena

We had a pony that was used for trekking and would be led from another horse. He was able to windsuck off the leadrope.

nashmach

Used by some in case they can't remember what fields they own !

Conmaicne Mara

What is windsuck, I am not familiar with that term, is it a horsey thing?

grazeaway

was chattign to boss man on this actually yesterday. He has a differnt outlook and he is seldom wrong on things like this.

The gates were painted for two reasons;

1) as the obovious one to pretect the gate from rust. most gates were plain steel so required a coating to keep them from rusting away. as the gate needed to be painted a bit of artisic lincense could also be used

2) the two tone colour was to make the gate easier to see and to provide a contrast between the gate and the land and sky behind it. This was for both the animals (cattle are colour blind apperantly, and for horses) it also meant that when that when you were coming up to a gate you can actully see it.

It is a throw back to the days before elecric fences to keep cattle in and when many people had horses and it to stop them from running through it. If you watch showjumping and even horse racing you'll see the jumps are multi tones so that the rider and horse can gauge the hieghts better.

the reason you see so little of it nowadays is that there are very few farmers with horses (well real farmers anyway.....:D:D:D) and most gates now are galvainsed so dont need to be painted.

i actually have a lick of paint on my roadside gates but that to make it harder for the boys in white vans to pass them off as new gates if they decide to take off my hands

KatyMac

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

What is windsuck, I am not familiar with that term, is it a horsey thing?

Some horses have a habit of catching the top of a (usually wooden) gate or half door on the stable with their front top teeth. It's hard to describe the next bit, but they sort of pull back while holding the gate/door and and make a noise as they breath in hence the 'windsuck'.
I've seen one in a stable and you were able to see his muscles bunch as he pulled, he was putting serious force into it.
I think it's a habit they acquire when bored with no stimulation and then it's a bit like someone biting their nails - they find it hard/ (or in the case of a horse) can't be stopped.
The lad I saw was in a stables that trained horses and they had him to try and stop him. His door had a metal sheet put on the top and he was still working away. Don;t know if they managed to do anything with him as I was only there for a few minutes, but the noise he made would drive you daft if you had to listen to him for long.

Conmaicne Mara

KatyMac wrote: »

Some horses have a habit of catching the top of a (usually wooden) gate or half door on the stable with their front top teeth. It's hard to describe the next bit, but they sort of pull back while holding the gate/door and and make a noise as they breath in hence the 'windsuck'.
I've seen one in a stable and you were able to see his muscles bunch as he pulled, he was putting serious force into it.
I think it's a habit they acquire when bored with no stimulation and then it's a bit like someone biting their nails - they find it hard/ (or in the case of a horse) can't be stopped.
The lad I saw was in a stables that trained horses and they had him to try and stop him. His door had a metal sheet put on the top and he was still working away. Don;t know if they managed to do anything with him as I was only there for a few minutes, but the noise he made would drive you daft if you had to listen to him for long.

Thanks, reinforces what I think about horses (save working ones, but how many of them around now).

Dont be daft

Yeah, mostly stud farms that do it round here to. See a few cattle men that do it as well. Purely for the look at this stage I'd say.

Still though, nothing wrong with someone taking a bit of pride in their farm. And it does look nice, in my eyes anyway.

UpTheLilies

grazeaway wrote: »

was chattign to boss man on this actually yesterday. He has a differnt outlook and he is seldom wrong on things like this.

The gates were painted for two reasons;

1) as the obovious one to pretect the gate from rust. most gates were plain steel so required a coating to keep them from rusting away. as the gate needed to be painted a bit of artisic lincense could also be used

2) the two tone colour was to make the gate easier to see and to provide a contrast between the gate and the land and sky behind it. This was for both the animals (cattle are colour blind apperantly, and for horses) it also meant that when that when you were coming up to a gate you can actully see it.

It is a throw back to the days before elecric fences to keep cattle in and when many people had horses and it to stop them from running through it. If you watch showjumping and even horse racing you'll see the jumps are multi tones so that the rider and horse can gauge the hieghts better.

the reason you see so little of it nowadays is that there are very few farmers with horses (well real farmers anyway.....:D:D:D) and most gates now are galvainsed so dont need to be painted.

i actually have a lick of paint on my roadside gates but that to make it harder for the boys in white vans to pass them off as new gates if they decide to take off my hands

But if it is to make the gate easier to see, why only paint some of it?

grazeaway

UpTheLilies wrote: »

But if it is to make the gate easier to see, why only paint some of it?

Two tone is easier to see

UpTheLilies

I still don't think it's just a visibility thing though.

Rho b

UpTheLilies wrote: »

I still don't think it's just a visibility thing though.

Up The Lilies, to be honest I think is is a visibility thing from a horses point of view. From memory horses are flight animals, in that they flee from any danger no matter what direction. Maybe horse breeders/farmers have acknowledged that response over the years and reckon when the said fleeing horse comes across a solid hedge and turns back (insurmountable barrier) then it's better to have the top bars of the gate painted white (lesser insurmountable barrier) so that the horse judge the jump and escape less injury ??

UpTheLilies

Ah maybe i dunno