Horses in AK (Fairbanks: house, taxi, living)

[FiveTen1988]

I live in Maine, and own horses. We have a run-in shelter for them during the winter, and we blanket them. My sister in Wyoming also does the same during their very harsh winters.

Just as a point of curiosity, how do people house their horses in winter in Alaska, especially where it is particularly brutally cold and harsh, like Fairbanks?

[RayinAK]

The horses around here take the cold well to -20 and colder sometimes, but a couple of people I know have small barns with canvas doors (like a shower curtain). When their horses feel that it is too cold outside, they just walk into the barn. These barns aren't heated, but the floors are covered with thick layer of straw. One of these guys had a heat lamp he would turn on when it was around -30, but I don't know if that's a good idea or not. It takes a lot of cleaning and trowing away straw and manure

A blanket is also a good idea in addition to a small barn. The water container must have an electric heater to keep the water from freezing.

[rotorhead]

People around here used to have horses, goats, cows, chickens, etc. back in the old days, and even up through the sixties and seventies. Nowadays, hardly anyone has livestock. Part of it is that the general pace of life is so fast and livestock takes up so much time, part of it is that the cost of land has really increased, and part of it is all the dang bears. The bears eat anything that moves, they're especially relentless about getting into goat pens and chicken coops, even with electric exclosures.

There's more brown bears here now that anyone living can remember. Nobody hunts them anymore it seems, not like back when. The whole 'bear rug and stuffed bear in the house' thing has really become pretty unfashionable, and the cost of taxidermy has skyrocketed. Brown bear meat is so gamey that not even the native elders care to eat it, and you don't legally have to salvage anything other than the hide and skull. If you're not dead-set on a stuffed carcass in the living room, there's not much point to bear hunting.

It's a damned shame that brownies don't taste more like moose. They'd be rare as hens teeth if they did.

[ggoodman]

well me beeing the red neck that I am I cant wait to pop one and make a rug... bit of a disapointment though about the meet as I have a anything I shoot I eat policy.
Wonder if it would be like wild hog down here take the cuts you can and grind the rest into sausage. anyone?

[rotorhead]

With brown bear meat it depends on what the bear's been eating. In the interior where the bears eat mostly berries, moose, and other game you CAN eat it, but most people there will only eat spring bear. In coastal Alaska where the brownies eat a LOT of salmon, pretty much nobody eats the meat. Nobody I know can stomach it even ground up into jalapeno sausage or such. Lots of people eat black bear, but not so with the brownies. Of course, as they say, your mileage may vary. It might turn out that for whatever reason you LIKE gamey, fishy bear meat with lots of parasites, you never know.

[Glitch]

Originally Posted by FiveTen1988

I live in Maine, and own horses. We have a run-in shelter for them during the winter, and we blanket them. My sister in Wyoming also does the same during their very harsh winters.

Just as a point of curiosity, how do people house their horses in winter in Alaska, especially where it is particularly brutally cold and harsh, like Fairbanks?

It is no coicidence that we have a town named "Deadhorse."

[blueflames50]

Originally Posted by Glitch

It is no coicidence that we have a town named "Deadhorse."

hey we had a vote on changing the name of "deadhorse" and it needs to be changed!!

[Glitch]

Originally Posted by blueflames50

hey we had a vote on changing the name of "deadhorse" and it needs to be changed!!

We did indeed. Some of the choices were:

• Buried Bronco;
• Cadaverous Colt;
• Expired Equine;
• Fallen Filly;
• Mortified Mustang;
• Perished Plug;
• Snuffed Stallion; and
• Stiff Steed.

There were two votes for "Stiff Steed."