Horses?

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

bonj2

Guest
very-near said:
If the horses are being ridden on the road, the farrier uses 'road nails' which stand proud of the shoe and give more grip on the road. Alternatively, they can use Road studs.



If the horse is unshod, then the hoof does actually offer a lot of grip on tarmac.

Horses can canter or gallop on any surface, but are not encouraged to do so on a tarmac surface as it is hard on the joints and will bruise the feet if done for extended periods.
exactly, it's not to do with grip it's to do with the fact it's bad for the horses legs.
 

bonj2

Guest
Hairy Jock said:
It is not a tax which is hypothecated to roads (you might want to look up the word hypothecated in a dictionary). There is a zero rate band which applies to owners of vehicle which emitting less than 135g CO2 per km, this is the band which horse and cyclist fit into...

maybe not directly, but effectively it is.
 

PBancroft

Senior Member
Location
Winchester
KyleB said:
and to add something to your argument, most cyclists have cars and already pay road tax.

I don't pay road tax and thus I don't pollute the environment as much as car users do.

And roads (except motorways) are funded by the Highways department of your local council anyway, through council tax. For example, Warwick DC.
 

Lurker

Senior Member
Location
London
Hairy Jock said:
It is not a tax which is hypothecated to roads (you might want to look up the word hypothecated in a dictionary). There is a zero rate band which applies to owners of vehicle which emitting less than 135g CO2 per km, this is the band which horse and cyclist fit into...

Your hypothecation point's correct.

But, no, the 'zero rate' band - band A - is for vehicles emitting 100g carbon dioxide or less per km.

For current VED bands see:
www.bytestart.co.uk/content/taxlegal/9_15/vehicle-excise-duty-rates-2008-9.shtml

New, more finely graded, VED rates come into effect on 1 April (the zero rate remains for emissions up to 100g carbion dioxide per km ) and can be seen at:
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/content/taxlegal/9_15/ved-rates-2009-2011.shtml
 

bonj2

Guest
Your point is correct. However,

There's also talk of a new band which takes into account methane emissions for animals using the road.












I made that bit up.

that would only be an issue if you commute on a cow.
which some people might
 

bonj2

Guest
The clue is in the name - tarmac - you plum.

some 18th century fella might have invented it but it wont' have been like we know it today, it will have just been comacted mud in those days, therefore will hve been good for horses and won't have been very expensive thus no need for road tax, it will have just been made my mudpackers.
 

tyred

Squire
Location
Ireland
The other issue being that most horse owners own a large 4x4 to pull the horse box and they do pay "road" tax on that. SO they have paid for the road.:rolleyes:

Besides, just as a motorist has to pay taxes on petrol/diesel, a horse needs feeding which also has VAT on it:laugh:
 

bonj2

Guest
yeah but it wasn't called tarmac back then was it - it was called the 'mcadam system of road building' apparently. Not my words.
 

bonj2

Guest
tyred said:
The other issue being that most horse owners own a large 4x4 to pull the horse box and they do pay "road" tax on that. SO they have paid for the road.:evil:

Besides, just as a motorist has to pay taxes on petrol/diesel, a horse needs feeding which also has VAT on it:laugh:

a horse needs feeding on hay which has to be transported hundreds of miles for purely political reasons balanced precariously on a dangerous lorry which it might fall off at any moment.
 
bonj said:
a horse needs feeding on hay which has to be transported hundreds of miles for purely political reasons balanced precariously on a dangerous lorry which it might fall off at any moment.

Bagged Horse feed and bagged haylage is transported hundreds of miles on artics as both haylage and the feeds are made under very strict conditions both out in the fields and in the factories. Bailed hay is rarely moved more than 20 or 30 miles as nearly all farms make their own as it is only grass at the end of the day. Sometimes at the end of the winter you might see a lorry on the motorway who has bought surplus hay, but this is usually for cattle. Horse owners are mostly individuals and can manage with about 40-50 bales of hay per animal for the entire winter if they are being kept on limited grazing, and will only buy half a dozen bales if they get their estimation wrong.
 

tyred

Squire
Location
Ireland
bonj said:
a horse needs feeding on hay which has to be transported hundreds of miles for purely political reasons balanced precariously on a dangerous lorry which it might fall off at any moment.

I grew up on a farm. I know what hay is. There is almost certainly fertilizers spread on the land. The government get VAT from that. The machinery used to make the hay had to be bought and have tax paid on the purchase price. If it is transported by road, the lorry transporting it will have paid road tax as well as the fuel duty. Virtually everyone pays tax in some shape or form and therefore virtually everyone has contributed to the upkeep of the roads.
 

bonj2

Guest
tyred said:
I grew up on a farm. I know what hay is. There is almost certainly fertilizers spread on the land. The government get VAT from that. The machinery used to make the hay had to be bought and have tax paid on the purchase price. If it is transported by road, the lorry transporting it will have paid road tax as well as the fuel duty. Virtually everyone pays tax in some shape or form and therefore virtually everyone has contributed to the upkeep of the roads.

why can't they just make the hay on the same farm that the horse lives and save all that bother? Or better still, why can't the horse just eat grass and apples?
and they don't NEED fertiliser, horses survived perfectly well for hundreds of years before it was invented.
 
bonj said:
why can't they just make the hay on the same farm that the horse lives and save all that bother? Or better still, why can't the horse just eat grass and apples?
and they don't NEED fertiliser, horses survived perfectly well for hundreds of years before it was invented.

The grass grows far faster than can be grazed in that size of field in the summer and is either turned by the farmer into silage for his cattle or hay which he sells to us or at the market usually around may or june, and then in september for the winter.

The rule of thumb is one horse in one acre of grazing. I keep 2 in a 5 acre field, and they have mostly grazed it down over the winter. I think if push came to shove, then we could have had another animal in the 5 acres, but the grass and ground under it would have been fairly buggered by the end of the winter, and the horses would drop their condition (starve) between Christmas and March/April. Hay is the best of the grass at the peak of its growing cycle with all of the goodness this brings, and that is why it is cut at specific times and kept when either the grass in the field has been grazed down, or the animals have to be brought off to avoid turning them to quagmires.

As for fertilizer, the farmer was harrowing our field this evening to get rid of the dung. He will do this a few times a year and this helps aerate the soil and saves us having to poo pick a very large area.
 
Top Bottom