Speaker System on our Property

[Adam Pollak]

So not sure how many of you already knew this, but I live on a horse farm/show facility. We have 3 show rings and a warm-up ring that are used for horse show events. For the shows, we have a speaker system that is wired up (very crudely through the trees). There is no amp permanently out there because of the weather, but for shows, there are many tents set up and we bring the system out when we need it. Four of the speakers used are the same Radio Shack ones in Charlie's StormAlert setup, but we also have some smaller ones.

[Charlie Davidson]

Nice little setup! Have you considered just getting some weatherproof boxes to mount the amps in? Those would eliminate the need to constantly haul the amps out for every show, and you could even have your own little siren system when you aren't using the arrays for shows, haha

[Travis]

Nice little setup! Have you considered just getting some weatherproof boxes to mount the amps in? Those would eliminate the need to constantly haul the amps out for every show, and you could even have your own little siren system when you aren't using the arrays for shows, haha

The amp system that runs those probably isn't very big/heavy or inconvenient to drag around. I'd imagine that the cost of setting up a weatherproof system wouldn't be worth the convenience. (Or have it destroyed by the salt air and hurricanes that like to drop by every couple of years.)

[Tannre]

That is a really cool speaker system. I love the RadioShack PowerHorn's, especially the 100W ones, and I am looking to buy a few. $35.99 isn't bad for a speaker, not to mention what you can do with it (Charlie's siren).

[holler]

It's the voice of the trees.

[Tannre]

It's the voice of the trees.

Mother Nature speaks...

Ha ha.

[kx250rider]

Probably a great solution for announcements in that type of situation... Without horses around, you could have fewer speaker locations, and each much louder (such as at county fairs and motocross 1/2-mile races). But with horses, as Adam and anyone with horse experience knows, that won't work because they'd freak out if one of them happened to be too close when a sudden LOUD announcement came out. Having a whole lot of less-loud speakers is ideal, in my opinion!

That's one reason why I bumped my Moorpark "test" of the Thunderbolt to noon, in place of the actual old-time 10:00 AM which Los Angeles County used. We have the horse rehab hospital at the other end of our access road, and the place 2 doors to the east has a horse breeding & training operation. At noon, all the horses are in their stalls eating lunch, and they feel secure in there, and won't freak out as easily.

And what MAGNIFICENT landscaping at your place, Adam!!!!! Perfect green lawns, perfectly pruned and cleaned palm trees.... Had I seen that, and had you wound up coming by here, I'd have been embarrassed... You can't grow a huge lawn like that here unless you devote your whole life (and life savings) to it. Here, although our avocado orchard is in good shape, the rest of the ranch is brown grass and wild (UGLY) mustard weeds. And where you least want it, BIG cactus. Usually in places where you're likely trip and fall on your butt into

Charles

[CJ]

And where you least want it, BIG cactus. Usually in places where you're likely trip and fall on your butt into.

Ouch.

I can imagine what loud sounds like your t-bolt would do to horses, they go wild at the slightest thing, some of them.

[Adam Pollak]

And what MAGNIFICENT landscaping at your place, Adam!!!!! Perfect green lawns, perfectly pruned and cleaned palm trees....

Ha! If only we actually put a lot of work in the grass. Before the rainy season started back in May, the grass was completely dead. We honestly did not have a blade of green grass and much of it turned into and dust from all the horse and people traffic. The rain really re-energizes everything and gets all the seeds going to where the grass gets out of control. Before the rain though, it actually gets to be all dead and dry to where it's a huge wildfire risk, especially from lightning strikes, so in the areas where we can, we take a firehose hooked up to a pump and just flood the ground. Really the only thing that gets done to the grass is mowing. No fertilizing (other than manure/shavings being spread around sometimes), no pesticides, no watering.

All the palm trees we have now were in when we bought the place almost 20 years ago, but most of the original ones are missing from hurricanes. There were also a lot of orange trees, but those were ripped out in hurricanes.

As for the noise issue with horses, that does get to be a little annoying sometimes. My mom's are generally fine with loud noises, but some of the boarders' horses are not. The loudest siren I've ever set off here outside is a 220 volt Model 2T on 110 volts

[thunderbolt69]

I think the trees want to talk to you but nice setup you've got there.