Always Double-Check Stall Latches
Posted by Mikki on Jan 23 2007 at 08:23 pm | Tagged as: The Barn
We haven’t had any incidents recently (knock on wood), but one of our biggest fears with the horses is that they will get out of their stalls at night. This has actually happened three times - twice with Valentine, and once with Moonshine. (Not counting the time Valentine got into Moonshine’s stall.)
The first time was pretty funny. Our barn is situated so the horses’ stalls are on the side closest to the house, with their windows facing the house. When we walk up to the barn, we walk to the south side where the big door is, open the gate and go in (there is a gate at each end of the barn, one to the driveway and one to the pasture). Usually, when we round that corner the horses’ heads are poking out of the stalls into the barn “aisle” to greet us. On this particular morning, there was an entire horse in the barn aisle, munching on hay. Apparently we (read “I”) had not latched Valentine’s stall door all the way. He didn’t seem to mind.
Just a couple of weeks later, Bill came to me one morning with our digital camera and showed me a picture on the screen. “What’s wrong with this picture?” he asked. I studied the photo of a horse grazing and suddenly realized that the pasture fence was behind the horse. “He’s on the wrong side of the fence!” I said. “She, actually,” he replied. Again, we had forgotten to check the stall door latches, this time on the outside door, and Moonshine had been wandering for who knows how long. Long enough to eat our budding corn stalks, anyway.
The last time was a fluke; Valentine actually broke his stall door open one night. But these experiences remind us: always check all your stall doors, and gates, then check them again. Better safe than sorry!
But don’t be surprised to find your horse on the wrong side of a door anyway. Some horses actually learn to open latches on their own. Ours have been nosing around the doors, and I just know we’re going to find them outside one day when we’re sure we checked those doors.
LOL! That happened here 2 weeks ago. I went out to feed Hero and was greeted by Concho (boarder) in the yard. Fortunately he’s lazy and slow, so I was able to harness & lead him back to his stall. He had a tummy ache from all the hay he got into. Make sure your grain is hidden away because they can get real sick and even die from too much.
LOL! That has happend to us before. I used to have a horse that was very smart and we had to chain her stall door so she could open it.
On an unrealted note I just wanted to let your know that Horse Approved will be hosting a Horse Lovers Blog Carnival on January 31st. I hope you will submit one of your favorite posts to this carnival. Here is a link to more information about the carnival and here is a direct link to the carnival. I hope you will be able to participate.
We keep our grain in the tack room so no problem there. And fortunately for us, almost all of our incidents happened when our lawn was super green. They don’t seem to want to go anywhere, they just want access to all that yummy green grass. Good thing!
We had a horse quite a few years ago who we nicknamed Houdini, it didn’t matter how you knotted the lead rope, he could always get himself free. We ended up having to resort to a chain if we had to time him up and leave him because he would always undo the knot that held him! Horses sure are amazing creatures!
I swear Arabians tend to be Houdinis. I have more horses that have figured out more different kinds of latches. Even the darn twins, when they’re turned out, Surprise can think of nothing she wants to do more than eat my pansies. We have to double latch the darn gate so she doesn’t get out. And then of course, Trouble is more than glad to follow.