Am I caring for a monster or a horse with a warped sense of humour?

Tnavas

Tnavas

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Well we have been through the "I won't drink out of a bucket in my stable - the water is yuk!"

Then "I'll drink all my water - well most of it - as you've put molasses in it but it's far more fun to throw the bucket around and fill my lovely new shavings bed with water"

Now we have - "I've drunk the water, eaten the food, played with the bucket, soaked the bed and now I'm out of here!"

Madam has learnt that if she puts her head under the gate across her stable she can lift it enough to pop it over the top of the catch!

But mother is smart and whacked a big staple in above the loop so that the gate can't lift over!

Horse is smarter though! She was in for less than two hours last night when I got a txt from the family who live in the house adjoining the yard, they had heard a great deal of clattering, looked out of the window to see Serenity munching grass in the driveway! I race up to the paddock, road gate is always kept shut so at least she was safe.

I go to put her back to find total carnage! the gate is open and the hinge has been ripped out of the post! Damn Clydesdales - far too strong for their own good. Not a mark on horse except I swear she was smirking when I turned her back out in her paddock.

Friend will be coming tonight to see how we can fix the mess and make it Clydesdale proof!
 
And some pictures of the damage
RidingSerenity5Jan2012006.jpg
RidingSerenity5Jan2012007.jpg


The gate is fixed and an electrified tape about 1' from the ground below the door - hopefully it will stop her trying to remove the gate again

RidingSerenity5Jan2012009.jpg
 
im sorry but couldnt help but wet myself laughing at that! what a clever girl! my mum used to have one exactly the same! he would never stay put weather in the field or stable and even managed to unlock bolts on his, his friends stables and the feed shed! if its any consolation he finally grew out of at the ripe old age of 30 so maybe your will to! :D x
 
The 'Great Escape' cont!

Went back at 10:30pm to check on horse - gate opened wide and horse standing inside glaring at the 1' high tape - the power of electric fencing! lol

This morning I opened the gate and she jumped out over the wire! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

And this is attempt no 3 to keep the darling in her stable

RidingSerenity5Jan2012010.jpg


I've just brought her in and left her snorting at her new gate!
 
2 lines of electric tape - for door/gateway with handles, just inside stable, literally 2 inches inside.

Had 1 large ruffian who box wrecked, so that I had a single line of tape round the stable to make it a complete circuit :rolleyes:

Ref the water, can you put it in 2 heavy duty buckets & clip these to the wall?
Or lash 2 car tyres together (old lunge-lines useful for this) and then shove trug inside to keep it steady.
If not, then leave with an amount that will suffice overnight & make sure horse gets offered water before feed in the morning & make sure feed is damped v well.

Good luck - sounds like you have a job on your hands there :D
 
she obviously hates being in-cant you leave her out? btw i love the name its just sooo wrong for a clydesale with attitude!x
 
archiepoo - I'd love for her to live out but she lives on the smell of an oily rag and is a mowing machine when out. Sadly this is the only way I can keep her waistline under some control. She's worked twice a day to help too.

She is definately a Clydesdale with attitude! I love her dearly! I named her Sarah within 10miles of first seeing her as a 6 month old foal just off the hills and newly handled. My 'princess' has been just that all her life - she fills my heart when I see her and keeps me sane - when the time came for a show name Serenity seemed to be just right.
 
Oh gosh this brings back memories!! My girl was in a similar barn a few years back and again I had to resort to putting a chain around the gate as she'd worked out how to open it, then she discovered how to take the gate off it's hinges once she'd found out that she open the 'opening' end! :rolleyes: In the end I also resorted to using electric but I lashed a fence post to each end of the gate so that I could have a strand about 6-8 inches above the gate - it worked! Provided it was turned on, obviously she always knew if it wasn't or if the battery needed recharging:D

I do absolutely adore her but she's still a complete hooligan - and no clydesdale blood to blame it on either!
 
A quick update - she hasn't escaped since I put another tape up as Fuzzy Furry suggested - she is highly p****d off with me! She has worked out that if she keeps her head up she can look out over the gate.

Found that she is not a morning horse at all - she is now in 24/7 in her lead up to HOY where she will have to be in all the time. She was asleep at 7am and was not impressed to be worked before breakfast and was quite lazy. She got some grazing time while I mucked her out and made the most of it.
 
Tnavas said:
A quick update - she hasn't escaped since I put another tape up as Fuzzy Furry suggested - she is highly p****d off with me! She has worked out that if she keeps her head up she can look out over the gate.
Click to expand...

Glad it worked - its a right pain tho & I bet you will be so glad when its all over! :D

Just be careful of setting the upper tape too high, as they can over-develop the under neck muscles & then be a pain to work properly on an outline.

I'm just off to dig out the extra tape to put a very low line on my existing electric fences as I have something coming on Tuesday which will fit UNDER biggest fuzzy..... and there is no way this will stay behind 1 strand of tape :rolleyes:
 
She is adorable and I love reading about her adventures :) Thanks
Have you tried giving her a ball or other type of toy? Maybe it would keep her mind off "the great escape" :D
 
I love the last photo of her in your first post,looking back out of the stable like.. 'Hmmph! If you think you've heard the last of this,you're very much mistaken!'
 
finnywinny said:
What a shame she's only got 3 legs, otherwise she sounds fab .....
Click to expand...

She has a lovely heart shaped white patch on the invisible leg!.
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And there has been no more escape attempts since the wide tape went up. She has learnt to reach over the top for her peppermint - AND - the fence is no longer electrified but she still snorts at it when I take it down each time.

Forgot to turn the power off the other day and my poor pup - he's 7 mths old stood on the tape and howled the place down! Poor baby.
OllyandtheWool008.jpg
 
Lol! My Fell does exactly the same thing! Although she doesnt try to untie or open gates, she just sits on them! So far she has broken 2 five-bar gates!!

Pic shows the repairs of the 2nd gate before she killed it completely!!

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