Bloody pony pulled down all the fencing!

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zoon

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Just need to rant! And a bit of a warning to everyone else really!

Was grooming big lad and little pony - they are kept at home and I tied them to the gate posts at the top of the field as it was shaded up there and roasting hot down the bottom where the stables are. Tied to baling twine of course, never directly to the gate. Pony must have got fed up as he is normally fine and falls asleep being groomed and he pulled back suddenly. Can't have been anything scarey as big lad is a wimp and will spook at the littlest thing - he stood calmly being groomed until little pony pulled back and instead of twine snapping, gate post broken at the bottom! Both ran backwards and pulled the other gate post over and took a whole line of fencing too. Neither pieces of twine broke and both horses were still attached to the posts. Luckily we managed to stop them only a few metres away and free them.

I for one will never be using twine again - going to invest in some of those equitie things. Fencing looked and felt totally secure, but on closer inspection had rotted away just below ground level. Not cheap posts either, these were pressure treated that isn't meant to rot!

So new gate posts are ordered and fencing is somehow held up by other bits of wood etc. Hoping line of leccy fencing will keep them away until new posts arrive!
 
Are Equitie those rubbery things?

I used them for the same reason, but all it seemed to do was teach all my horses to pull back and break away. :(
 
Reminds me of somthing my mare did, she was tied to very thin baler twine and she jumped back pulled the wall off and galloped off down the yard :p :D
 
The big lad is always snapping baling twine - he just turns his head to look around and doesn't even realise he's done it; just stands as if he's still tied up. But tiny little pony manages to take down 2 solid oak 8" gate posts, the gate, 5 x 4" round posts and the stock fencing in between and the baling twine doesn't budge! Dangerous stuff!
 
Yes, always use an Equitie or something similar. Glad it was only the gateposts which got broken, you do hear some horror stories. I did read that baling twine was safer if you cut at least half of it but I still would never trust that it would break in an emergency personally.
 
I agree it can be dangerous stuff. I've seen baler twine hold firm when a 30 year old horse pulled back, but her headcollar snapped instead ....... When we do use it, we pull it in half so it's thinner. That seems to do the trick.
 
IME the Equi-Tie things are useless; my boy knows just how hard he's got to pull to break them and I've spent a fortune replacing the damn things.

I now use the Libby's field headcollar, which instead of the normal fastening has a velcro bit - and he hasn't pulled back in it. You have to remember not to lead them on the roads with it though! as you don't want it coming undone at the wrong moment.
 
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