Rose Folly
Well-Known Member
This is long - sorry!
My new livery, a (young) retired good class steeplechaser, is a delight in almost every way - except that he won't be left behind alone in the field when the other two horses go out for a ride. I'm wondering if anybody can offer advice.
Our horses are kept out 24/7 but with access to two barns. One of these is in our small stableyard, which yard leads directly onto a concrete 20 yard track to a concrete bridge spanning a brook and then out of our gate onto the road.
It's not possible to shut him in the barn. We could leave him in the stable yard, which has a metal five-barred gate shutting it off from the track, but we are scared that he will have a run at this and jump it (he was Grand National quality). The concrete bridge is kept as a no-mans-land by means of two strands of rope, simply to give incomeing/outgoing riders a bit of horse-free room as they shut the road gate.
Today his lordship was initially tied up, but broke free. One of us on foot would have liberated him when the horses were gone. In breaking free he also broke the rail to which the twine loop was attached. He was then eyeing up the stream, and the road wall behind it, with a very keen eye. If another type of hrose had done that it wouldn't have worried us, but we reckoned he meant business. He also endeavoured to break the ropes onto the road bridge. In the end my friend rode alone and I put my mare back- whereupon his lordship turned into his usual stuffed-toy-horse self and fell asleep.
Obviously this can't go on, but I'm at a loss for ideas. He's winning the battles, but at 17.2 with giraffe-long legs I can't risk his safety. Any ideas greatefully received..
My new livery, a (young) retired good class steeplechaser, is a delight in almost every way - except that he won't be left behind alone in the field when the other two horses go out for a ride. I'm wondering if anybody can offer advice.
Our horses are kept out 24/7 but with access to two barns. One of these is in our small stableyard, which yard leads directly onto a concrete 20 yard track to a concrete bridge spanning a brook and then out of our gate onto the road.
It's not possible to shut him in the barn. We could leave him in the stable yard, which has a metal five-barred gate shutting it off from the track, but we are scared that he will have a run at this and jump it (he was Grand National quality). The concrete bridge is kept as a no-mans-land by means of two strands of rope, simply to give incomeing/outgoing riders a bit of horse-free room as they shut the road gate.
Today his lordship was initially tied up, but broke free. One of us on foot would have liberated him when the horses were gone. In breaking free he also broke the rail to which the twine loop was attached. He was then eyeing up the stream, and the road wall behind it, with a very keen eye. If another type of hrose had done that it wouldn't have worried us, but we reckoned he meant business. He also endeavoured to break the ropes onto the road bridge. In the end my friend rode alone and I put my mare back- whereupon his lordship turned into his usual stuffed-toy-horse self and fell asleep.
Obviously this can't go on, but I'm at a loss for ideas. He's winning the battles, but at 17.2 with giraffe-long legs I can't risk his safety. Any ideas greatefully received..
