Horse has learned to flood stable!

Sol

Sol

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Not sure exactly what my daft animal was playing at last night, but it seems that he would rather be a sea horse? He certainly must have a fondness for water anyway given that he spent the night using his automatic drinker to entirely flood his stable. YO came in to try and figure out what he'd been up to and caught him at it even while she was in there! Sod.

Mum spent the day sorting his stable with YO's help as I was going with my friend to drop her off in Nottingham, think I may owe them a bit now :o
But how do I stop him from doing it again!? He used to tip his water bucket up too... still does occasionally. Not sure why!? He gets plenty of hay/turnout, but he does like to fiddle with things generally... but he's actually left his rugs on their racks recently for once so I'm baffled! I'd rather he played with his rugs than flooded his stable! :rolleyes:

Or am I just going to have to threaten him with permenant turnout and let him flood his field!? (he's a wuss, it wouldn't go down well!)
 
Put something in his stable to alleviate bordom.
Treat balls are good, as are carrots/apples/turnips etc hung up.
I feel for you, as I have one exactly the same!
 
He will have a bucket in there already, no doubt, although I haven't been down today I don't think my mum will be risking a repeat of this!
I am looking at getting him a new treat ball, one of the decahedron ones, as he had a purple spherical one with the screw on top - he not only took the top off, but chewed around the edge so that the top will not stay on any more. So treats stay in it all of about 3 seconds :rolleyes: Although I don't think he'll be able to have it at night, as YO's live on site, and he WILL just bang it around his stable all night! :( Worth a try though, I may speak to YO and see if maybe he could have it and she takes it out/lets me know if he's too noisy....
 
well you are very lucky that your automatic drinkers are still working... obv he is helping as keeping the water flowing in the pipes by playing!!!! would your YO be happy for you to get a flat sided bucket to clip on the wall. i would clip it on the outside of his stable door so he can drink but not play with it?? also very easy to check and top up as req.
 
Maybe try a treat ball, likits or similar to keep him occupied. My youngster used to empty his water bucket and play with it, such a pain soaking the bed and made parts of the stable like an ice rink at times last winter, so far this year it hasn't happened.
 
a friends horse did this (dont have automatic drinkers) with buckets.. she tried putting it in a tyre.. still knocked it over! So she had to get a really big bucket, put it in a tyre so it fitted in really tightly, put it in the corner of his stable, and fill it right to the top so it was really really heavy (and i mean a REALLY big bucket), and being in the corner it was nearly impossible to knock over! My chap is very annoying like that (luckily not with water bucket!), but he has one of those octagonal bordem balls, and they are really good. However it does sometimes sound like hells going down in there, as he gets so frustrated when it doesnt come out, and kicks it everywhere across the stable, kicks the walls etc... :p
 
:D This thread bought back a fond memory for me!

Last year, we had a rescue horse and he was a character, but one night, i went out, to check on them all, we had the 6 stables out back and only 5 were in use, just as well though!

Anyhoo, i went out and there was this noise, like running water, and i mean, like a waterfall! Went down each stable one at a time, got to the fourth one down and voila! Mav... Somehow, he pulled the drinker off the wall, it was attatched by the water pipe and it was over flowing EVERYWHERE! :eek:

So... We spent the next 2 hours moving what he had of his bed...He was on shavings... So we moved it all to the empty stable!

Now, my theory behind it... Mav was 3 stables from the feed so he was 3rd to be fed, he always made a noise when it was feed time, in his unique way that he did. Turns out the stable he got moved to was the stable right beside the feed room :p

Thats my story and i'm sticking to it! :cool:
 
Not sure how you can prevent it, but one of mine did this once (and only once thank goodness!) and flooded his whole stable, completely soaked himself and the water ran all the way outside to the car park which flooded and then froze overnight... yard was like a skating rink the next morning! :o Naughty boy!
 
king_of_diamonds said:
:D This thread bought back a fond memory for me!

Last year, we had a rescue horse and he was a character, but one night, i went out, to check on them all, we had the 6 stables out back and only 5 were in use, just as well though!

Anyhoo, i went out and there was this noise, like running water, and i mean, like a waterfall! Went down each stable one at a time, got to the fourth one down and voila! Mav... Somehow, he pulled the drinker off the wall, it was attatched by the water pipe and it was over flowing EVERYWHERE! :eek:

So... We spent the next 2 hours moving what he had of his bed...He was on shavings... So we moved it all to the empty stable!

Now, my theory behind it... Mav was 3 stables from the feed so he was 3rd to be fed, he always made a noise when it was feed time, in his unique way that he did. Turns out the stable he got moved to was the stable right beside the feed room :p

Thats my story and i'm sticking to it! :cool:
Click to expand...

Clever horse ;) I'd agree with that theory too! However, I'm not sure if Dante had this in mind, I have no idea where he'd go!
 
I can sympathise too - my mare pulls the bung out on the automatic drinker, and slings all trugs and 'normal' buckets, sometimes over her neighbours... In this weather she has to have a flat-backed bucket tightly chained to the wall so she can't get a swing or tilt on it. I don't think she does it for attention, just because she can and it's something to play with. But I'm not sure a toy would be the answer - I can see that getting flung at an unsuspecting neighbour!
 
Did he do it by pulling the pipe out which is connected the drinker? If yes, you could try covering the pipe with rubber or something? At the yard where I currently keep my boys, it isn't possible for the pipes to become disconnected from the drinkers as there is a sheet of rubber across the pipe, covering it.
 
2 out of the 3 youngsters do this, to the point that we thought the stables were leaking! So we gave them huge tub trugs. 1 just tips it over, the other one tips it over and then chucks the bucket over the door. So we gave them treat balls and play balls with handles. The problem youngster just chucks them over the door too! We are very lucky in that we have automatic water so they always have water, but in these temps its just not working! We are at our wits end with this one! The only thing we can think of is a dustbin filled to the brim? but when we gave him 4 plastic buckets he smashed them all over night!
 
I'm another one having this problem too with my two year old. I have had to smash loads of ice inside and out of his stable before turning him out on a few occasions too. :rolleyes:

Recently I have bought a bigger bucket thinking it would deter him as per reasons others have already mentioned - far from it. This morning there was water all over the stable inside and out with the bucket the other side of the stable bone dry. Tonight I have put a brick in it. Wonder what tomorrow will bring!! xx :D
 
Mine does the same - tips buckets and thinks it's great fun to press the auto drinker until it drips (floods :rolleyes:). I got around it by getting a bucket that clips on the wall - that one has him stumped!!

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Don't get this type though as they can lift the bucket up and off :rolleyes:

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Yeah, I think I'll be having dad put a hook on the wall for his water bucket. I'm a bit at a loss for hanging stuff in his stable though as the roof is so high! Anthing hung on the rug rails he can just pin to the wall. :confused: The only other thing i can think of is one of the swizzely likit holders that goes on the wall? But I think he'd either chew it or ignore it! :mad:
 
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