Horse pushing through his door

J

jenni87

New User
Joined
8 May 2011
Messages
4
Visit site
I don't know if anybody has had this problem before but I could really do with some help? I have a 6yr old gelding who is 16.3hh, he has learnt that if he puts enough weight on the door it will come undone, we've had to replace the bolt a few times now and I'm worried about his safety. He only really does it if everything else has gone out and I'm not down yet, but with them having 24hr grazing everyone is out at different times!!! I don't know whether maybe a weave grill might help?

Any ideas??
 
My 17hh WB beast used to do this and I often used to come up and find her in the car park!

The stables are wood and the bolts metal, so if she leaned hard enough the wood would give.

I got some heavy duty bots and screws and put 4, yes 4 on her door! 3 slide bolts spaced out and 1 kick bolt at the bottom. This seemed to do the trick.
 
Ill try that, thanks!! Just at my wits end with him, he only goes down to the field on the off chance he actually gets out, just worried incase he gets out and gets loose!
Thanks
 
Once mine realised it wasn't as easy to push through she gave up. But she is a lazy oik!

Has he got any stable toys to keep him occupied? Mine only used to break out shortly before I was due to arrive, basically when she was bored and had nothing left to eat.
 
Have you thought about putting slip rail inside ???
or trailer back coated chain??

we have slip rails top and bottom inside the stables so doors can be open but keep horse inside
if you want pictures of our let me know
 
Botters- I've just got him one,he is similar,I'd left him in for a lesson,went down at 12 n he'd already done it! Will bolt up his door a few more times as well!he did it a few times last year but I thought he'd grown out of it!
Leviathan- picas would be great thanks,any help would be appreciated,he's a fab young horse in every other respect but this has really got me at wits end!
 
Botters- I've just got him one,he is similar,I'd left him in for a lesson,went down at 12 n he'd already done it! Will bolt up his door a few more times as well!he did it a few times last year but I thought he'd grown out of it!
Leviathan- picas would be great thanks,any help would be appreciated,he's a fab young horse in every other respect but this has really got me at wits end!
 
If he was on my yard, he would have manners beaten into him and a strip of electric tape attached to a tractor battery on the inside of every building he ever went into, until he learnt to be respectful.

Door and gate barging is dangerous and I cannot bear it.

Just my view and no offence meant.
 
Hi


ok here goes these can be put at what ever height , this height is base on a 16.1.
metal slip rail brackets come from robinsons.

http://www.robinsonsequestrian.com/factfinder/search/result/?q=slip+rails


There is a shortage of pins so you can use long bolts as i have. You need to drill a hole through the rail so the pin goes through the slip rail (which 2 out of the 3 you have already holes in). Then the pin goes through the rail and through the bottom of the slip bracket . They come in packs of 3 two with holes each side of door and the 3rd one is use when in resting positions not in use as u see in picture.

You can use wooden bits also as shown in las pictures instead of the metal bracket.


This picture shows slip rail across the door and a long bolt instead of the pin supplied. There is no way horse can get slip rail down unless the pin is not in place.
bars009.jpg



This picture shows bars across the door in place

bars008.jpg


from the inside looking out
bars007.jpg


slip rails in resting position out of the way of the horse two different stables
bars006.jpg


bars003.jpg

left hand

bars002.jpg



rail in resting place right hand side of door
bars005.jpg


left hand side of door this stable has wooden brackets instead of metal ones on the left but metal on the right
bars001.jpg



looking down through hole in bracket and hole in rail where pin goes
bars011.jpg


wooden rail in the wooden bracket
bars010.jpg


last picture the actual pins you get and how the pin goes imagine the rain in the middle

002.jpg


any ? please ask :D
 
Last edited:
sorry my haste typing .

imagine the rail going through the middle.

The bottom rail also serves to reduce horses kicking the door as the hoof cant reach the door without the leg touching the rails first. Makes so much difference.
 
I used 2 by 1/1/2 inch rails first but a big horse prob better using a 4 by 2 rail.:) which is what i photo graphed but u will see in pics 2 4 7 there are some of the old ones which are thinner not as good
 
Last edited:
I echo the slip rail idea, but would not have them inside the stable - I'm not a fan of too much ironmongery inside - it only takes one horse to bash itself! Also - unless your doors close flush, you are also left with a gap between skip rails and door which could trap a leg.

I have used sliprails - but attached to the outside with bolts through the full thickness of the walls. Worked a charm.
 
Auslander said:
I echo the slip rail idea, but would not have them inside the stable - I'm not a fan of too much ironmongery inside - it only takes one horse to bash itself! Also - unless your doors close flush, you are also left with a gap between skip rails and door which could trap a leg.

I have used sliprails - but attached to the outside with bolts through the full thickness of the walls. Worked a charm.
Click to expand...

Fair enough.

But we have ironmongery inside the stable , each horse has a rug rack inside each horse has a trunk inside under the rug rack. No problems all the liveries keep their grooming kits within the stables too.

Yes there is a gap between the slip rails and the door thats the whole point as the horse cant kick the door. One of mine also wears hobbles at night as he kicks the door above the rail. As for leg trapped they have been installed since we moved here 1996 never hand a leg trapped, two of the stables with wooden brackets were there before we moved.

The only thing we have had is one horse chewing the bar which broke and was replaced
 
Leviathan said:
Fair enough.

But we have ironmongery inside the stable , each horse has a rug rack inside each horse has a trunk inside under the rug rack. No problems all the liveries keep their grooming kits within the stables too.

Yes there is a gap between the slip rails and the door thats the whole point as the horse cant kick the door. One of mine also wears hobbles at night as he kicks the door above the rail. As for leg trapped they have been installed since we moved here 1996 never hand a leg trapped, two of the stables with wooden brackets were there before we moved.

The only thing we have had is one horse chewing the bar which broke and was replaced
Click to expand...

Different strokes for different folks I guess. I prefer my stables to be as free of fittings as possible to minimise the risk of injury. I've seen one horse injured by trapping a leg in a gap that technically shouldnt have been large enough, and had one with eye injuries from a flippin tie ring. Not much in 30 years of horse ownership/working iwth horses - but two times too many in my opinion.

Hobbles? Overnight, unsupervised? Words fail me! If they are short enough to stop him kicking the door, how does the poor thing lie down? I'd rather attach a rubber mat to the inside of the door and let him bang tbh.
 
Auslander said:
Hobbles? Overnight, unsupervised? Words fail me! If they are short enough to stop him kicking the door, how does the poor thing lie down? I'd rather attach a rubber mat to the inside of the door and let him bang tbh.
Click to expand...

Yes over night he gets up and down very easily he has worn them for many years. They are professional hobbles with enough distance to walk but not enough to lift his leg high up over the bar and kick, he has rubber mats on his door already makes no difference. I have used electric fence tape , he just puts his foot on it and flattens it to the floor.

You would like to let him bang would you ?? even if your bedroom was 7 feet from his door and you would here bang bang bang bang all night long , then have a horse with concussion laminitis???

No thankyou I have exhausted all means to stop him this is the only way

He just doesn't kick light he wam's the door

I am used to people disapproving Sounds horrendous to us Brits, but the Americans use hobbles allot even for traveling.

My lad is one of those no phase horses who doesn't scare and is always looking for a way to do naughty things, he is like a squirrel and he works most things out.
 
Last edited:
Leviathan said:
Yes over night he gets up and down very easily he has worn them for many years. he has rubber mats on his door already makes no difference.

You would like to let him bang would you ?? even if your bedroom was 7 feet from his door and you would here bang bang bang bang all night long , then have a horse with concussion laminitis???

No thankyou I have exhausted all means to stop him this is the only way
Click to expand...

He wouldn't get concussion related injuries if there was a sufficiently thick rubber mat attached to the door. If he was banging the door all night near my bedroom window, I would replace the door with slip rails/chains, review the arrangements for his accommodation (he obviously isn't happy stabled - maybe a barn/pen if he can't be turned out) or move bedrooms. I see the value in hobbling for short periods of time for certain reasons related to safety, but not as a long term lifestyle thing. You may have been doing it for years, but that doesn't make it right.
 
Auslander said:
He wouldn't get concussion related injuries if there was a sufficiently thick rubber mat attached to the door. If he was banging the door all night near my bedroom window, I would replace the door with slip rails/chains, review the arrangements for his accommodation (he obviously isn't happy stabled - maybe a barn/pen if he can't be turned out) or move bedrooms. I see the value in hobbling for short periods of time for certain reasons related to safety, but not as a long term lifestyle thing. You may have been doing it for years, but that doesn't make it right.
Click to expand...

Doesn't make it wrong either when he is happy wearing them. Continuous banging is not good for the hooves or the structure.(I have one in for laminitis now) .In the 46 years i been in horses I have seen 5 horses PTS due to damage in the hoof caused by years of banging and pawing .
Its nothing to do with not being happy he has his mum next door he just a little git sometimes. He does it allot for attention too as he knows if he bangs enough I will come out. No way I can move bedrooms unless i sleep in the bath - toilet or kitchen this house is too small.

As you say you need to be in this situation everyone has different views.
He has NEVER injured himself in them moves around his large stable well gets up and down fine. He only wears them winter nights as during the summer they are out at night and in in day time and then he does not wear them.
 
I spent along time going on 4 different horse forums for ideas tried them all ,and left this to the end.

Now I get piece ,he is happy as I am not coming out shouting at him.

So thats where I leave it :) I respect your views. Now must go get the horses in including the little git .:D
 
The last couple of comments made me remember a cob we had years ago.

Cracking showcob that was the most intelligent horse I have ever known and the biggest guts god put breath into.

Nothing kept him in, if he could not kick the door down he would back up and gallop at it like a charging hippo, hitting it with his chest. He could unpick any bolt or gate clasp. Walled paddock - no problem, much to the hunstmans disgust, walked straight through, bricks everywhere. We had a metal door made for him in kennels, that stopped him for a while until the door frame and bricks gave way and the whole lot came down.

If he could not loosen the door with persistant banging and charging he would turn his arse and wallop it with his hinds.

To ride he was a rolls royce, super manners, jump like a stag and won loads.
At home a nightmare, at a show a saint, out hunting the best you could ride.

The little shite would not stay in the field regardless of how much grass he had or friends. Next door was always better and I lost count of how many times we fetched him back from other peoples ground. He lived a long life but there was a certain feeling of relief when he was on the kennel floor.
 
jacey 2012 said:
:D Hi Folks my first post.


We have one on my yard who has to wear hobbles at night. Took a day or so to get used to them now he is fine. He has worn them 13 years with no injury to himself at all. To the majority this seems extreme but sometimes you have go that route if all else fails.:)
Click to expand...

Wow - I never realised that hobbling at night was so prevalent! Two people on the same thread....who'd have thunk it.
 
My mare takes doors off if her field mates go out and she is in. Tape doesn't faze her in.field, but am reluctant to try in.stable. I just out winter where possible, or make sure I am up first in morning or last at night, or she had individual turn out.
X
 
sadly i tired that with my git , he lifted his leg up and stomped down on it while it was one and wrecked it.

I have two lines of it one about face height, one about chest height, joined like a rectangle across the entire front of the stable -run from mains electric fencer - it works alright - and if they do knock it down ever I just redo it, they soon learn.
 
Like auslander, I'd never realised hobbling overnight was so common. As far as door banging all night goes, I'd be keener to figure out why the horse was doing it & try to solve it rather than physically stop it. And if that failed I'd invest in heavy rubber mats & leave it to it. Regarding walking through doors, I'd use adorable alices idea of electric, or a re-inforced (with metal) door, or a rail on outside. Or all three. Friend used to have a pony that walked through stables. Usually lived out but she kept him in before a show one night, we came down about 6am to discover he'd gone straight through the breezeblocks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top