How does a Welsh pony open a five bar gate in the middle of the night?

O

oldie48

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He lifts it off it's hinges. Rose and Fatty took an unaccompanied trip out last night, possibly on their way to Malvern to do some shopping or more probably in search of better grazing than either of them need or would be good for them. OH's birthday surprise was looking out the window to see the gate on the floor and the field empty. They are now safely home as an early rising neighbour found them on the road and popped them into an empty field but hadn't realised they are mine. Not the best way to start the day driving round the lanes half dressed!pj_odNIMGy2gC-JIRstnokztLhEuYJS2SEWT5VVJw4WarP-mEQdpMHWRsmd9Lsl9dFYvO6-8ikOTnw1VIL3QJGWR1gc0hA...jpg
 
Doesn’t surprise me - once had a part Welsh 12.1 who was in a field with 3 bars across the gate entrance. He learnt that he could dislodge the middle one with his neck and then jump through the other two to escape!

In the horse walker he realised that if he nudged the panel in front it would start to swing and then he could join the horse in front of him by ducking under it.?
 
Glad all well after a big fright! We had an incident when I had a temporary pony companion.......... also Welsh! They had acres of field on a hill side but to get there we had to walk them down the side of a huge hay field. Farmer also ran a small caravan site really close by. One morning one of the (lovely) caravaners was banging wildy on my front door....... he had been an RSPCA inspector once so not a townie and knew the score......."the ponies are in the hay, I thought I knew where you lived so came to let you know!" I whizzed down there post haste expecting to find the gate opened at the latch end (not impossible to make a silly mistake) only to find to my amazement that it had been lifted clean off the hinges at the hinge end. This was a really heavy farm gate and needed a considerable amount of strength to lift and push against the growing grass the other side. I reckon the Welshie had been scratching his bum and had managed to lift it. I was concerned about random trouble makers though so installed chains and padlocks each end. Thank heavens for these helpful people in theses situations!!
 
My late cob mare was a pro at lifting gates off hinges. She delighted on letting herself and her field mates into the lush fields beyond the gate when at livery.
 
I had a little welshie who was a bugger to keep in a field, he knew that if you rugged him the electric fence couldn’t zap him, he also worked out how to lie down and shuffle under the lower bar of fencing, consequently all our fencing ended up as 6 rail post and rail.
Oh and he could undo bolts on stable doors and had even worked out how to undo a kick bolt from inside the stable.
 
The Fuzzy Furry said:
What a scare for you!
I'd def get the hinges turned when you rehang it. Oh, and a nice plaited baler twine rope tied on the outside of the other end!
Click to expand...

When you suggest turning the hinges, do you just mean mounting the top hinge upside down?

Looking at this page, especially the parts described at top and bottom hooks, I imagine a hinge with an upright (pintle?) that has a threaded portion at the top, so the hinge swings on an unthreaded "shank" and then you could put a washer followed by two nuts, one tightened against the other to allow the other part (barrel? gudgeon?) to swing freely but to lift the gate off, you'd need to first of all remove the two nuts.

Or, if the upright is long enough, drill a hole through it and put a linchpin or R-clip through it.
 
The micro cob (not Welsh but there's Dartmoor trouble maker in there....) has lifted 2 hates off hinges whilst itching her back legs.

My friend's welshie let himself out of stable at night and into someone else's feed room. Luckily she also had a fatty so he stuffed himself on chaff.

Glad your neighbour found them before they got into any more trouble!
 
Keith_Beef said:
When you suggest turning the hinges, do you just mean mounting the top hinge upside down?

Looking at this page, especially the parts described at top and bottom hooks, I imagine a hinge with an upright (pintle?) that has a threaded portion at the top, so the hinge swings on an unthreaded "shank" and then you could put a washer followed by two nuts, one tightened against the other to allow the other part (barrel? gudgeon?) to swing freely but to lift the gate off, you'd need to first of all remove the two nuts.

Or, if the upright is long enough, drill a hole through it and put a linchpin or R-clip through it.
Click to expand...
pretty sure she means literally just the top hinge up side down, such as:

 
What a scare !

Got to love a Welsh. A few weeks ago I heard a metallic banging, which given I live in the middle of nowhere, was unusual. Went outside to see what had happened, expecting to find perhaps a loose door banging, or at the least the norty welsh lad throwing stones at his water trough. But no, he was standing at the gate. Well, not actually at the gate. On the gate. His front feet were on the 4th or 5th rung up, and he stood there looking thoroughly pleased with himself. I wasn't sure what to do first - faint, vomit, or run. Luckily the large amount of zero's on the end of the vet bill I was seeing in front of my eyes brought me back to earth, and having made his presence felt, the norty welsh lad simply walked his feet back down the rails, onto solid ground. Needless to say, 3 hours later, every gate on the place had a plywood board fixed to it, to stop such shenanigans.

They do it on purpose.
 
We had a wily cob that would do that if he was disgusted by the lack of lush grass in his field.
It was a trick he learnt as a 2 yr old. It saved his life and that of his field mates. Once out on the road, the RSPCA were able to rescue them. He was very close to death and his owner got 4 months in prison.
 
milliepops said:
pretty sure she means literally just the top hinge up side down, such as:

Click to expand...
Both hinges are reversed on my main gate.
Bottom one pointed down, gate slipped onto it and heavy duty nut then screwed on, then gate lifted and chocked whilst upper hinge is fitted point down as above.
I prefer threaded heavy duty hinges :)
 
We had a text from a friend the other morning at 7am saying "I just biked past your house and there's a horse on the road. A big brown one. Just thought I'd let you know." A text! She could have phoned/knocked on the door ffs...

Cue OH and I jumping into wellies in our PJs and running down to the fields. Our 23yr old (Welsh!) companion horse fancied the long grass on the driveway so simply pushed the fence over and stepped out onto the road. My ISH was still in the field but sweating like a pig as she paced up and down... She didn't want to step over the scary monster fence on the ground, but also didn't like her best friend out of reach. I shudder to think where they would have ended up if they had both got out!

Poor OH was out replacing fence posts before work, mumbling about making glue under his breath...
 
I'm so glad that you found them safe and sound. And a big Happy birthday to your husband!

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Oh my goodness! What a scare!

I once had a welsh mountain pony who removed the gate in to the hay barn and pulled every single bale outside. I found him stood there munching away looking extremely pleased with himself!
 
Hollow laugh...It’s not just Welsh ponies ....we were once away on holiday and the 2 TBs let themselves out of a padlocked gate and got onto the road. Passing neighbour who had horses themselves rounded them up then had to ring around the village to work out who was looking after the horses while we were away... Thank god I only found out once we were home and horses were fine..
 
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