If you see something dangerous, speak up! Please all read

milliepops

milliepops

Wears headscarf aggressively
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Firstly, in case you don't read any further, a plea from me. If you see something that could be potentially dangerous on someone else's property, please say something to them, don't worry about offending them - just do it.

It's something that I find difficult if the danger is not immediate - just something a bit dodgy etc, but after this evening I will never feel awkward about it again!

Secondly, please, please don't use baths as water troughs in the field. Please save up and get a proper trough.

Many people will be able to see where this is going, but just in case... The hunter that I look after during the season is stabled at our yard and turned out in the owner's field next door. The owner has a bath in the field as a water trough and I have made weak attempts to get him to take it out but he didn't see it as a problem. Today the horse had a freak accident and sliced the skin off her foreleg. I've just spent the evening trying to patch her up, waiting for the vet, watching him stitch her together and now keeping fingers crossed that it will take. He wasn't too hopeful.:(

I just wish I had been more vocal about the flaming bath. It might never have caused a problem - it has been fine all winter, but not today.

Quite often on here, people post pictures of their yards and a few people might mention aspects that aren't ideal, pointing out potential hazards. The OP has been offended by this on several occasions. I have always stayed out of these threads. Not any more! Please, everyone - it's not your fault if they don't act on it, but do speak out and you might help to prevent an accident. We shouldn't take offence if someone is trying to be helpful :)

Oh, by the way, re baths - while the vet was suturing, he told me about a pony that drowned in a bath - got it's headcollar stuck and panicked. It's just not worth it. (our fields all have plastic troughs :rolleyes:)
 
Absolutely agree!!

I work in an industry that is VERY safety conscious and we have a system of reporting dangerous problems or potential dangerous problems, that way we can try to prevent accidents. This is partially driven by the safety obligations of a multi-national company and the more stringent scrutiny they are subject to. I have found though, that in smaller businesses, the safety precautions and risk assessments leave a lot to be desired.
Now I know that a lot of small businesses including livery yards don't have the sort of money the larger companies do to implement safety ideas, but if you don't speak up you don't know if there may be a £2.50 solution.

There is a thing called the Birds triangle which basically translates to mean the more problems you report and look into, the more likely you are to reduce the chance of a serious accident happening.
 
The thing is, you see them in fields quite often :( . I'm hoping in this case that the horse will make a good recovery.. eventually... so it's not too disastrous as she missed the arteries and tendons etc. Could have been a much different outcome.
 
Roody2 said:
There is a thing called the Birds triangle which basically translates to mean the more problems you report and look into, the more likely you are to reduce the chance of a serious accident happening.
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That makes a lot of sense. I guess a lot of time, people just hope for the best because it is awkward/expensive/annoying to have to fix things or make better arrangements. :( Worth making that bit of extra effort though.
 
I watch my neighbour's foals (well I suppose they're yearlings now) climbing into the baths in their fields or standing with one foreleg in banging their foot on the bath to make an interesting noise. I have commented, but she has had baths in fields with horses for 40 years and doesn't feel it's a problem.

But then this is the same person who makes her child dress up in hat and body protector to ride her pony with saddle and bridle but seems to think that if said child is riding bareback with two leadropes off a headcollar it's fine to have no hat and back protector:confused:
 
A friends horse was left out in the field with a headcollar (something i NEVER do) and a bath. She got it caught on the bath, which was empty, and dragged it across the field. The poor horses face was cut to shreds :(
 
poor mare.
the lady i sold one of my horses to uses a bath as a water trough in the field. i've told her a few times that it is really dangerous but she's convinced it's okay. she now has my girl's foal in there too... but honestly, once you've expressed a serious concern, what can you do? she won't accept that it's dangerous until some poor beast has injured itself on it..

years ago i used to have a bath in the yard, just for soaking haynets. tied a horse up near it and turned my back for about 20 secs to grab a hoof pick, turned back and he'd sliced his forearm open on it, enough to need stitches.
lesson learnt...
 
kerilli said:
but honestly, once you've expressed a serious concern, what can you do?
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Well, nothing I suppose, but at least you feel like you really did try. :( Easier on your conscience if something did happen (not that it helps if something did go wrong, but you get my drift) - and if a couple of different people also mentioned it then perhaps it would sink in before there was an accident.
 
A close neighbour breeds up market dressage horses and one of the youngsers had to be put down because it kicked at a metal water trough and fractured a leg. Now they have plastic water troughs in their fields. Baths and metal water troughs are very dangerous so if you have any replace them with a plastic water trough. They are not expensive and may save your horse from having a serious injury. (Paxton make some very nice plastic water troughs and large plastic stable corner automatic drinkers).
 
Are these not just freak accidents though?:confused:

I do understand what you are saying and agree that its important to make your horses fields safe and secure...but in 30 yrs around horses I have never known or seen of a horse hurting itself on a bath or metal trough. I have used both and , with the bath, as long as the taps are off they should really be ok. It stands to reason that would check for any sharp bits etc as you would with anything and I think leaving a headcollar on in the field is more of the issue with the one that got caught up and drowned.
 
If you go to shops that sell building supplies you can buy big plastic plasterers' baths, which make really good watertroughs. They are nice and light if you need to move them and cheap.
 
I do think turning out in a non-field safe headcollar is dangerous.
As for baths- well, I have never seen one in a field with the taps left on, that would be bizarre. I consider a it nice bit of eco-conscious recyling, myself. I am now worrying about metal baths, however - I think I will stick to fibreglass.
 
Arabelle said:
I do think turning out in a non-field safe headcollar is dangerous.
As for baths- well, I have never seen one in a field with the taps left on, that would be bizarre. I consider a it nice bit of eco-conscious recyling, myself. I am now worrying about metal baths, however - I think I will stick to fibreglass.
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Ahhh, now you have made me worry! We have cast baths in our field and I was reading this thinking 'oh, ours are ok, they are cast, have no sharp edges and the taps have been removed' I would have thought fibreglass were more of a risk because they can put their legs through them (although we have used them in the past with no problems)

I think horses are risks just by their nature, we take every effort to make sure they are safe and that we don't put them at risk by turning out in the field in headcollars etc but then something happens that makes you have to re think your whole strategy
 
hch4971 said:
Ahhh, now you have made me worry! We have cast baths in our field and I was reading this thinking 'oh, ours are ok, they are cast, have no sharp edges and the taps have been removed' I would have thought fibreglass were more of a risk because they can put their legs through them (although we have used them in the past with no problems)

I think horses are risks just by their nature, we take every effort to make sure they are safe and that we don't put them at risk by turning out in the field in headcollars etc but then something happens that makes you have to re think your whole strategy
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As it happens - I just spoke to my mum and she made exactly the same comment you did about fibreglass baths. My mum has kept horses for probably double the amount of time many people on this forum have been alive, so I give her views respect.

I think you are right, we can just do our best. Just about every horse field in rural Scotland has a bath in it and the horses generally appear to have four legs - maybe they are cannier horses!
 
I'm worried too now. My YO has a bath in every paddock ... and I have a TB ("if it's going to happen it'll happen to a TB").

What inexpensive alternatives are there?
 
Last night I was watching Para Driving on H&C TV - one horse put its foot through one of those flexi trugs (which I use) & damaged a tendon trying to get it off. Is anything really safe with a horse?
 
Have to agree with you. Also headcollars left on horses in the field/horsewalker/stable, people tying horses to solid objects (have been guilty in the past), people not checking paddocks for potential hazards prior to turning out, people using water buckets with metal handles, using nylon headcollars that won't ever break in an emergency, hacking out without wearing flourescent gear, putting horses next to barbed wire fencing, people using crates as mouting blocks, the list is endless. I think when you have had near misses or seen accidents happening to others it makes you more aware of what can happen, but every now and again a freak accident can catch up on you, like my horse getting his shoe stuck in a tub truck handle, or getting a broom stuck up his bum from stepping on the base and then leaning back to rub his tail on the wall!! Yes, it really happened!
 
applecart14 said:
Have to agree with you. Also headcollars left on horses in the field/horsewalker/stable, people tying horses to solid objects (have been guilty in the past), people not checking paddocks for potential hazards prior to turning out, people using water buckets with metal handles, using nylon headcollars that won't ever break in an emergency, hacking out without wearing flourescent gear, putting horses next to barbed wire fencing, people using crates as mouting blocks, the list is endless. I think when you have had near misses or seen accidents happening to others it makes you more aware of what can happen, but every now and again a freak accident can catch up on you, like my horse getting his shoe stuck in a tub truck handle, or getting a broom stuck up his bum from stepping on the base and then leaning back to rub his tail on the wall!! Yes, it really happened!
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Sorry..but I just couldnt help but laugh at that last bit!! My TB has done the shoe thing..forever standing on his feet & pulling his shoes off also. But the broom up the bum..I hope he didnt do himself any damage!

We also have an old bath as a trough as well as a metal trough in the field. Again we never have had any trouble with either. Currently one 'trough' is an old plastic dustbin, bailer twined to the fence! :eek:
 
I may have missed this but how exactly did the horse injure itself on the bath. I have heard of taps causing problems, but presume in the case the oP mentions it was the actual bath.
 
I always make sure horses cant reach long handled brooms from over their stable doors. Read of one once in H & H which was playing with the broom, it had the end of it in its mouth and was tossing his head up and down. He must have banged the brush end down on the floor and the handle pierced the roof of his mouth. Had to be put to sleep!
 
Poor mare. I do have a bath in one of my fields, but it's an old cast iron one, with edges curled right over (designed to be free-standing). It's criminal, really, as it was probably worth a lot of money at one time! I will double check that the edges cannot slice when I go there after work, but like I say, it's an old, possibly victorian, one.
 
I used to be on a yard that had so many sloppy practices it was scary.....now I'll admit that I am very safety conscious (partly because of my job, partly because I have a very silly unpredictable horse :) ) but I was laughed at when I shut gates behind me, removed bikes, skateboards, footballs etc from the tie up areas and asked that the YO toddler grandchildren didn't play UNDER the horse especially in bare feet! I kid you not.

Scarily, I had a conversation with the YO (when I was told I was being silly because "the insurance would cover any accidents") and I pointed out that their insurance wouldn't pay out unless they could prove that they had taken all reasonable precautions including risk assessments - what's them, says she - that safe practices where both notified to the liveries and enforced.....but this is the lady who when she was told that the tack room was left unlocked overnight said "that's ok, you all have your tack insured don't you" and couldn't seem to grasp that it was only covered if the bl**dy tack was locked up.

I left last year and while I know this winter was hard, people who were still there told me that when the field troughs froze in the worst of the weather, the 30 grass liveries had 2 plastic dustbins for water, filled once daily.....no wonder there were 6 colic cases in 2 weeks, sadly one horse died.

It's not as if these people won't spend money because they will but not on anything that can't be seen from their kitchen window but they just aren't prepared to look beyond their noses and think ahead......
 
No luckily he didn't do any harm but it was scary seeing him bucking like crazy whilst tied up with a broom protruding from between his butt cheeks. About a million to one chance of that ever happening, but if its going to happen to anyone it would have to happen to one of my horses!
 
I find it absolutely frightening what state some people's fields are in around me.
Most of the paddocks have sheep wire fencing. Fine if it is tensioned and in good repair but most isn't. There is bits and bobs of machinery, old sheep mineral buckets, elctric fencing etc, etc.
I spend a small fortune on electric fencing just to keep my lot away from all this but I seem to be the only one...
However, the most dangerous thing of all , IMO, is back shoes on horses. I'm afraid I refuse to share a field with a horse with back shoes on.

I do agree with OP in that we should all voice our opinions over what we see and I do try to but some people just don't see the dangers the same until something happens and look at me like I'm a fusspot, whereas I spend my life looking out for things and would be really grateful to anyone who had noticed something I had missed:)
 
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