Is your horse supposed to be in next doors back garden? Nightmare at 10pm!!

sophiebailey

Well-Known Member
Joined
29 March 2011
Messages
1,212
Visit site
As some of you may know my cob has become obese overnight.

Brought a grazing muzzle for him, that went down like a lead balloon. Will persevere with it but today (day 1) didn't look promising!!

So left Bailey in the bare paddock and his field mate who is a lean TB went onto the fresh paddock. My plan was to let the TB graze it down then when it's bare let Bailey on it.

(My field is an open square of 2.5 acres split into 4 with electric tape so even in separate paddocks horses can still touch over the fence etc)

Bailey had other ideas and jumped out of his paddock over a 4ft hedge and into next doors back garden. :-( :-(

Feeling disheartened :-( how am I going to keep weight off this horse if he refuses to stay in the fatty paddock and bashes his head off fence posts tryin to remove his muzzle?!

Got some more electric fence stakes coming this weekend to try and make a paradise track round the field but not confident he's going to stay in it :-(

Why are horses such a nightmare!!!
 
Couldn't see in the dark but going round when they're back off holiday with a sorry my horse ate your garden card and grovelling chocolate :-(
 
Oh no!!!! Idunno what to say but he sounds rather Mischievious (dunno if that's spelt right!)

Good luck in trying to get his weight down, I've got the opposite problem I need to get some weight on my sec d. X
 
You might have to double up the fencing stakes in height and leccy them. If you make every second one a double height and have three or four lines of fencing round the fatty paddock i doubt he will go over or through it.

I have a cobby mare who if she decides is getting out of a field without decent leccy shes gone. Shes went through plain wire, leccy tape, barbed wire, sheep fencing and post and rail :( Only thing that keeps her in now is double strand leccy twine with near enough mains zap running through it. We have to keep ontop of it though as if the battery runs dry she tests the fening periodically and as soon as shes not getting a crack shes through :(

Cobs can be a nightmare :(
 
Fulshaw girl bring her to my field I've got too much bloody grass!! Lol :o

One thing after another with this bloody horse, 2011 he was a hat rack and now he's a bloater!!
 
This made me laugh to be honest, reminds me so much of my Highland who in her younger days absolutely nothing would stop her, no respect for any type of fencing and was a regular visitor to the neighbours garden. The minute she was put on any kind of restricted grazing, Highlands don't do restricted, she was out of there.
(In my opinion neighbours garden was the one that was out of place anyway, imagine a kit house chucked up on farmland middle of nowhere, with perfectly manicured lawn and gnomes (yes gnomes and other ornamental daftness), it had been a field for years and I think my pony was just trying to prove a point.)
Anyway, she grew out of it, but it was a difficult few years.
 
If the paddock is bald how is he getting any thing to eat through the muzzle? :/ my experience of muzzles you need a little bit of growth for the horse to get hold of... So maybe if he can't eat anything he is thinking screw this! And popping out! Don't blame him really lol!
Can't you stable him for some of the time with soacked hay then put him maybe at night into the bald paddock without a muzzle so at least he can get to what little there is without stressing himself?
 
Sympathies over next doors garden, but can you set up a track around the edge f the field. He can have the track (and keep moving, to burn calories) and the TB have the centre. Should keep him more occupied and give him less of a run up to jump out :)
 
He was un muzzled in the bare paddock, muzzle was only on in The lush paddock :) gonna set up a track as soon as my fence posts arrive!!
 
You have my sympathies, I found 2 of mine in next doors garden, mind u next door had put their grass clippings next to the fence within 'leaning' reach! Once the fence gave way they decided the lawn was even more tasty! Thankfully it must have not long happened as there was no damage and no poos!
 
I resorted to having the perimeter permanently fenced with horsemesh and electric line at the top as well. Just couldn't risk it, if she got out there's a cattle grid she could go onto.

Of course now she is trying to escape by eating all of the fence posts one by one. I weep and tell her how much it all cost but she doesnt care because she is a Haflinger and she is Hungry.
 
Oh poor you :( I feel your pain! I have a lami prone escape artist who also hates muzzles.

I manage to keep my boy in his bare paddock at the moment and has only escaped a few times (luckily only into the paddock with his friends).

How bare is the paddock? If there is really not much then maybe give him a small amount of hay in there too? Or can you stable him for some of the time?

I hope you manage to keep the naughty man in!
 
When I say bare there is still plenty of grass on there, it's just not as green, thick and long as what's either side of him!! I'm trying to have him muzzled on the longer grass during the day (with his mate) then into the fatty paddock at night. Should I put some hay in the fatty paddock to keep him occupied? He doesn't really need it so not sure if it will even get eaten!!
 
We had a fence jumper she jumped the post and rail, slipped crashed through it, the fence split her sides and she died. So my advice is do what you can to discourage. Also what type of grass do you have. Most have rye grass which is too rich. Can you bring you horse in at night?
 
Can you get him some nice clean oat or barley straw for the fibre? Calorie negative but keeps him full and keeps him occupied.

I feed oat straw but although somewhat lower than unsoaked hay it definitely isn't calorie negative :-))

Wouldn't want people thinking its the equine equivalent of celery :DDDD

NB straw also low in protein and minerals so shouldn't be more than 50% of forage and should be fed with vit and min supp
 
I feed oat straw but although somewhat lower than unsoaked hay it definitely isn't calorie negative :-))

Wouldn't want people thinking its the equine equivalent of celery :DDDD


I don't want to hi-jack the thread but can I ask where you found the evidence for this statement, as I have been looking for the calorific value of oat straw and simply cannot find it. I can only find that a supplement for humans made from green 'oatstraw' in USA has a calorific value of 8 per tbspn.

Sorry OP your pony sounds to be a real problem, we used to have Section A who rolled under barbed wire regularly to get to the most miserable grass you ever saw. I'm sure she only did it because the bigger horses couldn't.
 
Top