Just had such a near miss

P

poiuytrewq

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My little old pony gets itchy, it’s not SI really but I always keep him covered with a decent Sweetitch rug as part of his management.
He alternates between a Shires and PE.
Usually wears a muzzle over top which I now think perhaps helps hold things in place.

Mr P was going out to see a fitter who’s on the yard repairing some kit so I went out too with the dogs thank god.
Saw the poor little thing was in a complete blind (literally) panic.
The ear holes had come out and the rug was over his eyes so he totally couldn’t see. He was just running blind into the electric fencing and almost falling over. He’s not the easiest to catch at the best of times, we stick to routine and he allows me to catch him between 6 and 8am and only when the others are caught and at the gate.
Got them caught but he didn’t know which direction they were or anything.
Eventually after bringing them in (which I was trying to avoid incase he completely lost his mind) he seemed to want to come to me but would freak out when we got close enough.
Got him eventually and he’s fine I think, he had a bump to his head, just skinned a patch. Took the rug off and changed into the other one.
I hate to think what would have happened had this guy not been here doing repairs.
Has anyone else ever had a SI rug do this? It seems such a lovely fit. I had once thought the neck was long but was quite pleased as it stays over his ears while grazing.
I need to think of a way to get it altered so this can’t ever happen again.
Poor poor little soul was terrified 💔
 
Mine lives in an Aussie barrier rug (similar to the shires SI one with the ear holes). Whilst he’s never had anything that scary happen, I don’t put it over his ears as it annoys him and he keeps rubbing his face/ears on his legs.

I fold the top few inches of the neck and fold backwards if that makes sense? Might be worth you having it altered to remove the ear slots and a few inches so it doesn’t go further than his ears?
 
Thank you! He is a nervy person so will probably not forget for a while!

@Comet1 my other horses have the Aussie Barrier’s too. I love them! Sadly they didn’t come small enough for this pony. I wish they still made them.
 
I've never had much luck keeping the earholes on the actual ears. I do the same as comet, fold it back. Not that mine cares when it does slip over her eyes, she just peeks out the ear holes 🤣
 
As an alternative to putting them over his ears, could you thread a fieldsafe headcollar through the ear holes so it stays up but there’s no risk of it happening again?

Horses will always find ways to hurt themselves despite us trying to think up every scenario to counteract them!
 
I also turn the ears back in and under the neck piece, some of them I have actually stitched back or removed completely. My donkeys have a habit of trying to 'undress' anyone else in the field so it would be an accident waiting to happen if they grabbed hold of the ears and tugged forward over the other one's eyes.
 
I’ve seen it happen before but thankfully the horse it happened to wasn’t bothered at all and just stood there waiting to be rescued! Has made me think about the rugs I own with ear holes though. This is the reason I won’t use the new lycra fly masks and the lycra hoods which go over the face though as I’ve heard stories of horses losing eyes because of them. Glad your pony was ok and you managed to catch and sort him!
 
poiuytrewq said:
My little old pony gets itchy, it’s not SI really but I always keep him covered with a decent Sweetitch rug as part of his management.
He alternates between a Shires and PE.
Usually wears a muzzle over top which I now think perhaps helps hold things in place.

Mr P was going out to see a fitter who’s on the yard repairing some kit so I went out too with the dogs thank god.
Saw the poor little thing was in a complete blind (literally) panic.
The ear holes had come out and the rug was over his eyes so he totally couldn’t see. He was just running blind into the electric fencing and almost falling over. He’s not the easiest to catch at the best of times, we stick to routine and he allows me to catch him between 6 and 8am and only when the others are caught and at the gate.
Got them caught but he didn’t know which direction they were or anything.
Eventually after bringing them in (which I was trying to avoid incase he completely lost his mind) he seemed to want to come to me but would freak out when we got close enough.
Got him eventually and he’s fine I think, he had a bump to his head, just skinned a patch. Took the rug off and changed into the other one.
I hate to think what would have happened had this guy not been here doing repairs.
Has anyone else ever had a SI rug do this? It seems such a lovely fit. I had once thought the neck was long but was quite pleased as it stays over his ears while grazing.
I need to think of a way to get it altered so this can’t ever happen again.
Poor poor little soul was terrified 💔
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yes with a shires highlander. The length of the neck seemed long but I put it over his ears and let him out. Went forward over his eyes and blind panic. Fortunately he was a very tame horse who worked on voice commands so he did stand on command however with anything nervous it would have been a lot worse. It was scary running down the field and praying he didn't hit anything.
 
He has worn this rug, and my other two wear ear hole rugs all summer ( 🤣 ) with no problem. Occasionally ears pop out but hey go behind them never forwards before.
His Highlander seems fine it was the PE that it happened with.
Ideally I'd like to keep the holes, as thats the feature i like and the reason I use SI rugs. I'm wondering about having the neck made shorter somehow perhaps.
 
poiuytrewq said:
He has worn this rug, and my other two wear ear hole rugs all summer ( 🤣 ) with no problem. Occasionally ears pop out but hey go behind them never forwards before.
His Highlander seems fine it was the PE that it happened with.
Ideally I'd like to keep the holes, as thats the feature i like and the reason I use SI rugs. I'm wondering about having the neck made shorter somehow perhaps.
Click to expand...
I think you should be able to take a fold across the neck cover part to reduce the length and then to sew across that from side to side. You may lose one set of straps but with a shorter neck that may not matter. If you also make sure the top strap is fastened very tightly (the throatlatch one) shortened if necessary, that way it should have to stay behind the ears.

alternatively cut it acrossways, take out part of the length and resew the 2 pieces together. . Should be perfectly possible to shorten it.

after my incident I always made sure I did the top strap very tightly on SI rugs of any make.

hope your pony is OK. Horrible thing to happen to any horse/pony. And to the owner.
 
I now dont have the SI rugs with the ears for this very reason.

This happened to my daughters horse several years ago. Fortunately she didnt panic just stood there waiting for me to extract her from her predicament. The owner of the field said 'she has been like that since lunch. We didnt know what to do', er call me??

I had to put my hand up the front of her head from the rug as she twitched and worried when i touched her anywhere else. Fortunately, she wasnt any the worse for this.
D.jpg
 
paddy555 said:
I think you should be able to take a fold across the neck cover part to reduce the length and then to sew across that from side to side. You may lose one set of straps but with a shorter neck that may not matter. If you also make sure the top strap is fastened very tightly (the throatlatch one) shortened if necessary, that way it should have to stay behind the ears.

alternatively cut it acrossways, take out part of the length and resew the 2 pieces together. . Should be perfectly possible to shorten it.

after my incident I always made sure I did the top strap very tightly on SI rugs of any make.

hope your pony is OK. Horrible thing to happen to any horse/pony. And to the owner.
Click to expand...
I think that may also have been part of the problem. Ob the PE one the top strap at the back of the cheek is a big chunky double lock velcro, the same as the other neck fastening and it looks so "in the way" that i did it up looser, other wise such a small pony with such a huge fastening he looked like it would restrict head movement. The shires ones have a much smaller neater fastening as the last one.

He also usually had a muzzle but had broken it the night before, that., Im sure holds it all together a bit.
southerncomfort said:
Oh P, what a fright for you both.

I've always struggled finding rugs that fit ponies well. SI rugs must be a real challenge!
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I generally have to get them slightly altered for him, Usually the tummy flaps are way too big. this one looked perfect, I was really pleased when i first got it to have found one that didn't require alterations!

@Hollychops That is terrifying! Would you not have thought they would call!! Reminds me of a time i looked at my phone in work and had a text sating my horse was wandering down the road... they had left him to it as he looked quite happy and they didn't know what they should have done! That was one very frantic drive home!
 
That must have been scary - really glad you managed to sort it without injury.

Mine had his pulled over his head by a pony that didn't like his mates to wear clothes. He wrecked a 5bar gate and 4 sections of post and rail. How he wasn't seriously injured is a minor miracle.

Since then I've rarely had an issue - this was the last time he wore a combined neck + hood (he does at least run to any human for help and he wasn't totally blind. I now use the necks and a flymask.

Arch - hood.jpg
 
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