Very Odd Field Behaviour

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Zobaby

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Last November(ish), Morris started to paw at the wire fence around his field, and ended up getting his shoe caught on it a couple of times, resulting in him pulling off both front shoes to free himself! Expensive for me, especially as he has rubbish feet to start with (had the farrier 3 times in a single month once), and i'm worried he'll either hurt himself, the fence or both! However this only happened when he was out on his own and/or hadn't been fed in the morning. He is usually out with at least one other horse, but as they're all owned by different people, occasionally he's out alone for 15 mins, waiting for his friends to follow.
Anyway, he hadn't done this for a couple of months until yesterday. He'd had his breakfast and was out with at least 3 other horses, who he knows well and gets on with. My YO and her OH had to go up and spent half an hour trying to free him from the fence and he's taken a kinda big chunk of his hoof off! He's fine, not lame or anything, but i'm just really puzzled why he does this. I think its maybe attention - he wants in and fed. He sometimes bangs the stable door when its feed time, so this is maybe similar? To be honest, I'm more worried about him breaking the fence, as i hate to cause trouble due to bad politics at my previous yard (which caused me to leave). I've started to feed him more chaff with his normal breakfast to fill him up more, and i can't give him an extra feed at lunch due to school. Hopefully more feed might work.
Any help would be really appreciated. (sorry this is a bit long!)

x
 
What's the grass like in the field? Mine stand and sulk if it's rubbish grazing, but are fine on the other fields. Dolly actually kicks the crap out of the 5-bar gate and if you ignore her, she sticks a front leg between the bars and just dangles it there, knowing you've got to come and rescue her!
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It's deffinately attention-seeking with my lot. Probably is in your case too.
Ideally we should ignore them, but if they're stuck, you cant! Cant win! Does he have hay in the field?
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Is there any good grass and access to water in the field, he could be hungry.

I think you need to get some electric fencing and make an inner fence (with the power on) to stop him getting near the wire before he ends up having a serious accident.
 
There's no hay, but i might speak to my YO and see if we could put some in. Thanksfully he's not hurt himself yet, but i've gone up to find him attached to the fence and he could have been there for ages! He dosn't panic or thrash around, just waits patiently to be saved! Silly ponio.
 
A horse at our yard does this, it's a kind of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder! Or attention seeking, whatever you like! Anyway it's something that once a horse has done for the first time, they tend to repeat so the key is to outsmart the horse. In this case, the owner took the shoes off so there was no way of getting hooked to the wire, which worked.

I know you will say he has bad feet and you can't do this, but you may be surprised. A barefoot programme could be what his bad feet need. I do appreciate you may not be near an Equine Podiatrist though in your area, so it may be down to the advice of your farrier.
 
How much hay does he have left in his stable in the morning - any at all??

If not - increase it. He definatly sounds hungry. And I absolutely agree with the inner electric fence thoughts.

Bugger the fence and his shoes, I'd be worried about his legs and his tendons......
 
My old horse used to do exactly this! And yes it is infuriating!

It didn't matter whether he was out with other horses or not, plenty grazing/hay or not!! He would also just stand and wait to be rescued.

I'm afraid my eventual remedy was cover all exposed areas of fencing with electric tape - the type that attached to the fence posts so that he couldn't actually reach them.

Good luck!
 
If he is the sort of horse that likes getting attached to fences i would be careful with electric fencing as my friend's horse had a very nasty accident after getting tangled.
How about a nut ball or a football in the field to give him some entertainment?
 
Quite a lot of them get fed up with being out at this time of year - they're happy for a couple of hours and then they've had enough.

Hay in the field can help, but is it possible to get someone to fetch him in at lunchtime and give him some hay in his stable? If it's too much hassle to change rugs, he'll cope in his turnout until you get there.

Ours come in at 2.30 ish - their choice, not ours!
 
Would agree that the main problem is not the fence or the shoe, but what could happen next - nasty wire injury!

Mine has a habit when bored/hungry of sticking his leg into whatever he can. He has never learnt! He managed to get it stuck when out at grass at a friend's field, cut all round the back of his pastern joint before he pulled the shoe off, but luckily the wire gave. My fault for not checking all round the field I had borrowed, because I know he does this and I think he got away lightly! How low is the wire, out of interest?
 
We have had 2 horses now that do this and we have 12 acres of land (split in 2) with plenty of grass but they always seem to want to be on the other side! One we had constantly pulled his shoes off - sometimes he' get both feet stuck and take both shoes off! Most annoying and worrying as, although he didn't panic, I did thinking if one of the others bullied him or shoved past him he couldn't go anywhere - fear broken legs etc. Our old racehorse does the same and removed tonnes of shoes. Fortunately now he doesn't have any but the only way we stopped him putting his legs in the fence was (as someone mentioned) was set up electric fencing about a metre away form the fence so he couldn't reach it.

I have today heard a horrid story about a horse getting it's leg stuck in electric fence but, to be honest ours have walked through our fence several times (what respect they have if it's not switched on!) and it has just snapped so, now although it has a fair few 'knots' in it I'd rather it did that than not!
 
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