SandyWI
Well-Known Member
Maybe a thread about dangerous things we'd never thing of unless it actually happened might help all of us avoid future accidents! Here's two things which happened here very recently:
The first thing was my smallest stallion, 28.5", ran up to the gate. My two big geldings, 15.2 hands and 17.2 hands, were on the other side and my little mini decided he was going to chase them off, so he reared up, but when he came down his foot got caught betwee the post and the gate and came to rest on the big bolt screwed into the wooden post that secures the gate hinge. If I hadn't been there and seen it happen, I don't know what the outcome would have been. We since added blocks of wood to all the gates so feet can't slide down the crack and get caught.
Several years ago we had an arab gelding who did the same thing. Reared up at a horse on the other side of the gate, came down and got a foot wedged really tight!. Again, my husband and I were there when it happened, but this horse was a lot heavier than my mini! Plus, he was flailling his other leg like crazy. My husband got in front of him and tried to push up his chest so I could lift the foot out, but suddenly the arab began to sag, making him all the more heavier, and us all the more frantic! Finally, I grabbed a piece of baler twine and stood on one of the rungs of the gate, tied it around his foot, and on the count of three my husband used his back to push the arab up and I pulled the leg up and out. Needless to say, all gates got blocks of wood put in those areas.
Then, just last week, I went into the barn after being gone maybe 90 minutes. The horses had been tucked in their stalls before I'd left the barn. When I returned to give them their hay for the night, one of my poor geldings was walking around the stall with the little metal box, which holds their small, mini-sized salt/mineral blocks, stuck on his rear foot! He somehow knocked it and the salt block off the wall. I think he was probably rubbing his butt on it and that's how it got knocked down.
There was no harm done, and I pulled it off fairly easily, but this could have ended up a big mess had I not found it so quickly. So... I immediately got the electric drill and removed ALL those salt block holders from ALL the stalls, and now the salt blocks go on the floor until their grain is eaten, and are then picked up and put in the grain feeders.
Where has danger lurked on your farm?
The first thing was my smallest stallion, 28.5", ran up to the gate. My two big geldings, 15.2 hands and 17.2 hands, were on the other side and my little mini decided he was going to chase them off, so he reared up, but when he came down his foot got caught betwee the post and the gate and came to rest on the big bolt screwed into the wooden post that secures the gate hinge. If I hadn't been there and seen it happen, I don't know what the outcome would have been. We since added blocks of wood to all the gates so feet can't slide down the crack and get caught.
Several years ago we had an arab gelding who did the same thing. Reared up at a horse on the other side of the gate, came down and got a foot wedged really tight!. Again, my husband and I were there when it happened, but this horse was a lot heavier than my mini! Plus, he was flailling his other leg like crazy. My husband got in front of him and tried to push up his chest so I could lift the foot out, but suddenly the arab began to sag, making him all the more heavier, and us all the more frantic! Finally, I grabbed a piece of baler twine and stood on one of the rungs of the gate, tied it around his foot, and on the count of three my husband used his back to push the arab up and I pulled the leg up and out. Needless to say, all gates got blocks of wood put in those areas.
Then, just last week, I went into the barn after being gone maybe 90 minutes. The horses had been tucked in their stalls before I'd left the barn. When I returned to give them their hay for the night, one of my poor geldings was walking around the stall with the little metal box, which holds their small, mini-sized salt/mineral blocks, stuck on his rear foot! He somehow knocked it and the salt block off the wall. I think he was probably rubbing his butt on it and that's how it got knocked down.
There was no harm done, and I pulled it off fairly easily, but this could have ended up a big mess had I not found it so quickly. So... I immediately got the electric drill and removed ALL those salt block holders from ALL the stalls, and now the salt blocks go on the floor until their grain is eaten, and are then picked up and put in the grain feeders.
Where has danger lurked on your farm?