At one barn I where I boarded, the BO a horse who not only could open his stall, he would occasionally throw a party and let the other horses out too.
She came down one morning and opened the barn doors and was greeted by all of them
Luckily they didn’t do any damage to themselves or to the barn. The feed room was in the other barn as they didn’t get near it
The BO ended up putting a second latch on the bottom of the stall door. Even he couldn’t figure out how to open that one.
I’d be looking for a new place but I have mild OCD (the real deal with DX) and locks and latches are a really big thing for me.
Yikes, that makes me so nervous. I grew up riding out of a farm that was off of a similar road. Someone forgot to latch their horses stall door and their horse went straight for the road - It was so scary! It literally terrified me, I was twelve at the time and now am super paranoid to double check gates and doors. I built a buffer area at my home in case myself, or younger daughter especially, miss closing the paddock gate.
Perimeter fencing is a wonderful thing. But besides that, I’d be throwing a fit…
I’ve not pursued formal diagnosis, but I know have at least a borderline issue with anxiety. I will take photos of the locked stall when I leave and still come back and check one more time. Same with the dogs as home, they sleep in a room with door out to the backyard and I get goofy about that too. I listened once to Howie Mandel talk about his (I believe) OCD, and it definitely hit close to home.
The gravity latch will make me worry less, even with my own coming and going. It can’t get here soon enough.
Same! I have black metal mesh half doors on the inside, with a double end snap that attaches to an eye bolt on the post, and a bar on the stall. It’s very easy to eyeball down the aisle to make sure there’s a silver snap horizontal and ending at the door LOL
When your horse gets hit on a busy road in front of your boarding barn I doubt you will be so nonchalant about this. It is not an accident. The first thing I taught my kids when they were old enough to comprehend it was " you always securely latch the gate, door etc…
Not OCD but the knowledge that, in most states, horse owner is held liable for any damage or injury caused by their loose horse makes me intolerant of accidents like paid staff forgetting to close the latches in barns next to busy roads. Even with perimeter fences.
My wallet is allergic to unnecessary vet bills caused by other peoples forgetfulness so this doesn’t sound like a barn I’d be happy in. Sounds like new owners don’t care or are clueless about their potential liability. Not a great sign for longevity in the boarding business,
As someone who has literally been charged with Olympic horses, and caught other people’s loose Olympic horses at shows, rest assured, accidents happen.
Of course accidents happen. 3 times to 1 horse, and once to another horse, in one year? That’s beyond accidental into carelessness.
This. Also, it’s 4 times that OP knows of, but I’d be willing to bet there have been other instances of which she’s unaware.
Sure they happen and, sooner or later, loose horse accidents generate considerable and sometimes multiple bills somebody has to pay. If it happens at a show, potential for a loose horse is greater and somewhat more understandable but when it happens at the home barn, its inexcusable, especially repeatedly and elite level competition horses or breeding stock can do just as much damage as that $300 auction find or a retiree.
Spoken from personal experience. Decades ago paid for a neighbors decorative picket fence, sod restoration and a few rosebushes when boarding privately, chief suspect homeowners 12 year old who was sent out to simply push a flake of alfalfa through the bars into the pipe corral. I moved the horse.
More recently, fellow boarder at a commercial, full service boarding barn had to replace a headlight, grill and radiator on top of a rather large vet bill and 6 months lay up. She was not at the barn that day, latch was secure and not accessible to horse in stall so whoever entered that stall to muck, water or feed or fool with the horse did not close it properly and night check missed it or failed to do night check. No litigation resulted and believe two barn staffers were fired.
Worst case was sometime farrier’s two horses got out of his big, very rural pasture not visible from the old farmhouse via a section of fence collapsing (or getting pushed over) in a bad, midnight T-storm. Luxury car was totaled, one horse killed, the other banged up pretty bad, later put down. Driver ( IIRC an MD specialist) very seriously injured, hospitalized for almost a month, unable to work for some time.
Not only did they go after the sometime farrier but investigators determined the fence was rotten and farrier was going back and forth with landlord for months about who would fix the fence. Both parties had knowledge of its condition so both were held at fault. Farrier split shortly after the wreck, stiffed the vet and renderer as well as landlord for several months back rent. That one was in court for some time, no idea what the final settlement was.
Anyway, I don’t make this stuff up. Loose horses should never be shrugged off as “ just” an accident. You have to assume they will get loose and take steps to contain any escapees, like perimeter fencing and gates in good repair. OPs BO is aware horses are getting loose, easily be found negligent. Because they are.
I concur.
Loose horses happen regardless but repeatedly leaving stall doors unlatched is asking for trouble.
OMG Clanter! Only a pony baby!
foal was unhurt, had to use bolt cutters to remove bucket handle But to this day no bucket is put anywhere without latching the handle to something
Regarding loose horses, when we brought our horses home after talking with our insurance carrier at that time we followed their recommendation of double fencing the public side of the property. This placed the barns inside two locked fence lines.
(also we have three schools within a mile radius of us, kids walk by always)
When I boarded my now-retiree during college, I arrived several times to find him wandering around the farm grazing. Thankfully there was a perimeter fence. The first time was thought to be an accident. After the second time, BO/BM and I realized that he was letting himself out and addressed it immediately by adding a latch with a double-ended snap to his door, which in retrospect had ridiculously pathetic latches that any horse could have figured out in a minute. He got out again because he played with the snap until he undid it, so we added a latch all the way at the bottom where he couldn’t reach it. Problem solved. He’d never been a Houdini horse but the original latch was just too easy and the reward (grass) was strong enough to motivate him to figure out the second latch. To this day he will mess with double-ended snaps.
Point being, BO addressed it immediately even though there wasn’t a ton of potential danger due to the perimeter fencing, and after we figured out why he was escaping his door was carefully triple-latched by everyone thereafter. I wouldn’t have been happy if the response was a shrug.
BO and BM are not new so unfortunately, that isn’t an excuse in this case. I’ve not said anything to the BO. At this point I’ve been thinking that might be the best way to address it or at least put it on her radar as I doubt she is aware. She isn’t around very often and trusts BM to run everything.
Exactly. I’m sure if it’s happened before that staff caught, no boarders are being notified of it unless something happens to the horse. When the other gelding got out that I found, I let his owner know about it. I am positive that would have not been communicated otherwise.
Of course accidents happen, that’s why they are called accidents. This many times falls out of the “accident” category and into the carelessness category to me. Especially with the host of not great scenarios that could occur due to something as simple as a simple double check. Not having perimeter fencing and being SO close to the road we are should be enough alone to instill some sense of concern that stalls get latched.
The night check girl I chalk up to an accident; when she came down there was a bunch of commotion/chaos and people around that threw off her pattern. She ran down when I texted her and was totally apologetic. The other three times with BM, I suspect was a case of trying to get done to get on the road home.
The first time it happened, he was in a stall with a swinging door so that would be a lot more obvious to him that freedom was an option. Thankfully, I had gotten there earlier than normal that day while he was still eye deep in hay. He is in a stall with a sliding door now so that bought a little more time with the most recent incident; he would have been done with his hay for at least an hour or a bit more and didn’t seem any wiser that his door wasn’t latched. Thankfully.
New latch is coming Thursday so we should be in better shape with my anxiety about this soon. Given I don’t trust myself half the time, this should be a load off my shoulders. Planning to put signs on his stall that say:
<------- LOCK THIS on his normal latch
PUSH IN TO OPEN ----------> on the gravity latch in case of a fire or other type of emergency where someone may not be used to it and need to get him out.
Please, TELL YOUR BO. She will be as negligent as the BM should a loose horse under her business’s care gets loose, injured, killed and/or causes injury or damage to something or somebody elese.
Do these people even carry property and liability insurance? That is a legit question to ask barn management and very much boarders business.
They do.
Might want to suggest to BO they review their policy and really read it carefully.
We have a different definition of what is an accident. Since this is 100% preventable unless the horses can unlatch their own stalls. Sounds like someone was just in a hurry and careless.
I have had my own get out a time or two because of my own doing and it was no accident. More like thinking they were eating and I just slipped in to grab something and didn’t chain the gate but just looped it over. I chain it now.
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