this is reminding of that horrid video of the woman who got kicked in the chest trying to do turnouts through the barn aisles with no halters and a whip and hay bait (which makes me think that the wild aggression was not a new behavior)
PS_ This version is longer than the other I saw- nothing really happens after she gets kicked- I don’t know why the video keeps going
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy0daAUplwE
OMG! Had not seen that. She’s lucky as hell she wasn’t very badly injured. (And some of the comments to the video are just… terrifying. Why do i click on the comments? -headdesk-)
What a strange video. Her horses are obviously not as food motivated as mine. I assumed that the cantankerous Pinto was eager for a meal, yet he left the food to come back in the barn and cause mayhem. And I definitely got the sense from her behavior that she was expecting trouble. Bad deal all around.
My horses absolutely do not behave anything like that! No matter where they may be going – into the barn, out of the barn, out to pasture, etc. As a result I frequently cut corners by leading one and having one or more follow. The worst that happens is that one of them discovers some hay on the ground and I have to go back with the halter and catch the perp. I do have one young mare who wants to barge out of the gate with whatever horse I’m taking, so she doesn’t get the privilege. If I want to cut corners and she’s involved, she’s the one that gets the halter.
PeteyPie from reading your descriptions, I have no doubt that you will recognize if anything happens to make your approach unsafe or unwise. You seem to have a perfectly fine grip on things!
I know horses who have had soft tissues injuries from altercations that arose when horses were allowed to run freely from the pasture back into the barn. It’s a stupid risk to take at a boarding facility. I also used to board at a place where the owner did this and sustained an injury herself when a horse basically ran into her.
I only know two situations in which this worked. Both with at boarding stables that each had a lone elderly mare who knew where her stall was. In each case the mare was allowed to walk from the pasture into the barn. No other horses were allowed to do this at either place. That is probably why there were no serious injuries.
well every scenario is different, but i used to board at a place that had 25-30 horses in each field, just opened the gate and let the horses make a mad dash to their stalls --which already had food waiting in them. if a horse ran fast enough, he could go into his buddies stall and eat his food first.
the horses were all so misbehaved, that most of the horses acted completely feral and were unable to be haltered, and had no respect for humans whatsoever. they were dangerous to be around. if the barn staff needed to get a horse into his stall or field, they had to scream and chase the horse, because the horses were not able to be haltered and lead.
that is my experience with it.
[QUOTE=Plainandtall;7907547]
this is reminding of that horrid video of the woman who got kicked in the chest trying to do turnouts through the barn aisles with no halters and a whip and hay bait[/QUOTE]
Well, that is a great example of how not to do it. Even without the bratty horses, the clutter in the aisle is unacceptable if you are running horses in or out.
The setup I related in an earlier post was not remotely like that. Folks knew what they were doing, well behaved horses including some successful show hunters and steeplechasers, no fuss, no muss, no injuries to humans or horses.
[QUOTE=secuono;7906903]
What is leading European style?[/QUOTE]
In many European barns it is common to do turnout leading 2 at a time, US barns tend to think this is weird. I grew up working for a barn managed this way and still do it. My TBs are more than capable of learning to deal and actually I think they do better because nobody gets “left behind” to be last to come in and have a meltdown. If I had a kicker or problem horse or stallion I obviously would lead that one alone, but I don’t. The only trick is getting them to turn around and get halters off if the gate area is tight, so you lead them in in a half circle and face out, close the gate and make everyone stand with manners. Take halter off the less dominant horse in the field first, but I do pretty close to the same time. Mine tend to stick around hoping for cookies or scratches anyway. If one of them starts to get pushy, the other one gets deposited in the field and the pushy one gets some groundwork reminders not to be a stupid jerk. Backing up to the barn and trying it again solo not in my space is a good start. I don’t like bad manners!
Certainly not all barns in Europe do turnout like this but it is more common. We has a post not long ago about a barn worker who was let go because she couldn’t turn the horses out 2 at a time safely and clean stalls quick enough so everything took too long, IIRC.
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