No, on the contrary, you are doing the right thing to protect yourself and Honey…if something happens to you? Her future will be more secure with positive ID, good vet care and good training. Never trust anybody in horses without verifying their claims, google is your friend.
Good job so far.
Thank you.
Unrelated: Honey cut the everliving crap out of her face yesterday, somehow. I showed up to the barn last night and there was a big gash on her left cheekbone, two cuts near the eye, and a big gash under her jaw on the right. They were in all day because we got bad storms Monday that made turnout a mess yesterday, but given where these cuts are, and how she wouldn’t let me clean/put ointment on the cheek one without bearing her teeth and lunging at me, I think she’s gonna get some time off from everything. I don’t feel good about putting a halter on her or doing in hand work given the location of these.
Goodness. Horses, am I right?
So, the cuts definitely happened inside the stall?
When i first got my mare (my present one, the black one in the pics above), i boarded her at a different barn than the one she’s at now. She got multiple cuts/slices on her face and one on her pastern within the first week. I asked the breeder/seller whether she was a bit klutzy and had ever gotten nicks/cuts, and she said “not one - since birth she hasn’t so much as had a scuff on her”. So, i relayed my concerns to the barn owner, she said i was welcome to go inspect the paddock, feeder, shelter, etc for any sharp edges/objects/protrusions… took me a while, but i finally found the culprit - a nail sticking out of one of the fence posts, a few inches above ground level… the grass had been clearly grazed down around the nail, it was obvious how she had cut herself. Lo and behold, as soon as BO removed the nail, no more cuts.
If she cut herself in her stall, then your job will be way easier as it’s a much more confined space to inspect. Go in there and inspect every inch of that stall - look for rub marks/hairs that would indicate her itching herself. I’ll bet you’ll find the thing she’s gashing herself on!
Good luck! 
Flatten your hand and run it lightly along the wall, especially around the area where she eats at the height her face would be. Around windows, door frames and in whatever corner she spends the most time in. You might want to wear gloves, you can feel them snag on anything protruding.
Few things to remember about the nature of the beast here.
1.Horses that you, for whatever reason, don’t like or even hate can live in a rickety wood fenced field complete with protruding nails and broken board. Stand on a pile of old appliances, wrecked cars and barbed wire then walk 1/4 mile thru knee deep mud in the middle of a fireworks display while a train goes by totally unfazed and unscathed.
2, Lead a horse you dearly love into an immaculate barn aisle and it spooks because the blue trash barrel is now a green trash barrel in exactly the same place. Steps on the heel of a front shoe, pulls the shoe off, steps on the clip, bangs a hock in the wall and doesn’t make it 10 feet before generating both farrier and vet bill. Did I mention you leave for a show the next day? Or so you thought.
Horses… 
Haha! This is good.
I regularly run my hands over things in her stall just to make sure. But this for certain happened in her stall. I went Monday night after she had been out all day and she wasn’t cut up. The one on her cheek last night was still wet. And she was real stressed.
After inspecting the stall last night, here are the working theories:
my friend noticed scratches on the wall. I don’t recall noticing them before. Perhaps she cast herself, and panicked and did some clumsy twisty moves, cutting her face.
the stall has a harsh edge on the feeders, because the feeders rotate into the barn aisle. The location of her injuries doesn’t totally make sense with this, but it’s the only sharp edge I’ve found in there and it always worries me.
the stalls have yokes( is that what they’re called? The little windows she pokes her head out of) she dips in and out of there real fast, and sometimes she doesn’t gauge it right and wacks the top of her head or something on the top of the stall. The jaw injury could make sense with this, but I still don’t see how the eye and cheek could happen this way.
I’m told she was always super clumsy. And she always has cuts and scarring on her face. But these cuts were next level.
Maybe ask if you can file down and/or duct tape the edges of the feeder and remove that sharp edge. Next thing would be electrical tape and pool noodle around her yoke if allowed, or can you get a yoke insert and put that up? It would keep her head in the stall and prevent facial injuries.
Also tape the hooks of her stall water buckets (the part that connect the handle to the bucket). These are a great place to hook an eyelid. I’ve seen it happen.
I am not one to bubble wrap horses, I don’t mind knocks and scrapes, but this horse would have me worried about potential eye injuries. Also, don’t get too wrapped up in the physics of it, horses can manage to get hurt in the weirdest places in the most improbable ways. And old barn of mine had some hoof marks way higher than I think should be possible and at an angle that didn’t make any sense. Horses
Slit an old piece of hose and slip it over the sharp feeder edges, Gorilla taped in place (I’ve had that brand of tape hold up very well, even outdoors exposed to horses). Agree about where handles hook onto buckets – never had it happen to mine, but that’s a known place to catch skin.
Also, I got this type of bucket for a friend’s horse. It worked better for its face:
https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=325EB7B7-2F2E-4CFD-AFE3-A0DC41CDFC66
I’ve seen someone repurpose a pool noodle for this -carefully wrapped with duct or gaffer’s tape of course.
I used this type of product, purchased at Lowes, to pad the top edge of an opening under the stairs in our home that we’ve bumped our heads on many, many times. Might work for the top of the yoke opening.
Don’t know how it would hold up in a barn, but we also padded our wrought iron-framed coffee table with this, after our Shih Tzu was almost totally blind, and it’s held up there for years, even with a new, much younger and more active dog now calling that spot her own.
Would not necessarily call Honey clumsy. She’s bred and built to prance down the runway and pose, not run fast, jump high or get down low in front of a cow. Agility is not in her skillset and, though not a real big girl, shes no dainty little thing.
She has not yet learned where, exactly that yoke is, they are not that common. She’ll figure it out and some tape or a pool noodle would sure help her here.
Often times violent storms create pressure, temperature and wind variations, grazing animals instinctively go on alert when they sense these. Not unusual for them to get a little banged up in severe storms.
Solid point. It’s just odd that she got so banged up the day after the storms.
Thanks everyone! I’ll look into those suggestions for adding padding.
Today her face looked much better, and she let me clean and put ointment on all her cuts.
I didn’t do any work, just groom and graze. But I did find some fuzzy halter things to put on her halter where it’s close to her cuts.
I also gave her a fly sheet because she gets eaten alive outside. She seemed quite happy with it. And I think she looks absolutely adorable 🥹
My gelding gets very similar cuts from feeders hung on a wall. He drops food bends down to eat it and flings his head up into the feeder on his way up…every….single….time. He’s scraped up every side and front of his face doing this. He either gets a rubber tub or right now has one hung off the fence so low he can’t get his head under it.
But when you hang one so low they can’t get their head under it? They can self destruct by getting a foot hung up in it somehow. Don’t ask me how I know
His is out in a field and he doesn’t paw while eating so there haven’t been any issues so far.
oh that suits her nicely! Very cute.
Yesterday her fat cat came in, as well as her farriers formula for those feet. No real update other than that she has “seasoned” her fly sheet and wanted me to get pictures of her posing.
Haha, while I understand the reason for making light colored fly sheets, every season when I get a new one and put it on, I feel so sad knowing it’s going to be brownish grey within just a few minutes…Yours is very cute though!
lol yeah. I’m glad I got at least a few pics of her before she gave it some life. And the way she’s posing I think she feels she looks beautiful.
I think that first picture, the profile with head turned slightly left towards the camera is the best one yet and that powder blue is her color.
Mean this in a positive way but can’t help thinking of the Carly Simon song You’re So Vain- you bet she thinks that song is about her 
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
