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Why is it that whenever a horse gets loose on the farm, they make a beeline for the road?

Title says it all. If a horse gets loose, we have to run to the driveway before they get there so we don’t have to chase them down the road and they potentially get hit. We haven’t had a horse get loose in quite some time, I just realized that they do it.

Because they always seem to be actively looking for a way to get hurt or commit suicide?

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Not always.

Back in the mid 1990s my oldest daughter and a friend had two of our horses out on the trails riding across the levee system when daughter’s friend fell off. Horse stops looks at fallen rider, looked at my daughter with an expression said to have been This Was Not My Fault then the horse turned to trot home. Not an easy task as they were about four miles out having gotten to the levee by riding through town,

Horse knew her way home as she trotted the reverse route… picked up a police car along the way … the police said the horse seemed to know were it wanted to go so they followed. Said she stopped at every stop sign, never crossed a street without checking for traffic…even when she cross the four lane divided highway in the crosswalk she stopped in the median again looking both ways for traffic before proceeding. She trotted up the street, turned onto our street then trotted down the hill, up the drive stopping at the gate…with the police car behind (and daughter with her friend riding double on her mare). Mare thought it was not a big deal but did say she had nothing to do with the girl falling off.

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Would love to have that whole adventure on video. What a good, sensible horse. :slight_smile:

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Huh, mine always head straight to the pool. Or the feed room. Places they can cause the most havoc, of course.
Last time I had one get out it ran around in circles around me because she knew I wanted to catch her and is a mule, so she’s too smart. She thought it was pretty funny that I was too slow.
The time before that a gelding I owned at the time jumped a gate. Instead of going towards the 4 lane road (would have been a disaster) he ran to the local boarding barn, found me and my other horse (I was chatting with a friend after a ride) and then he galloped back home and waited in the front lawn. He was (still is) a dork.
I also have an escape artist mustang but he just likes to open doors and chow down on the hay. He won’t go anywhere.

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Would love to have that whole adventure on video. What a good, sensible horse.

She was the half sister to our kid’s “show” horse. Also she was the herd leader, ruled over the others making them poop in the compost pile…but was really nice one. Here she is when she was used as a prop for a book review at middle school (Justin Morgan had a Horse) She was a Lippitt Morgan whose papers in four generations went back over one hundred years

Also was just a backyard horse (well large pony at 13.3h) who had a good mind to do things that were acceptable then when asked to do stupid stuff wouldn’t

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I am lucky. Mine are just content to graze just on the outside of the fence line of the pasture they escaped from (owner too lazy to get off the tractor to close the gate, intends to come back later to do that, forgets).

The grass on the other side of the fence is always greener. Very true at my place.

Signed,
Lazy Owner

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If it’s just one horse that gets loose, they tend to just eat grass in the yard and not go far. Heck, my OTTB sometimes runs to the barn and goes in his stall.

However, if they both escape, they make a beeline across the road to the neighbor’s yard. It is clearly much better grazing. :roll_eyes:

Because they don’t realize that there are even more dangerous things, like festively getting into an entire bag of chicken corn, or stepping into the middle of the arena drag to graze on what’s growing up between the 6" spikes, or maybe even fun with old grown-over cellar holes, that don’t require going all the way to the street to give the human a heart attack.

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Yeah. If just one escapes, s/he usually just gallops a couple of circles, thinking about how clever s/he is, and then settles down to eat grass two feet from the fence.

I once had all three get loose, though, and it was utter mayhem, with horses tearing through neighbors’ yards and careening down the road like maniacs. The fire department guys made it worse by chasing them with a car (!!!) but we finally caught them at the end of the road, about half a mile from the house.

When they start running in a group, it’s like they’re drunk on sheer speed.

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Knock on wood, the horses have gotten loose very few times over the years. Most of the time, any loose horses on the farm were out of the pasture being worked with and human error/perfect storm of bad luck led to the horse getting loose. And yeah, in those cases, my one mare loves to head for the road— I think to teach me a lesson. :joy:

But yesterday, we had company over who of course wanted to see the horses. Somehow the stall door connected to the donkeys’ paddock got left open; maybe it was me because I was distracted, maybe it was one of the kids. But I didn’t realize it until feeding time.

I walked out to the barn and there was manure in the yard, the barn aisle was trashed, they attempted to get into the feed and failed (thank goodness!). I’m running around the property searching frantically for the donkeys! Where did I find them? Back in their paddock, both laying down snoozing, acting completely innocent. “We’ve been here the whole time, mom!”

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I had similar once. My young 17 h gelding, ancient Shetland pony and middle aged, red, grade QH mare (the ring leader) made a break for freedom. They went careening down the small country lane and thank God met my landlord on the road driving in. He honked at them and they turned right back around and came galloping home all the way back into the paddock.

Said 17h gelding will spook himself if he gets loose and will dash back to me almost immediately if he is alone. He’s done that a few times now. I think he scares himself and then thinks “Moooommmmm!!!”

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Jeez! You could be describing my old crew, @lenapesadie : an18h TBX monster, a fat pony, and a bossy, cranky, elderly QH gelding.

My big TBX (whom I miss so much I can’t even talk about it) was a nervous nelly who’d basically follow me anywhere, and the QH was - and is! - the ringleader in everything nefarious and wicked. Wherever QHs got the reputation for being reasonable and laid back, it certainly wasn’t my house.

My current group consists of said QH, who’ll clearly live to be 75 on spite and malice alone, a surprisingly reflective Arabian mare, and a typically wild mini. I can’t even begin to imagine what would happen if this crew decided to go on a spree - they’re probably rob the general store and take a bus to Vegas.

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Buwahahahaha!

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You think I’m joking? Mmmm no. :upside_down_face:

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What a kind face. A horse like that is worth more than their weight in gold. Thanks for sharing.

When my DH and I were stationed in Southeastern AZ, I boarded my gelding at a barn 3 miles down a labyrinth of dirt roads off the main paved highway. Habitation was very sparse with lots of very large properties with all kinds of livestock.

One early evening, I turned off of the highway onto the dirt road and about 50 yards down, I saw a herd of donkeys galloping towards me and the highway. When I say herd, I mean 20-25 donkeys of all ages, with even a couple of foals with their moms.

My mind immediately saw them getting onto the highway (65 MPH speed limit) and getting killed (and maybe killing some people). The dirt road was about 2 cars in width, so I turned my car sideways to cover the middle part of the road.

Then I jumped out and started waving my hands at them and yelling whoa. Just before they reached it, I saw a small side path between pastures and managed to head them off onto the path.

I was trying to figure out how to open one of the pasture gates (which seemed to be empty) and wondering how I could get them headed back toward the pasture gate and in without running me down or getting back on the road that went to the highway.

Luckily, a man came running around the corner, totally out of breath - the owner. Between the two of us, we wrangled them into the pasture (it was empty, thank goodness). He called someone to come help get them home. I have no idea how they did it, but he thanked me and didn’t want to detain me any longer on my way to my horse. By the time I was done riding (probably 3 hours later), the pasture was empty.

A little off topic - During the years we were there, I rounded up my share of cattle, too. One time, one exceptionally large cow was all by itself and looking into a pasture at some other cows. I felt really bad it had gotten separated from its herd so started looking for an opening into the field and trying to herd the cow at the same time.

As I’m about 3 feet from the cow, a pick-up truck came by and stopped. A nice cowboy-type said something like “Oh no, Frank’s bull got out. I have his number, let me call him.”

Yep, after rounding up so many cows, I didn’t even notice this was definitely NOT a cow. The cowboy said he would keep an eye until Frank got there, and I hastily beat a retreat to my car, my heart beating a little faster than normal. My now ex-DH (we’re still friends) still loves to recount to his friends how 105 pound me was out trying to round up this huge bull by myself, totally fearless as usual.

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I can think of at least 5 stories of local friends/acquaintances having horses get loose, hit on the road and die. Horrible trauma for the owners and then there’s the risk of being sued. We built our barn last fall and ran out of money before my front gate was installed.

My paranoia is strong now planning on doing perimeter fence and front gate before finishing my footing. Even kicked in serious OCD about checking gates and stall doors.

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If it makes you feel better, remember that a running horse will always head for open space. That means you can simulate a complete perimeter fence by simply blocking large, inviting openings like driveways. Even a rope will help. If there’s no obvious, attractive path off the property, the average horse will just wheel around and gallop through your vegetable beds instead.

:grinning:

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You do give me an idea to do some roping off. Excellent idea!

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