16 horses loose, broken fences and one golden Pony!

[classicsporthorses]

Well we had quite the adventure here, the other day. As dawn approached I look out the kitchen window to my lower pastures and see 3 pastures of horses (mares, geldings, youngsters) OUT! They are running up and down our main aisle. no one had a halter on.

My daughter and I go barrelling out to get them, as we go out I can see fencing down everywhere, two fence posts right out of the ground etc. Something major must have really scared them for the broodmares to run.

Long story short we catch them all, some simply follow us into the barn and right into stalls. Thankfully, our horses lead easily with just a lead rope over the necks. In one of the pastures was a few youngsters (under the age of 3) and our now yearling orphaned pony colt whom we rescued when he was 6 days old.

I remember seeing him running around, but staying in his pasture. After we get all the horses in stalls, we go out to get him. He is standing next to what was his fence line just softly whinnying. There is no fencing up for a good 100 feet, both lines were down too.

I put on a halter and lead and have to coax him out of the pasture. He was super. Because we had horses in the barn who are not normally in a stall, b/c of the broken fencing, we had to stick him in stall with another baby (who is larger than PJ).

He just took it all in stride and he and the other colt, who is 7 months old (and they are not turned out together) quickly became best buddies!

My daughter's foal, John Henry, who is 6 months old was in his stall and just stood there looking amazed as all of these really big horses kept coming in the barn on their own mostly, one after another!

All in all, it went very well. No one took off, No mares when up the small hill to the stallions (thank God) and no one was hurt. Pj won the Golden Pony award for being so good and just staying in his pasture, after all his pasture mates left and waiting quietly until we came to get him.

What a morning.

[mkevent]

What a fiasco!! So glad everyone was fine. Why do they always destroy fencing when it's freezing out and you can't dig any posts until the thaw?!!
PS-keep the yearling- a horse with good sense is worth his weight in gold!!

[Bluey]

That was a sensible little fellow.:cool:

Did you ever figure what scared them so bad?

We had once all kinds of horses in our pens, yearlings and older in training.
They came out with this new dewormer pellet, before we had to tube deworm and we gave it to all of them.
That night, our wild turkeys, that some 100 of them roosted in the trees over the pens, started dying and falling off their perches, right into the horse pens.
The next morning, horses were all in the wrong pens, having jumped fences here and there.
Luckily, no one was hurt and we had to cart tens of dead turkeys out of there.:cry:

We let the vet and company that makes the pellets know and they had warnings after that to not feed them to horses where fowl may get to the feed or manure of the horses dewormed with those pellets.

[3mares]

Wow - loose horses are scary - and you had so many!
I agree - the fences come down at the worst times - mine came down, posts and all a couple of months ago during a nasty wind storm, plus it was muddy - don't know what happened but it looks like they went through it - and went to my neighbor's house - he wasn't too thrilled as they apparently were in his yard tearing up the lawn. He has horses too and they like to visit - not good : (

Glad yours all stayed close to home and give the little guy and extra kiss today!

[classicsporthorses]

He is one of the most sensible little boy I know. I adore him (PJ) and just pray he gets bigger so I may some day be able to ride him-he's the smallest of the "babies" I own and he's the oldest.

Anyway, they are all good horses. They mostly come when called and a few went right into stalls, which was helpful. We did have two go into one (one of our mares and the gelding who adores her). I just shut the door and said "Eerste don't kick Eddie). She barely tolerates this young horse and he thinks she walks on water.

At least they did this in the daylight. I've had them out in pure darkness.

We are still trying to figure out what happened. My broodies rarely get bothered. Heck they barely run around, way too much effort.

Bluey, funny story. We once had a pasture of youngters go through fences, at night b/c the mating tree frogs, whom we call the martians, go way too close near their pasture and scared the beegeezes out of them. After catching them they would not go back in until I walked in and around the pasture to show them it was okay.

[GallantGesture]

That's so weird, our horses got out yesterday too! Or sometime during the night, we don't exactly know when. Only that by morning, the field that was supposed to have 5 geldings had none. One of them was walking around really confused by the barn, the other 4 (including 2 of mine) were just gone without a trace. It was really scary!!! They busted down the gate, it was still chained shut on the side that usually opens, but the hinges had been ripped out of the other side. Don't know how they did that??? But we found them, and they were all unhurt. The whole story is in my blog today :) I can't believe so many of yours got loose, that was quite a round up! Thank goodness they are all so well behaved, even to share stalls! Amazing!

[DiablosHalo]

OMGoodness! Glad to hear all is well!

I feed am/pm with the 4 wheeler. They are so used to it, as soon as I start it up they start screaming right away! One afternoon two field gates opened up (barn help did not latch gates all the way) and 4 mares and 3 geldings got loose at the same time. They all started running around like nuts-sos! The entire place is fenced in except the driveway was not closed off bc I was home and everything seemed quiet. I have a small place, so by the time I heard them coming, they were working on their 3rd or 4th lap around the place!

I just looked up and saw them, ran right to the barn, hopped on the 4 wheeler and honest-to-goodness.... almost got trampled by allllll of them chasing down the 4 wheeler to get something to eat! I just drove it to the back pasture. They followed and two even past me to get there! All but one ran in there. I shut the gate, then pulled the 2 boys out and then pulled the third one out of the feed tub on the back of the 4 wheeler! He sat/ate the whole time I was pulling horses out of the other field! What a ham he is!

[sublimequine]

OMGoodness! Glad to hear all is well!

I feed am/pm with the 4 wheeler. They are so used to it, as soon as I start it up they start screaming right away! One afternoon two field gates opened up (barn help did not latch gates all the way) and 4 mares and 3 geldings got loose at the same time. They all started running around like nuts-sos! The entire place is fenced in except the driveway was not closed off bc I was home and everything seemed quiet. I have a small place, so by the time I heard them coming, they were working on their 3rd or 4th lap around the place!

I just looked up and saw them, ran right to the barn, hopped on the 4 wheeler and honest-to-goodness.... almost got trampled by allllll of them chasing down the 4 wheeler to get something to eat! I just drove it to the back pasture. They followed and two even past me to get there! All but one ran in there. I shut the gate, then pulled the 2 boys out and then pulled the third one out of the feed tub on the back of the 4 wheeler! He sat/ate the whole time I was pulling horses out of the other field! What a ham he is!

Ahahahahaha. I'm sorry, but the mental picture of you on a 4 wheeler with a herd of horses chasing you down is great. What an excellent idea! :lol:

[catknsn]

That is scary! I hate it when they're all loose at once like that. You just have to stay calm and try to catch whoever the boss is so that the others will settle down and follow.

Here's a wild story: Careless barn help turned my friend's stallion out into a corral created with panels without noticing that someone had removed two panels from one side to use elsewhere. This was discovered an hour later and we found the stallion standing politely where he was supposed to be, looking plaintively at the grass outside the corral. He would not cross where the fence was supposed to be, apparently believing some sort of trap had been set for him with invisible hot tape!

[MunchkinsMom]

Here's a wild story: Careless barn help turned my friend's stallion out into a corral created with panels without noticing that someone had removed two panels from one side to use elsewhere. This was discovered an hour later and we found the stallion standing politely where he was supposed to be, looking plaintively at the grass outside the corral. He would not cross where the fence was supposed to be, apparently believing some sort of trap had been set for him with invisible hot tape!

I had a similar incident, my gelding was in an individual paddock in the middle of the pasture, and I guess the unruly pasture horses kicked one section of fence down. The downed fence was spotted simutaneously by my horse and the barn owner. As she was heading out to get him, she watched him run right up to the open section, and then slam on the brakes - 3 times! He would not cross over the board that was on the ground.

I'm glad the OP was able to round up her herd without any injuries or incidents.

[SmartAlex]

That night, our wild turkeys, that some 100 of them roosted in the trees over the pens, started dying and falling off their perches, right into the horse pens.



:uhoh:It's Raining turkeys :uhoh:

[FLeckenAwesome]

Hmm.... Fleck ran through a gate the other night too! Luckily it was just into the other pasture, but unluckily... it contained the gelding he doesn't like!!! I woke up to find all four horses hanging out together. Amazingly enough, the other gelding had one minor kick mark and that was it. And they were just chilling. Fleck had two scrapes and a puffy knee but considering what the gate looked like.... He got very LUCKY!

Still have no idea what happened..... But check out my poor gate!!!

Glad all your ponies were okay :)

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i211/FleckenAwesome/Bloopers/gate1.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i211/FleckenAwesome/Bloopers/gate2.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i211/FleckenAwesome/Bloopers/gate3.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i211/FleckenAwesome/Bloopers/gate4.jpg