has your horse ever got loose at a show

[KathyR]

Oh yes-At a show many years ago-I was standing ringside watching my sister go on her pony-heard over the loud speaker, "Loose Horse, Watch Out" Turns out my horse-pulled himself free from the trailer and ran over to watch his best buddy go. My horse actually ran over to the ring that my sister was in, stopped, and watched him go.. He never forgave us for selling that pony-his best friend.

[Long Spot]

Making him do his test anyway was the very best thing you could have done with that "training opportunity."

I absolutely agree with this 100%.


As for getting loose stories,
I used to show a big old white ISH for a client. He was super hard to miss. He could also get himself out of most stalls and had to be elaborately tied in at night. Showed up early at a show one morning to find him missing. Started walking around the grounds and found him being held by a pretty BNT who told me he'd completely dismantled their hay pile.

I could have died of embarrassment. Couldn't disappear the rest of the show from the mind of the trainer because stoopid horse is giant and white and drafty.

Anyway, glad you pressed on!

[RoseBud143]

Ohhhh been there it was my first time back to showing in about 10 Yeats and my new OTTB first show ans first time off property. Just getting him there was a miracle for me since our first trailering experience was a night.mare...

He wilm stand all day in the cross ties at home, but I tied him to the trailer, it took all of 2 mins to blow smoke and decide he wanted nothing to do with a bug metal object. Pulled back, broke my nice new leather halter stood amazed like he learned a new truck then took off!

I head to the left cuz all I can think is oh crap, the gate to the main road is open... I start running to that while everyone else just thinks he will run to the other horses...um NOT!! I make it to the gate and just as he does and all I can do is jump up in down ans try to scare him.in the other direction lol. The just as I start to close it another car comes in and.is pushing me out of the way!!!!!! As I'm svreaming ans pointing ay said loose horse I give up let him through and try to grab the gate again. Once I get gate closed I can now at least breath since road kill is off the menu. We finally catch and get him tacked up, body slammed a few trucks and got to the warm up.

He still placed second and even had someone want to buy him... Lol scary moment but came out alive.

Unfortunately, now its a huge game and he thinks its fun. Has broken 3 halters including a rope one. Thought we had it fixed as he would stand.next to a tree all day... Well he got loose from the trailer while we were working on, well tying.... And now were back to square one :/

Dang horses lol

( sorry for the phone response.)

[crazyhorses]

Yes, twice in the same day. Same horse. lol. I had a lunge whip and she decided to be a moron. I learned, if I have a lunge whip, use a chain. If no lunge whip, no need for a chain. It was awfully embarrassing because she is an excellent horse to lunge most of the time!!

[Eastern Promises]

Yep.......

Everyone who PROMISED they'd give me a hand at the show.....backed out! But, gelding is a good boy so the extra hands would be nice, but no biggie.
Gelding is young, just doing Halter class.
Park in the field, unload, walk him around, etc. etc.
Tie him to the trailer, hes munching some hay, I step inside to get changed for my class......trailer gives a bit of a shake and I hear PING!!!! He didnt break anything, it was his halter bouncing off the trailer, he knows how to lay his ears FOREWARD and slip his halter off.

I pop out to see him galloping across the field. Now Im pissed because there was no reason, nothing to "spook" him, he just decided he was leaving, plain and simple.

I walk after him, he of course stops to eat the grass around the tractor with the sharp arena grader thingy. People come from all over to help me catch him, saying "Oooo careful hes right next to the grader he could get hurt" and someone offers me a leadrope........I said Thanks but he doesnt need it. Then.....he sees me walking up, his head pops up with that "Ohhh Sh--, Im in trouble!". YOU are a BAD BOY, COME!!!!! he takes a few steps to me, I grab his forelock and we walk back to the trailer, chastising him all the way like a little kid "Why do you have to embarass me in front of all these people! you know how to behave in public!"

thats when I realized............I was getting changed.......my pants are wide open, just a bra, and boots. I figure Oh well, at least it was one of my "good" bra's!!!

We went into the arena a few minutes later and he behaved VERY well, no fideting, no attitude, or anything. I guess he realized he BETTER behave.

[Long Spot]

thats when I realized............I was getting changed.......my pants are wide open, just a bra, and boots. I figure Oh well, at least it was one of my "good" bra's!!!

You win.

[Nootka]

GAhhh!

My 3yr old Paint colt (still had his jewels) was at Frying Pan Park for the Sport Horse Auction in Virginia. Some how he let himself out of his stall during the night or AM

I guess he tore around and acted a fool for a good while until he was caught (said he went into traffic also?). I wasn't there and no one called me to tell me it happened.

He looked fine but I wish some one would have called me instead of me finding out when I get there the next day.

[Tha Ridge]

Not my horse, but one of my past trainers had a horse get loose at a show while being longed. (He spooked and tore the longe line out of the groom's hands.)

He galloped around the show grounds and they finally cornered him near a metal round pen. He jumped straight up, cleared the round pen fence but broke his leg from the impact upon landing and had to be put down right then.

Very, very devastating to the trainer, the horse's owner, the groom and all involved. Just a reminder as to how fragile they are and how things can go wrong in a heartbeat.

[Canaqua]

Many years ago, late '70s. We were at that Shamrock Stables show at Mason Phelps' then place down in Newport. My TB escaped from the temp stalls under the tent and also let out a number of other horses....they went galloping all over the place. I knew nothing about this until I arrived early in the morning and my horse wasn't in his stall. I found him two rows over, no one knew who he belonged too because we weren't a fancy barn with names all over everything. He'd let out some very expensive animals. I was pretty much persona non grata that day. Someone had come in and seen my horse letting the last fugitive out. Ugh.

[PonyPenny]

I was watching the USEF/Pessoa Medal Class at a show at the Oaks in San Juan Capistrano, CA. A girl from a top barn was doing her course, when here comes a pony with saddle and bridle, but no rider into the ring from a far corner. I guess there was just enough gap there for the pony to slip through. It took awhile for the judges and ring steward to notice the pony and tell the rider to pull up. Pony was caught and a trainer from the other arena was running in to collect the pony, who had dumped its rider. The girl on course was allowed to start over, but by then her horse had seen the pony and was too hyped up to do the course properly. The girl was not happy, but it was kind of funny to us spectators.

[Friskyflea]

Problems with the Equi-Ping's original design

I found these in the Bit of Britain catalog. It looked like a much better idea than using baling twine:

http://www.bitofbritain.com/Equi_Ping_p/3449.htm

Well, it took Mr Ayrab about one show to figure out that with just a tiny pull they would pop right off. I'm at a schooling show, day is done, I tie him to the trailer with his Equi-Ping and a hay bag and wander over to the ring to watch for a while. About 15 minutes later, here comes the parking attendant/entry person leading Mr A. Apparently he popped his Ping and meandered around the parking area eating grass for a while, then walked over to the entry tent to see what was going on.

Definitely one of those times that showing an off breed made it really easy to identify the horse and owner!

Needless to say, the Ping got retired soon after - we tried it at another show with both horses we took that day and they BOTH figured out how to pop it and go eat grass.

BTW: I would suggest untying the halter before you slip it over the horse's head before bridling at the show. If they back up and feel that halter tight around their neck, they may panic, sit back, and break the halter. Ask me how I know!

Well, I am glad I am not the only person that had a bad experience with the Equi-Ping... the following may explain how your horses got loose...

Be very careful with this product's first version. A friend bought 2 for me at Rolex 2012. I'm a big fan of diminishing risks if I can and, although my horse ties well and does not pull, any added safety measure decreases the odds of an accident. The first time I used it, my horse was loose, not once, but TWICE The first time I thought I might have not pushed in the barbs well enough, so I reset it and went off to the show office.

Came back to find a woman whose trailer was parked next to mine holding my horse. She said that she saw what happened. I always leave a hay bag hanging, and my horse was eating out of it calmly. In the process of pulling sideways with his head/neck to get hay out of the bag, the Equi-Ping came undone with very minimal sideways traction on my horse's part. He wasn't pulling back with his body: he just swung his head/neck sideways to pull out hay. WOW! I thanked the woman profusely, removed the Equi-Ping and tied my horse the old fashioned way, with a quick release knot attached to a small loop of cotton line (package labeling says breaking strength is 50-60 lbs). No further problems that day.

I contacted the manufacturer via email and they were less than cooperative or terribly pleased with my emails where I stated that their original design was faulty and that they should be recalled or retrofitted with the safety sleeve. Their new design shows that they must have gotten reports of the original model coming undone as I have described above and that is what led to the new design.

DO NOT buy the older model that doesn't have the safety sleeve. Some American suppliers are still selling the older model - when in doubt, call and ask what model they are selling.

Save yourself the heart-in-your-throat feeling I experienced that day. Fortunately, I do a lot of ground work with my horses and they all ground tie so the woman said he was easy to catch as he had not strayed far, but horses are horses and even the best trained horse can spook. What if something had spooked my boy and he had started running among the horse trailers, with people unloading, or horses already tied while their riders were getting their entry packets... We all know how, being herd animals, if one spooks, quite a few are likely to get caught up in the fight or flight reaction...

FF

[Dance_To_Oblivion]

Yes I have and is one of the big reasons I prefer not to tie horses to the trailer unless it is unavoidable. One of the reasons I love having a trailer that can be set up in box stalls so I can easily completely tack up in the trailer before unloading, and horses can comfortably hang out all day on the trailer. This is especially handy for young horses.

[OverandOnward]

Cross fingers & knock wood -- to date, I've never had a horse get away from me at a show. The few falls I've had, blessedly the animal stuck around.

However, at almost every show I've been to in My Second Life With Horses, at least one horse comes wandering past my trailer without a human attached. Sometimes without a halter, either. I keep an extra halter/lead in the trailer (in case mine ever ... well,) so I catch it and find an owner. I'm not sure, but I'm wondering if people are not taught how to make sure horses don't get loose as thoroughly as we were back in the day.

Once at an event I saw a horse, wearing a halter with a lead rope trailing, grazing on a lush patch of grass near the sea of day trailers. The horse was so relaxed, I wondered if someone was letting him do this and he technically wasn't without supervision. I went to him - he was friendly - and looked around - didn't see an obvious owner, and he wasn't all that close to the nearest trailers. I walked him to the trailers and called if someone was missing a horse -- after a minute or two of this, no one claimed him, no one knew where he belonged.

I was wondering what to do with my new free horse (as it were ) but had to get my own horse ready to ride very shortly. I decided to take him to the announcers and turn him over, let them find an owner. This sweet horse was quite happy to amble along with me wherever I wanted to go --- until he saw we were going to the knot of people at the announcer's stand. I don't know what horses really know about the systems of humans, but he came to a dead stop and looked at me with the most crestfallen expression. It was as if he had thought we were going to hang out together grazing, but if I betrayed him and turned him over to the authorities, all the fun was over. Something about his abrupt change of demeanor from happy to despair made me feel very guilty I hadn't just left him by himself in the grass. Handed him in anyway.

[BansheeBreeze]

Yup, twice at the same show!! I was very new to jumping, doing just my second ever XC run on a hot lil mare who you could barely ride in the outdoor ring without her bolting (I'm pretty sure my trainer was trying to kill me). She dumped me off at the 3rd jump (although I managed to hang off the side of her while she ran in circles for a few minutes). She bolted back to the barn, my trainer and event crew came over in a 4 wheeler, handed me my stirrup, and we ran back to get her. I was MAD, got right on, went back on course, made her rejump the jump she had dumped me off at (which technically disqualified me, I didn't learn until later). We made it 2 more jumps and she spazzed at the jump judges and dumped me again, off the barn she ran. This time my back was hurtin and I was madder than all get out, it was a long walk back to the barn. Quite the embarassment

[RedHorses]

Mine dumped me at an event when he changed his mind about jumping an oxer on XC - halfway over. He put his forelegs down between the front and back logs, and stopped by bumping his chest into the back log which neatly catapulted me over his ears. I took his bridle with me. Before I got organized enough to grab him he extricated himself from the jump and, get this, WALKED back towards the start/stadium ring/trailers. He did break into a little jog once when a couple of people tried to get in front of him and stop him, and then dropped back to a walk as soon as his shoulders had passed them. Somebody caught him up by the stadium ring and had one of the stirrup leathers off my saddle around his neck by the time I caught up.

[Catnipped]

Not at a show, but went to watch our rather spooky racehorse gallop early one morning when he dumped the rider, jumped a fence and took off for parts unknown. He didn't go back to his stall and as the racecourse was right in the middle of suburbia we spent several hours driving city blocks frantically looking for him. Eventually found him tied to a tree in someones front yard!

[FlatBrokeEventer]

I had a really embarassing experience with this on multiple occations with the same imp of a horse. I forgot my splint boots for stadium and as I was putting them on he freaked out stepped on the reins, broke the bridle into multiple pieces (thank goodness they break) and ran off. I couldn't catch him. The show grounds was calling around to try to find him. I missed my stadium round and when he finally decided to calm down and allow someone to catch him he was higher than a kite.