Leaving your horses halter on in their stall... Should it happen?

[horse_1987]

I myself, always take off my horses halter before I put her away in her stall.. because I am scared of it getting caught on something, or leaving awful rub marks on the horses face.
What do u think?

[AdoreMyDogs]

Yes the halter should always be taken off when the horse is in the stall. They would put up a terrible fight, and spook something terrible, perhaps even breakng their back, neck or legs if it happened to get stuck on something.

[Jill]

I totally agree, a horses halter should never be left on unless you are tacking them up or walking them around. My horses never have thier halters on wether they are in their stall or in the field. I have heard many horror stories of people leaving them on and horses getting caught on things, or foals getting their hind legs stuck in them.
In my opinion a halter should not be on an unsupervised horse.

[carrie]

We had a very secure, custom built, loads of money spent (not by me but my employers) stable block, fields, kennels etc. The stud that our Arabian pure breds came from was about thirty miles away. Their yard was the location for a highly structured rustling operation. It was not the cameras, the infra- red beams or any of their security measures that saved their much loved and very valuable stock...it was their Yorkshire terriers!!! They phoned us at three in the morning to get us to take all head collars off and bring horses in the fields into the stables. The police found the horse thieves but the lessons were never forgotten. All horses, at home and at the stud were never left with head collars on again.
Why make things easy for theives? Even when you have the best security in the world determined thieves will have studied your systems and every extra second counts.
No horses were taken, by the way, but several horses had been led by their head collars into the yard before the thieves ran away. Two were tied to gate posts with the thieves belts.
We still used head collars in the day time when someone was around but every horse, pony and cow had them taken off when left alone.

[horse_1987]

Thanx for expressing your feelings everyone. Anyways.. I heard a horrible story about this girl who left her horses halter on in his stall when she left for school because the farrier was coming and she figured she'd make it easier for him and left it on. Her horses head got caught up on some wires and the horse panicked and got himself electricuted, the girl got a horrible call at school from the farrier. Wouldn't that be awful?

[AdoreMyDogs]

At the horse barn I volunteer at one of the foals was goofing around too close to the hay rack in their pasture and she somehow got her head stuck in between the bars of the hay rack (because of the halter she was wearing we assumed) and she ripped her jaw open pretty good. She is ok but the vet is unsure if she can ever have a bit in her mouth because of the injury. She's now a lovely 1 year old thoroughbred (brat http://PetoftheDay.com/talk/smile.gif )with a rather large scar on her mouth. We also had an accident with another thoroughbred mare, a halter and a hay rack. I hate hay racks even more then I hate halters but they insist on using them for some reason! This mare came from a severly abusive breeding facility and she was very flighty to begin with. They had to always keep a halter on her because she simply could not be caught, she was terrified of people because she was severely abused. Anyway, she must have spooked at something, kicked the hay rack, it tipped over and then she must have bent down to examine it and her halter caught on to the hay rack and she spooked and took off, taking the huge hay rack with her. She ended up getting her halter broken, as well as her leg. She had to be put to sleep the next day when we found her.

That was very heartbreaking. I was the first one to find her, she was still walking but she was in terrible pain and her leg was cut so bad that you could see the broken bone sticking out. I don't like keeping halters on, and I like hay racks even less than that!

[horse_1987]

Wow.... well first of all don't dis hayracks! they are excellent my horse has an off and on cought so when she eats from the hayrack mounted inside her stall it prevents her from inhaling wood chips (shavings) when she eats. But, if you have a horse like the mare described and it is a must to keep the halter on then that is when hayracks are no good. My horse NEVER wears her halter unless I am walking her, tying her up or lunging her.

[carrie]

Here is a suggestion for your coughing horse - leave one corner of the stable bare to the floor and pile the hay there. If you imagine every time your horse pulls at the hayrack, even soaked hay if it hasn't been eaten within an hour or so, will shed pollen and dust straight down into the horse's nostrils.
Just a thought....I'm sure you've already got a solution for this in place...and really just want to know what it is!!! Hope you don't mind me picking your brains!