How to stop escape artist!

[eml]

One of our horses has clearly decided that spring is here and its time to stop overnight sleepins! Last two mornings I have seen him wandering about the yard at about 7am but although phased by the white dressing gowned apparition has been quite happy to
stroll back into his stable.

Anyway I cant work out how he does it. The top bolt has a clip on it (from the end of a lead roap) and the bottom foot bolt is strong and substantial. We suspect help from the next door neighbour horse as well!!

Any ideas before he works out how to let the lot out!!!

I mean to turn them out overnight as soon as possible but fields are still too wet for 36 sets of hoofs 24/7.

[lisae]

Is the stall door ajar, or in place with all its clips? It sounds like he is scrambling over the top, in which case a higher gate is in order. We had a young Hafligner gelding who was also an escape artist, I would see his huge white mane out there in the back yard on moonlit nights and know he was out again! He also pushed right through the boards from his stall into the goat's, and was eating her sodden bedding. He found a super home with a lady who still finds his antics endearing....

[Aphrodite]

Simple - Padlock it!

You'll need to get a padlock that is sufficiently big for it not to be manipulated around the bolt and padlock the top one. For safety purposes you may like to keep one key near the stable (though out of your horses' reach, just in case he works that one out too!), and one in the house. You may also have a spare, maybe it would be best to keep that in your tack cupboard or something, in case of emergencies, or even with your car keys.

Good luck!:)

[berties-girl]

Bertie likes to let himself out at night too, I now have a metal pole which we slide across so even if he gets the door bolt open the pole stops it from letting him out, it is part of a scaffold pole.

[eml]

Brilliant idea Berties girl. Yes he opens the door wide. As he is a large chunky 16.3hh cob type he is definately not squeezing out although it would make a brill cartoon LOL.

A bit worried about the padlock idea as I am neurotic enough about fire to have smoke alarms everywhere in the yard connected to the house and can't imagine panicking about getting him our as well as the others!

[berties-girl]

The pole definatly works for me, when i get to the yard most mornings the door bolt is open, and Bertie is so annoyed that he has gone to all that trouble and still cant escape. I will take a photo of it and show you so you can see what i mean, it was easy to do my OH did it for me.

[nutkin]

how about an extra bolt in the middle so that it does up the opposite way to the other one.

[Wally]

One of our Haflingers had us all perplexed once.

He was in his stable with a standard 4 feet plus door (High) with the top door open, fully tacked up waiting to go out. We were in the house having a cup of tea. Suddenly one of the lasses said that Solfried was out on the yard. Oh well we mustn't have shut his door properly. Got there and the kick bolt and top bolt were still done up. We stood blinking for a while and put him back and did up all his bolts again. A few minutes later he was on the yard again, door fully secure, he couldn't possilby have jumped out, he wouldn't fit through the top door saddle and bridle on and everything. Again he was put back and bolted up. I happened to turn my head to look out as he was in mid air, nose between knees, neatly popping over the stable door and lightly landing on the yard! Unless I'd have seen it with my own eyes I'd still be hard put to beleive anyone that it was possible. He did it once or twice more before earning himself an anti weaving grille. He'd wind himself up by bouncing several times on his front legs then work up enough bounce to pop over. He was ony about 13.1hh too. Needless to say he won more showjumping ribbons than any other Haflinger I know.

I'd have a padlock that has the wheels and numbers on it, no key to loose and the code can be written on his door so no danger of him getting locked in!

You could try a U bolt that you use on tractor linkages, they need a fair dexterity to undo and no key or code to worry about.

OR a rock climbers shackle thingy with a thing which screws up and cannot easily come undone.

Personally I use a panic hook on Winne and Essie's door, so far so good! They havn't worked that one out yet.

[Mehitabel]

we have bars on all our stables - but petal gets down on her knees and wriggles on her belly to get under them! how about moving him to another stable next to someone stupid, if you suspect he's getting help from his neighbour?

[DITZ]

My horse is so docile! He cribs on the door so to stop him we've taken the door off and now just block the entrance with the wheelbarrow. Works a treat!

[gymbob]

Our Carrie has a special bolt at the top, which slides back into a U shaped piece of metal to open. The U is weighted so that it drops down unless you are holding it, and if they aren't lined up, the bolt can't be opened IYSWIM? She too was a serious excape artist, and would then let all the others out!!

[gymbob]

Another thought, I can see you fear of fire, although I hope to god you never find yourself in this situation. But could you use a large combination lock, with the combination clearly marked, painted on the door or something? After all, the horse won't be able to read it!!

[eml]

Thanks for all your ideas. I tried Wallys tractor links last night ( just because we have lots of them) and horse was in stable with all bolts fastened when I went down this morning!