Escape Artist

Hi
I have an arabian morgan cross and he is the master of escape!! he knows how to undo the pasture and the stall locks. I have tried everything: i put a clip on the gates to stop the chain from undoing easily, i have put zip ties around them. i don't know how he does it but he manages to get out of everything!! i even went as far as putting a padlock on the gates and stalls but he acutally physically KICKED through the stall wall, tearing up the post and unhinging the door!!! Doing this he injured his foot and got cuts and scrapes all over him! i don't know why he wants to get out so desperately. we have resorted to keeping him out full time but he sometimes even feels the urge to get out of the pastures as well. He's getting extremely FAT from all the midnight grazings!!! anyone have a similar problem out there?

What a goober! lol. I knew a horse that was like this. His name was Captain and he unlocked his stall, let some buddies out and went into the feed room and ate the grain. He coliced really bad from that, too. The owner noticed that when he turned the lights off on his front porch to go to bed, Captain would immediately open his door

The owner ended up finding a special kind of lock that Captain couldn't unlock. He hated doing it, like in case of a fire or an emergency. So I really can't tell you anything else but to keep trying different locks.....sorry. These horses are tricky!

we had a horse like that at a barn that i boarded at, monty was very proud of his stall door lock up!!!, monty stall door had a normal stall door slide lock under neith that it had a slide bar attached to a longer slide bar and both were welded togeather with a clip. all our stall doors are open toped but monty had a bar that swung across and latched, one night some one forgot to lock him in and he desided to let 12 of his closes buddies out for a small party....are stable hands wasn't inpressed the next day, as for my mare abby, she jump or crawled over and under any thning, i now have her in a pannel paddock, we're in the proscesses of putting a 5 wire paddock up so she can't get out of that, as for kicking that stall wall down....i've seen barn owners hot wire there stalls

Thanks. My husband and i are in the process of trying out different kinds of locks so hopefully we'll find one that works :)

I don't know of any particular locks, but I would suggest letting him stay out longer and use a grazing muzzle on him. The grazing muzzle is not mean, they can still graze, but they can't get as much grass as they could without it. Maybe your horse is telling you he's bored.

Another suggestion (if you don't want to try the muzzle) is to get some stall toys to keep him busy such as a likit or a jolly ball or something like that. An inexpensive toy is to get a gallon plastic milk jug and put some rocks in it and hang it from the ceiling. My son's horse loves to SMACK his jug and then quickly look out his stall at all the other horses getting startled from the noise! He's such a goof!!

Thanks for the advice! I will try the stall toys. Sounds like he's just bored and needs something to play with!