Leaving Halters On.....No!

[Little Wolf Ranch]

On a discussion board on Facebook a person made the following comment in regards to habitually leaving Halters on. It was started by a lady posting a picture of a dead foal whose halter had gotten snagged. It seems no matter how much you try to inform there will always be "those people".

How does this comment make you feel?

"It is almost impossible to catch a horse, large or small, without a halter on. A more prudent plan would be to tour your paddocks and fields to ensure there isn't something that a halter can get caught on which was obviously the situation in this case."

 

[Rocklone Miniature Horses]

They are the people who have never had anything happen to a horse probably. My first ever horse lessons were safety and that included no halters. My halters also used to always get stolen so i left them off. If a horse won't be caught, that is not the horses fault. WHY won't it be caught..

 

[lucky seven]

My big boy's halter was left on and he got it caught in the wire fencing while eating grass, he pulled back and ripped the fencing down. Halters are for taking for walks, grooming and farrier and vet visits. Learned the hard way.

 

[chandab]

I'm sure she'd have a response, but... What about horses that manage to hang themselves with their own body? The back leg stuck in a halter while trying to scratch an itch on the face, more likely to happen to a foal, but I have full size horses that still itch their faces with a back leg. You can't possibly find every little thing a horse might snag a halter on, they find the darnedest things to get stuck on, things you'd never suspect.

 

[BSharpRanch]

If you cannot catch your horse without a halter on maybe it is time to actually train your horse. I seen what happens with a left on halter, that was enough for me.

 

[Minimor]

I did the face-palm thing when I read that FB post! I still have a couple hard to catch horses but the rest of them are very easy to catch. I cannot imagine having my whole herd being almost impossible to catch without halters on!! And with mine--the hard to catch ones do NOT wear halters when I am not working with them....I just go out and catch them and put halters on when I want them.

 

[targetsmom]

Having kept big horses at boarding barns, most of them would leave the halters on for turnout because it was too much work to take them off and put them back on. So the rule (for big horses) was LEATHER halters, feeling they would break in an emergency. I never trusted those but found that they make breakaway halters for big horses AND MINIS with light leather "fuses" that will easily break. I go one step farther with the minis and replace the leather fuse with a piece of ribbon just tied on. That will break very easily and in cases where you must leave a halter on (mare about to foal and needing to wear alarms), they are safe. You can make one your self by removing the short piece of leather between the near side ring and the buckle and replacing it with a ribbon. I wouldn't use it to tie a horse that pulled back, as they will break pretty easily, but they can also be left on safely.

 

[amysue]

I have lost a horse due to a staff member leaving her halter on and she hung herself. I fully understand hard to catch horses-I have three practically wild range mares but their halters have a leather shoe lace holding the crown so in the event of an emergency the halter will break. I have learned over the years that some people will never learn no matter what you tell them. For some people their way is the only way.

 

[Maple Hollow Farm]

I have SEVERAL hard to catch horses but I do not leave halters on. It is possible to catch them without and they generally get better with each catch too. Seen too many graphic injuries from leaving halters on to ever take that risk! Even in a stall they can get caught on their buckets or like someone else said, some have gotten legs into their halters and required lots of chiropractic to fix or worse.

Edited to add.....we have over 80 head of horses between our two farms and can catch ALL of them without having to leave halters on....

 

[disneyhorse]

The harder to catch, the smaller the stall I keep the horse in. They earn a larger space

 

[Jean_B]

A neighbor had to put down a foal that got a leg hung up in mom's halter. I don't care how "breakaway" they are - no halters on any of my horses EVER unless they have being led from point A to point B.

 

[BSharpRanch]

I did once have to leave a halter on for an extended time. It was on my big horse when he was attacked by the pit bull. As the injury healed it began to itch. I made a half muzzle out of a head bumper placed sideways on the halter by his mouth so that he could eat and drink but not scrath the injury. I used a cheap cat collar from the dollar store to connect the crown to the buckle. He did break the cat collar once.

 

[HollynIvysMomma]

That picture made me so sad (of the horse who died). We never leave halters on.

But to answer the OP question...yeah that quote is confusing to me, bc I have three minis and my mom has a QH and a Paso Fino, and none of them need halters on to be caught. They do not wear halters unless we are with them. We just walk into the stall/dry lot/pasture that said horse happens to be in and they come to us. Don't even have to call them usually, and then they stand for their halters.

 

[REO]

NEVER NEVER NEVER!!!!

 

[Hayley~Diaz]

Horses can be a walking disaster lol. I avoid ALL risks of problems possible. Halters are always off

 

[shorthorsemom]

I never leave a halter on unless I am right there and I am waiting for the vet. Its a horse, if it can find a way to hurt itself, it will. Leaving the halters off is a good idea. For training forever ago, if we HAD to leave on a halter, we used to unbuckle it and tie a very thin piece of natural baling twine (not plastic) around the buckle and tie the halter by the string rather than buckle it. It would give you that 1 second catch opportunity and then you could buckle the halter and attach the lead rope and go. For my horses, I do nothing. I do use muzzles for brief turnouts but only if I am home and supervising.

My horses come to me when they see the halter because they have been trained that the halter is a good thing. The only time I cannot catch my horses is if I stupidly walk out to the field with the worming syringe in my hand and not in my pocket, or if they see the vet truck in the driveway. LOL.

I remember a wonderful black horse named Yankee I used to trail ride with in a riding club. His owner didn't think about the small spigot thing on the bathtub she was using for a water trough. I heard Yankee hung himself by the halter on that small piece of chrome. He was strong and he was big and the halter did not break. He was bigger than life in personality, you couldn't take your eyes off him.

His memory has been with me for 40 years and he wasn't even my horse.

 

[Kendra]

In my experience, the people who leave horses out in brushfilled (or junk filled) pastures in ill fitting nylon halters never have any issues and will loudly defend their choice. It's the careful, caring horse owner who leaves the halter on the foal just long enough to run to the house for a camera, or on the difficult to catch mare mid work session, just long enough to meet the school bus, that pay the ultimate price. Not fair.

My horses are not all easy to catch. But they do not ever wear halters while turned out. Not worth it.

 

[Field-of-Dreams]

We only turned one mare out with a halter. She was impossible to catch without it. But it was leather and old. Otherwise, no halters. And we have several that are impossible to catch in a field, so we run them into a small catch area.

I still remember when I got my first horse, he was boarded at a tiny place where an old man took care of them. He was old fashioned, they still had tie stalls and everything. My horse had the only box stall. I did find him once tied in it, the old man said "the girls" must have left him tied. Not likely, I did tell him I didn't want him tied and never found him like that again. But I did go once and couldn't find his halter. Looked everywhere! Finally looked over the wall and there it was- stuck on a nail with the safety release open. It was one of those safety halters from Farnam with the metal loop that could be used over and over, or you could lock it in. Now, I NEVER left a halter on him, don't know why someone had, but there it was hanging. It saved his life, he definitely would have panicked and broken his neck.

I still have that halter somewhere. 34 years later....

 

[poniesrule]

Isn't step one of horse ownership to be responsible for the safety of your horse? I will admit, I have left halters on for brief periods of time while supervising, but we have never left them on full time. We had several feedlot horses who never had halters on, they hated to be caught because it always meant work, but we dealt with it. In the past 15 years or so since I started training & not just riding, I have always made "capture" a positive experience, as well as an expectation of the horse's responsibility. Raise your hand if you've ever seen a halter grown into a horse's head (or collar into dog etc.). That alone is a reason to never leave them on! Even if your horse is "full grown" the halter can shrink in the elements, or they may grow just a teeny bit more. I've heard the excuse that they put the halter on, then couldn't catch them again to take it off... it's called being lazy (IMHO). And I always enjoy watching people chase their horse and yell & scream that the stupid thing won't stand still. One of my favorite quotes, Tom Dorrance "When I hear somebody talk about a horse or cow being stupid; I figure it's a sure sign that the animal has somehow outfoxed them." How fitting in relation the the FB post.

 

[Squeaks]

The first lessons I learned with horses was never leaving the halter on the horses when a lead isn't attached (whilst you handle them).

I've seen and heard horror stories that make me glad I learned that early on. If they insist on leaving a halter on, it'd better be a breakaway.

Even Sierra, who is unbearably difficult to catch (even the day we picked her up) I won't leave a halter on because I won't risk her getting caught up in something. It is difficult not to want to stomp and cuss when she lets you get just close enough to snag her mane and leaves you in a cloud of dust.