Hi Mayra. Thanks for reaching out. I am always of two minds regarding headcollars (halters). First and foremost we use ones that have an inexpensive leather crown piece which breaks quite easily. (Sometimes we think it breaks TOO easily!) So we’re confident they won’t get caught up in it. That is the reason people suggest removing them and I don’t disagree with that. Over the last 4 decades, I have unfortunately had horses break fencing and get out. I’ve even had a few athletic ones that simply jumped out. I was very glad that those horses had their head collars on! Also, when it is time to bring the horses in for the day, trying to put the headcollars on horses jostling at the gate can be a challenge especially for the less experienced staff or young people that might go out to retrieve them from the field. So I guess for us, for safety reasons, we generally leave them on. The fencing is checked frequently, and mine is a fairly busy barn and so they are rarely not under someone’s watchful eye. (I would probably feel differently if I was leaving them out 24 hours unsupervised). Having said this, I know of a few sad cases where horses at other barns were wearing a sturdy nylon headcollar and got caught on something. Those types of headcollars will not break. One of them injured himself quite badly and another one died. So it is a very serious question and one needs to weigh the pros and cons and try to mitigate the possibilities for injury. We do that by using those cheap, break away headcollars. I imagine if I only had a couple of horses and looked after them exclusively by myself, I would probably take them off. Sorry for the long rather wishy/washy answer. In a perfect world, I guess I would say that I would remove them but ours is not a perfect world. I hope that helps and I think I’ll do a video about this as folks often ask… and not nearly as nicely as you did! Thanks, Mayra
Pat, I have been told not to leave their halters on them when they are turned out. Your thoughts on this topic?
Thanks,
Mayra
Hi Mayra. Thanks for reaching out. I am always of two minds regarding headcollars (halters). First and foremost we use ones that have an inexpensive leather crown piece which breaks quite easily. (Sometimes we think it breaks TOO easily!) So we’re confident they won’t get caught up in it. That is the reason people suggest removing them and I don’t disagree with that. Over the last 4 decades, I have unfortunately had horses break fencing and get out. I’ve even had a few athletic ones that simply jumped out. I was very glad that those horses had their head collars on! Also, when it is time to bring the horses in for the day, trying to put the headcollars on horses jostling at the gate can be a challenge especially for the less experienced staff or young people that might go out to retrieve them from the field. So I guess for us, for safety reasons, we generally leave them on. The fencing is checked frequently, and mine is a fairly busy barn and so they are rarely not under someone’s watchful eye. (I would probably feel differently if I was leaving them out 24 hours unsupervised). Having said this, I know of a few sad cases where horses at other barns were wearing a sturdy nylon headcollar and got caught on something. Those types of headcollars will not break. One of them injured himself quite badly and another one died. So it is a very serious question and one needs to weigh the pros and cons and try to mitigate the possibilities for injury. We do that by using those cheap, break away headcollars. I imagine if I only had a couple of horses and looked after them exclusively by myself, I would probably take them off. Sorry for the long rather wishy/washy answer. In a perfect world, I guess I would say that I would remove them but ours is not a perfect world. I hope that helps and I think I’ll do a video about this as folks often ask… and not nearly as nicely as you did! Thanks, Mayra