Does this look like an escape artist to you?                                    

   Although Ellie had no prior record of escaping, she managed to get out of her stall in the wee hours of Thanksgiving morning. 

Fortunately for her owner, Ellie decided it was really cold and windy outside, so she opted to stay in the barn.  Everyone was really glad that she did not get out on Rock Prairie Road and get ran over. 

Ellie was also very fortunate that she didn't founder or colic as result of her sampling a buffet that consisted of about eight other horse's breakfasts. 

How does the saying go, an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure? 

Given the number of boarders, it is not feasible to keep the morning feed locked up.  That alone could prevent the risk of founder or colic.  But, in this case - that still wouldn't keep a horse off a busy road.  So ultimately, the best solution is to keep the horse in it's stall. 

Each stall has a place for a snap to keep a horse from opening the door.  The one on Ellie's stall apparently got left off the night before.  But, everyone has made extra effort to check and double check whether the snaps are on. 

     The Snap on Ellie's stall. 

   Playing devils advocate:  if there was a fire, would someone be able to quickly get this snap off?   There was a fire at another local stable  a few years back and numerous horses died because they couldn't be rescued in time.

 Or would the snap below work better?  An advantage of the second snap is that it is secured by a rope, so it is less likely to get lost.  

 I would recommend in an optimal situation that the snaps all be the same type so that if someone did have to quickly evacuate the horses, no time would be lost trying to figure out different snaps. 

  Ellie's story had a happy ending.  But, hopefully her story will remind each and everyone of us with horses not to get lazy and skip the little precautions that could save a lot of grief and vet bills later on. 

Watch for upcoming posts that will be designed to highlight horse barn/stable features that buyer prospects or horse owners may want to consider.