Thursday, February 26, 2015

I should have gotten a dumber, less athletic horse

How many of you have seen the video on Facebook of the short, plump Haffie mare who jumps the 3'6 pasture fence from a standstill? No? You need to go find it and watch it. And if you're friends with the Fat Pony on Facebook (another Haffie), you'll know that his poor human spends quite a lot of time finding him in random places she didn't leave him.

Let me just say that these two escape Haffies are not anomalies. I have one too.

When we first brought Paddy home (has it really been 18 months? Time flies!), we had a wee bit of a challenge keeping him where we put him. I know I alluded to this, but never really gave any details.

Our first problem was keeping him in the stall. Did you know that Paddy can jump a 4' stall door from a standstill? No? Well, he can. Which is why the stall door and wall are now 5'.

Don't let the cute face fool you, he's plotting his next escape.

Also, Paddy is an excellent climber. A gate got left unlatched one day, and he let himself out to graze. The next day, we were double extra sure to latch the gate, but he didn't let this deter him. No, he just climbed over the gate. And while I don't have pictures of him actually climbing, let's just say that our poor gate is rather worse for the wear.

When jumping and climbing don't work, Paddy's not afraid to simply put a little muscle into it. It's kind of hard to tell in this picture, but he somehow managed to a) rearrange the panels, which were zip-tied to the t-posts, and then b) rip the gate off the hinges and fling it on the ground. Brego and Taran benefited from Paddy's (de)construction skills here, since the three of them were all out grazing in the back pasture when I found this:


But sometimes Paddy's not feeling quite so much like sharing. This was the case yesterday, when I came home from work to find a single cute Haffie in the front pasture:

Oh hi! You're home early...

Turns out, he managed to push a tensioned H-brace out of place, then hopped over the tension wire to get into the front pasture and feast. He's talented enough that he didn't tear his blanket or scrape himself. I don't think he's missing a single hair, lol!


The moral of this story? If you have a Haffie, you'd better keep them at Alcatraz. Although it's entirely possible that they are excellent swimmers and could even escape Alcatraz. Heck, for all I know, Haffies migrated to North America by swimming across the Atlantic. They probably heard about an entire continent of grass and were like "WE'RE IN!!!!"

I'm a bit concerned that Paddy might notice how nice our neighbor's grass is...


35 comments:

  1. Bad haffie! He looks so cute and innocent in all those photos though.

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    1. DO NOT let the innocent look fool you. It's a total lie.

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  2. naughty haffie!! he sounds super determined lol

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  3. That photo evidence is quite impressive. Frankly, I suspect my Paddy Bear can jump the 5' gate and is just saving it for the right opportunity.

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    1. If he jumps the 5' gate I'm sending him to you to deal with.

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    2. Ooo yay we can play with all the blonde hair and sparkles!

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    3. Hahaha... knock yourselves out! ;)

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  4. sooooo cute! Haffies just have so much personality it doesn't fit inside the fence ;)

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  5. LOL he obviously just wants free run of the place.

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  6. That's hilarious, though potentially troubling. Who knew? I've seen videos of clever horses unlocking doors with their lips, but nothing like your smart boy.

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    1. Oh, he can do that too if you leave the snap accessible.

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  7. Replies
    1. Yes. Yes it is. It's not like we don't have good sturdy fences. It's just that he thinks they weren't meant for him.

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  8. Replies
    1. I should have gotten a nice dumb quarter horse.

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  9. WANT TO KNOW SOMETHING EXCITING?! The Haffie that jumps the fence from a standstill is the same farm I purchased my mini from!!!!

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    1. I sincerely hope the Haffie didn't teach your mini any bad things! :D

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  10. Replies
    1. Yuck it up now. Wait till he shows up IN YOUR BEDROOM.

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  11. Naughty Haffie! All of the haflingers I know (and I know a ton, all of my friend's love them.) are amazing escapers.Sneaky little things!

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    1. They are definitely too smart for their own good. Or my good, I'm not sure which.

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  12. Yep - true to haffie shenanigans form. And the best at adorable + very innocent looks.

    A haffie mare is the head honcho of the trail barn herd down the road from here. She's famous for magically escaping through human exits and then working the gate latches to free everyone else. Generally one step ahead... ;D

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    1. I can't even imagine a Haffie MARE. I mean... no. Just no.

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  13. Obviously he's being neglected and is trying to get some attention from outsiders to save him from his horrible plight. Really the only solution here is to feed him more cookies so he feels loved.

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    Replies
    1. Clearly I need to make him some cookies from the Bobby-approved recipe.

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  14. OMG that is seriously impressive escaping talents

    checkmark115

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    1. Yes, I do rather wish they were a bit less impressive.

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  15. I own a horsey houdini too, makes for funny stories but the horror of finding them outside where they should be a d the 'what ifs' that follow make it wholly less enjoyable for moi.
    Hope you can find a way to keep haffie houdini under wraps

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    1. Oh my, you too? I'm so sorry. It's cute, put what a PAIN. And you're constantly wondering where they'll be when you get home from work...

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  16. That is quite possibly the funniest blog titles I've ever read. And the part I love about all these adventures is the incredibly innocent face. Very nice.

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    1. The adorable, innocent face is really the icing, isn't it? But don't fall for it, it's totally an act!

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  17. Sydney is a terrible escape artist too, though she usually just learns where the fence is weakest and muscles her way through. Had to move her to a barn with board fences to break the habit.

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