Halters in the pasture. Whats YOUR opinion?

Whats your personal opinion on keeping halters on whilst a horse in in the pasture?

I have been always told. No. as in, if-you-put-your-horse-in-the-pasture-with-a-halter-on-it-will-probably-suffer-and-DIE kind of super-serious no.
I always lead into the pasture, close the gate, remove halter, then exit. Never ever have I left a halter on, but I have occasionally seen horses out grazing with them on.

It depends on what my plans are for the horse. If I'm grooming it to go on a ride the next day I will leave it on. As for long term I don't. I just don't have a reason to leave it on my horses come when they are called from the field so catching them to ride isn't an issue.

In two stables I've rode at they left the halters on. I never really even thought about now leaving it on until I rode at the barn I do now. -shrug- I don't think its that big of a deal though.

I often left a halter on mine, but it was a rope halter, without buckles. Buckles can catch on things easier than the slip on rope style.. but..
I did often have to go hunt down the halter, when one of them would rub a head against the fence/tree/post and manage to remove it. My stud used to pick it up and carry it around because he was just weird.

I'm not a fan of leaving halters on, I've seen first hand two serious injuries caused by doing so.
First was a paint filly, they left her halter on (rope halter), she got her foot caught when she scratched. They found her a few hours later, she seriously messed up her rear leg and hip, went from being an awesome reining prospect to pet/broodmare only.
Second was a appy gelding, they caught him that morning to get him ready for the farrier, turned him out with his halter on (nylon halter) so he'd be easy to catch, when the farrier got there a few hours later he'd gotten a front hoof caught in his halter, sliced his face up. Ended up losing his eye, somehow the nylon sliced into his heel almost to the bone and he'd pulled his shoulder really badly. He ended up healing up enough to be a good trail horse.
So no, I'd never turn out with a halter on. And I'm not a fan of breakaway halters either because IMO that helps reinforce the bad behavior of pulling back. However, as is typical with horse owners ask twenty people get twenty different answers. :D

I grew up on a 45 acre Appy ranch.

I voted mixed cuz if you have a horse that is super hard to catch and your place is pretty clear of debri......halter. If not on either then NO halter.

I would rather not, but so many things have happened that makes me keep them on. We've got five horses on our farm, two of them are going to be 6 months old this month. The two babies don't have halters on, but all three mares do. My grandparents were nice enough to let me keep my horse there and we've gained a few in the last four years. Well anyway, beings that they are old and can't run around chasing the horses when they get loose we leave the halters on. The fences are really cruddy and if we don't pad lock the gate they get out. :rolleyes:

We've had halters on in the pasture for the last 4 years and I've never had any thing bad happen. My horse is blind on one side and regularly looses her halter in the field. I'm not quite sure how they could get severely hurt if they can slip them off :confused: She's never slipped it off while tied so it's not like it's a loose halter. The other mares have slipped their halters off as well.

But I would suggest getting proper fitting halters if you're going to leave them on out to pasture. Each one of our three mares uses a different sized halter and we never trade between them.

I want to say that we never did when we had horses, but we also boarded horses and I don't remember what exactly we did with them. I know with the ones we trusted half the time we wouldn't even put a halter on them to get them from barn to pasture (they all came in every night/day depending on the time of the year). We would hook the lead around their neck, right behind their heads and lead them out there. With the borders I want to say we just took the halter off once we got them out there. They all knew they were getting grain when they came in so we never even had to call them...they would all be waiting at the gates when we went to get them.

Hee is my practice. I have two mares. One is a dream to catch, and will even ignore my other (dom) mare when I call her. The other mare is skittish and tends to shy away from me when I bring them in and make a game of it. I halter the nervous nelly in pasture, and leave my reliable girl nekked. :) I think that it is just safer; they got out once, and I shudder to think of the nutty mare escaping easier if she had not been haltered (she was, and my hubby nabbed her halter just before she could take off.) I know that this could be said to be a training issue, but nut-mare is just that; a skittish horse. I always use breakaway halters for her though, for safety. Our pasture is free of debris, etc that she could catch on, and the halter fis properly with no sagginess (but not too tight.)
I NEVER leave halters on when they're in their box stalls. Latches on the door.. hayracks.. wooden sides of the stalls.. no.

Right type of halter, perfect fit. That is very important. My barn has never had an incident with halters. But we always make sure they fit well, and usually if they are a good fit, it's difficult for them to get their foot caught in it.

Putting out to pasture for the day hours is not going to make sense for the farmhand to try to catch 25 horses. It's just a risk that can't be avoided sometimes.