"Tim Wescott" wrote in message
...
Mr. Horse is part or all thoroughbred, isn't a good doer, and needs lots
of grain to keep his weight up.

Mr. Pony (AKA Founder-Boy) is a greedy ******* who could live on thistles
and air, but he's smart and he likes grain. Unfortunately it makes him
fat in the long run, and in the short run it can make him founder (he's
foundered more than once before, so he's particularly susceptible).

Our feeding stalls are laid out with a shelf about 18" high, for feed, and
a window into the feed bay about 30" high. The windows are high enough
that Mr. Pony can't reach through to get hay piled up on the floor of the
feed bay, but Mr. Horse can.

Recently, Mr. Pony has learned that he can step up on the shelves and eat
all the hay that he wants. Not only does this make him fat (and more
prone to foundering), the shelves aren't strong enough for him, and he's
already punched a hoof through the surface of one of them which just ain't
safe.

So the horses are locked out of the feeding stalls while we ponder.

I'm thinking of replacing the shelves with something akin to a breakaway
basketball basket -- i.e. something that'll handle the strain of Mr. Horse
licking the thing clean, but will collapse when Mr. Pony tries to stand on
it.

But I need a latch -- I'm thinking that a good strong magnet working on an
iron strap would work, but would attract crap. Alternately, something
akin to a BIG cabinet latch would do.

It has to support probably between 20 and 100 pounds of eagerly-licking
horse, but not the 500 pounds of the front half of the pony, and in the
"breakaway" position it can't have any protrusions that may cut up a
(likely alarmed) equine.

Any suggestions?

--

a set of hinges and a couple large supermagnets buried into the shelf, and a
piece of iron in the wall.