Woman given restraining order for ‘feeding horse’..

[Stath]

There are frequent threads on MN about idiotic behaviour by the public when it comes to other people’s animals.
I’m very pleased to read that this woman has been taken to court although I wonder if she’d have been made to pay vets’ costs/compensation if her acts had killed or made the horse require treatment?
Not sure this will serve as a deterrent to many people though who have the mindset of ‘a carrot/potato/handful of grass won’t do any harm’ but it’ll hopefully do some good.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/gran-hit-restraining-order-feeding-25493927

@EtonMessy

Good!! Seeing our childhood pony in the agonising throes of colic is something I’ll never forget!!

Or walking a 20 year old 17 hh ex race horse up and down the road for 6 hours overnight after some idiot fed him a sandwich so he didn’t go down and never get up again

@gogohm

Perhaps part of the answer is ensuring horses aren't running free where the public are - I don't like being ran at by horses but unfortunately the owners seem to think it's acceptable ditto cows ... the rights of way date back hundreds of years, they have had a long time to fence them!

There's no rules against grazing horses in fields with public rights of way. I bet you'd moan if they made a 2m wide corridor along the exact footpath route too, which they could but would be astronomically expensive and could potentially split the field into unusable portions.

Local landowner used perfectly compliant electric fence to enable them to use one of their fields during the grass shortage last year and the locals were all up in arms about the fact they couldn't roam willy nilly and let their dogs do the same, talk of complaints to the council and all sorts.

I read the news report and it is clear that the culprit has certain "issues".

I have to admit that I used to pick handfuls of grass to feed a particularly mournful looking horse that I used to walk past. But no carrots, polos or mars bars so hopefully no colic or damage was caused. I won't do it again.

But I agree that some of the snippy responses on here are perhaps typical of the attitudes of "country folk" that keep horses and the general disdain to townies. If I was feeding a horse or doing something untoward out of ignorance and someone confronted me shouting and swearing, I'd probably kick off in retaliation. But if people are nice and explain why something shouldn't be done without getting arsey, I would imagine even the most ignorant townie might see sense.

Just a thought...

But I agree that some of the snippy responses on here are perhaps typical of the attitudes of "country folk" that keep horses and the general disdain to townies

Dont make this into something it isn't. People asked why not and other people have answered. If you don't like the answers, that's not our problem.

My livery yard is also a riding school. We have young helpers at the weekend, an older livery in her 70s (around horses since young child) gave a young helper a dressing down as a bridle hadn’t been hung up with the reins tied through the throatlash. She refers to them as idiot children with no sense. Of course they don’t have much horse sense, it needs to be taught!

We learned as kids by being rollocked by grumpy old timers too. Thought it was a right of passage?! 😆. To be fair a level of horse sense needs to be established BEFORE they are let loose on a large yard. Our local riding school requires helpers to do a course and pass a test before they are allowed to volunteer (good extra income for them too as of course there is a fee for this)

We learned as kids by being rollocked by grumpy old timers too. Thought it was a right of passage?!

Absolutely 😂

She threw a stick of rhubarb through a house window and then through the window of a moving car and hit the driver in the eye? That's impressive. What are the chances of that?

@liveforsummer they do the simple things like putting tack back after lessons, sweeping etc. They are taught as they go along and can progress up to tacking up, leading the lead rein sessions.
It was just the way this woman speaks about these young girls, she’s called them divs, thick etc. maybe I’m a bit more sensitive to it as I’m not from a horsey family so did lots of reading of old horsemanship manuals from the library, my bhs stages in my early 20s and then getting my own in my late 20s.

Literally loads of people have said this

Nobody explained WHY fermented grass was bad - the poster who made the highlighted statement did not even mention in in her reasons before making the snippy comment that did not even apply to the person she was responding to, who had already said they didn't go near horses. I was responding to that comment specifically

@THisbackwithavengeance

I read the news report and it is clear that the culprit has certain "issues".

I have to admit that I used to pick handfuls of grass to feed a particularly mournful looking horse that I used to walk past. But no carrots, polos or mars bars so hopefully no colic or damage was caused. I won't do it again.

But I agree that some of the snippy responses on here are perhaps typical of the attitudes of "country folk" that keep horses and the general disdain to townies. If I was feeding a horse or doing something untoward out of ignorance and someone confronted me shouting and swearing, I'd probably kick off in retaliation. But if people are nice and explain why something shouldn't be done without getting arsey, I would imagine even the most ignorant townie might see sense.

Just a thought...

I am not “country folk” You seem to have a very narrow view of who owns horses. I actually don’t anymore but if I had came across someone feeding my horse and asked them not to and they had demanded to know why I dont see why I have to explain or educate them. It’s really simple - if it’s not yours don’t feed it, you don’t need to know why

I had no idea horses were so fragile. The wild ponies on Dartmoor seem to eat all sorts. There is one in particular that is known for crashing picnics and gobbling up everything in sight.

I NEVER feed horses because I'm too scared of them. I have stood at the fence and looked at them, although after this thread I might stop that incase they bite/kick/push each other or just die of observation.

@Kikkomam

We learned as kids by being rollocked by grumpy old timers too. Thought it was a right of passage?!

Absolutely 😂

The riding/pony club instructors of old were utterly terrifying. But we know how to do things properly 😆. It's very different now. My DC's attention to detail is shocking. I'm clearly not scary enough.

@liveforsummer

Literally loads of people have said this

Nobody explained WHY fermented grass was bad - the poster who made the highlighted statement did not even mention in in her reasons before making the snippy comment that did not even apply to the person she was responding to, who had already said they didn't go near horses. I was responding to that comment specifically

So what? Just don't feed them. Demanding lengthy explanations from horse owners when of you were that interested you could Google it is just a way of being chippy about it.

I think the poster that asked was genuinely interested

And they got plenty of informative answers

Good! We have horses fairly near by and one has a health condition. There are signs up saying not to feed. When DS was small we used to go and see them but never fed them. He used to want to because he thought they were hungry. It was a good conversation about we dont know anything about horses, we dont know what they eat and they belong to someone who has said not to.

But I agree that some of the snippy responses on here are perhaps typical of the attitudes of "country folk" that keep horses and the general disdain to townies

Speaking as a massive townie who is nevertheless aware of how much I don’t know about the country, it strikes me that many people see most aspects of rural living as just another attraction for them to use as entertainment. Like one big petting zoo in a field that belongs to everyone. Depressing.

Horses can be greedy. You should see the face my big horse puts on if he thinks I have polos

The poster who gave that particular answer did not answer the question. Yes she could have googled it but on a thread discussing the subject with lots of people who know the answer I think it's fair to ask. No people aren't obliged to educate but if you can find the time to respond with snippy answers it's no extra effort to type a couple of sentences explaining why.

I know dogs shouldn't eat raisins but I don't know why. I just don't let them eat raisins 🤷🏼‍♀️

@liveforsummer

In the nicest possible way, if you don't know enough about horses to understand the above you should admire from afar and leave well alone.

To be fair you didn't even explain the reason why grass cuttings should the fed.

Cut grass begins to ferment very quickly. This causes gasses to be released in a horses stomach that's can lead to colic and ultimately a painful death in some cases or very traumatic and expensive surgery.

Cut grass is also far easier to gorge/eat quickly so even pre fermentation can cause colic as horses are greedy and a grazed paddock means they have to work fairly hard and trickle feed their grass. They can't manage large amounts of food in a short time.

Feeding a handful of freshly picked grass is unlikely to be harmful to a horses health however DC's pony cannot be fed by hand at all. He becomes nippy very quickly and that would make him dangerous for a child to handle. In a field situation he'd kick and bite the others if feeding was happening around a gate or in a fence line, fights could be caused, injuries from fences etc

To be fair someone else had already covered that, I was covering the bits that hadn't been up to that point.

Raisins are toxic to dogs in all their forms ie grapes. That's that. That's all you need to know. With horses it's a bit less obvious as grass in its normal state is a stable diet not a toxic substance. It could be hard to understand how serious eating cut grass could be without knowing the reason.

In March 2005 Northallerton magistrates heard Mrs Porter lost her temper after her estranged brother, William, laughed at her while driving past in his Land Rover.
She flung three sticks of rhubarb from her cottage window, catching him in the right eye with one of them.
This needs to be made into a film!

Seriously though, pacing a horse with colic around a paddock all through the night with vet visits every two hours is an experience I never want to go though again. The vet bill wasn't much fun either, but the horse was fine in the long run, which was the main thing.
People don't feed horses / ducks / other peoples livestock for the benefit of the animal, they do it as a lovely enriching experience for themselves or their devil spawn DC. They don't care that what they are feeding is unhealthy at best, dangerous at worst, all they care is that they or their precious pumpkins are getting to bond with someone else's animal, stuff the consequences.

Horse owners don’t have a responsibility to educate anyone

No they don't. But if non-horsey people understand the reasons why feeding them is not allowed they are more likely to comply and also educate their children. For my part I had no idea why cut grass would cause problems.

I never feed them anyway, but I do often take my grandson on a lovely walk where we see lots of horses. He's not keen to get close so we are happy to admire them from a distance, although one or two come over to the fence. As he gets older I'll be able to explain that feeding the horses would hurt or kill them and not just say it's not allowed.

I know not everybody is reasonable and think they can just do what they want regardless of everyone else, but most people aren't like that.

Thank you to the posters who have explained the issues patiently for the benefit of people like me who have only minimal experience of horses.

I remember when I was ten and I fed a few boxes of sugar lumps to a horse from the travelling community. I think I'd read about someone feeding horses sugar lumps in an Enid Blyton book and was trying to be kind to the horse
I feel awful about that poor horse now.