To have just shouted at a horse rider outside my house

[BigRedBall]

Have namechanged for privacy.

I am so angry right now. We sometimes (twice a year at most) get horses going past our house as we live around the corner from a small private farm. We live in a city, so it's quite a novelty when we hear the sound of "clip clop" outside.

About 20 mins ago we heard the sound of clip clop and I took DS to the front room to look outside. As we watched the horses go by one stopped and kind of turned around and SHITTED RIGHT OUTSIDE MY DRIVEWAY. Not a small bit...a big arse full of horse shit. And the rider laughed at her other horsey friends.

As soon as I saw it I put my shoes on and ran outside and the rider was going on her way again. Her friends had gone up ahead. I ran up to her shouting "excuse me" and she wouldn't stop. I shouted at her if she was going to clear up the horse poo outside my house and she replied "stop shouting at me" without even turning around to see I had a toddler in my arms.

I couldn't go any further because I was holding my DS and had left a sleeping baby inside.

Now I have a pile of horse shit outside my house, and I want to actually KILL this horse rider. Our road is a school route and I don't want children stepping in it but why the fuck should I have to clear it up? I am so pissed off. I want to get into the car and hunt down the fuckers and pull them back by their ears and tell them to clean it.

Pipbin is right. Horse shit does contain the bacteria which causes tetanus. The smell of horse shit is in part the smell of Clostridium tetani (I spent a long time culturing anaerobic bacteria and the smell is one that you can never forget).

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Tetanus/Pages/Causes.aspx

Yes horse shit contains tetanus but unless you're planning to insert it into you via a puncture wound you shouldn't have to worry too much about it sitting on the road outside your house.

Roses and puncture wounds and horse manure are all common bedfellows.

"Perhaps the law needs changing"!

OK, I laughed out loud at that. Good one.

(We are definitely not batshit insane for Orwellian legislation in the UK, but let's legislate re shit coming out of horse's bumholes)

I am a runner. I have pooed behind a hedge. Many times. But as my longer runs are all cross country there aren't usually that many public conveniences. What alternative do I have?

I am not a runner and I have poo'd in a hedge, does that make me unreasonable ?

Dog poo is unhealthy and could be a serious hgealth risk because dogs are carnivores and harmful bacteria can therefore live in the gut and in their faeces. Horse 'shit' is made up of grass and other natural materials (horse feed is vegetarian) as they are herbivores and herbivore poo poses little or no health risk. So, no need to panic and also, how did you think she was going to clear it up?

So, in short, yes you over-reacted and please, don't shout near a horse again, because although most are pretty unshockable they are herd animals and as such they view scary and unpredictable occurances (such as a shouty, loud person) as a potential threat and it makes them do silly (potentially dangerous) things like kick, jump or canter off.

Put the manure on your garden and calm down. :)

Roses puncture wounds and manure are common bedfellows if you're a gardener, not if you're a horse rider.

Ah yes. "Outstanding".
Classic.

Oh, and most responsible horse owners vaccinate against tetanus so no need to worry about that either.

Or walking down the road outside your house past some horse poo

Townie :)

Reading this thread I really do worry for the future of anything in this country that isn't in a totally built up area/sanitised of anything remotely smelling of nature.

You don't have to be a farmer to work out that shouting at a horse is a bad idea. You don't have to run away screaming if a bit of horse pooh comes within sniffing distance. The idea that you can tie a horse to a lamp post whilst you pick up the pooh with a shovel you brought with you or that every horse should wear a nappy - pleeese - I despair.

It's this kind of attitude that wants church bells and chickens silenced and dead animals taken down from butcher's shop windows.

Off topic rant over.

In the summer we have a pretty constant smear of horse shit out the front, drives us nuts. I don't like it and I don't want to put it in my garden. My flower beds would be higher than my house by now if I did.

But it is stooooopid to shout after a horse. Complain to the stables and ask them to take a different route if it happens over and over

Maybe keep your country horses out of our towns then.

Just shovel it up and put it on your roses. Free manure!

Whenever my pony pooed outside, someone would always come out with a shovel and put it on their garden!

I can understand that some people would not appreciate it outside their houses but there isn't anything a horse rider can practically do about it other than not ride their horses on a road - which they are entitled to do.

usualsuspect that's a wind up yes? You are H I larious.

What about police horses and those that the queen has that go out in the morning with their carriages and the military horses and also the ones in urban farms and stables. Now, can they go out bcse they are town horses?

If you prefer, the townies can stay out of the countryside as well as vice versa. You can then ensure that the food on your plate is as far removed from reality as possible and never had a "face" but instead a sanitary plastic wrapping from Asda.

The horse didn't shit on OPs breakfast. It did so on the road. Where it is allowed to shit. Top tip is to not pick it up or lay in it and therefore no risk of tetanus or smellyness. You are more than welcome.

It's this kind of attitude that wants church bells and chickens silenced and dead animals taken down from butcher's shop windows.

No actually, our local church still has ringing bells. They practise ring every Tuesday evening and then ring them on Sunday morning and I have no problem with that. It quite a peaceful sound.

Horse shit: completely different.

usualsuspect completely agree.

Wow. If anyone was looking for a thread to support the idea that MN is full of frothy-mouthed idiots, this is it!

Love the "This Life" reference. Yes. Yes it is.

Them country folk don't like us townies do they.

Glad you like the bells OP!

Yes shit is different and not nice, but it's what animals do - and it is your reaction that is extreme and some of the suggestions by other posters are hilarious.