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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that riders should have to clean up horse mess?

263 replies

CarriesBucketOfBlood · 15/09/2015 12:54

You can get a £120 fine or whatever it is if you don't pick up after your dog. As a dog owner, I think this is absolutely right. Dog mess is antisocial and poses a health risk. I think it can cause blindness if ingested (?)

So why don't riders have to do the same? At the end of the road (suburban, we are a couple of miles from the nearest stables but they do occasionally make it this far across some farm land) there is a trail of horse mess that stretches about two metres across pavement and road.

It's rained multiple times and not been washed away, we don't have street cleaners that will come and clean it up. Why should the rider be able to leave it? It's just as disgusting and anti-social as a dog.

I mentioned to Dsis about it (she use to ride) and she semi agreed. Just made the point that they would need big bags to pick it up.

AIBU to think that riders should be forced to pick up after their horses?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
brightnearly · 15/09/2015 14:55

Well, instead of paper, maybe rabbit droppings could be used?

Actually - what about RABBIT POO?!?

brightnearly · 15/09/2015 14:56

...and DEER POO! It's everywhere in the park. It's a disgrace.

Oh, and don't get me started on goose poo.

SirChenjin · 15/09/2015 14:56

horsey - I'm not talking about town. I'm talking about semi rural areas with paved paths that are used by pedestrians. Horse owners use them to get to the fields and trails (as per my earlier post Smile)

Scremersford · 15/09/2015 14:57

SirChenjin I'm curious - if your horse left a pile of shit in the middle of on a public, paved route which was heavily used by pedestrians, people in wheelchairs, parents with prams and so on, and you lived locally - would you go back and move it after your ride? Or not bother?

Your question is actually quite sensible, and I try to make sure my horse poos at the side of whatever I'm on at the time. Again, its amazing how quickly some horses get used to doing certain things, and my big boy automatically moves to the side or a corner to poo now. He's not a nervous horse though. But I would avoid riding on a route like you describe, it wouldn't be very pleasant. Theres a busy route near me which used to be good but has now pretty much been overtaken by dog walkers, and most of those dogs are loose. Most other people avoid it now.

I have neighbours who let me use their private driveway to ride up, and our agreement is that if a poo goes elsewhere, I dismount and kick it to the side. That's only for cosmetic reasons though. That driveway is their pride and joy and cost a fortune.

Apart from the neighbour whose face got licked, no-one else in our entire locality has ever complained about horse poo, although several have made favourable remarks about taking poo for fertiliser for their gardens. They're a rough lot round here though Wink

TwmSionCati · 15/09/2015 14:58

I will never forget years ago some friends and I were hacking out from where we worked at a livery yard in the far suburbs of London...well we stopped in the high street for some fags and as we were there, suddenly one of our horses lifted his tail and did a massive dump right on the hairdressers doorstep.
Cue angry hairdresser man yelling and waving his arms and girls and horses clattering off laughing like banshees!
I must admit if this happened to me today I might be slightly more pro active about getting it cleaned up.....
teenagers eh?

Scremersford · 15/09/2015 15:00

bright Actually - what about RABBIT POO?!?

I actually slipped on a whole load of rabbit poo once, and cut my leg. Am I possibly the only person ever injured by rabbit poo???

BarbarianMum · 15/09/2015 15:00

'Horse nappy' type arrangements have existed for many years so it is a bit disingenuous to present it as a choice between letting the horse shit on the road/pavement or endangering the poor rider by expecting them to dismount. I think on country roads, on bridleways and in woods there is no problem but doubt many people would like large piles of the stuff on pavements in their street.

brightnearly · 15/09/2015 15:04

Horses aren't ridden on pavements, Barbarian.

horseygeorgie · 15/09/2015 15:04

the problem with rabbit dropping bright is how would you know which ones to follow?! There are a fair few rabbits around here.. Also, how would you provide them? would you collect them off the floor or keep a rabbit for the purpose?
Don't even get me started on deer poo! Terrier likes that too. They should pick it up. Not with waitrose carriers obviously... probably too 'deer' for them ha ha!
Sir we are very rural here and don't have anywhere like that. I would do my very best to ensure that neddy didn't deposit on the track. Maybe a cork? If people share pavements with horses, you have to accept it is a risk.

Gabilan · 15/09/2015 15:05

"'Horse nappy' type arrangements have existed for many years "

Mainly for horses who are driven rather than ridden though. I came across them in Vienna, where they use horse-drawn vehicles on city streets.

If horse poo were that much of a hazard, mounted police officers would pick it up, or their horses would be wearing nappies. Neither happens. I am not putting a nappy on my horse. We mostly hack on quiet roads with no pavements or on bridleways. It's a bit of recycled grass. If it gets picked up it's usually by someone who wants a bit of compost and it's their choice, not because I'm an aristocrat making demands of the peasants.

BarbarianMum · 15/09/2015 15:08

The OP is describing a situation where horses are ridden across a pavement isn't she?

SoupDragon · 15/09/2015 15:09

Horses aren't ridden on pavements.

And yet they still manage to shit on them. Odd.

Twatters · 15/09/2015 15:10

No by the sounds of it the op is describing a horse that was on the road but some how got it part on the pavement and part on the road.

brightnearly · 15/09/2015 15:10

horsey Designated rabbit toilets, as well as deer toilets, that's what I'd do. Signposted.

SirChenjin · 15/09/2015 15:10

Horsey - they are not pavements. They are paths that are paved and which are used by a variety of people - who don't share them intentionally with horses. If neddy did deposit in the middle of that type of path, and knowing (as a local) the use that was made of the path, would you go back after your ride and move it?

brightnearly · 15/09/2015 15:11

Soup It's done with a light sideways motion and a strategic swish of the tail.

Scremersford · 15/09/2015 15:11

Barbarian 'Horse nappy' type arrangements have existed for many years so it is a bit disingenuous to present it as a choice between letting the horse shit on the road/pavement or endangering the poor rider by expecting them to dismount

I'm completely unaware of any ridden horse in the UK regularly being exercised with a "horse nappy" attached. I am aware of some horses that pull traps for tourists in seaside resorts having them attached, and I think they're very cruel. But most horses that pull tourists are half dead anyway so are hardly going to use typical horse instinct to flea from something that resembles a predator swinging from their rear end. My cruelty concern is more that if a horse has runny poo, then no horse nappy in the world is going to contain that at faster than a walk and stop it staining and stinging the horse's rear end, possibly causing sores. If its that much of an issue in tourist destinations, then its far better for the welfare of the horse to actually employ someone to follow on foot with a wheelbarrow and shovel. Expecting a horse to carry its own poo dangling from a bag behind it is one of the most horrifficly selfish things I've ever heard.

I think on country roads, on bridleways and in woods there is no problem but doubt many people would like large piles of the stuff on pavements in their street

The sad reality is that in this country, the planning system is so poor that most rural areas have had large suburban housing estates tacked on to the edges without any thought or planning for former users. In reality too, horseriders have lost a lot of former places to ride, and using a concrete path instead when you have grown up in an area which used to have fields and woods is too sad, so you simply end up riding along the one route that is left and is not too busy with traffic, or not hacking out at all.

TwmSionCati · 15/09/2015 15:12

" 'Horse nappy' type arrangements have existed for many years "

only for inner city carriage horses.

GarthAlgar · 15/09/2015 15:15

TwmSionCati I have a similar story! Was about 12/13 and my friend and I rode to the village shop. I was holding both ponies whilst she went in, a few feet away from the shop entrance and mine did a massive wee Blush. We were slightly uphill too and it ran down and pooled outside the shop entrance. I was mortified!! Customers were having to jump the large puddle of piss to get in or out. I went in the shop when my friend came out and angry shop owner gave me a bucket and showed me where the tap was and I had to swill it away Blush

YoungGirlGrowingOld · 15/09/2015 15:16

It's worth dealing with the poo if you get to hear the horse fart first. Truly nothing has ever made me chuckle more - volume, cadence, timbre - horse farts have it all Smile

InimitableJeeves · 15/09/2015 15:17

If DHorse has been turned out overnight and I ride first thing in the morning, I might need 4 carrier bags. Now, he's pretty good at parking but I wouldn't want to park him on a busy road. Remounting carrying poo is hazardous but not impossible. Then I'd have to ride along carrying up to 4 bags of poo which would make it difficult for me to rife effectively

But you don't have to do any of that, do you? No-one forces you to own the horse, let alone ride it.

horseygeorgie · 15/09/2015 15:18

Sir No I wouldn't. I am a very busy person, I don't do this as a leisure activity as I stated. I ride ALOT of horses and I haven't got the time to drive around the counrtyside picking up piles of poo. Thankfully I don't ride anywhere where I would have to consider it so youn are quite safe from me!

elvisthehamster · 15/09/2015 15:19

OP- here is a link to a similar thread last year
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2015408-To-have-just-shouted-at-a-horse-rider-outside-my-house?pg=1

As you can see not only did everyone think the OP of that thread was unreasonable they got quite worked up and called her idiotic, stupid and a nutty among other things!
Seems to be a subject that gets people really worked up and pretty defensive. I personally still don't see that having poo all over a pavement is an okay thing -whatever it came out of!

ExitPursuedByABear · 15/09/2015 15:22

Now horse wee. That is another matter altogether.

And a mare in season Shock

SirChenjin · 15/09/2015 15:25

Horsey - no, not driving around the countryside. Putting your horse back in its local stable and returning to the path in your own local neighbourhood to pick up the poo from the local (narrow) path which is used by parents with prams, people in wheelchairs, kids walking to school and nursery and who have nowhere else to walk, except through it.

It's moot though, if you don't ride anywhere like this. It does surprise me when the local horse riders who live locally don't return to move the shit from these types of paths though. We're not talking about a massive area here - it wouldn't take them long at all.