To ask you to please not feed horses you don’t know

[lastqueenofscotland]

Out walking after work this afternoon and saw someone with some young children feeding a horse in a field leaves and various crap picked off the ground.
I’ve hear stories of people who’ve dumped grass clippings on the ground horses have eaten these and got colic.
My previous horse was a blimp and was on strip grazing/already grazed down fields and I once caught someone feeding him slices of bread
Please don’t do it, horses can’t vomit and get very ill if something doesn’t agree with them.

YANBU - It’s a hard one to get across sometimes. Unless you are quite clued it up its hard to see that even grass can kill horses (grass sickness, laminitis).

Perhaps there has to be a campaign letting people know that some horses have life threatening allergies? I know it is not the same thing, but people are (mostly) very wary of feeding small children they don’t know. We need the same caution with animals.

YANBU. I'd never bring food for horses, but have naively allowed my kids to feed them grass. I won't be doing it again, I'd no idea it could cause them illness.

Sooooo get this - please take note lovely Mumsnetters!

There is a very sweet elderly pony down the road. I’ve seen people feeding it all sorts. One couple knew the owner and asked. Fair enough. But the rest. A bloody menace. And they don’t pay the vet bills or explain to the kids when the pony dies.

Not even polos ?

A whole packet at a time of course. Horses don’t need their teeth obvs.

@Processedpea 😂😂😂

I so get this, thank you for raising awareness!

Dpony's field has a public footpath running through it and it worries me.

I think I have done this twice in my life but it's always been the grass growing just over their fence..Is that ok?

I must admit in the past I have fed carrots and grass to horses when my dc were little.
I didn't realise how poorly it could make them and I imagine it's not common knowledge.
I'm surprised that's farms etc don't teach this on open days.

Could you put a sign on the fence? I wouldn't feed an animal I didn't know, especially not things like bread! Would a handful of grass hurt? Genuinely curious

I didn’t know it wasn’t ok not to feed them grass! I often pull up a bit and give it to horses in the fields near me. Yikes!

Thanks for the heads up op, that is something I never knew and won’t be doing anymore.

@Whisky2014 why don't you just leave them alone? Would you feed peoples children?

I don't get why people struggle with this concept

Because it's like they walk up to you, they look at the grass, send a signal like "that grass looks tasty, can i have some?"
Me "yes"!

It's an animal eating grass, that's what they do.

I wouldn't feed a horse bread though, that seems weird.

Bees I had a sign on my fence I even built another line of fencing inside my fence and people climbed over.
Some horses are also very aggressive around food I suffered a serious head injury in my late teens when another horse tried to go for mine when I was giving it a small treat after being caught. You wouldn’t feed a random dog outside a shop so why a horse

People do feed dogs! My dog has been fed biscuits multiple times.

We had some twats cutting grazing muzzles off ours the other year. Went through 6 muzzles on 2 ponies in 3 weeks. Gave up in the end and shoved them on a bald paddock with a fuckton of electric fence so the ponies ended up with less than what they would have mooching around in muzzles.

It should be common sense these days not to feed someone elses animal with anything. I caught someone a few weeks ago with a bag of chopped carrots and a couple of small kids waiting for the laminitic pony to come for some.

How about I feed your kids a packet of haribos, a sugar dummy and a can of coke before you go.

Whisky2014 no. Please don't. You don't know if the grass has been sprayed with anything, the horses might fight, they may well become nippy because they're expecting treats.

These analogies about feeding someone else's kid - it's a bit different really, isn't it...

The trouble is that not only can whatever they're being fed , not be good for them , it also means they get used to being approached by strangers when frankly I'd prefer them not to . My lovely trusting boy had someone walk up to him in his field and slash his neck open. Twenty seven stitches .

Butterfly005 it is no different.

I fuss more about my horses diet than my kids.

My horses is my kid and most precious, he is neither near the road or footpath were he lives fortunately. Kid go to the doctor for free, sadly there is no NHS for horses and it costs ££.

Don’t feed other people’s horses anything

Oh, and particarly don’t feed and then call the RSPCA about my dd’s old pony. Yes, she is thin. But she is an old lady and an Arab- so mainly made out of steel bands. She’s supposed to look like that.

And please don't feed them Polos. One of ours goes psychotic on sugar. She can become dangerous to handle. If she gets too dangerous she'll be put to sleep. If that happens because someone has fed her, what is in effect poison, then I'll find that person.

Omfg, plomino, that’s awful! What kind of arsehole would do something like that?! Is your poor horse ok now?