Maybe once a year at the most I’ll find some fuckwit has decided my private land is a perfectly acceptable place to let their badly controlled, untrained dog off lead. They might get away with it if the dog doesn’t enter a field with horses in. But if they do decide to trespass through one with them in, let alone if the dog chases or barks at them, the dog always catches on before the owner that it’s really not a good idea.
Maybe twice a year a perfectly responsible owner might find themselves in the same situation, because shit happens. Their puppy slipped it’s collar, the dog got out, it’s lost etc. And they unfailing apologise like fuck.
Yet it’s 10 times more common to find some fuckwit parent trespassing, because dearest Jacinta wants to molest the cute wickle ponies, and she can only pat big ones if they stay on public land. And trespassing or not, they are entitled to risk harm, or actively harm the horses because their pfb enjoys feeding them treats, or sharing their nasty human snacks or the contents of their garden waste bin.
Or groups of unaccompanied preteens/ teens, wishing to demonstrate either their bravado, or the amazing horse whispering skills they now possess after a year of lessons. These are the equivalent of the escaped dog, but funnily enough I’ve yet to receive any apologies from their parents. And in fact I’m more likely to receive abuse because Hortencia wrecked her shiny new country wear escaping through the hedge when she realised that not all small ponies feel they are obliged to be sat on by pony mad children.
I’ve never needed a vet because someone’s entitled dog has fed them, or needed to repair fences or replant hedges because dogs climb on/ through them. I’ve never seen photos on Facebook of someone’s dog with my horses on my private land saying ‘oh bless he luvs them’.
And possibly my favourite example was a parent that had trespassed through two fields to get to a third with a mare and a week old foal in screaming at me to get my dog on the lead because it was frightening her pfb, seemingly by existing within 3’ of her in what was essentially its own garden.
So yes, personally I do find humans do a lot more harm than dogs. So aibu to want all children banning from the countryside. It’s just unfortunate if the vast majority of perfectly normal families then have to miss out, or perhaps move house because a small minority are entitled, inconsiderate tossers.