AIBU to yell at the next person I catch...

[Pleasedontfeedme]

Yes it is a clickbaity title but hopefully what I'm saying might educate people who weren't aware...

AIBU to yell at the next person I catch feeding/throwing food and treats into the field where my old semi-retired pony is supposed to be happily living out the rest of his years?

Ok, I already know I'm being unreasonable but lockdown has made the footpath at runs along the perimeter of the field busier than I have ever known it.
OP (old pony in this instance) has some health complications now and has to have a pretty strict diet these days, he also seems to get fat on thin air and owing to his age and an old injury meaning he can't work off the calories like he used to and so a controlled diet is crucial in keeping him healthy. Yet EVERYONE keeps feeding him, I was only there 30 mins or so today and in that time I spoke (politely I might add) to 2 families giving him apples, carrots and treats, which may seem harmless but each one is akin to giving a toddler and chocolate bar (best comparison I can make). Fine if one person does it, but I'm not their 24/7 to stop everyone else and it's making poor OP a ticking timebomb, I worry I'm going to go see him one day and it's going to be his last, to put it bluntly.
I've got signs around the field saying please don't feed him, I speak to people and try and educate. Some people are really lovely about it and apologetic, others I've asked time and time again. Its not just apples and carrots, some people are throwing random kitchen waste in which is not suitable to be fed to him ( some foods cause colic or horses bolting food down can choke) and some people throw grass clippings In (again can cause colic). Before people suggest, he can't be fenced away from the path, plus from previous experience it doesn't deter people anyway ( I've caught people having a picnic In the field, sharing it with him before).
I just want the public to realise that whilst feeding other peoples people's animals may seem harmless, they might have specific dietary requirements or even just the owner doesn't want you to (some start to bite or it can cause injury if there's a couple of them getting aggressive over food).
I've started posting on local Facebook groups in an attempt to educate (near us one horse has died which was shared widely across Facebook as a result of being fed something she shouldn't have) and yet people are still doing it.
So yes IABU to lose my shit with the next person I see but hopefully the message will reach more people by posting on here.
(Sorry it was a bit of a long winded post!)

Actually OP I think you might be the first person ever who deserves the sad face pic in the local paper.

And I have been thinking about this, where people get the idea they can feed random ponies. I thin it is TV, whenever theyu do a news story or Blue Peter type thung it always starts with a shot of the horse / pony being fed a carrot or an apple.

BTW any chance of a pic of OP (Old pony not OP)?

As a lay person I've been thinking about which signs I might respond to Best from the suggestions on here (to be clear I don't feed horses. I don't even really like horses, sorry!)
I thinking a sign 'from' the horse maybe with his picture on would be good, then parents will explain it to their interested children. Something like 'hi I'm OP, I need your help!
I'm very friendly but I get really poorly when people feed me anything I'm not supposed to have, even grass! Don't worry, I get plenty of special food in my stable. If you see anyone feedng me please ask them not to and call jess on 1234 so she can come and save me'.

A bit longwinded maybe but
Like a pp said, if people think they are being helpful by not feeding I think they will be less inclined to do so, also we know from reading mumsnet how much people love to report other people 😉

I will not share my own stories because they are very long, but I will say that I understand where you are coming from, OP.

Sorry to be negative but I don't think you can stop people from doing this. There is a certain type of person that will continue to feed your animals no matter what you do to try and stop them, and when they are told the reasons why they shouldn't, they simply wont care. They think that they know better than you, and they are doing something nice and harmless.

They are arseholes, and they are great in numbers.

This is just a question and I'm sorry if its being horribly ignorant, but I would hate to be the cause of suffering for any ponies I meet. If I see one and it seems friendly, I often pick a little bit of grass from by the gateway or fence to feed it with. Is that OK or should I stop?

@Slightlyunhinged - please don’t feed horses anything

Many horses have all sorts of medical conditions and even too much grass can make them ill. If everyone who walks past gives them a little bit of grass, it soon mounts up.

One of ours is usually in a track system (we electric fence off the middle of the field so she just has a track around the edge as it forces her to move around more and limits how much grass she can have). She has arthritis so we like to keep her weight down, plus she’s a bit prone to laminitis.

If they’re fed by hand too often they get a bit bitey and bargey- every time they see someone they think they’re going to get given something nice to eat.

Plus, if one of ours thinks the other one is getting something she’s not, all hell breaks loose and they’ll kick the crap out of each other

@Slightlyunhinged genuine question, why would you think it was ok? I'm not trying to catch you out or pick an argument because you've already had your answer. I would just really like to understand why anyone thinks it's ok to feed other people's animals without asking or knowing anything about them.

No, even grass isn't ok. Hes already obese (not an exaggeration, genuinely obese!), and because hes about 25 now and had an injury to his leg when he was younger, he cant work off the weight so I rely on mainly diet to stop getting even fatter.
The issue isn't so much a handful of grass, but if everyone did it then it would defeat the object of him wearing a muzzle to restrict his grass intake. During the really nice weather when everyone was on lockdown I counted 28 people use to the footpath in less that 30 minutes! ( the path isn't even 2 metres wide for most of it..), if all of those people fed him, even just grass, then it could cause potentially fatal problems.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.bluecross.org.uk/pet-advice/horse-colic-prevention-and-management%3famp

kb.rspca.org.au/knowledge-base/what-is-laminitis-and-how-can-it-be-prevented-or-treated/

The above links explain colic and laminitus, the two main problems with feeding horses, and they are explained in ways that arnt just for horsey people should anyone want to learn a bit more

I shall get a picture of OP tomorrow that doesn't have toddler DD in it, she loves him very much and appears to be in every picture I can find of him

I have nothing to add to this thread but just wanted to sympathise.
Other PPs have mentioned putting up more graphic posters on your fence which might help as would trying to put up a temporary fence a few feet inside the existing fence .
However you shouldn’t have to be doing that. I’m just gobsmacked at the stupidity of people who have just discovered the countryside and haven’t got a clue about how to behave.
I’d never think to randomly feed someone’s dog or cat while out walking.

I'm posting only to bump this post in the hope that the message will reach a few more people who might not have realised the consequences of feeding horses....

Everyone would understand the anger if you had passers by throwing chocolate, cooked chicken bones and household waste in your garden for your dog to become ill/ injured/ killed by
I DO currently have some arse throwing large quantities of white bread, bones and off meat to my dogs over the fence. Luckily they are not taking it, but it makes me want to slop toxic waste over the person if I catch them. So no, OP, YANBU.

I DO currently have some arse throwing large quantities of white bread, bones and off meat to my dogs over the fence

Wtf? That's insane. I hope you've reported them to the police for dumping their rubbish on tour property. Twats

I’d need to identify them first. And the police here in France are not, er, all that useful.

Hi, suggest he wears a lightweight rug inscribed with “Please DO NOT feed me, I am on a vet prescribed diet, anything else could make me very ill or kill me.”

That is absolutely awful makingmammaries, I do wonder what thought process people go through before they come to the conclusion things like that are in any way acceptable or justifiable.

There seems to be a rise in the amount of 'is anyone missing this cat?' Posts on Facebook recently, usually accompanied by a pretty healthy looking cat, where the poster claims it has been hanging around their house a lot recently before going on to reveal they have been feeding it for the last fortnight. Well yes, of course it's been hanging around.. you keep bloody feeding it!
It seems the phenomena of people feeding other peoplea animals also occurs with cats.
Inevitably the cats actual owner will turn up asking them not to feed it as it does have a home already, and the response is usually along the lines of 'I thought it was a lost'. Well take it to a vets then to have it scanned for a chip then instead of feeding it, if you hadn't fed the cat it would likely have made it's own way back to its actual home when it got hungry.
I despair.

I recieved a handwritten apology attached to OPs fence today.. from one of the adjoining houses, who have been repeatedly asked not to feed OP. They have basically apologised for throwing what appears to be most of their kitchen waste into the field for him (half a sodding watermelon and a bag of potatoes amongst other things, on one particular occasion), apparently they thought he liked it bangs head against the wall. Well yes he does like it, I've told you this when I've asked you before not fo feed him, just because he likes it doesn't mean it's ok for him in the quantities he is getting.

Well, that's one set of people who won't do it anymore, hopefully.

They have basically apologised for throwing what appears to be most of their kitchen waste into the field for him (half a sodding watermelon and a bag of potatoes amongst other things, on one particular occasion), apparently they thought he liked it

Jesus wept.

Some people.