To ask people to tell everyone they know NOT TO FEED HORSES THAT DON’T BELONG TO THEM

[YeahBabyYeahYeah]

I won’t post the article as it made me cry and may be more triggering for others, but the most beautiful pony is in the papers today. He died because someone ignored “do not feed” signs and fed him a fucking potato.

Why oh why do some people (who in this case clearly know fuck-all about horses if they are feeding them whole potatoes) think it is OK to feed other people’s animals without their permission?

AIBU to think there should be more awareness about this, especially with more people going for walks at the moment. It is never OK to feed a horse unless the owner tells you it is OK and approves the food.

I also think that people don’t see horses as pets like dogs. They are seen more as wild animals with no owners since they are left out in a field. A field that most often belongs to the livery owner. Most horses are not kept on the owners property unlike a dog.

The only comparison you can make with a dog is if someone fed your dog while it’s on a lead and someone fed your horse when you were sitting on him.

If there were a group of dogs with no owners in sight then I am 100 percent sure people would feed them.

I’m also a horsey person, my yard is far away from everything, so we rarely see walkers. I realise horse-owners here are in shock about happened to that little pony, but I think people are being very rude getting their point across here.

The fact is people don’t know and it’s not because they are stupid or entitled. They genuinely don’t know. Ofc there will be some that decide to just ignore the rules and be intentionally obtuse, but that is the minority.

I think that is rubbish about people thinking horse owners are posh and rich. They really don’t give it a second thought, they don’t see the animal as property in that sense of the word. In fact I don’t see any animal as property because by saying that you are saying it’s your right to do what you like with them i.e mistreat them, break them as yearlings etc. And in my experience most horse owners are most definitely not rich, in fact I’d say it’s the opposite.

@Baycob

I also think that people don’t see horses as pets like dogs. They are seen more as wild animals with no owners since they are left out in a field. A field that most often belongs to the livery owner. Most horses are not kept on the owners property unlike a dog.

The only comparison you can make with a dog is if someone fed your dog while it’s on a lead and someone fed your horse when you were sitting on him.

If there were a group of dogs with no owners in sight then I am 100 percent sure people would feed them.

I’m also a horsey person, my yard is far away from everything, so we rarely see walkers. I realise horse-owners here are in shock about happened to that little pony, but I think people are being very rude getting their point across here.

The fact is people don’t know and it’s not because they are stupid or entitled. They genuinely don’t know. Ofc there will be some that decide to just ignore the rules and be intentionally obtuse, but that is the minority.

I think that is rubbish about people thinking horse owners are posh and rich. They really don’t give it a second thought, they don’t see the animal as property in that sense of the word. In fact I don’t see any animal as property because by saying that you are saying it’s your right to do what you like with them i.e mistreat them, break them as yearlings etc. And in my experience most horse owners are most definitely not rich, in fact I’d say it’s the opposite.

Yeah, the guy that told me to "oh shut your face you posh bitch" definitely didn't think I was posh!

I'm surprised you don't think of your horses as your property. I definitely do, I think of them as my property and as part of my family.

@Frodont

Other than horse-ownership as a class indicator - what car do you drive? How is your accent ? Are you well groomed ? Do you use quality hair products ( not just the style, I’m talking about health) , do you wear jewellery? Do you live in the big farmhouse next to your horses ( or could he have thought this?)

[quote Baycob]@Frodont

Other than horse-ownership as a class indicator - what car do you drive? How is your accent ? Are you well groomed ? Do you use quality hair products ( not just the style, I’m talking about health) , do you wear jewellery? Do you live in the big farmhouse next to your horses ( or could he have thought this?)[/quote]
I was wearing disgusting waterproof trousers covered in mud, a jacket with a broken zip and a bobble hat with ingrained bits of hay. No car in sight. No big farmhouse either quite well spoken.

Yeah also been called a posh bitch, stuck up cow etc etc.
Don't drive
Look like a tramp most of the time as instead of new or expensive clothes mine come from the charity shop (absolutely my choice, not trying to garner sympathy here, personal choice about what I'd rather spend on)
Have a regular local accent.
Wear a hat in winter, baseball cap in summer so I don't have to worry about my hair getting in the way. Old jeans, mud encrusted boots, scruffy well worn jacket.
No jewellery, work in care and have a horse, dangerous in both environments so it's generally only worn when I go out.
Not stood in a horse's field I could be mistaken for a tramp.

It's not just when I've come across people that are trespassing in my horse's field that I've been called it, it's assumed when I'm asked what my hobbies and interests are in almost any setting, I've had men use it as a reason not to date me, I must be up myself because I have a horse. I've had people I work with turn around after a few months and say that they assumed I'd be a stuck up bitch because I have a horse. I've been called it when riding along the road, not even interacting with the traffic, and it's the first insult thrown when you ask a driver to slow down or wait for safety reasons. Even on here it's used when people discuss hunting or horse racing "Rich tossers on horses" "Toffs" etc.

Maybe it's more noticeable to someone like me, because I'm not in social circles where people are generally well off, most are renters, in low income jobs etc, lower working class if you were to apply class to it I suppose.

The stereotype is alive and well, and used as a reason/excuse for people to interfere with animals they shouldn't be touching.

If there were a group of dogs with no owners in sight then I am 100 percent sure people would feed them

Yes, this happens with beagle packs, foxhounds and other packs of dogs used for trail hunting. Even at hunt meets, when hounds wander freely into the crowd to be petted, people feed them biscuits, crisps etc (to be fair some hounds do beg for food). And this is right in front of the hunt staff who own them! Nobody tries to feed horses at meets though, presumably because they have riders mounted on them.

Horses in a field, yes I guess some people view them as wild animals rather than pets, if the owner’s nowhere to be seen? Or worry they’re neglected or hungry because the field has little grass (knowing nothing of laminitis, colic etc).

There are herds of wild horses and ponies in the New Forest, Lake District, Dartmoor, various other places (and that’s just in the U.K.) A lot of people simply don’t realise the dangers of feeding unknown ponies and horses, wild or owned.

Of course you get the minority who brazenly ignore signs or climb fences (or switch off electric fences though that’s a new one to me!)

When I helped out at a riding stables lots of parents (normally dads for some reason) brought apples or carrots wanting to feed the pony at the end of the lesson to say ‘thank you’ or worse tried to feed the stabled horses or those in the paddock while their kid was out riding. We used to politely tell them not to, explain why and re-direct them to feed the stable pig instead (he ate most things with no trouble). The dads were quite happy feeding the pig. I’m sure they meant the horses no harm, they just wanted something to feed or interact with to pass the time?

Other than the straight up fuck off, I’ve also been called a stuck up bitch, snobby, snooty cow, rich bitch and the ever faithful toffee nosed.

My horses are on a livery yard so would have no idea what kind of house I live in, and my car (a Ford Focus) is parked in the yard car park so out of sight. I’m usually dressed in a selection of ancient clothing - old coat that the stuffing is escaping from, jeans that have seen better days, muddy wellies and my hair is either tied up or hidden under a bobble hat. No jewellery, no make up. A regular, local accent

Just like everyone else at our yard. None of us have particularly high earning jobs - I work in accounts, a police officer, a cleaner, a nurse, a care home worker, supermarket worker

None of my horsey social circle is well off.

@Sparklingbrook

This is a huge problem around here too. There's a sign on most of the fields saying not to. Somebody took some of them their grass cuttings to eat.

Round here as well, it was on the local neighbourhood page.

I think this thread shows that more awareness is needed because so many people out there are selfish or clueless or both.

(However, only one person thought IWBU to post the thread, surely that has to be a record?!)

My horses are at home, but the house isn't really noticeable from the stretch of fence the public can access them from, and I generally look like I live in a ditch. A ditch accessed through a hedge, and hair that looks like it's been back combed by worzel Gummidge on speed.

I've been called stuck up/ rich when I've caught trespassers that will have realised it's my house/ land. Cos obviously if I didn't own the land I'd be perfectly happy for entitled twats to be climbing in to maul a foal or trying to sit their dc on highly unsuitable mounts. I was once informed I was a stuck up rich selfish cunt and I had no reason to be so up myself when I was a tramp, and if I got rid of my stupid horses which were only worth the price of burgers I could buy some decent clothes and afford a hairdresser. Because I ran out to drag someone's offspring off a pony before they were seriously injured.

I'm also not remotely stuck up. I'm horse obsessed, always have been, and recognise I was incredibly privileged to come from a background where they are the norm. I therefore really sympathise with anyone equally obsessed but unable to access them and will go out of my way to let people interact or get involved.

I've also had someone knock on my door and demand I replace their very expensive new country wear, because after they'd climbed in through the fence to molest the horses, the Shetland and/ or the mad dash through the hedge to escape being mugged had ripped their clothes. When I declined I was told I was a rich bitch etc, but simultaneously I was only jealous because I couldn't afford quality clothing like theirs.

And again, it isn't people that might reasonably see me or any other horse owner as rich simply because we have disposable incomes, it's usually those that could afford a horse, or even several. My personal theory is that horses/ the country are the one area the pretentious, desperate to be perceived as middle class don't feel comfortable with, so they resent it and need an excuse to judge us.

A friend originally came from an inner city Manchester council estate, still has a Mancunian accent and when she's annoyed/ upset it's even more pronounced. Not living anywhere near Manchester, it's fairly noticeable. The area she lives in now has quite a lot of second home owners from London, and yet she is still called a rich stuck up bitch when she asks them to stop interfering with the horses.
There's also a lot of rural poverty here, and some locals with experience have free access to other people's horses, or work for their horses keep. And they get called rich and stuck up too.

Saw some really, really nasty results back in my tree surgeon days of idiots leaving yew tree cuttings around horse fields.

@Maverickess

Yeah also been called a posh bitch, stuck up cow etc etc. Don't drive Look like a tramp most of the time as instead of new or expensive clothes mine come from the charity shop (absolutely my choice, not trying to garner sympathy here, personal choice about what I'd rather spend on) Have a regular local accent. Wear a hat in winter, baseball cap in summer so I don't have to worry about my hair getting in the way. Old jeans, mud encrusted boots, scruffy well worn jacket. No jewellery, work in care and have a horse, dangerous in both environments so it's generally only worn when I go out. Not stood in a horse's field I could be mistaken for a tramp.

It's not just when I've come across people that are trespassing in my horse's field that I've been called it, it's assumed when I'm asked what my hobbies and interests are in almost any setting, I've had men use it as a reason not to date me, I must be up myself because I have a horse. I've had people I work with turn around after a few months and say that they assumed I'd be a stuck up bitch because I have a horse. I've been called it when riding along the road, not even interacting with the traffic, and it's the first insult thrown when you ask a driver to slow down or wait for safety reasons. Even on here it's used when people discuss hunting or horse racing "Rich tossers on horses" "Toffs" etc.

Maybe it's more noticeable to someone like me, because I'm not in social circles where people are generally well off, most are renters, in low income jobs etc, lower working class if you were to apply class to it I suppose.

The stereotype is alive and well, and used as a reason/excuse for people to interfere with animals they shouldn't be touching.

@Maverickess I could have written that almost word for word. Despite living in the New Forest where horse ownership is far more common than other parts of the country, I'm still a posh, snobby bitch apparently.

The stereotype is very much still believed.

I know little about horses and encounter them vanishingly rarely but in books jilly cooper people are always feeding them carrots and polo mints. Is this wrong? Has Jilly been lying to us all these years? And I'm sure a horsey friend told me she was picking some apples up for her horses but perhaps she meant she was picking them up so the horses weren't eating them. (As I said - I am not horsey and completely uninformed, this is just out of curiosity!)

Horses can eat apples! I give mine apples occasionally. It's not up to anyone else to feed them apples. I don't want them eating lots of apples, or being encouraged to go to randomers. Some horses shouldn't have any sugary things.

You could feed my horse a couple of apples, he'd be fine. I just don't want you to do it.

Apples and carrots are both fine in moderation. Only the horse’s owner can judge how much that is, so it’s still wrong to feed them to a horse that isn’t yours unless you have explicit permission. Polos are sugary and shouldn’t be given to horses (though I know many owners who do give polos).

A good tip from my yard owner - put up big fuck off signs saying I BITE

Then you’re liable if a horse bites someone- because you’ve already declared that you knew your horse was “dangerous” when you turned it out. It’s always recommended NOT to put signs that say anything remotely negative about the horses..

@Xiaoxiong

I know little about horses and encounter them vanishingly rarely but in books jilly cooper people are always feeding them carrots and polo mints. Is this wrong? Has Jilly been lying to us all these years? And I'm sure a horsey friend told me she was picking some apples up for her horses but perhaps she meant she was picking them up so the horses weren't eating them. (As I said - I am not horsey and completely uninformed, this is just out of curiosity!)

Sugar lumps, polos and other mints, apples and carrots are all OK for most horses to eat, in moderation, they are not part of a horses natural diet (which is pretty much just grasses of various kinds) and are high in sugar so shouldn't be fed to excess, as with people some horses need to stay off the treats more than others, some are athletes/performance horses and are on a carefully controlled diet which treats could mess with, some (like my 2) are a bit fat and constant attention needs to be paid to their waistline, in either case the owner would be rightly annoyed by their animals being stuffed full of treats by passers by (one carrot unlikely to do much harm just like one biscuit, but if every walker on a busy path gives them one carrot they could easily have 100 or more in a day which would make them spherical! And that's the best case, some horses have health conditions which could make treats deadly, a common one is laminitis which is a bit like diabetes or gout for horses and causes very painful swellings in the feet and joints and is caused by excess sugars in thee bloodstream so a few carrots could actually cripple a laminitic pony. Elderly ponies may have issues chewing or swallowing meaning they could choke on pieces of carrot or apple.

And that's before you get into the behavioural issues that can be caused by horses being handed treats while loose in their fields, horses have very rigid herd based hierchies and 'etiquette' around feeding and who gets to eat when, they can get extremely agitated if a lower ranking herdmate is being fed and they aren't, it can cause quite frightening aggression, even serious injuries. I do actually occasionally give my own horses treats (shock horror given the tone of the thread) but only ever when tied up in their stables out of sight of other horses for this reason.

And finally being hand fed by random passers by leads to horses getting gobby, bargey and demanding in the expectation of further treats, this is dangerous for the general public as well as their owner and handler and can be really difficult to retrain once it becomes an engrained habit, in particular if the feeding goes on.

So in summary, please do not feed horses that do not belong to you, without the express permission of the owner, even on 'safe' foods. Thank you!

I give my horses the occasional treat. I just don't want other people to do it. Presumably that's OK, what with them being mine and everything.

Lol, exactly Frodont. Its really enjoyable feeding them the odd carrot (very occasional given that mine are fatties), perhaps it does make me a selfish stuck up cow for wanting to keep that small pleasure to myself given I shovel all their sh*t on a daily basis and pay £££ for thier upkeep!

@Frodont

I give my horses the occasional treat. I just don't want other people to do it. Presumably that's OK, what with them being mine and everything.

exactly

I’m not averse to the odd carrot or apple (or biscuit, dregs from my cup of coffee, crisps, etc), our oldie would sell her soul for a banana.

But they’re my horses. I muck them out every day and pick up their shit and lug haynets about and pay for their shoes and vet bills and the dentist. If I decide to share my biscuits with them occasionally, that’s entirely my prerogative

I don’t want other people to do it though

Can't understand why people do this. You wouldn't feed a random dog in a field, so why someone's horse!! And what possessed them to bring a potato out!

I don't even know any horses to feed even if I wanted to, I was just trying to point out (perhaps in too jocular a tone) that maybe people got the idea from books that always mention people going down to the stables with pockets full of apples/carrots/etc as a nice kind thing to do so they thought they'd do the same. The books never mention the downsides!

Message loud and clear though - I will certainly never feed any of your horses, or indeed any horse at all.

No I appreciate that xiao, sorry if I came across bossy. I just think the core message bears repeating!

If people genuinely want to do something kind for a horse, how about donating to a horse charity, or actually slowing down when they pass one on the road, because that's a real issue too. I can't help thinking that some of the people that feed horses even when asked not to, are also the same people who fly past horses on the roads because they think they shouldn't be there.

And yes, I've fed my horse treats (not at the moment, he's bargy, arsey and bitey because he's been fed stuff by other people recently and he's also too fat going into spring) but as someone else said, with him being mine, not a public amenity, and as I'm the one that will pick up the vet's bill if it goes wrong, that's my call. And I can adjust it as necessary as I have when problems arise.

And for anyone interested, there's a fund set up in memory of that poor little pony who died, they intend to produce posters for other horse owners, with images of the dead pony and written explanations. I don't generally donate to many things, but this one I'm going to, maybe, and I will get one of the posters. I really don't care if it upsets someone, people aren't listening and something needs to make them.