I have a CF

[Nixandwotsit]

Never thought it would happen to me... a couple of weeks ago a lady came to my yard where I keep my 3 horses to collect a free item I'd offered on FB. She brought two little girls with her... and of course they were ecstatic to stroke ponies. They were also quite shrill LOL! I had to steer them towards the most easy going pony because one of mine isn't all that tolerant, another is poorly so not feeling friendly, but the pony lapped it up. It was a tense time for me to be honest. I put the big intolerant horse in a stable. I had to keep dragging them away from poorly old horse. Made pointed comments about time to go and walked to their car so they had to follow me.
As they were going the kids started talking about coming back... one was asking about coming to ride... Mum was saying maybe they could come brush and give them carrots. I told them they aren't really that sort of horses, not completely easy going. I didn't have insurance to cover children visiting. If you gave the pony carrots you could cause him to get ill (lamminitis). I was very polite.

Yesterday I arrived at the yard, saw a car parked outside. Go to the front and find the three of them on the yard - where my 3 nags are free roaming, screeching, patting, all very excited. Intolerant horse is being a saint thank goodness, poorly horse is looking miserable and trying to hide in a corner. I was nice, but I told Mum that they absolutely can't come and visit alone and actually, I'd rather not have regular visitors. I repeated the bit about insurance and added that the weekends at my yard are my "quiet time" and I like it that way. I have no idea if they'd fed carrots - mum said not.
Today - I'm sat on the yard with a cuppa, surrounded by my herd. I hear a car pull up and who should appear around the stables? The three of them plus dad.
I'm quite assertive so I stood up and as dad was opening the gate I walked towards them with my hand out in a stop gesture and said "No!". Carried on walking through the gate and stood between them and it. Told them that I have a sick horse, I have a horse that isn't particularly kind, I do not have insurance and they are trespassing. Dad was loud - accusing me of spoiling the girls' day - they weren't doing any harm. I just kept repeating "please leave" and they did with many passive aggressive comments between them and little girls wailing.
Tonight on the local FB group - a pointed post about the joys of being in the countryside, how wonderful it is when kind people welcome children who love animals. You get the picture.
I am so not being unreasonable, but I thought it might amuse you all. They'll get a shock, I'm moving to a new yard on Wednesday.

If they turn up again, hand them all a shovel and say oh so kind of you to help out, please be careful with your shoes, the poorly horse has the shits. You may need gloves. That will get rid of the cheeky sods.

Hope your horse is better soon.

@FOJN

Dad was loud - accusing me of spoiling the girls' day - they weren't doing any harm.

That entitled shit can fuck off. Who cares if the children were or were not doing any harm, your yard, your horses, access by invitation only not by bullying. WTF is wrong with people?

‘Not doing any harm’ - is Dad an equestrian by any chance, a horse whisperer possibly? How does he know what harm is, horses arent toys!

We have a local park with deer in it. Some idiots go up to the deer and feed and pet them. Then the deer get over-friendly and sometimes aggressive with the next family who are quietly having a picnic, and will probably end up being shot. It's a park which happens to have deer in it, not a deer-petting theme park.

@Toomuchtrouble4me

Next time they come tell them that horses don’t like children and there’s no Santa. They should do it.

I legit love this response!

@Tictocrobot

I know it’s not quite the same, but similar levels of countryside CFery - on our local fb the other day, people were harping on about how they had filled ‘bags’ with farmers’ crops to take home and eat. Some people see the countryside as some sort of theme park.

I think that’s awful, that’s a person’s livelihood

@Peteycat

Hope your horse is better soon.

Thank you, sadly he won't be. We're just having our last happy times together while he feels well enough. But that's what we let ourselves in for with animals isn't it? Anyway - up and out early because of the heat, quickly loaded into the lorry and me and my nags are moved! We have a nice paddock just for us for the time being. When the inevitable happens and I just have two who are healthy they will be integrated into a brilliant "track livery" setup and my workload will be massively reduced. We are also now away from idiot members of the public. Thank you for your great posts and for sharing the frankly shocking things some of you have to put up with from CF's! If I can grit my teeth hard enough I'll drop in on the eventers and see if they've had any visitors. Can't guarantee that though, the way they keep their horses grinds my gears.

If your weren't moving I'd be putting padlocks on the gate and barb wire around the top. I've got a field round the corner from my house just opposite a housing estate and I've always had issues with people going over to feed the ponies.
After twice having to have the vet rush out on emergency call out because my horse had colic I've since had to block the gateways off and install cctv with 24hour recording. I'm not taking any chances.
People have been upset about it! One lady who I repeatedly asked not to feed the horses complained to my friend that she wants doing any harm feeding them carrots, apples and cabbage. I've also had bags of food thrown over including whole oranges, brocoli and potato peelings ect.
All of which can be fatal to horses. At the time I had one horse who was prone to laminitis, another who is very old with hardly any teeth and then my poor boy who had colic twice.
I wiped the floor with this little old lady.. She was upset and went and got her friend to come over with her and have a go at me. Normally I'd feel bad but to twice be scared my horse was going to die because of someone's so called kindness... I don't care!
Now the horses are left alone because people are aware of the cctv.
Definitely had cf turning up and just letting themselves in and it's so dangerous for both them and your horses.

It really isn't. We have a very good things for free village FB group and everyone I've met through that has been lovely

This is a bit of a different set up to a bog standard Gumtree ad which may explain the difference in your experience.

Id rather take things into a charity shop nowadays than deal with the cheeky fuckery 😂

Just phone the police and get them moved on. Trespassing!

@Trudij123

I was putting caution signs on my electric fencing ( you have to if it’s along a footpath) one day and a woman with two little girls asked me if the horses would be moving back over - when I said yes, she asked me not to electrify the fence as her girls like going into the field to Pat the horses…. 😳😳

I’m usually quite a polite person, but bearing in mind they didn’t usually give two hoots about the electric being on so i had to double fence it in the vain hope it would keep them in, to be told not to electrify it, I saw red. The field contained an old, grumpy cob, a flighty Welsh a, an old very wise mini shitland and a yearling thoroughbred - it wasn’t the kind of field to have young children wandering about in just to give them a pat. And that’s before I got to the trespass into the field as soon as they went off the designated footpath…

Was "shitland" a typo, or a Freudian slip?

@Trudij123 shiteventersunite 🤣🤣🤣

[quote littleorchard45]@Trudij123 shiteventersunite 🤣🤣🤣[/quote]
Yep - though I’ve called them that for a lot longer than Facebook has been about 😂😂

I've always know shetlands as shit lands. But now on shiteeventers too 😂