STOP FEEDING HORSES THAT ARE NOT YOURS

[Pineapplechickenpizza]

Unbelievable that this is still a problem after all the hype on social media and the news but unfortunately it is.

Why do people think it’s acceptable to feed an animal that isn’t there’s? I don’t care if it’s an apple or carrot or just a few blades of grass. They’re not your horses- DONT FEED THEM ANYTHING.

If you feed horses in fields that are not yours, honestly, why do you do it?? Do you realise how your ignorance could make someones horse unwell?

Dreading summer holidays when more people are out for walks and think it’s acceptable to feed the horses in the fields

@ArcheryAnnie

I don't think horses, or any other potentially dangerous animal, should be kept in fields where there is a right of way running through it. There's just too much chance of something going wrong.

Not sure how that would work in Scotland where people have the right to roam.

Some are just crazy enough to walk though fields with bulls - that wouldn't be me!

@ArcheryAnnie

So what's your solution? Just kill all the animals?

This is a very silly comment. There's alternatives. Fence the pathways away from livestock, if you intend to put horses or cows in there. (Sheep aren't an issue, generally.)

That's an interesting comment. I assume you mean aren't generally an issue to humans.

Many choose to walk though fields with sheep and have a dog off the lead. Causes plenty issues for the sheep especially during lambing. And often get upset when the farmer threatens to shoot the dog.

Village idiots
Silly buggers
Fu%king idiots
That's all in a single post...

Do any of you with horses feel that the contempt shown to people, who may simply not realise the seriousness of what they are doing, is a bit much?

I fully accept lots of people are getting it very wrong re horses, but surely this sort of aggression isn't helpful when trying to address the situation?

The scariest thing I've ever seen was a family lifting a tiny tot up to sit on my yard owner's unstarted two year old. Dread to think what would have happened if we hadn't spotted them!

Terrifying. Absolutely terrifying.

Two further thoughts:

1. I gave my mare some sort of bizarre static shock on her muzzle whilst grooming recently. She is now totally muzzle shy. It’s been a nightmare and I have no idea how it happened but if this had happened or anything else to upset her from some stranger petting her, I wouldn’t understand the reason for her now freaking out. I wouldn’t be able to fix the problem or help her.

2. I was at a farm recently and saw some absolute dicks feeding horses the food for the sheep. Clear sign “do not feed us” etc but ignored and carried on.

@Marynotsocontrary

Village idiots Silly buggers Fu%king idiots That's all in a single post...

Do any of you with horses feel that the contempt shown to people, who may simply not realise the seriousness of what they are doing, is a bit much?

I fully accept lots of people are getting it very wrong re horses, but surely this sort of aggression isn't helpful when trying to address the situation?

I don't own a horse so no skin in the game. But I get why animal owners do call people who feed their livestock names. Often it will be repeat offenders.

Locally a horse owner was often on the local facebook page pleading with people to shut the gate if they were walking across the field as several times it had been left open and the horses were found on the road. She had to padlock it shut and pay for styles to be put in, to keep her horses, and road users safe. She was absolutely slated for it. Full of people "I have the right to walk over that field.... you cannot lock the gate" etc. people telling her that she just needed to check the field more often and close the gate.

Marynotsocontrary
Theaat's all in a single post...

Do any of you with horses feel that the contempt shown to people, who may simply not realise the seriousness of what they are doing, is a bit much?

I fully accept lots of people are getting it very wrong re horses, but surely this sort of aggression isn't helpful when trying to address the situation?

YES but it's Not you who have to pay vets bills! If I see a dog fenced in in your garden I would never ever go and feed it!! How dare you think it's OK to feed my fenced in horses! I have 'do not feed' signs all around my privet fenced field and still stupid people feed My horses.. Yes they are bloody idiots

The problem is actually people who don’t know about horses don’t have the appropriate amount of fear. They don’t see what can happen walking through a field of 3 horses. How things can go seriously wrong/horses get wound up and start galloping around and kicking. It’s extremely dangerous.

@Iamsosadijustwantout

I think the contempt is not at people who don’t know, it is the people pushing back with ridiculous comments - calling us entitled for expecting people not to just pet or feed our animals Willy nilly when there are signs up or it’s been explained.

YES but it's Not you who have to pay vets bills! If I see a dog fenced in in your garden I would never ever go and feed it!! How dare you think it's OK to feed my fenced in horses! I have 'do not feed' signs all around my privet fenced field and still stupid people feed My horses.. Yes they are bloody idiots

I don't think it's okay to feed your horses IamsosadIjustwantout. I've been clear on that. I do think calling people village idiots is unlikely to resolve the situation to your satisfaction and will likely escalate it instead.

Do any of you with horses feel that the contempt shown to people, who may simply not realise the seriousness of what they are doing, is a bit much?

No. Because I don't understand what is not to get? You just don't feed someone elses horse. You don't need to know why not. Just to accept that you don't do it, ever.

Just like you don't walk your off lead dog through a field of sheep in lambing time - aka Spring (mostly). Don't care who you are, what your dog is, NO DOG's OFF Lead in lambing time - by law if you live in Scotland, the flip side of the right to roam.

www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/scotland/4009853/pet-owners-urged-to-keep-their-dogs-away-from-sheep-during-lambing-season/

We will have the same law in England soon enough and STILL people will shrug and say they didn't know, blah blah blah!

And I don't undertsand that. You are in someone elses workplace. Someone elses property, livestock. Just act like a sensible person, don't touch, do no harm and just walk from point A to point B, cross, and re-cross, the land as you are allowed AND NO MORE!

[quote LuckySantangelo35]@AProperStinging

When previous posters said that their horses don’t exist to bring joy to random children who want to feed them you questioned that - asking what do they exist for, and can they only bring joy to their owners etc. Which suggests to me that you think that children and others should have access to these animals even if they don’t want them, if feeling them would bring some joy to the person doing it[/quote]
I didn't say any of those things. You are making things up that I don't think and never said. You should have the decency to admit that. But you don't seem to.

@Kukdoos

Most of the owners at my yard are average earners, one’s an estate agent, one is a groundsman at the local college, another an accountant. Behave Horses used to be something only the elite had, and owning a horse does give an impression of wealth or being financially comfortable.

Now a lot more people have them. To be fair though, the jobs listed aren't NMW, so it's not beyond scope to think owning a horse is financially unachievable for a lot of people. Especially with the examples of outlay given in this thread.

The groundsman is. He’s broke, his wage is awful, he can’t afford to move out of his parents’ place. We have retirees who spend their whole pension on their horse, NHS workers, SAHM who scrapes up enough and does the odd shift to keep her horse.

It’s not just the elite who had horses back in the day, lots of very poor farmers would have a multi purpose pony for help round the farm.

@SamphirethePogoingStickerist
And if someone doesn't realise and makes a mistake and gets it wrong and feeds some grass to a horse - is it fine to shout and swear and hurl obscenities and so on? As people here say they are doing?

If people 'shrug and say they didn't know', then I guess they didn't know. I think education, rather than verbal abuse, is key.

Please! When/ where did that happen?

Actually I know of one place in real life it did. The horse died! The obscentities were "Can't you fucking read, don't feed my horse, you'll fucking kill him" or similar. Police were called - good luck with that out here in the sticks. A formal complaint was made - by those feeding the horse!

Horse feeder was handed the vet bills. I have no idea how that will pan out as it hasn't got to court yet!

So maybe there is something to the shouting and swearing. Something more tangible than the shrug of the uninformed shoulders.

There are times when education is just pissing in the wind (I was a lecturer for 20+ years, I know a lost cause when I teach it). And NOBODY needs be so unintelligent that "DO NOT FEED THIS HORSE" doesn't apply to them.

You can call for more and more mollycoddling, excusercising all you want. But it boils down to people doing whatever they want, whenever they want with little or not thought for anything other than their own immediate gratification. And that is abhorrent. stupid and dangerous!

Educating people isn't 'mollycoddling' them. For heaven's sake!
And often there are no signs at all near fields of horses.

I told my 12-year-old daughter about this thread and she said she recently caught people feeding her pony chocolate raisins and Oreos! The yard has "private property" signs everywhere and CCTV and the horses are nowhere near a public footpath. There are also "DO NOT TOUCH OR FEED THE HORSES" signs on every single stable. People deliberately walk onto private property and still feed them crap!

you would stroke a cat if it came to you in the street... no difference

I absolutely
Would not, no. And I teach my children not to pet animals unless they’ve asked the owner. If the owners aren’t around then it’s just a no. Do
You know why? Mostly because I care about my children or me getting bitten/scratched/kicked or whatever. But also because it’s not my fucking pet
And I don’t have the right to touch it just because it’s an animal coming over to me.

I have to assume a few people on here are just on the wind up now

@fairylightsandwaxmelts

there aren't all that many rights of way, compared to the number of fields. Its not as if this applies to every field, ffs, just a very few.

Yes, but not all fields can be used for keeping livestock. If a farmer owns land and has say, ten fields, it could be that only three of them are suitable for livestock and if they all have rights or way through them, then they don't have much choice in the matter.

Lots of land is privately owned and not available for rent or use by farmers or livestock owners.

Many fields areneeded for arable farming and therefore can't be used for livestock either.

Lots of fields will be inappropriate for livestock for various reasons - too steep, too muddy, a flood risk, or they grow inappropriate crops etc.

The countryside is primarily a workplace, not a tourist attraction. The tourists are secondary and should only be enjoying the countryside if they're going to be responsible and are willing to follow the law.

The responsibility goes both ways. Unless the agenda is to extinguish longstanding rights, then people who keep horses also have a responsibility to keep them away from the general public, including in fields which have rights of way crossing them.

Horses generally are not kept as working livestock, in the UK at least. With a few exceptions (historic draught animals) they are kept as a leisure pursuit, hobby or pet, not as a necessity. I would dearly, dearly like a dog, but as I live in a top floor flat I don't have a dog, because my facilities aren't adequate, and it would not be fair either on the dog or on other people around me. If you do not have adequate access to a field that can keep horses and the general public apart, you don't have adequate facilities to pursue your hobby/pet/leisure activity, either.

Many choose to walk though fields with sheep and have a dog off the lead. Causes plenty issues for the sheep especially during lambing. And often get upset when the farmer threatens to shoot the dog

I am absolutely fine with punishing people who have off-lead dogs anywhere near livestock, tigger1001.

But people are allowed to have leashed dogs on rights of way.

The responsibility goes both ways. Unless the agenda is to extinguish longstanding rights, then people who keep horses also have a responsibility to keep them away from the general public, including in fields which have rights of way crossing them.

People who own livestock (including horses) only have a responsibility to keep the livestock and the general public safe - they don't actually have to keep them away from the general public completely.

If you do not have adequate access to a field that can keep horses and the general public apart, you don't have adequate facilities to pursue your hobby/pet/leisure activity, either.

That's just opinion, not law. There's nothing stopping horse owners keeping their horses in fields that have public rights of way. If you feel unsafe crossing, then find an alternative route or go back. You don't have more rights than the owners of the field itself just because there's a public right of way running through it.

And I don’t have the right to touch it just because it’s an animal coming over to me.

But @Giraffesandbottoms in many cases, the animal (cat or horse) isn't just coming over to people, it's actively soliciting attention and asking for fuss/scratches/strokes.

But your horse isn't "livestock" - it's not part of a working farm. It's an extract, a pet, a hobby, a leisure activity. You and others have - rightly - made it very clear that horses are potentially dangerous animals that should not mix unsupervised with the general public, both for the safety of the humans and the safety of the horses. Why should your leisure activity (keeping horses) interfere with other people's leisure activities (walking)?

Keep horses is private fields that don't have rights of way over them.

@Giraffesandbottoms

you would stroke a cat if it came to you in the street... no difference

I absolutely
Would not, no. And I teach my children not to pet animals unless they’ve asked the owner. If the owners aren’t around then it’s just a no. Do
You know why? Mostly because I care about my children or me getting bitten/scratched/kicked or whatever. But also because it’s not my fucking pet
And I don’t have the right to touch it just because it’s an animal coming over to me.

I have to assume a few people on here are just on the wind up now

I have never ever met a single cat owner who lets their cat out but doesn't want other people to stroke it. That would be pure madness.

@ArcheryAnnie

But your horse isn't "livestock" - it's not part of a working farm. It's an extract, a pet, a hobby, a leisure activity. You and others have - rightly - made it very clear that horses are potentially dangerous animals that should not mix unsupervised with the general public, both for the safety of the humans and the safety of the horses. Why should your leisure activity (keeping horses) interfere with other people's leisure activities (walking)?

Keep horses is private fields that don't have rights of way over them.

Why should your leisure activity (keeping horses) interfere with other people's leisure activities (walking)?

Because if someone owns (or is paying rent for) a field, they have every right to keep whatever animals they like in there as long as they're following the law.

Whereas a right of way is just that - a right of way. It means you have the right to cross the field if you want to, but it doesn't mean that the landowner has to prevent their animals from touching you or approaching you in any way.

If you feel unsafe crossing someone else's land due to the animals they're keeping, then turn back or find another place to walk. You can't demand the landowner doesn't use their land in the way they choose just because you've decided you feel unsafe.

I live rurally and walk dogs for a living - I'm always turning back or changing my route because a field has cows, calves or lambs in it and it would be safer for me to walk elsewhere.

I may have the right to continue walking but I would be stupid to walk a pack of dogs through a field of lambs, or cows with their calves, so I use my common sense and go somewhere else.

After all, it's not MY land, so my wants are secondary to the landowners.

What she said!