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

@fairylightsandwaxmelts

I'm in Scotland so no 'right of way' But why would you want to cause me the distress and worry?

I don't think people want to cause you stress and worry.

If you don't want dogs through your sheep fields (which is understandable) then you need to campaign to change the law surely, not demand that people stop doing perfectly legal things?

Farmers can (and have) shoot dogs who are in fields of sheep worrying them.

Lambing is not long underway where I am and social media (including posts from the police) is awash reminding not to have dogs off the lead in fields with sheep.

As others have said with rights comes responsibility. Want to roam the countryside? Fine but be responsible.

(I should also repeat that I've learned a lot on this thread, thank you, and have already passed on a lot of the information I learned to my DS, who is an animal-mad city-bred creature.)

@fairylightsandwaxmelts

I don’t want to jump on you but you are just encouraging the horse to
Come over for the next person who
Will
Feed it nonsense!

@fairylightsandwaxmelts

I'm in Scotland so no 'right of way' But why would you want to cause me the distress and worry?

I don't think people want to cause you stress and worry.

If you don't want dogs through your sheep fields (which is understandable) then you need to campaign to change the law surely, not demand that people stop doing perfectly legal things?

People here have plenty of other spaces to walk their dogs round here.

[quote AProperStinging]@ForeverLooking

My horses don't exist to bring joy to someone else's kid at the expense of their own health and my vet bills.

What do they exist for? Why do you have horses?[/quote]
Great question!

@BettyBag
It’s funny you consider horses a middle class thing. They can be very expensive…you can also buy a horse for less money than most dogs. My horse was cheaper than one of my sisters cats.
Im certainly not middle class or anything close, I just grew up in the country and love them so I sacrifice almost everything else to keep them.

@Giraffesandbottoms

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.

You're exaggerating the danger here. And IME it's usually people who spend a lot of time with horses who forget the potential danger and get injured, most often when handling or riding a horse rather than walking through/next to its field.

@Thereisnolight do you have a dog or a cat or any other pet? Do you need a reason to love an animal and be attached to it?

[quote Giraffesandbottoms]@fairylightsandwaxmelts

I don’t want to jump on you but you are just encouraging the horse to
Come over for the next person who
Will
Feed it nonsense![/quote]
If a horse approaches me and nuzzles me for attention, that's not my fault in the slightest. I could ignore them, but experience tells me that horses are very determined and will follow you until they get the attention they're looking for

The issue is people feeding horses in the first place, not people who are just giving them a bit of fuss when they ask for it.

At the end of the day, horses will go to people because they're intelligent, semi-domesticated animals and know that people = good things. They'll do that regardless of whether people stroke them or not, because that's how they've been socialised for thousands of years.

I look after a horse regularly for a friend - the horse is kept on private ground and nobody can access the field except for the owner. The first time I met him, he was nuzzling all over me wanting attention the moment he saw me by the gate. I didn't approach him, hold my hand out or say anything - it was his instinct to want to come and see me.

@SoftSheen

Im not exaggerating at all. In the last 12 months someone at my yard has broken a finger, another has been seriously injured on her foot and I’ve personally had to hot foot it out of the field due to in fighting. And that’s just the humans - two horses have been kicked and on box rest, which could have been much worse as my mother’s horse was kicked twice and had to be put down.

Farmers can (and have) shoot dogs who are in fields of sheep worrying them.

I know, I live in sheep country and totally agree with a farmers' right to shoot dogs worrying their sheep @derxa

Lambing is not long underway where I am and social media (including posts from the police) is awash reminding not to have dogs off the lead in fields with sheep.

Yep, same with where I live.

As others have said with rights comes responsibility. Want to roam the countryside? Fine but be responsible.

But by law they ARE being responsible, because you are allowed to take dogs through sheep fields as long as the dog is on a short lead and under control.

You might disagree with dogs in sheep fields, which is fine, but the owners aren't legally doing anything wrong if their dogs are at heel on leads and minding their own business.

@SoftSheen

A pony will not get laminitis from a child feeding it a couple of handfuls of grass. Not every child has the luxury of regular contact with horses, or animals generally, and this is a nice thing for them to be able to do.

Giving armfuls of hay/buckets of carrots- obviously YANBU.

Aw. I love small children. I don't have toddlers any more.

I think giving toddlers a bar of chocolate is a lovely thing to do. It's not going to make them ill, and what harm could one bar of chocolate do? I'd love to shovel bars of chocolate down random toddlers when their parents weren't around.

Is that ok?

@fairylightsandwaxmelts

But you approaching and nuzzling the horse of a friend is a completely different scenario. Anyway there’s no point in discussing it further I can see we won’t agree. Hopefully you won’t pet a horse you don’t know and get bitten, and hopefully petting it won’t cause in fighting with other horses in the field 🤷🏻‍♀️

Yes to this!!
And any other animals too!

My older cat was really sick and coming home shitting blood all over the house, it was so bad I thought she was dying.

I knew she was lactose intolerant but we never gave her milk so never had a problem.

Long story short, the lady at the end of the road was giving her regular saucers of cream!

@MadMadMadamMim

You can absolutely let a child
Sit on your lap for a cuddle if it comes over and asks for one. That’s what I’ve learnt from
this thread.

[quote TheOriginalEmu]@Thereisnolight do you have a dog or a cat or any other pet? Do you need a reason to love an animal and be attached to it?[/quote]
No living creature exists purely for the benefit of someone else, whether that be owner or random petter.
Come to think of it, no one should “own” large tracts of land which are millions of years old and ban everyone else from walking through them (working premises excepted).

[quote Giraffesandbottoms]@SoftSheen

Im not exaggerating at all. In the last 12 months someone at my yard has broken a finger, another has been seriously injured on her foot and I’ve personally had to hot foot it out of the field due to in fighting. And that’s just the humans - two horses have been kicked and on box rest, which could have been much worse as my mother’s horse was kicked twice and had to be put down.[/quote]
Yup, I agree. Someone on my yard broke an ankle really badly, today an experienced rider was kicked in the back after getting caught in the middle of two horses having a fight over nothing. They can be unpredictable.

[quote Giraffesandbottoms]@fairylightsandwaxmelts

But you approaching and nuzzling the horse of a friend is a completely different scenario. Anyway there’s no point in discussing it further I can see we won’t agree. Hopefully you won’t pet a horse you don’t know and get bitten, and hopefully petting it won’t cause in fighting with other horses in the field 🤷🏻‍♀️[/quote]
But if you read my post properly, the point was that I DIDN'T approach him. He saw me and came over of his own free will.

And it's the same with horses I see on walks - if a horse ignores me, of course I ignore it, but many horses will come over to you with absolutely no encouragement and solicit attention from you.

That's not the publics fault.

I honestly find it hard to believe that double fencing and keeping your delicate horses away from public footpaths doesnt reduce the issues significantly. Im amazed if most people wouldnt be deterred by the obstacle of getting past those fences just to be near a horse

@TomRipley

Yes to this!! And any other animals too!

My older cat was really sick and coming home shitting blood all over the house, it was so bad I thought she was dying.

I knew she was lactose intolerant but we never gave her milk so never had a problem.

Long story short, the lady at the end of the road was giving her regular saucers of cream!

The thing is, if you have a cat with dietary issues, it's your responsibility as its' owner to make sure it can't access food that will make it sick.

I have three cats, including one who is allergic to tuna of all things. So he's kept inside and on my property so I know what he is and isn't eating and to ensure he doesn't get sick or have a reaction.

If you allow your cat out to roam, you're accepting the risks that come with that.

@fairylightsandwaxmelts

I did read it! I just meant if your friend’s horse comes over it’s normal to pet it. If a random horse came over to me I would not pet it.

@TheOriginalEmu

Yikes, kicked in the back!!! Are they alright?

I did read it! I just meant if your friend’s horse comes over it’s normal to pet it. If a random horse came over to me I would not pet it.

And that's a fair enough choice of course, but IMO you can't really complain that people are fussing your horse if your horse is actually going out of its' way to solicit attention from them 🤷🏻‍♀️

A friends horse has had its leg fractured in 3 places due to getting caught in the crossfire of another. Huge vet bill and now months of box rest. This type of thing can also happen when people 'treat' over the fence having no idea about herd mentality and what it could lead to.

Horses aren't like people they don't think or communicate like people. Their behaviour is very nuanced and if you don't know what to look for it's a potential issue. Some horses are rescues like mine are and have had a lot of trauma there are so many reasons why you really shouldn't pet or feed a horse that isn't yours.

Can't people just understand that? Go on your walk, look don't touch and please don't feed.

There are three ponies here which I look after. Two of them are as nice as pie and very gentle with small people. But the third one is not. Unfortunately he is also the one who looks as cute as a button and everyone wants to fuss him.
If I am there I can warn them not to get near his mouth or his hooves, as he is more than willing to use them and even though he is tiny, they really hurt. But random patters could be at risk, and you can't tell just by looking at a pony how they will be with you or your children. He is also never fed anything directly from my hands, as this can make a biter a lot worse.
When I am walking the old pony about (he has arthritis so we go walking together to keep his knees supple) I carry some safe treats in my pocket. Sometimes we meet people and if there is a child I usually say 'would you like to give him a treat?', they usually do. I can then tell them the safe way to do it, and no-one gets hurt.
Not every horse or pony is off limits for a cuddle but PLEASE ask first as you don't know what you could be getting yourself in to.

@TomRipley

Yes to this!! And any other animals too!

My older cat was really sick and coming home shitting blood all over the house, it was so bad I thought she was dying.

I knew she was lactose intolerant but we never gave her milk so never had a problem.

Long story short, the lady at the end of the road was giving her regular saucers of cream!

I had this with a cat too. He had thyroid and allergy issues. Anything other than a certain food would have him shit himself inside out everywhere. Not nice for him, and not nice for me.

The culprit was a local lady who had a habit of "collecting" cats. One day, he never came home. Turns out, she took him in and had him PTS because the shit food she was giving him (and lack of his thyroid meds) was making him sickly. He was old, but he was a happy little sod (deaf, and he stank), but he was not her cat.