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AIBU?

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Original poster

STOP FEEDING HORSES THAT ARE NOT YOURS

956 replies

Pineapplechickenpizza · 18/04/2022 21:25

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 fieldsSad

OP posts:
Branleuse · 19/04/2022 20:37

What about donkeys? When i go on holiday to france, its mostly beef cows in the area, but in one of the fields they have a donkey who i sometimes take a carrot to. He comes running to see me, shouting. I feel bad for him being the only donkey and his eyes always are covered in flies. I always felt like i was cheering him up.

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 19/04/2022 20:39

@Branleuse

What about donkeys? When i go on holiday to france, its mostly beef cows in the area, but in one of the fields they have a donkey who i sometimes take a carrot to. He comes running to see me, shouting. I feel bad for him being the only donkey and his eyes always are covered in flies. I always felt like i was cheering him up.
Me and DP were stroking 3 donkeys at a pub stop at the weekend. I love donkeys.
Giraffesandbottoms · 19/04/2022 20:42

@XenoBitch

That’s outrageous wtf

TomRipley · 19/04/2022 20:43

@fairylightsandwaxmelts

Or people could stop feeding animals that are not theirs?

My cat was 8 years old at the time and we never had a problem before or since.
You don't just find dairy lying around in the gardens where I live so I won't be locking my cat indoors just because she has an allergy, it would be impossible anyway.

PumpkinPie2016 · 19/04/2022 20:45

YANBU - I don't keep horses myself but my neighbour does. She has 3 large horses that have free run of her 10 acres of land. They are very well cared for.

She had to put signs up asking people to stop feeding them as a public footpath runs across part of her land and people were giving them apples/mints/carrots etc. I am actually quite wary of horses but I used to be able to pass through the field no problem as they never bothered you.

Then, people started feeding them so everytime someone went in the field they would go trotting over and start nudging you as they assumed everyone had food 🙄

Sometimes, I don't think people appreciate that cows/sheep/horses are not there to be petted.

XenoBitch · 19/04/2022 20:45

[quote Giraffesandbottoms]@XenoBitch

That’s outrageous wtf[/quote]
It was a few years ago now, and the lady I mentioned has since died. It does boil my piss when I think about it too much.
I even put leaflets in her door about my cat.

FirstNameSurname · 19/04/2022 20:45

I have a FB friend who is a prolific pony patter. Often posting pictures with random horses, holding them by their headcollar or removing flymasks for photos or feeding them. When shes asked if its her horse she deflects and will comment on how wonderful or pretty they are instead.
I mostly ignored her until my horse showed up on her pictures, the old little thing happily eating the apples and carrots she brought for him. He was on a private livery, with no rights of way or roads nearby.

He was having herd issues and will stand by the gate at the sight of a human for the rest of the day expecting to return to his stable any moment so not eating and stressing himself more. She was causing his issues when she left him. He was loosing weight, stressing and not integrating into the herd due to her need for a FB photo. We had no idea someone was causing his issues until found him on her FB. She would not listen to the issues she created and claimed it wasn't my horse but an identical horse in an identical field wth identical field mates. We had field cameras installed but it still wasn't her/our horse. Then she claimed I didn't understand my horse and his resulting issues didn't exist. We ended up moving him because she would not leave him alone and fully believed she knew him better than his actual owners.

Maestoso · 19/04/2022 20:46

Donkeys can suffer the same ills as horses. Obey any signs or ask the owners. Don't randomly feed or pet. Their behaviour is quite different to horses. I have two.

SoftSheen · 19/04/2022 20:51

[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]
Yes- and presumably these were all people handling or riding horses, not passers by.

If there are regular problems with horses fighting and injuring each other, it suggests there is a problem with the turn-out arrangements...

jytdtysrht · 19/04/2022 20:51

I walk my dog in fields nearby and one of the fields has horses in it. Recently they put up an electric fence and lots of signage (don't touch or feed) so I imagine that they have had similar problems.

TBH I know nothing at all about horses and am a bit frightened of them. We always walk briskly and quietly through the small section of the walk where we are next to horses anyway. I would never interact with them in any way because I don't know anything about them and they are big. Honestly I would prefer not even to walk past them but that part leads to nice woods.

I was once on a walk with someone else near their house (countryside) and they let their kids feed carrots to a couple of random horses. I asked if they knew the owner and was it OK and they said that the owner said not to feed them!

Basically, people will not do as they are asked. Some want to have contact with animals, some want to show the animals to kids/get interaction and some the worst kind who would feed any random food or objects to a horse for a laugh. I think it is for this reason that people are suggesting more extensive countermeasures. I mean even in the zoo, some nutty people end up climbing into the enclosures!

Someone (no idea who) threw chocolate into my garden and my dog got it. I saw him get it, but I couldn't catch him with that. Trip to the vet to get made to puke.

I also know someone else who walked her friend's dog. Every time she took the dog out, she shared her chocolate with the dog, who enjoyed it. She had no idea that dogs aren't supposed to have chocolate! It was years ago so the dog is actually now dead - not sure if it was prematurely caused by that. She only found out when she came round my house and I asked her to not to leave a box of chocs open on the sofa as the dog would get them. She asked why it was a problem and couldn't she give him one? Horrified when I explained and told me about the dog she used to feed and did I think she'd killed him?

fairylightsandwaxmelts · 19/04/2022 20:53

[quote TomRipley]@fairylightsandwaxmelts

Or people could stop feeding animals that are not theirs?

My cat was 8 years old at the time and we never had a problem before or since.
You don't just find dairy lying around in the gardens where I live so I won't be locking my cat indoors just because she has an allergy, it would be impossible anyway.

[/quote]
Or people could stop feeding animals that are not theirs?

Absolutely, but you can't control the general public or the actions of your cat if you choose to let it out to roam.

You don't just find dairy lying around in the gardens where I live so I won't be locking my cat indoors just because she has an allergy, it would be impossible anyway.

But then you're choosing to take a risk with her health. Plenty of people leave wet food and milk out for feral cats or strays, or for hedgehogs that come into their gardens.

You can't control what your outdoor cat does/doesn't have access to, you can't stop them accessing other people's homes via open doors, windows or cat-flaps. That's why my allergic cat stays inside as I know he would be scrounging off the first person he came across, lol.

Obviously you've weighed up the risks and are happy to let your cat roam regardless though, and that's fine too.

TomRipley · 19/04/2022 20:56

Exactly that @XenoBitch

I'm fairly friendly with Mrs cream neighbour now and she didn't mean any harm, I know that. She was very confused when I told her how ill it made my cat considering 'how much cat liked it'.

I also suspect she was trying to coax my cat in to her house because my cat isn't very friendly so you'd need a nice treat to get her attention!

Plantstrees · 19/04/2022 20:57

[quote DeyHuggee]@Pineapplechickenpizza yes people should listen and not do it, but however much people will that to be the case it isn't. Horses don't have any autonomy over where you keep them, they can't decide whether they're content with the risk or not- and so perhaps there should be tighter restrictions on where they can be kept for their own welfare. It's not victim blaming as absolutely the people feeding them are in the wrong (whether they know its wrong is another matter), but reality is the horse needs to be the one who is centred and they are evidently at risk in some cases.[/quote]
Are you suggesting that all the ponies in the New Forest, Dartmoor, Exmoor, Welsh commons and those on conservation grazing in areas of outstanding natural beauty should all be removed? That would overnight cause the extinction of many of our beloved native breeds. Maybe the alternative is to exclude people from these places instead - much better for the environment and the wildlife.

Giraffesandbottoms · 19/04/2022 21:00

Yes- and presumably these were all people handling or riding horses, not passers by

@SoftSheen

As I’ve said 100 x now, my horse is in a private field with no access, as are all horses at the yard . So yes, they are not passers by. But these issues could also occur as a result of passers by getting themselves involved with petting or going into fields etc. that’s my point.

Plantstrees · 19/04/2022 21:00

@aurynne

If this is such a dangerous and frequent issue, then why on earth do horse owners not keep them away from pathways where people could contact and feed them? Isn't this a much simpler solution?
What should we do with all the free-roaming native ponies? Remove them from the moors or remove the people?
TomRipley · 19/04/2022 21:03

Agree @fairylightsandwaxmelts

You can't control what others do. There are horrible people who put out poison or sprinkle hot chilli in their gardens to deter cats but not all cats can be kept indoors. It's always a risk.

I think for my cat a little bit of milk would only give her an upset stomach. It was the daily bowls of double cream that made her really ill.

fairylightsandwaxmelts · 19/04/2022 21:05

@TomRipley

Agree *@fairylightsandwaxmelts*

You can't control what others do. There are horrible people who put out poison or sprinkle hot chilli in their gardens to deter cats but not all cats can be kept indoors. It's always a risk.

I think for my cat a little bit of milk would only give her an upset stomach. It was the daily bowls of double cream that made her really ill.

Bless her.

Unfortunately my cat is so tuna intolerant that even the tiniest bit makes him shit liquid lol. He's clearly in pain too so it's just not worth the risk of ever letting him out.

thetemptationofchocolate · 19/04/2022 21:17

It makes no odds if horses are next to a path or away from a path. Those who feel entitled to feed/pat will not be stopped by having to go on private ground, they will just do it anyway. Even an electric fence is no deterrent to the determined feeder.

TomRipley · 19/04/2022 21:32

@fairylightsandwaxmelts
I didn't know a cat could be allergic to tuna! It's strange how the things most associate with cats liking can be so harmful to them.
My younger cat is the opposite. I have two young children and he follows them around hoovering up anything they drop on the floor. Be it biscuits, peas, crisp, ice lollies...he'll eat it and be fine. We think he's part dog.

HalfShrunkMoreToGo · 19/04/2022 21:45

Wow.

Only poked my head into this thread as wondered why it had so many posts. Am I reading it right? Are there actually people on this thread who are saying:

'If you don't want me to ignore your signs about how I might be killing your horse by feeding it then you should not just put it in a privately owned space with clear signage, you should also make sure the space is completely impenetrable and the animal not in any way visible because my desire to feed and pet the horse is more important than it's health or your ownership of the land it's on?'

Plantstrees · 19/04/2022 21:45

@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.)

What do you suggest we do in the New Forest, on Dartmoor or Exmoor? There are not always alternatives. Killing the animals is not a stupid comment as that is what would happen across all our English moors if we couldn't keep horses on open access land. All our natural herds of native ponies would disappear forever. As I said previously, maybe we should just ban the public from these areas as it would be so much better for the environment and the wildlife.

You choose - them or us? Which would you choose?

lameasahorse · 19/04/2022 21:50

This reply has been withdrawn

Message from MNHQ: This post has been withdrawn

Cascais · 19/04/2022 21:51

@HalfShrunkMoreToGo

Wow.

Only poked my head into this thread as wondered why it had so many posts. Am I reading it right? Are there actually people on this thread who are saying:

'If you don't want me to ignore your signs about how I might be killing your horse by feeding it then you should not just put it in a privately owned space with clear signage, you should also make sure the space is completely impenetrable and the animal not in any way visible because my desire to feed and pet the horse is more important than it's health or your ownership of the land it's on?'

No no one is saying that
fairylightsandwaxmelts · 19/04/2022 21:53

@HalfShrunkMoreToGo

Wow.

Only poked my head into this thread as wondered why it had so many posts. Am I reading it right? Are there actually people on this thread who are saying:

'If you don't want me to ignore your signs about how I might be killing your horse by feeding it then you should not just put it in a privately owned space with clear signage, you should also make sure the space is completely impenetrable and the animal not in any way visible because my desire to feed and pet the horse is more important than it's health or your ownership of the land it's on?'

Nope, not one person is saying that, actually.