Horse and dog incident this morning

[DrHildegardeLanstrom]

Had quite a scary experience on our morning walk this morning.
My dog and I have crossed this field and the others with horses on many times and have never had any incidents. I have been around horses all my life and understand how they can be inquisitive. My dog is under full control on a short lead and is well behaved around horses.

This morning he was with me on a short lead as normal, and my DD was with me. The field had several horses, all grazing at the bottom of the field well away from the footpath route. As we got halfway across, two trotted over and reached us in no time.
One came up and sniffed my dog very close, which scared him so he barked. The horse instantly turned around and kicked him, luckily a glancing hit which appears to have done no damage.
We turned around straight away however the horse kept trying to kick us (I really thought I was going to be kicked) and was blocking our path. My DD was very scared, so I sent her to run back to the gate and managed to get there myself despite being pursued by the horses.

There is no damage done, however I have never experienced such a thing in 30 years of horse experience. The horse clearly felt threatened by us being there and came across the field.

AIBU to email the yard and make them aware?

I fail to see why it's not law to section a part of the field off for walkers if you're using them for grazing. It keeps them safe and the livestock

Because the fields aren't there for pleasure walks they are there to hold livestock. If you fence paths off for walkers then quite often you will be cutting off access to water sources and access for the farmer to take e.g. hay/silage into their field with a tractor in winter or crop the field in summer. That's before considering the considerable loss of grazing that would occur.

I can't see many people in the lakes being happy to walk between two fences up scafell pike just so they don't have to come into contact with any pesky livestock?

Are people really so removed from the food they eat that they think the primary concern of farmers should be making their fields into unimpeded walks for people who can't even be bothered to gain a basic understanding and respect of the land they are walking across?

Assuming you were on a public right of way, yes - I'd let the owners know.

That being said, I'd never ever take my dog into a field containing ANY sort of livestock, and I would include horses in that.

I would avoid walking through fields with either horses or cattle like the plague. I've kept both species and as with all prey animals they have an unpredictable fight or flight nature and often see dogs as a threat. The horse might well have been chased by one previously. With large livestock in a field I would always stick to the hedge if at all possible and move as quickly as possible. A theory is if livestock go for your dog then you release your dog as he will outrun the livestock, leaving you to exit at the nearest point to safety. You just have make sure your dog has excellent recall and won't in turn chase the livestock.

The owners should know as that is a really strange way for a horse to behave - spooked horse will shy or kick at something behind it but I've never seen one turn specifically to kick - it goes completely against their prey instincts. An aggressive horse will usually bite, again not really seen one pursue to kick, rather lunge at to bite. It would make me wonder if the horse is in pain or has a health issue making it behave strangely.

I would not walk my dog through a horse's field. He is very comfortable with horses but that doesn't mean the horses will be comfortable with him and it is their field.

You may find your dog is scared of horses now anyway.

Yep, I'd tell the yard owner - might be that horse is new, they haven't seen it behave that way before.

For everyone saying it is illegal to put an animal aggressive to people in a field with a PROW... yes, if you KNOW the animal to be aggressive. However theres no evidence here that the yard owners/horse owner do know this, nor is there evidence that the horse was aggressive to PEOPLE.

Whilst people have a right to cross a PROW, there is no such protection for your dog (or any other item you may wish to take with you, say your llama, goat, whatever) - it is up to you to decide if it is safe to take your dog/goat/llama/parachute across the PROW!

For the disbelievers... I have seen horses march up and stomp on dogs, I've known quite a few stompers in my time working with horses, one reserved this only for rats, one would stomp ANYTHING but particularly delighted in flattening birds, one just hated dogs.
Another horse I worked with would pick dogs, and also sheep, up in her teeth and try to fling them (success and distance varied depending on size of dog or sheep). She was never turned out in the fields with a PROW through as she was a bloody menace, but it did take a while before anyone spotted her biting, grabbing and flinging sheep! Not until they'd been sheared, did anyone notice any injuries and start watching them more closely!

Then you need to inform the yard, owners and log it with the police. It’s a public footpath. It’s needs to be safe for the public. Your dog on a leash. That the rule you have followed. The owners are liable for vet bills for your dog and any damage to you.

I lived near a public footpath where the owners deliberately put in a viscous horse and they wanted to stop people going across ‘their land’ but they even put signs up saying ‘this horse is not friendly and will bite’ - they intimidated many people locally until the village organised big walks every day at 10
am - it attacked multiple people and was moved very swiftly by the owners due to the police

As I said eleswhere I have known it and was warned about it. Both mares and a known tactic of theirs if they didn't want to come in from the field. And donkeys of course will do it.

What would you do in the New Forest?

Only a foolish horse owner would take a bucket of food into a field of horses to catch one horse. And they'd only do it once. That's a recipe for disaster unless the horse is kept on its own.

It's normal horse behaviour fight or flight. I'm not sure what you expect them to do ?

The people who think livestock should be kept out of fields that have a public right of way are unbelievably entitled. I am absolutely gobsmacked that anyone would think this was reasonable. The livestock live on the farms and the farms are owned by the farmers! They don’t just have spare fields lying around so that peoples and their pets can walk on their land without the inconvenience of actual farming going on.

• because the countryside is primarily a workplace, not a theme park for us. In England, we are allowed access along specific rights of way only, and these can't always be fenced off.
• many rights of way run through the centre of fields, and farmers can't practically cut all their fields in half
• farmers need access to all their fields and therefore gates etc. need to be in place in every field, which won't happen if fields are sectioned off and fenced.
• not all livestock are kept in fields that can be fenced easily - think of all the sheep, cows and horses that roam "free" on the fells and moors.

Quoting not working but:

"I lived near a public footpath where the owners deliberately put in a viscous horse and they wanted to stop people going across ‘their land’ but they even put signs up saying ‘this horse is not friendly and will bite’ - they intimidated many people locally until the village organised big walks every day at 10
am - it attacked multiple people and was moved very swiftly by the owners due to the police"

If people were seriously attacked by a horse then they'd be in hospital. An attacking horse means it and generally goes at it's target with front legs and teeth - forcing to the ground... Alternatively there's the running backwards kicking out, but the most serious attacks are front on. If either of these happened there wouldn't have been any more people going into the field until it was out. Nobody would be that stupid.

Most the fields with footpaths here have put electric fences in to ensure the animals don't pester the humans (my ddog has even been head butted by a ewe) I'm near a major city do walkers are in the fields a lot, farmers coexist by ensuring we only stick to the oaths this way

What would you do in the New Forest? stear clear of the ponies 🙄, its hardly a relevant question, the ponies are semi feral and there's no one to sue if you piss one off and it kicks you.

Oddly enough, the common motorist won't actually chase you on or off the footpath once you stay out of it's way.

The horse only reacted because your dog was aggressive, not the horses fault.

Because originally the paths were designed to allow locals access fields and animals or markets which could only be reached by passing through neighbours land.
They were not put in place for people who wanted to treat worked farmland as a free recreation area.

Completely ridiculous

First world problems.
Owning dogs and horses is a luxury.

First world problems.
Owning dogs and horses is a luxury.
Spoken like a true townie!

I guess history is not your strong point.

Glad you were unharmed! Your poor dog!

I had a similar experience. Was walking my dog on a short lead through what I thought was a sheep field. About halfway through two huge horses appeared out of a yard, and charged over to us not looking friendly at all. I scooped up my dog hoping they were less likely to stomp a human and ran and luckily got over the fence!

I firmly think horses should be totally fenced in along public footpaths. So unpredictable and dangerous. I avoid any field with cows and horses in them as a rule, but as they are rights of way it really annoys me that I have to.

Lose farm dogs, cattle and horses are the bane of countryside walks.

@speakout

First world problems. Owning dogs and horses is a luxury.

Yeah they aren't very common working animals at all.