FFS DONT feed horses in fields !!

[Thoroughbred5]

Honestly it blows my mind that this is still a problem but it is. Just wanted to post since it’s coming into nicer weather and more people will be out and about.

caught 3 separate families over the weekend feeding my horse treats when he was out in his field. I spoke to each and 2 were clearly annoyed but did stop, the third just threw their apples and other treats into the field anyway. We have signs, CCTV, double fencing, we have everything. Every summer is the bloody same- people feeding the horses.

DONT feed other people’s horses or ponies. Firstly, nobody is entitled to feed another persons animal. Secondly, you have no idea what that horses specific diet is. Would you be happy to pay for my horses laminitis bill? Or colic? And honestly, it’s best not to feed handfuls of grass either. It doesn’t matter that the horse is in a field full of grass. Feeding horses by hand in the field can cause jealousy amongst the herd and can cause horses to become nippy and bolshy towards people at fences and gates

It’s only may and already it’s a problem. I love the summer but I’m fed up of worrying if my horse is safe in his own field. Anyone else in the same position? And if your reading this and you’re one of the people who feed other people’s horses, please just fucking stop

You know what they say @CrappySack : You can never keep a good cat down. Or a bad one.

Really.

We've had you accusing horse owners of being precious and entitled and a guest appearance from snobby too, despite a fairly long thread explaining why it's not a good idea to feed horses in fields and the potential concequences which go from your own safety right through to the death of the animal involved, but nope, we've still got someone telling us to be nice to people because they don't know and horse owners are mean.

The information was all there, but you either didn't bother to read it because you know better, or did read it and don't care.

And that's exactly the problem, there's campaigns on social media shared onto general groups etc, and even in newspapers, there's local campaigns where I live and lived experiences of many including me, of the signs or face to face interactions - the information is there, but people don't want it, because they don't care about the concequences because they don't have to deal with them, unless of course they get hurt because of the perfectly natural and expected (if you bother to educate yourself before interacting with an animal you are quite willing to admit you know nothing about) behaviour response from horses around a food source, but then they can blame the owner and the horse for being mean again.

My friend had multiple signs, two fences and an electric fence and some dipshit still killed her pony because they thought it didn't apply to them. I have signs every 6 feet on my fence that the mare in my field kicks and not to go in the field, feed or mess with the horse, double fencing, electric fencing, and I still regularly have to yell at people for climbing over the fence with their children to get a closer look. A Clydesdale's kick would kill a child, but oh she's so delightful! Yes these people are morons.

It's a living thing, not something to entertain yourself with, you shouldn't need a sign or to "understand horses" to know this. You wouldn't climb in the zebra pen at the zoo just because they're so delightful would you? Go watch Black Beauty and leave people's animals alone. I will be exactly as aggressive as necessary to stop people endangering my animals out of their own stupidity and lack of common sense.

As a horse owner, I would also add that emergency vet bills START in four figures, so unless you're willing to pay that, I'd suggest the cheaper option of taking your kid to a riding school or petting zoo.

You'd get the additional bonus of not making somebody else's beloved animal ill-mannered, sick or dead.

Everybody wins!

Perhaps if the horses are on a strict diet they shouldn't be in a position where the public have access to them? Sounds like better investment in their environment is needed.

Or perhaps the public could not feed horses that don't belong to them?

Fields often have public footpaths running through or are on the sidea of footpaths. This doesn't mean that "the public have access to them", horses are the private property of someone. There are certain members of the public who feel they have a right to approach something belonging to someone else and stroke it/feed it.

Right... because there is so much free land in the UK available that one can pick and choose how close it is to a public footpath 🙄

Sounds like a good consideration of if you should keep horses or not.

Odfod. Why can't people who come across horses in fields just be respectful and not interfere with them? Not that hard is it?

If the horses could handle tit bits of food from the public, that would be fine. As they can't it's up to their owners to take some responsibility ans care for them better by not putting them at risk!

Or people could consider whether they should be interfering with

1. a living creature they don't know the ins and outs of.
2. someone else's property.
3. anything on private land even if they have the right to walk across a defined path on that land.

We've identified the entitled knobhead

But yet again I ask why is it OK for random members of the public to feed any animal that doesn't belong to then? So as owners we should allow entitled ignorant people to feed potentially harmful things to our horses and if they can't handle it then that is OUR problem?
How about you just don't feed something that doesn't belong to you?

Cars are at risk of being stolen so people shouldn't leave the out where they can be seen.
Does that sound ridiculous to you. Of course it does. But it's no more ridiculous than your spouting.

Maybe people could just leave other peoples belongings alone. Instead of arguing with owners as to why their poppet should be allowed to feed the horse, or ripping down signs, or trespassing and climbing gates.

My horses aren’t anywhere near a public footpath or where the public should be now. I moved yards last year to somewhere out in the middle of no where hoping there wouldn’t be as many entitled idiots around. I was wrong.

Their field has a prickly hedge around most of it with a locked gate which has electric fencing to keep the horses away from the gate. Plus signs everywhere

I’ve even caught people up in the yard when the horses are in their stables.

I’ve actually found the best way to tackle it is to talk directly to the kids - explain to them why they shouldn’t feed random horses. They seem to listen rather than tell me to fuck off and call me a snob.

Do you feed cars in the street ? Strange hobby but up to you.

Same argument: I will come and steal your car. You have left it somewhere I can steal it so it is your fault. If you don't want your car stealing keep it permanently locked up somewhere.

Our pony bites so if some idiot's child tries to feed it and gets bitten that's on them 🤷‍♀️thankfully it's not close to a public footpath though so fingers crossed no one climbs onto private property to get to it🤞🏻but as I said above - when we were at a yard that had idiots come onto it, someone tried to feed our pony chocolate raisins and oreos and when challenged said they were related to the pony's owner. Errrr.... 👀

Your mistake here is to not understand an accurate comparison. If I left my car unlocked and you opened the fuel cap and put diesel into my car when it only took petrol then that would be my fault ultimately. Pop a better fence around your horse so it can't nibble on the diesel.

Your mistake is believing people have a right to interfere with animals who don't belong to them.
People lean over fences to feed horses.
Still don't understand why you think the onus is on the horse owner to prevent ignorant people feed their horse rather than the public not being entitled and thinking they can feed something that doesn't belong to them.
If people are using the countryside they should educate themselves on how to behave in it.

Try reading the post

Please see your argument fallacy above.

Are you as entitled in every aspect of your life? Are you the CF that people moan about?

I've come to the conclusion that cheddar is a good fucker. No one can be that entitled and ignorant can they??