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

If you are worried about your horse's dietary intake you need to make steps to protect them.

Okay, I'll gun down any tresspassers with a shotgun. That's about as reasonable as your suggestions. Sorted.

You are right, I'm not taking it seriously enough. From now on I'm going to shoot anyone I catch feeding horses which don't belong to them, especially mine
Hopefully you can now be assured that I am taking my horse's welfare seriously.

Barbed wire on the fences being climbed maybe? (Not the inner one next to the horse). I hate the stuff but can understand why it's sometimes needed.

I think perhaps the horses are not the only thing we should stop feeding.

I remember around ten years ago, my daughter’s preschool told us they were going on a walk, which would involve going past a local field of horses. They were taking a bag of carrots for the 3 and 4 year olds to feed them. I did ask if they had the owners’s permission and it simply hadn’t occurred to them. And these were people in charge of teaching preschoolers how the world works. 🙄

Oh dear Lord, that sound like a bad idea all round.

Agree. Lots of horse owners here need to be more proactive in protecting the animals since you can't rely on the public knowing the rules

To be clear, the existence of a fence, let alone double fencing, signs etc, should be enough proactivity on the part of the horse owners.

Oh goodness, all those little fingers 😳 see that's what people who have decided that the horse owner is precious and entitled or should do more don't get - they're not just worried about the horse, we're worried about the people putting themselves in a potentially dangerous situation - because they're so big the horse doesn't even have to do anything 'wrong' to cause an injury to someone who doesn't know what they're doing.

It's not the horse owners job to protect everyone in the world from their horse, past taking adequate precautions like double fencing, signs asking them to be left alone etc. As I said in a pp if you make a choice to interact with someone else's animals then that choice you make comes with responsibility - although some people clearly don't think they should have to take any responsibility for themselves and load it all onto others, not just a problem in this respect but in life in general unfortunately, they're everywhere.

@Coatscoatscoast , that is shocking.
@ErrolTheDragon , it should be but there are selfish idiots out there.

Would have caused a riot at our mares field -they were a spicy bunch. Feeding at the gate causes no end of problems, there would have been squealing and kicking and ears back all round. Not the kind of thing I'd want a bunch of little ones near! Plus my Welsh C, although good natured, would happily head butt a child off a gate. She used to give me a friendly punt now and again just to remind me she could. Pretty harmless to me, not to a three year old.
I genuinely would never have minded if a preschool asked to come and stroke the horses with me in charge of which ones and with no food involved! They are such big animals who can, even unintentionally, cause injury (hello 3 x broken nose). Little fingers plus big teeth isn't great. I'm quite surprised a preschool wouldn't think of that one at least!

That's because they think that a horse is a cute cuddly animal not about half a tonne of a highly intelligent, strong and agile creature with big teeth and hard hooves.

Don't let little children near animals without the owner's permission.

I quite agree. I was quite surprised when they told us their plan. I can’t remember the outcome but I know I raised it!

I simply don’t think lots of the public know how to behave in the countryside. As someone who grew up in a village surrounded by fields, the countryside code was drilled into us, both by my parents but also I remember at school too. A key part was don’t interfere with horses, farm machinery or livestock, don’t feed livestock, horses or wild animals. Keep to marked paths, don’t climb fences etc.

If you want to go walking in the countryside, then you have to take responsibility and learn the rules.

I remember those terrifying safety videos in the 80s, they came and showed them in schools.

One was about this group of children playing on a farm and they all died one by one because of taking risks.

I never forgot it so it worked - it would never be allowed now - although I remember we all loved how macabre they all were.

Has walkers feeding horses become more of a problem since covid as people who wouldn't usually visit the countryside started going out there more?

Which counties is this really bad in? Is it worse in certain areas?

Clearly, you know f* all about horses so your opinion is irrelevant. Horses are herd animals who need to be able to run around in fields and graze and also socialise with each other. Most horses will become incredibly unhappy, ill and also unfit if they're left locked up in a stable all day.

You do know you can lock horses up within a field don't you ... by locking the gates to the field? I'm surprised you haven't seen locked gates to fields before ! You live and learn I guess.

Well, that makes no difference to the entitled people who think they can jump the fence.

Horses are mostly in enclosed/locked paddocks so that was a pretty disingenuous reply. How often do you see lone horses roaming around your town / village??

You do know you can lock horses up within a field don't you ... by locking the gates to the field? I'm surprised you haven't seen locked gates to fields before ! You live and learn I guess.

No you can’t lock them up in the way you describe.

Clearly, you know absolutely nothing about horses because if you did you would know that in order to care for them properly, their owner has to go in and out of their field quite a few times a day to attend to water, cleanliness of tanks or buckets, food, poo picking, rugs or fly masks depending on season, vet and general hoof and welfare checks, and the horses themselves if in work will be led in and out the field regularly and maybe twice a day if they come in at night, and finally, machines such as mini tractors have to be driven in and out to top the fields or harrow them or re-sow etc in order to look after the land properly and attend to solid and electric fencing.

Also, horses themselves, being prey animals, like to have a clear view out of their own fields across adjoining land.

Also, we the owners like to have a clear view of the horses from outside the fences in, so that we can observe the horses from outside their enclosures every time we pass by.

Finally, the field in which horses live, has to be able to be accessed quickly and speedily in case of injury or illness within the herd.

Therefore if horses were kept in conditions similar to Fort Knox, with multiple locks on eight foot high doors, surrounded by eight foot high solid fences, they could not be looked after appropriately.

Sure, we can padlock a gate and put up signs, and turn electric fencing on, and increasingly owners are installing solar powered security cameras, but as pp have already said, passing members of the public sit their dc on gates, allow them to swing on gates, jump gates and generally do not respect gates, despite gates being expensive to buy, install and maintain.

I hope that’s clear enough to understand?

Ah yes, the season is nearly upon us. My neighbour has several horses that can only be accessed by walking up a private road marked ‘private, no right of way’ then ignoring another 3 of these signs. Jumping a gate marked ‘private field, no right of way’ crossing around another 50 m to get to the horses surrounded by electric fences (all clearly marked as such) and she still found more than one person taking a selfie with her horses last year. The same people who presumably would have no hesitation if they got hurt as a result of their own stupidity/entitled behaviour to try sue her for injury but who would absolutely not want to pay for any injury resulting from feeding the horses/causing them to bolt. She is often remarked upon as ‘the rude lady who demanded to know what we were doing, we only wanted to pet the horses’ type posts on the local FB page.

As a pp said, what more can you do?

Anyone who has never kept horses knows everything about them, unfortunately . You just can’t get it into their thick uneducated skull.

I've learned a lot in 35 years around horses - the one thing that I learned more than anything is that you always have more to learn!

Still, I guess we can look forward to the outraged posts soon about the Grand National and cruelty, likely from some of the same people who are quite happy to feed horses in fields having climbed over fencing and locked gates and ignored signs, or wander around their private stables and feed them all manner of crap and disrupt them, won't slow down to pass them on the roads because they don't think they should be there and are quite happy to let fireworks off in the vicinity of livestock (even though it's illegal) because it's 'fun'.

Yes - a bit like an early version of 'Final Destination' 😁

Some people cannot afford kids. Perhaps you'll be fine if they give your kids vodka as a treat. After all, they seem friendly. Asking someone not to feed your kids crap would be very "precious and entitled" of you, after all...