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Original poster

Just lost my shit at a walker for feeding.....

84 replies

krustykittens · 13/09/2023 14:41

I know this has been done to death but I just want to vent. We have BHS signs up saying please do not feed and why, electric fencing, and stock fencing to keep ponies back from the path and give people safe access (we live in Scotland with right to roam) and STILL someone insisted on giving my ponies polo mints today. Daughter saw him feeding and she shouted at him to stop from her bedroom window. He looked up and carried on. Shat himself when he saw me running down the path. "I'm so sorry, it's only a polo mint." I lost it, I am ashamed to say, but the fucking entitlement to feed despite numerous signs asking you not to, to ignore someone telling you to stop and only feel bad when it is obvious a confrontation is looming. He KNEW he was in the wrong, but he did it anyway. The worst thing is, one of our ponies has an upset tummy at the moment and this entitled cunt is giving her pure sugar. Herself and another mare were starting to bicker when I legged it down the path, which the signs warn could happen IF YOU FEED! I am going to move our water trough and double fence their summer field next year to make it that little bit harder but I still found tourists trying to take down their electric fencing this summer so they could go in with them and take fucking selfies. I have bought geese and I am really hoping they put the fear of God into people who try and get close to the ponies. Anyone know if it is legal to put blades on the geese feet?! (I am joking. A little). I also want to put a sing up saying, "One of these ponies is a stallion. Only let yourself in here if you want to find out how it feels to be a mare." but daughter says that is going too far......I don't have stallions but these idiots wouldn't know the difference.

OP posts:
Donotshushme · 14/09/2023 06:13

Love this post! Well done for looking out for that horse!

Dragonwindow · 14/09/2023 06:21

I genuinely believe my two cute little Exmoor mares would pose a bigger threat if you were to walk into their field with food than a stallion or a bull. Ponies can be dangerous. People are idiots.

RomaniIteDomum · 14/09/2023 06:21

My father lives on a farm where the farmers sister keeps her hunters so my lab is used to horses. She's also a trained gundog.

We were out on a hike and were right round the far end of a local country park - which encompasses a couple of farms - when a woman came along the path with a couple of horses on lead rein.

Put the off-lead lab on a distance sit immediately until I could walk up to where she was and just stood next to her.
Could tell the woman was astounded that not only did I have that control, I'd exercised it without being asked.

liveforsummer · 14/09/2023 06:27

Geese don't need blades - they are hard enough without them, such unnecessarily angry beasts 😆. As long as you can convince them to stay where the ponies are you should be sorted although I'd be wary of off lead dogs. I'm another who doesn't hand feed my own pony except when doing training/stretches as it can turn him from a docile gentle guy in to an ogre. He's a native cross cob so double greediness, a child visitor to the yard with a non horsey mum once let herself in to his stable with a bag of chopped up turnip and ended up with a badly bruised and grazed hand where he'd tried to snatch the bag and she'd tried to stop him, thankfully someone heard and intervened before he had eaten the contents and probably half the bag along with it which would have been a large vet bill. Hopefully child and parent have learned a lesson. Its generally ok to stroke horses that come over to greet you to the pp who asked, but be aware that they may still nip or fight with the hope there is food on offer

aweegc · 14/09/2023 06:37

I grew up in the Highlands and now live in a city. What I notice is the partner of entitlement, which is lack of fear.

A healthy respect for animals, just like the mountains or the sea, includes a dose of fear, People need to start fearing these animals, because they're not cute animations or stuffed toys. They have no experience at all. They cannot imagine that the cute pony can be vicious, because it's cute!

Put the sign up OP. Go for the bull one if you like (although there are still idiots who actually would get into a field with a bull..). I think I'd also put up a second sign saying that "Owner accepts no liability for injuries sustained from the dangerous animal(s) in this field. Keep out." or similar words (could use "unpredictable" instead of "dangerous"), to emphasise the point.

PerspiringElizabeth · 14/09/2023 06:39

Who thinks to feed an animal a bloody MINT anyway??? Bizarre. Opened this thinking it would be an apple. But no one should feed a horse anything. The entitlement!

Xiaoxiong · 14/09/2023 06:53

Ok I don't feed horses or go too near them in fields as I am quite nervous of their teeth, so I am definitely not a CF horse feeder but I always wondered about the "pulling grass from the edge of the field" prohibition. It's the same as what's in the field itself that the horses appear to be eating - is it that the grass is ok to eat but you don't want the horse habituated to eating anything (even stuff they are eating anyway) from people's hands?

liveforsummer · 14/09/2023 07:00

Xiaoxiong · 14/09/2023 06:53

Ok I don't feed horses or go too near them in fields as I am quite nervous of their teeth, so I am definitely not a CF horse feeder but I always wondered about the "pulling grass from the edge of the field" prohibition. It's the same as what's in the field itself that the horses appear to be eating - is it that the grass is ok to eat but you don't want the horse habituated to eating anything (even stuff they are eating anyway) from people's hands?

The ponies inside could be on a far more bare paddock than the grass outside due to grass potentially killing them if they are laminitis prone (a bit like horsey diabetes- grass, (some more than others and even at diff times of day) is high in sugar. There could be weed killer or a poisonous plant in the hand fed grass. The grass could still cause fighting among a pair or herd.

liveforsummer · 14/09/2023 07:02

And yes, for those who aren't hand fed by their owners for greedy/nipping reasons the grass is a problem for that too

HickoryStump · 14/09/2023 07:02

You've also got the option of a mad alpaca OP, if you can get in touch with a local shearer they're likely to know a few. Horrid things that have been hand-raised and will happily chase humans along a fence line, spitting at them.
Quite good fun to watch as plenty of entitled idiots see the lovely fluffy thing running over, only to realise too late that it's ears are pinned and it's dribbling green bile.

RomaniIteDomum · 14/09/2023 07:07

HickoryStump · 14/09/2023 07:02

You've also got the option of a mad alpaca OP, if you can get in touch with a local shearer they're likely to know a few. Horrid things that have been hand-raised and will happily chase humans along a fence line, spitting at them.
Quite good fun to watch as plenty of entitled idiots see the lovely fluffy thing running over, only to realise too late that it's ears are pinned and it's dribbling green bile.

Polish chicken cocks are good for the "look cute but are psychos" portfolio.

liveforsummer · 14/09/2023 07:15

HickoryStump · 14/09/2023 07:02

You've also got the option of a mad alpaca OP, if you can get in touch with a local shearer they're likely to know a few. Horrid things that have been hand-raised and will happily chase humans along a fence line, spitting at them.
Quite good fun to watch as plenty of entitled idiots see the lovely fluffy thing running over, only to realise too late that it's ears are pinned and it's dribbling green bile.

Ime you need a llama for this. Alpacas are typically much nicer natured and tbh I'd be equally as terrified of the llamas if they were my own 😅. Also as herd animals you can't just keep one so could get expensive

Wrapunzel · 14/09/2023 07:21

We lost two on our field last year to colic and we're not sure if either was from passers by feeding them but we've caught so many people doing it and the horses were only on grass at the time (out 24/7). Some are so brazen Sad caught one woman with a loaf of sliced brown bread trying to feed one in front of me whilst I was grooming

AllotmentTime · 14/09/2023 07:22

OP, I would ditch all your informative signs in favour of "Animals bite. Owner accepts no liability for injuries". Twats don't care about information they care about self-preservation!

twistyizzy · 14/09/2023 07:31

@liveforsummer and OP, definitely a llama. They are evil 🤣

sanityisamyth · 14/09/2023 07:44

PerspiringElizabeth · 14/09/2023 06:39

Who thinks to feed an animal a bloody MINT anyway??? Bizarre. Opened this thinking it would be an apple. But no one should feed a horse anything. The entitlement!

Horses love polos and are a well known treat for them.

itsgettingweird · 14/09/2023 07:54

Oh you have to put that up!

It's brilliant Grin

Duckingella · 14/09/2023 07:56

I remember someone on here with a thread about how she caught a woman and her kids in her stable yard feeding the horses and she had to point out it was private property and asked them to leave.

The next day the same woman turned back up with her husband and a bag of carrots and when she told the woman yet again to leave and pointed out they were trespassing the woman's husband had a go at her.

People are entitled and batshit.

dottiedodah · 14/09/2023 08:25

This is so bad! I am not a "horsey" person ,but know not to feed them! I am your best sort of walker .I normally admire them from a distance .People are so entitled .A nearby lake has signs saying "No Dogs allowed"(Swans/ducks with young) So guess what ? loads of dogs swimming WTF!

Pleasedontdothat · 14/09/2023 08:25

@twistyizzy my niece is a vet and she says her least favourite animals are llamas and alpacas - they look cute but are vicious and bite and spit at you for no reason (they tend to sneak up on you too)

Maverickess · 14/09/2023 09:03

This has come up a few times on MN and the last time I added to a thread (under a different name) I got told I was snobby and entitled-because I didn't want people feeding a lami phone welsh cob or trespassing! Luckily it was only by a few people, but it made me see where the mentality came from. It seems like some think the "no feed" is genuinely just to piss on their parade and the signs about lami, EMS and aggressive behaviour are made up to ruin their fun.

I've experienced this too, it's almost like they want to teach the horse owner a lesson for having one in the first place by doing what they want because they think horse owners are posh and precious, and do not like being told no. Even by signs.
Got told once that laminitis was something I'd made up 🤦 because everyone knows horses eat grass. And another saying I need to train the horses better because they were fighting over the idiots feeding them over the fence and they could have been kicked through the fence. It didn't seem to occur to them that they could always not feed them over the fence and then they wouldn't be in any danger at all!!

I think the geese are a great idea, though I suspect some twat will be at your door complaining about them at some point.

Twistyemily · 14/09/2023 09:59

We've got one stretch of field that adjoins a lane and did have problems with people feeding. We have got half a dozen geese, but, be aware that they eat a lot of grass and their poo is huge, green and can quite quickly make a real mess of a field. So we have a kind of geese track along this fence line, with small mesh Tornado fencing to keep them in. It also goes up the side of the field to the 'goose hoose' where they get fed and shut in every night. There is a bit of a pond in the corner of the field for them. We've also got heavily signposted electric fencing along the top of the perimeter fence, solar powered from an energiser locked as securely as it can be in a cupboard inside the goose hoose. (Thinking nobody in their right mind will go in there to steal it while the geese are in bed or bimbling about!).

I don't like our geese, they are nasty buggers and I try to avoid being the one dealing with them, but worth their weight in gold for this job.

HickoryStump · 14/09/2023 10:40

In terms of day to day management, llamas are a lot more difficult (absolute f*ckrs to shear/catch/worm etc and if you get one with Mad Llama Syndrome it'll make your life hellish), a couple of bonkers alpacas can at least be caught up and sort of wrestled into intermittent husbandry.
Also, more likely to look fluffy and innocent whereas llamas look consistently unhinged and honestly, why get them if not to watch the spitting and savagery?!

daffodilandtulip · 14/09/2023 11:30

I don't understand why people think they can just walk up to someone's pet and feed it whatever they want to. I just can't comprehend why anyone thinks this is ok.

CountryCob · 14/09/2023 13:05

Sadly although I have an informative sign it won't work for all. Expensive but what I have done is hedge followed by fencing with gap in between so can't reach and "porch" area at front of the field. Would also consider prickly plants in front of hedge. If possible make it so horse's can't be reached. No access signs and CCTV signs work better than informative horse based signs I an sorry to say. I agree lots of people now don't have any respect for large animals and it is troubling