How to respond?

[Unbeknownsty]

My neighbour's 4 horses escaped their paddock and came into my garden, they've rutted quite a bit of the grass up, hundreds of deep ruts, and quite a few muddy skids (must have been running about?).

Neighbour has popped a note through to apologise.

How should I respond? Nothing really he can do now...I'm glad the horses are okay and safe but the garden being hoofed up is a bit crap.

As a horse owner I would be mortified and probably offer you a bottle of wine etc but I'm not sure what you are asking for. Do you want them to pay for fixing it? You could ask them to roll the garden for you when it dries up enough? With the current state of water logged ground there probably isn't much you can do until it has dried out without making it worse anyway.

Well if it were my horses I would do more than pop a note through the letter box. They ought to offer to make good - at the very least they can tread in the worst of it, whilst it's wet is a good time. If it's really bad then perhaps they could arrange for it to be rolled when it's drier. How about "thank you for letting me know, what are your plans for putting it right?" Also, you need to find out how they got in to yours in the first place and make sure that's repaired as well.

We had sheep in our garden ages ago and whilst they didn't particularly damage the grass they did strip every shrub and plant of leaves to about a height of 4 foot - a sheep on its' back legs is quite tall! The farmer came round with a bottle and then said let me know what doesn't make it and I'll pay. Amazingly everything survived although some of the foliage was a bit patchy for the summer.

It needs making good. And if there's a fence they are responsible for they need to make the fence escape proof too

They should be paying for any damage their horses have caused - take plenty of photos.

Sorry to hear this. Have a good look at the fencing, if they haven’t fenced well then you might want to….

Legally they are liable for actual damage caused, but I'm not sure how ruts in the grass are viewed legally. I would definitely be asking if they could arrange for the grass to be rolled when it gets drier!

And yes, I would definitely check the fencing where the horses got through. If it's not secure then unfortunately you may need to invest in some decent fencing yourself? If they came through a hedge, it's quite easy to build a fence that the hedge will grow over, so it doesn't have to impact the look of your garden.

Thanks all. That really helped as I wasn't sure if I was being unreasonable about the grass and wanted to hear from horse owner side.

I've chatted to neighbour, he's apologised again and says we will sort the grass when it's drier. Fence wise my drive is open to the road (rural) so there's no way of me fencing (it'd cost ££££ and be inconvenient) but he's now fixed the fencing they broke through.

All on good terms, and I gave the perpetrators a fuss...

Horses are massive dick heads.

Truth.