Advice please - picking up poo

I would put this to them. It’s Health and Safety. You could be run over doing something that they have told you to do that is not even legally necessary.

If you doubt this then I could tell you what happened to someone I know who was out for a run on a country road. If you are busy looking down and sweeping then odds are higher.
 
Think I’d be inclined to ignore it. In Spain our guide jumps off his horse and kicks it to the gutter in the residential area. It’s not a very long stretch but with twelve horses he had to most times. I don’t like getting on from the floor so that would be tricky to do too!
 
i’d ignore it.

the yard mine are on is on a “private” road as it’s a dead end, but the golf course is on there - neighbours have complained about the cockerel, and also the sheep bleeting when lambs are separated, but not horse poo! i think it’s utterly ridiculous tbh.

the only way id go back and pick it up is if it was outside someone’s drive, after having to pull over to let someone past - but it’s a short walk with the barrow, no car needed!
 
Nancykitt said:
I'll move it onto the grass verge (there isn't a hedge), because it appears that this is what the other horse owner does. If pedestrians complain that the grass verge, which they have to step onto to avoid the cars, has horse droppings on it, there's not a lot I can do about that. I am only considering picking up the stuff on the lane as a gesture of goodwill, but if anyone kicks off I'd probably stop picking up any of it.
There's no way we could safely pick up poo from the main road running through the village.
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Who is the highway authority responsible for said lane?
And has the legal responsibility for keeping that lane safely usable for all legitimate users?
Because the ‘highway’ includes the highway verge, and were the highway verge kept mown and safely usable, explain that you would be riding your unshod horse on the grass verge rather than tarmac anyway - end of issue.
Often, local parish councils deal with grass / hedge maintenance contracts, with ‘greenwash’ excuses increasingly offered for inaction (money saving). On the green front - horse manure dispersed by weather and vehicles is a bonus, not a health hazard. Contrast leaking septic tanks and effluent discharges into rivers, lakes, lochs etc.
Kick muck to the verge sides it is safe andif you wish, you certainly don’t have to;
as a vulnerable local user, you could request multiple road signs advising drivers to only pass horses at 15mph in order to make such actions safe.
Some people just do not like horses and those who ride them.
 
It is a tricky situation.

OP and her OH have to live in this very small community, and while it would be very tempting to tell them to do one that might not be wise.

It simply isn’t that easy to dismount and pick up horse poop while you are riding.

I wonder if the complainers are relocated townies used to tidy suburbs.
 
Tiddlypom said:
It is a tricky situation.

OP and her OH have to live in this very small community, and while it would be very tempting to tell them to do one that might not be wise.

It simply isn’t that easy to dismount and pick up horse poop while you are riding.

I wonder if the complainers are relocated townies used to tidy suburbs.
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This is right, which is why ignoring the email or retaliating is unlikely to be helpful.
Explain what is needed to make dismounting / kicking muck to the verge safe for a vulnerable user of the highway;
better still, why the highway verge should be maintained so that riders will use that.
If ‘they’ spend money on signage / speed restrictions (must be legally permitted and installed), and mowing your verge - splendid, I’m sure you’d reciprocate.
 
In this case I would reply and ask what they would like to happen if it is causing a problem and could they please outline the problem as they see it

And how they expect you to deal with the poops whilst riding on the road, or do they expect you to drive around later cleaning up.

Also point out identifying the actual culprit could be difficult, and horses are ridden long distances at times it could well be someone outside of the immediate area passing through

Sometimes you have ask thick questions to probe and just see what they say, their concerns, cause its not really big issue and not worth hassle over a few poops
 
Tiddlypom said:
It is a tricky situation.

OP and her OH have to live in this very small community, and while it would be very tempting to tell them to do one that might not be wise.

It simply isn’t that easy to dismount and pick up horse poop while you are riding.

I wonder if the complainers are relocated townies used to tidy suburbs.
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Yes, it's not an easy situation at all. We are spending too much time guessing who the complainants might be. It's just uncomfortable.

tristars said:
In this case I would reply and ask what they would like to happen if it is causing a problem and could they please outline the problem as they see it

And how they expect you to deal with the poops whilst riding on the road, or do they expect you to drive around later cleaning up.
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This is a good point. It's hard to see how it's causing much of a problem. It's not as if we're riding every single day and the horses are constantly fouling the lane. Infact, as I've mentioned, I can count on one hand the number of times Ozzy has pooed on the lane/in the actual village.

The grass verge is quite narrow in places, unfortunately. It does occasionally (once in a blue moon) get cut by the council, but most of the time it's pretty tall grass/weeds(and tick heaven!)
The lane itself isn't particularly well maintained and full of potholes. I would have thought people would be more concerned about that but evidently not!

What we have decided for now is that we will agree - as a gesture of goodwill - to pick up the droppings on the lane after we've returned from the hack. I can't get on from the ground (especially not if I'm riding Snoopy) so it will have to wait until I get back home and have put the horses back in the field.

What we won't do is dismount on the main road through the village to pick up droppings. There are some enormous vehicles going through and it's far too dangerous.
If the droppings are in front of someone's driveway in the main village I'll drive down after the hack and shift it to the other side of the road - there's a wide grass verge on the sea loch side.
If the droppings are just in the gutter and nowhere near anyone's house I'm not going to make a special trip to move them.

i know this sounds petty and in a way I hate it, but I'm going to actually make a note of when/where the horses poo and my follow-up actions. This is mainly because I can see us getting blamed for all sorts of things that aren't our fault and I don't want things to deteriorate further.

if this isn't good enough, it's just too bad!

I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't have chance to talk things through and explain that we have a new horse who gets nervous and can poo simply because he is a bit stressed. Not that it would have made a difference to some people, but it's a bit rubbish when the first thing they do is run to the community council. I wouldn't mind but you couldn't get a much more rural area - there are cows and sheep (who sometimes escape) all over the place. And don't get me started on the red deer!

Thanks to everyone for the advice, I will keep you all posted...
 
good job those complainants don't live here. Our single track lanes are narrow, 23/30 feral non house trained ponies will run down them or if there is no traffic walk calmly down at their leisure eating the grassy banks. Then of course they have time to poo more often.
They will shortly be followed by cows which come down off the moor most of the time and live in the lanes. A car will drive them half a mile down the lane and they poo, very runnily. Then another car drives them back and they repeat the lack of house training. Then of course there are dozens and dozens of sheep who also poo. We normally drive half a dozen cows down the roads as we ride and many sheep. They often stop for a poo. Then there are dogs. Farm working dogs who also poo, then walkers and locals dog walking and no one ever cleans up or even pushes it to one side. That is all before we get to horse riders. Our lanes are pretty mucky. 🤣 🤣 🤣
 
The problem, imho is that if you give an inch, they will take a mile. I would tell them that it simply isn't safe to dismount to move the poo and that by the time you could get back after putting the horses away, the poo will have been run over by the speeding cars. I would stress that you make every effort to avoid the horses depositing their muck in driveways or anywhere else where people have to walk. I would also stress that horse riders are recognised as vulnerable road users and ask the council to try keep you safe by reminding drivers to slow down and give you plenty of space.
Fight fire with fire.
 
I would thank the council for informing you and advise that you will do whatever you safely can do at the time to try and help the situation..Describe in detail the efforts you are going to make (not what you won't do) I would tell them you are glad they have brought up the question of riders as you have noticed a lot of problems with both residents and other drivers. Point out that the new highway code requires

What does the new Highway Code say about horse riders?​

The new Highway Code is now much more specific as it requires car drivers to pass horses not just wide and slow, but at no more than 10mph and at a distance of no less than 2m, at rule 215.

Point out that this is just not happening, locals are driving well in excess of 10mph and far closer. Ask if they can now do something to help riders with this problem as you feel your safety is being put at risk by speeding/too close motorists. before there is a serious accident. You look forward to hearing from them as to the action they will take.
 
I would ignore the email, if your horse was pooing on the pavement or someone's drive then there is cause for complaint but not on a country lane with no properties. Where I live there is horse poo all over the lanes, mainly because there isn't much off road riding and local livery yard people tend to ride round the block which is all road work . We also have cow poo, sheep poo and mud off local tractors but no complaints that I know of x
 
paddy555 said:
I would thank the council for informing you and advise that you will do whatever you safely can do at the time to try and help the situation..Describe in detail the efforts you are going to make (not what you won't do) I would tell them you are glad they have brought up the question of riders as you have noticed a lot of problems with both residents and other drivers. Point out that the new highway code requires

What does the new Highway Code say about horse riders?​

The new Highway Code is now much more specific as it requires car drivers to pass horses not just wide and slow, but at no more than 10mph and at a distance of no less than 2m, at rule 215.

Point out that this is just not happening, locals are driving well in excess of 10mph and far closer. Ask if they can now do something to help riders with this problem as you feel your safety is being put at risk by speeding/too close motorists. before there is a serious accident. You look forward to hearing from them as to the action they will take.
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I would be tempted to say that the reason the horses are pooing on the road is because they are being scared by people passing them too fast.
 
dorsetladette said:
[...] As we didn't bow to his demands he shouted up the road 'you only ride those horses for your own s#xual gratification'
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Oh my god [snort choke cackle] what a complete fool he made of himself.
Burnerbee said:
In the village (township) where I loved and rode for many months in New Zealand, we always went and picked up any poo left on residential streets after we’d been by. Yes it was a faff but it kept everyone happy and it’s not especially nice looking at a pile of poo slowly disappearing over many weeks outside your house.

Brits tolerate low standards too often, good for them for asking you to take action.
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I think this is a reasonable thing to do on roads with gutters. I imagine though that the roads being referred to don't have gutters, but go directly onto grass.
 
I had this where someone was unhappy about my horse pooing on the lane. I explained that this was the countryside and was the price they paid for living in such a beautiful area.

We also have cows moooving on the high street.

A while later, they happened to know that I'd wormed my horses. They wanted me to keep them confined to the premises as they believed that my horses' poo would be harmful to their dogs if their dogs ate the poo. I explained that no one confined the horses to premises after worming but they were resolute that I was causing a danger to all dogs in the area. I also explained that other horses may be on other drugs so it was not advisable to let their dogs eat any poo.

They were not satisfied until I had my vet confirm that

1. It was inadvisable to let dogs eat any poo.
2. It was not necessary to confine horses to the premises after worming as it was unlikely to kill dogs if they ate poo after a horse had been wormed.

I wouldn't mind but we are on a long term worming count/ poo picking strategy and I have been on a zero worm count for over 25 years, so we only worm once a year for bots and tapeworm.

However, I appreciated that they were concerned for the welfare of their dogs so I did contact the vet for correct advice. The vet was very surprised: it was the first time anyone had ever broached the topic.
 
Red-1 said:
The vet was very surprised: it was the first time anyone had ever broached the topic.
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In fairness I think invermectin is quite toxic to some breeds of dog, collies in particular I remember - but I can't point to research to back that up.

I am pedantic about keeping our dogs in the house when I worm and hosing out areas the horses might have dropped food after worming. I keep poo from wormed horses separate and dispose of it quickly- for the benefit of both dogs and dung beetles (which I love)

I agree the advice should be not to let your dog eat any horse poo. I think for 24-48 hours after worming the poo can be pretty toxic - not in an instant death way (unless your a dung beetle) but in a make a dog ill way.
 
Polos Mum said:
In fairness I think invermectin is quite toxic to some breeds of dog, collies in particular I remember - but I can't point to research to back that up.

I am pedantic about keeping our dogs in the house when I worm and hosing out areas the horses might have dropped food after worming. I keep poo from wormed horses separate and dispose of it quickly- for the benefit of both dogs and dung beetles (which I love)

I agree the advice should be not to let your dog eat any horse poo. I think for 24-48 hours after worming the poo can be pretty toxic - not in an instant death way (unless your a dung beetle) but in a make a dog ill way.
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yes you are right. GSD's I think are affected if they ingest ivermectin, I know collies are. I suspect Red may have used moxidectin but no idea about that.
 
Nancykitt said:
I've just had an email from the chair of the local community council. There was a meeting last night and apparently three people raised concerns about the amount of horse manure in the village, especially on the lane running down to the main road through the village (which we need to ride down every time we go out). The email says that the Chair has written to all horse owners in the area to ask if we can 'clear manure from public areas'.

Re. horse owners, there's three of us in the village, with a total of seven horses between us (including two miniatures that don't seem to go out much).

The lane down to the main road is about a quarter of a mile long. The only one of our horses to have pooed there is Ozzy. In total, since June, he's done three poos on that lane.
The other two horses tend not to poo there but have been known to go on the dirt track (no vehicles) that runs alongside the coast.

Has anyone had similar complaints? How would you respond?

1. Completely ignore the email and don't pick up anything.
2. Don't reply to the email but pick up droppings on the lane after riding - but no picking up poo on the main road through the actual village.
3. As above, but reply to the email and say that this is what we're going to do, basically we will clear up after our own horses on the lane.
4. Try to speak to the other horse owner(s) and come to some sort of agreement. Could be tricky (and I don't know what they'd say).

I am ruling out going round in a car after a hack to pick up poo from the main road running through the village.

One issue is that I don't think it's reasonable to expect me to pick up other horses' droppings on the lane, but I could then get blamed for muck on the lane that isn't actually ours!

This is a bit delicate so I want to think through how to deal with it.

TBH there are much more major issues for the community council to deal with (eg, camper vans emptying chemical toilets etc) but it is what it is, I suppose.
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That is mental lol. Ignore them. So much NIMBYism in this country.
 
paddy555 said:
yes you are right. GSD's I think are affected if they ingest ivermectin, I know collies are. I suspect Red may have used moxidectin but no idea about that.
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Yes, it Can be a danger for other animals to ingest, and particularly aquatic life (maybe keep out of rivers / lochs meanwhile), but if the dog owner has the dog under close control in a public place, on the highway / path etc -which generally means on a lead unless properly to trained to a stop dead whistle - no way should any dogs be eating horse muck or anything else hazardous unless those owners are permitting them to do so.
The dog should always be under close control in any public place. That is the law, for obvious reasons.
That is the dog owner’s responsibility, and where genuinely ‘hazardous waste’ has been illegally dumped, there is plenty of legislation for that.
Horse muck is not dangerous in the ways that dog muck most definitely is!
 
paddy555 said:
I would thank the council for informing you and advise that you will do whatever you safely can do at the time to try and help the situation..Describe in detail the efforts you are going to make (not what you won't do) I would tell them you are glad they have brought up the question of riders as you have noticed a lot of problems with both residents and other drivers. Point out that the new highway code requires

What does the new Highway Code say about horse riders?​

The new Highway Code is now much more specific as it requires car drivers to pass horses not just wide and slow, but at no more than 10mph and at a distance of no less than 2m, at rule 215.

Point out that this is just not happening, locals are driving well in excess of 10mph and far closer. Ask if they can now do something to help riders with this problem as you feel your safety is being put at risk by speeding/too close motorists. before there is a serious accident. You look forward to hearing from them as to the action they will take.
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Is it 10mph now? Do you know when that was reduced from 15, which is what the BHS car stickers state? Brilliant! Altho not sure how many learner drivers are advised this……Must update!
 
Skib said:
My mother in law always went out into the road and shovelled up any droppings left by the milkman's horse. She didnt rot it down. She put the manure straight on her rose bushes in the front garden.
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When I was a very young child I remember the Rag n' Bone man coming round (definitely showing my age now!)
There was once a fight between two people over a pile of droppings that the horse had left. It was considered the very, very best stuff for gardens and as it was rare on Manchester council estates manure was much prized!
 
Keep your phone handy driving around, and photo any random piles of poo incase you need to point out its not all one person's doing, well horse actually!

It's a good point about ozzie being new and nervous so pooing more and needing to be passed on the roads with consideration

Some people are never going to be satisfied whatever you do, some provoke others, be calm, polite don't take it all too personally and let it spoil your horsey time, it's not as if you are doing something wrong

It's not a big deal, but can be hurtful, try to keep it in perspective
 
Nancykitt said:
When I was a very young child I remember the Rag n' Bone man coming round (definitely showing my age now!)
There was once a fight between two people over a pile of droppings that the horse had left. It was considered the very, very best stuff for gardens and as it was rare on Manchester council estates manure was much prized!
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Same here, got balloons for the junk

Also our milk man delivered the milk by pony and cart in his brown overall stopping every few yards, must have left loads of poo

And I remember folk rushing out to scoop the poop


At our farm in a country village we had a pony and trap for going around, even after buying a car

There must have been some quantity in the days before cars
 
Nancykitt said:
When I was a very young child I remember the Rag n' Bone man coming round (definitely showing my age now!)
There was once a fight between two people over a pile of droppings that the horse had left. It was considered the very, very best stuff for gardens and as it was rare on Manchester council estates manure was much prized!
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When sister and I rode our first horse round the village, we had people rushing out of their houses to pick up any droppings. I think it was quite a contrast to the almost liquid muck that the cows left as they walked through the village x2 daily.
 
Red-1 said:
I had this where someone was unhappy about my horse pooing on the lane. I explained that this was the countryside and was the price they paid for living in such a beautiful area.

We also have cows moooving on the high street.

A while later, they happened to know that I'd wormed my horses. They wanted me to keep them confined to the premises as they believed that my horses' poo would be harmful to their dogs if their dogs ate the poo. I explained that no one confined the horses to premises after worming but they were resolute that I was causing a danger to all dogs in the area. I also explained that other horses may be on other drugs so it was not advisable to let their dogs eat any poo.

They were not satisfied until I had my vet confirm that

1. It was inadvisable to let dogs eat any poo.
2. It was not necessary to confine horses to the premises after worming as it was unlikely to kill dogs if they ate poo after a horse had been wormed.

I wouldn't mind but we are on a long term worming count/ poo picking strategy and I have been on a zero worm count for over 25 years, so we only worm once a year for bots and tapeworm.

However, I appreciated that they were concerned for the welfare of their dogs so I did contact the vet for correct advice. The vet was very surprised: it was the first time anyone had ever broached the topic.
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Yeah this is an ivermectin/dogs genetics thing they weren’t inventing it
 
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