Advice please - picking up poo

We haven't taken the horses out for a few days (weather isn't great), but I decided to go out and remove the legacy poo today!
I don't actually think that it's all 'ours'. But I moved it anyway. I just scraped it into the scoop and tipped it onto the grass verge.
I was really hoping that the whole village was going to drive past to witness it, but sadly not a single car turned up! 😄

Anyway, just for reference, this is the lane and verges; the poo in the foreground has been driven over and was tricky to get off the surface. But I did my best.

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The vet reckoned it was a small % of a couple of breeds which would be potentially affected, but that the wormer would be diluted very much in poo, and if you had a dog that was one of the potentially affected breeds, you should not let the dog eat horse poo.

And no, it was not Ivermectin I'd used anyway!

I have never known anyone say that they would not hack their horse because it had been wormed. Thank goodness I only do it once a year!!!
 
The only trees are further up the lane and we never go in that direction as it doesn't really lead anywhere.

So it's just two crofts on either side of a lane.

i was quite annoyed yesterday but I'm more philosophical about it today. Trouble is, unless you've got enough cash to buy your own estate and never have to ride off your own land, you are going to get someone complaining about something because there are people who just don't like horses and riders.
Where we used to live there was one bloke who drove around the housing estate in a car screaming that we shouldn't be allowed on the roads.
In 11 years, no-one complained about muck on the roads but there were a few crazies that made life difficult in other ways.

We once lived in a conservation area. Interestingly, not a single complaint ever about poo on the roads/tracks.
But there was a bloke who put in a complaint to the council because the horses made some of the field muddy and he objected to looking out of his window at mud rather than grass.
We suggested that he might enjoy living near a park rather than grazing land. He was really cross about that.
Bonkers.
 
Nancykitt said:
We haven't taken the horses out for a few days (weather isn't great), but I decided to go out and remove the legacy poo today!
I don't actually think that it's all 'ours'. But I moved it anyway. I just scraped it into the scoop and tipped it onto the grass verge.
I was really hoping that the whole village was going to drive past to witness it, but sadly not a single car turned up! 😄

Anyway, just for reference, this is the lane and verges; the poo in the foreground has been driven over and was tricky to get off the surface. But I did my best.

View attachment 166631
Click to expand...
Tbh, I'd very much be "smile and carry on as before"
 
Nancykitt said:
We haven't taken the horses out for a few days (weather isn't great), but I decided to go out and remove the legacy poo today!
I don't actually think that it's all 'ours'. But I moved it anyway. I just scraped it into the scoop and tipped it onto the grass verge.
I was really hoping that the whole village was going to drive past to witness it, but sadly not a single car turned up! 😄

Anyway, just for reference, this is the lane and verges; the poo in the foreground has been driven over and was tricky to get off the surface. But I did my best.

View attachment 166631
Click to expand...
I'd tell them I would be happy to clear it up from the new surface.......
 
Nancykitt said:
The only trees are further up the lane and we never go in that direction as it doesn't really lead anywhere.

So it's just two crofts on either side of a lane.

i was quite annoyed yesterday but I'm more philosophical about it today. Trouble is, unless you've got enough cash to buy your own estate and never have to ride off your own land, you are going to get someone complaining about something because there are people who just don't like horses and riders.
Where we used to live there was one bloke who drove around the housing estate in a car screaming that we shouldn't be allowed on the roads.
In 11 years, no-one complained about muck on the roads but there were a few crazies that made life difficult in other ways.

We once lived in a conservation area. Interestingly, not a single complaint ever about poo on the roads/tracks.
But there was a bloke who put in a complaint to the council because the horses made some of the field muddy and he objected to looking out of his window at mud rather than grass.
We suggested that he might enjoy living near a park rather than grazing land. He was really cross about that.
Bonkers.
Click to expand...
I seriously think that you will be making a rod for your own back if you clear up regularly. What will they want you to do next?
 
Nancykitt said:
We haven't taken the horses out for a few days (weather isn't great), but I decided to go out and remove the legacy poo today!
I don't actually think that it's all 'ours'. But I moved it anyway. I just scraped it into the scoop and tipped it onto the grass verge.
I was really hoping that the whole village was going to drive past to witness it, but sadly not a single car turned up! 😄

Anyway, just for reference, this is the lane and verges; the poo in the foreground has been driven over and was tricky to get off the surface. But I did my best.

View attachment 166631
Click to expand...
That is the defiled road?
Are you sure they don’t mean the village high street?
TBH, driving quickly on that surface likely to do far more damage to the vehicle (and probably the crumbly road surface, too) than horse muck ever could!
Until the verge becomes accessible for riding, or until speed restrictions /warning highway signs are put in place - as a designated vulnerable road user, you will regretfully be unable to undertake any further activities which render you even more vulnerable on this public highway.
 
Exasperated said:
That is the defiled road?
Are you sure they don’t mean the village high street?
TBH, driving quickly on that surface likely to do far more damage to the vehicle (and probably the crumbly road surface, too) than horse muck ever could!
Until the verge becomes accessible for riding, or until speed restrictions /warning highway signs are put in place - as a designated vulnerable road user, you will regretfully be unable to undertake any further activities which render you even more vulnerable on this public highway.
Click to expand...

The 'village' as a whole was mentioned - but this particular lane, which was named in the email sent to me, was the main source of angst, apparently.

We now have torrential rain so I'm sure that any last remnants on the lane will be washed away!

The village itself is a different matter; it is a wider fully tarmacked road, but the size and speed of the vehicles zipping through there on a daily basis mean that it would never be safe to dismount and move droppings. There is a 20 mph speed limit through the village which is pretty much ignored by many people, including those who live in neighbouring villages.
Personally, I think the size and speed of the vehicles travelling through the village - including the persistent breaking of the speed limit - are of far more concern than the odd horse poo!
 
Exasperated said:
That is the defiled road?
Are you sure they don’t mean the village high street?
TBH, driving quickly on that surface likely to do far more damage to the vehicle (and probably the crumbly road surface, too) than horse muck ever could!
Until the verge becomes accessible for riding, or until speed restrictions /warning highway signs are put in place - as a designated vulnerable road user, you will regretfully be unable to undertake any further activities which render you even more vulnerable on this public highway.
Click to expand...
And copy in the bhs data kindly supplied by kathantoinette, above!
 
Nancykitt said:
The 'village' as a whole was mentioned - but this particular lane, which was named in the email sent to me, was the main source of angst, apparently.

We now have torrential rain so I'm sure that any last remnants on the lane will be washed away!

The village itself is a different matter; it is a wider fully tarmacked road, but the size and speed of the vehicles zipping through there on a daily basis mean that it would never be safe to dismount and move droppings. There is a 20 mph speed limit through the village which is pretty much ignored by many people, including those who live in neighbouring villages.
Personally, I think the size and speed of the vehicles travelling through the village - including the persistent breaking of the speed limit - are of far more concern than the odd horse poo!
Click to expand...
Might be lucky if a fair portion of that ratty tarmac isn’t washed away, too.
You need to be polite, and informative, and firm when engaging with this, good luck
 
Nancykitt said:
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.


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...
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