Another pony has died
- Thread starter Meredith
- Start date
holeymoley
Well-Known Member
Infuriating.
chocolategirl
Well-Known Member
This makes me so cross! I’ve had to put signs up all around our farm for the first time in 25 years after I witnessed walkers feeding our horses over the fence. Unbelievably, I still see it happening, and when challenged, even though they admit to seeing the signs, their response is usually ‘sorry, we didn’t think we were doing any harm’!!! Wtf??!!?
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Backtoblack
Well-Known Member
ragwort poisioning maybe ? says liver failurein the article.
Cragrat
Well-Known Member
In the hay? Ragwort isn't through yet up here.
Meowy Catkin
Meow!
You can kill a horse with sugar. I can remember when I was young that giving horses sugar cubes as a treat was still just hanging on as a thing. I was told why it was so wrong because the box of sugar cubes was pointed at and I was told that a horse would quite happily eat them all but that it would kill them as it was too much sugar for their body to process.
dorsetladette
Well-Known Member
My first pony was given to me (my parents) after she ended up in liverpool university with terrible laminitis after her owner (a racehorse owner) fed her sugar cubes and kept her and her son as companions for his retired racehorses in the paddock (lush grass) at the pack of his house. She came right in the end but was away at horse hospital for a very long time. And even after she came back and both shetlands were with us, the owner still bought boxes of cubes up to the farm for them. My dad would just put them in the car and take them home for his coffee. People really don't understand the damage they do.
Meowy Catkin
Meow!
Oh wow! They still bought sugar cubes... some people just don't learn.
Yes I think a lot of people just don't realise how fragile horses are in many ways.
Backtoblack
Well-Known Member
I remenber going to the local corner shop and buying my first pony a box of sugar lumps with my pocket money. Used to dole them out to him as treat. Also used to feed him bran and oats ! good job we know better now.
Backtoblack
Well-Known Member
its cumulative, eating even only a little over a few years causes build up and then liver failure.
Meowy Catkin
Meow!
I still feed oats. Small quantities though as they get my fuss pot to eat her food.
Caol Ila
Well-Known Member
This is my fear with Gypsum's yard. They are about to open a new cafe on site, and word on the street suggests that at some point, they will have some farm animals for kids to interact with (one of the reasons they are being stingy with the strips?). I fear they are gravely underestimating the stupidity of the general public, and unless they lock off the livery area like Fort Knox, which would be impractical, all the signs in the world won't stop people from interacting and God forbid feeding livery horses. I hope I am wrong.
Would these developments worry you guys, or am I just being grumpy and paranoid?
Would these developments worry you guys, or am I just being grumpy and paranoid?
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cauda equina
Well-Known Member
That article is so annoying, calling the feeders 'well meaning' twice
They are not well meaning, they are selfish idiots
They are not well meaning, they are selfish idiots
AShetlandBitMeOnce
Well-Known Member
They quite literally are well meaning - let's go and give the nice pony nice food it will enjoy. They aren't intending to kill it.
I agree with the selfish idiots part though!!
Not being OTT, this would worry me. My horse used to be closest stable to a gate separating a wedding venue from the livery yard and I would have people lean over all the time to try and touch/feed him. He developed a habit of biting pretty quickly, being that way inclined naturally, and I never taught him not too - he never bit me, but serves them right for not obeying the ample signage.
cauda equina
Well-Known Member
Well meaning people would not ignore the warning signs
Wishfilly
Well-Known Member
Sometimes, settings with formal rules- i.e. you can feed these animals but not these ones- can work ok.
But I would never underestimate the stupidity of the general public. I've seen tourists climb into a riding school's field (with horses in it) because "as it's a riding school it must be safe". Well, not for your toddler to be in the fields it's not.
Frano
Well-Known Member
How many of you as children went to feed the local ponies. Times have changed.
meleeka
Well-Known Member
Nope. I went to see them quite often, but would never have fed them because there was a sign saying not to.
My front boundary (the only bit of the field where mine could be fed from) is now fairly safe. I have around 6 signs up, every few meters and I’ve made a hedge out of cut down tree branches. Someone would get injured trying to get over that I think. Of course It doesn’t stop people throwing things in, but it’s a deterrent. I was pleased when a teenager came to say hello one day and said she feeds all the others in the road, but not mine because I have a sign. She then asked which one would get sick, so I explained about choking and laminitis. As a Thankyou I let her come in and stroke the Shetland which she was over the moon about.
Wishfilly
Well-Known Member
As a kid I was only ever allowed to feed ponies grass picked from the edges of their field if we were walking through, unless we had the owner's permission to do otherwise.
I was lucky though that my parents were willing to pay for riding lessons etc- I do understand it's tough being a horseless kid.