Anyway of stopping the general public feeding the horses?

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Julia0803

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Hello all,

I was wondering if anyone has been successful in deterring people feeding over the fence?

It’s been a bit of an ongoing issue for a few years, families with kids petting the horses over the fence and giving the odd carrot. Not ideal but not the end of the world when it happens once or twice a week. It was getting more of a problem over the past few weeks due to warm weather and increasing numbers. However, it now seems to have ramped up. As well as the usual small kids with carrots I’ve been told by the woman with a strip of land and donkeys in the next field that people have been coming up with CARRIER BAGS full of food, including vegetable peelings and whole loaves of bread and lobbing them into the field.

My lovely little cob is food obsessed. The lady ‘next door’ said the first she noticed of that particular time was hearing thundering hooves and looking up to see him charge from one end of the field to the fence line having spotted the bags. She asked them to stop and they told her to mind their own business!!

We increased the number of ‘do not feed the horses’ signs and posted on the village Facebook page. Lots of nice reasonable people have taken note.

However some persist and yesterday morning I went up and he had what looked like burger sauce/ketchup all over his nose. FFS!!! Clearly some moron on the walk home with a late night kebab or similar.

Do you know if there is any legal clout in not feeding horses? I know that sounds bizarre but I’m thinking, as the law views horses as property and by feeding human junk food despite warning signs they are damaging my property? Some sort of criminal damage?? I appreciate it’s a tenuous link but wondering if I can change the signs to something along the lines of you can be prosecuted. Or possibly under the animal welfare act?

I’m looking into either faux cctv or possibly the wildlife cameras. The yard doesn’t have electric and even if it did, the spot the horses get fed is in the bottom corner farthest from the yard.


I love our yard. I like the people, the yard instructor, the 24/7 turnout, close to my parents so I can leave my toddler with them a few times a week so I can ride, all of it works for us and both horses are happy and settled. Moving is not an option.

Has anyone else got any ideas or success stories?

Thank you
 
People have had some success with the notices which say something along the lines of "I am on a special diet from the vet and if you feed me I will get sick." type notices. But nothing is going to deter the late night drunk I would think. And I would worry about someone thinking grass clippings make good pony feed.

Can you get some temporary fencing and put it 3' inside the fence? Perhaps with a sign saying "Sorry I have had to do this but people feeding my horse will make him sick." .?
 
Thanks for the reply.

The notices say

‘Do not feed the horses!

They are prone to laminitis, which is similar to diabetes in humans. They are on a special diet as treats can make them ill or even kill them’

Think we probably will have to go down the second fence route. Just wondering if there was anything else to try. We don’t have mains electric so would have to buy the set up to electrify it, which I reckon would be at a big risk of being stolen right by the perimeter fence by the road. If push comes to shove then we’ll try it and see.

The late night drunk is the straw that broke the camels back in terms of my patience yesterday. I suppose on reflection more of an issue are the sober (I assume!!) people in the daytime that are wilfully ignoring the signs, and when asked to stop by the neighbors are carrying on anyway after giving a mouthful of abuse.
 
We had this once, could not stop it so put a notice up with what we did not mind them being fed. Hey presto, loads of carrots. They had no health issues though, if it had mattered I would have electrified a second fence.
 
You don’t need your energiser unit near the boundary, it can go further into your field.

I’d go with the cctv and a stronger worded sign. Yours sounds a bit long winded. Perhaps something like “these horses need a special diet. Carrots etc may kill them’.

It makes my blood boil. A woman used to feed ours. I wonder how she’d have felt if i just walked up to her dogs with a bag of sausages and started feeding it without asking? It’s just plain rude imo.
 
this used to really annoy me as well and I mostly solved it through catching them and chatting to them-a couple of families would leave bags of goodies for me rather than feed the ponies themselves. I was more terrified about grass cuttings than anything else though as people just assume that its grass and therefore alright-so I would always emphasise that when talking to them, thank them for the veggies etc and I had a second fence inside as well but it doesn't stop people chucking stuff.
Saying that there was one very posh woman who thought it didn't apply to her and I was mostly annoyed that she was feeding the mouldy stuff. That particular pony was on a very strict diet and was also a nipper and he inevitably bit the kid which stopped it.
 
Julia0803 said:
Thanks for the reply.

The notices say

‘Do not feed the horses!

They are prone to laminitis, which is similar to diabetes in humans. They are on a special diet as treats can make them ill or even kill them’

Think we probably will have to go down the second fence route. Just wondering if there was anything else to try. We don’t have mains electric so would have to buy the set up to electrify it, which I reckon would be at a big risk of being stolen right by the perimeter fence by the road. If push comes to shove then we’ll try it and see.

The late night drunk is the straw that broke the camels back in terms of my patience yesterday. I suppose on reflection more of an issue are the sober (I assume!!) people in the daytime that are wilfully ignoring the signs, and when asked to stop by the neighbors are carrying on anyway after giving a mouthful of abuse.
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I think your notice is too complicated. Needs something simple like "Please do not feed the horses, the food might kill them"
 
I agree. Simplify the notice and put up an electric fence (make sure you put a sign on it, a) to warn people and b) as an additional deterrent). Most energisers have some way of allowing you to chain and padlock them. I also scratch/burn my postcode into the plastic. I'm pretty sure you can buy lockable metal boxes to house them too.
 
Put live electric warning signs (from farm store) along perimeter fence. Erect internal fence with tall electric fence posts and tape, electrify that to keep horses back.

As allergies are getting a lot of media attention just now so people are more aware of consequences perhaps put up signs "do not feed, horses have allergies, anyone caught feeding horses will be prosecuted". Then put up CCTV signs too regardless of if you have a camera or not.

So frustrating, feel your pain!
 
It would be great to have a hidden electric fence that would zap them when they reached over 🤔 I suppose they could just throw the food over the fence anyway:rolleyes: It's a difficult one.
 
I would fence them off it, it's a pita to loose the grazing space but realistically the thing that will work because hopefully people will find it too much effort to chuck stuff at them (I'd do some test throws!).

If it's only a short run a small D cell fencer would do the job like the hotline shrike, they might be harder to chain up but easier to hide!

We had a neigbour who fed ours when he fed the birds in the morning, with permission (then revoked due to metabolic issues). Unfortunately by last summer he couldn't remember what he had and hadn't done and the horses would 'beg' and all sorts would come over so we had to fence it off. He has now gone into care so we have at least managed to get that bit of field back.
 
Mule post got me thinking. If the space is narrow you could perhaps run an electric line along it? A number of years ago our YO put electric tape along the inside of a box door to stop the resident horse from leaning on it so there is a way to do it without it just earthing away. Or could you adapt a Quit Kick? Squirt them with water? (You must put up a warning sign or you would be guilty of a common law tort breach)
 
A friend of mine has this issue. She put up a sign saying that her horse had been seriously ill from the food and consequently has a £9000 vets bill, anyone seen feeding the horses on cctv will be liable for the cost.
Obviously it was better written than that though, didn’t cure it but helped dramatically.
I’m a veterinary nurse and found that doing talking in schools about good and bad food for pets and trespassing work really well as we had similar issue on our diary farm at home with a “townie” family that moved into the village and thought they had the right to feed our animals and trample on all our crops and old barns. The children then feed back to parents etc. So it may be worth if you have a village schools sending them an email and ask if they can bring it up at assembley time.
 
Oh.. I'm on a roll now. Crib-Ex or similar on the top rail? (But fence the horses away too or you'd have to deal with the mess. Its horrible stuff!!)
 
Shay said:
Oh.. I'm on a roll now. Crib-Ex or similar on the top rail? (But fence the horses away too or you'd have to deal with the mess. Its horrible stuff!!)
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Good thinking! Graphite grease would do a better job, it's a bitch to get out of clothing and stains really badly **cackles evilly**

Put CCTV up too so you can have a good laugh watching them...
 
Bayracer said:
Forgot to add another client at work has signs stating that these animals carry ring worm that is highly contagious to human with some pictures. That worked brilliantly.
Click to expand...

That is excellent!


We also have this problem, with over 900m of fenceline to contend with. We have moved the fence back, sacrificing good grazing land, but people still throw stuff across. They do it less as they can't touch the horses. A local yard had signs, etc, but people kept coming to feed the horses and even climbing the fence or holding their kids up to stroke them. A few months ago, a woman climbed the fence with her little dog and a bag of carrots. Long story short, the dog was killed by the horses. Made the local news and seemed to sober people up a bit.
 
If it's a shortish gap, could you put some portable heras fencing along the boundary, and then put some electric fence tape a few meters back from that? Should deter people from throwing stuff in or at least make it harder, and having electric fencing set back from it would prevent pony from eating anything people may squeeze through the mesh?

Or may be cheaper at that point to get a wildlife camera and a sign saying 'don't feed, being filmed, liable for vets bills etc etc' underneath.
 
Our horse was tied up in the yard outside our house. There is a lane that runs alongside. Yesterday a small boy, watched by his parents, climbed over our garden fence, ran up to the horse and gave him a handful of polos. Horse was delighted. I was not happy and told the parents how silly and dangerous it was, they were stupidly rude (as I knew that they would be). I wonder how they would have reacted if horse had kicked their little boy in the head.
 
I'm always tempted to follow them home and feed their dog sausages through their letter box to make a point.

When I had the problem I found the electric fence warning notices where more effective than the please don't fee the horses ones.
 
We have the same thing :rolleyes: not too much you can do, paint fence with anti climb paint, electric fence bringing the boundary in and CCTV signs.

You have to make sure you have signs for everything though or you could be liable.

I agree you need a shorter more to the point sign "Please do not feed horse, it can kill them"
 
Thanks all for the replies.

My pony is the worst for it, clever and good obsessed, he’s always the first to notice people and manages to hoover up most of what’s given/thrown before the others even notice. Unfortunately he’s the one that least needs the extra food! If they were feeding carrots to our new boy who’s a bit poor I wouldn’t be so worried!

Equally having been a family pony for years he isn’t at all worried by small noisy children, prams, scooters, screaming toddlers etc which some of the others are slightly more standoffish at.

It’s given me lots to think about and will speak to yard owner whether she would be happy if I bought some extra electric fencing to keep them away from the perimeter. Sadly it’s a long strip. I’m not exactly sure, but several hundred metres. There’s about 15/20m where they usually stand and feed them but I’m guessing they’d just shuffle along if only that bit was fenced off.
 
A obviously placed cctv camera and a notice saying. “Do not feed the horses, they are on a special diet and anyone caught feeding the horses Will be held responsible for any vets fees incurred.”
 
I’ve got electric fence tape which keeps the horses away from the gate. There’s a yellow warning notice sayings it’s live. Lots of people look st them over the gate - but can’t feed / touch them.
 
I used to put up signs saying either to not feed the horses because they were biters (they weren't - wouldn't know how!), or that they have severe allergies to various foods which can cause death. Have to be quite extreme with the good old public! I had a footpath right next to my field...absolutely nightmare
 
Alas, I had signs stating special diets, laminitis, the usual warnings that horses may bite and so on. All ignored. One stupid wench even leant over the sign to feed a carrier bag full of carrots to my Exmoor and shetland. When I askedher not to she literally blanked me, so I shouted at her to not feed my effing horses and her ears suddenly regained function. Got some abuse and she still didn't get it when I suggested I came round to her house and shovelled buckets of haribo into her kids. I had naan breads, chappatis, sweet corn, bread, cakes...you name it. Never did stop people and was glad to move from that perspective. Hope you have better luck.
 
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