Arghh - New landlord - non -horsey driving me nuts

[Red-1]

If I read this thread and I was the landlord I would give you notice now!

Personally I would not keep mine in a field with barbed wire, so I would either fence inside it, or move.

If I felt like you do about the landlord I would certainly move.

I don't think the landlord is being unreasonable. I don't like his decisions, but it is his land, and he is being reasonable. If you choose to stay then I don't think it is reasonable to expect the landlord to foot the vets bills. He is fencing the field with the material he chooses, and it is then up to you to decide if this suits you and your horses, weather you are willing to take the risk, or wish to change the circumstances by either moving or fencing inside the fence.

 

[windseywoo]

Why didn't you buy the field yourself when it came up for sale. Your lucky he didn't give you notice straight away, as would have thought he'd want to do something with it. As others have said you sound rather ungrateful so it's probably best if you look for something else as it is probably going to end in tears. You have no rights in regards to what he does to his fields, you are lucky he didn't just think "I won't fence it all" then what would you have done. Obviously you've been able to do what you wanted for a while on the land, but now you need to get on the right side of the new owner or leave.

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

He could be looking to maximize the potential tenants too. You can't keep cattle in with anything other than barbed wire and sheep need sheep netting, so a fence that combines both will keep all animals in including horses. He obviously doesn't want to have to refence his field every time someone with different animals rents it.

 

[RunToEarth]

I think I lost interest at filthy little landlord - chip on shoulder?

If you want to call the shots, buy your own land. Either way you need to leave, this won't work out.

 

[HBB]

Well maintained barbed wire would not bother me, I'd run an internal electric fence around the paddock. I've actually seen more injuries caused by plain wire and electric tape/rope, than barbed. The ragwort would be your responsibility.

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

OP, quite a number round me have good fencing - of barbed wire. They electric fence inside it. I do this on one boundary against a big hornbeam hedge. Am v glad its my own field, I'd be spitting if you mentioned me in the way you have in your opening post :mad3:

Those who rent locally, all have to deal with weeds themselves (one isn't allowed to spray, so has to hand weed everything!). They organise everything from harrowing, rolling to muck removal and fence repairs!

I have no idea what a chip you have about non-animal owning LL's but I think you need to wake up before you lose the grazing

 

[laura_nash]

If you want full control, you need to buy your own field I am afraid. He can do what he wants.

I have my own fields and last year my neighbour ran barbed wire fencing along one of the boundaries . TBH I was thrilled, I'd lost a horse through there a few weeks earlier and had been trying to work out best solution, its a nightmare to get posts in around here (very stony), he used a JCB bucket! Rather new, properly tensioned barbed wire than a loose horse on the roads. I did run electric fencing on my side (using screw-in connectors on the new posts, obv checked with him first).

OP - I rented a couple of fields to my neighbour last year and he was responsible for all spraying, pulling, harrowing etc. whilst he was renting them. This wasn't "agreed", just assumed. If your just renting a field (rather than grazing / stables at a yard) I would expect to do all ragwort control.

 

[applecart14]

I know its a total pain but could you strip graze your existing field with electric fence? I know its not an ideal solution (or cheap) but would be preferable than having to find somewhere else to move to or have your horse injured with the barbed wire.

 

[jrp204]

"He didn't even know that as the landowner he has a duty to ensure my animals stay put as well as the duty that I am responsible for, or that ultimatley the ragwort is his problem not mine* - this is the type of person we are dealing with here. "

But he is ensuring your animals stay put, the ragwort is your choice, without horses there probably wouldn't be so much, the combination of poaching and often low ph leaves horse grazing a ripe ground for it. We rarely see it on cow and sheep grazing. He, if he is not using the field for his own use can just leave it, it may be notifiable but we all know it is rarely dealt with.
You are lucky he is allowing you to stay, it's a matter of put up, shut up or move on.

 

[Dunlin]

Calling someone a townie like they are lower class than you and then describing him as a filthy little landlord and the rest, unbelievable, I am genuinely shocked at your attitude.

I have kept horses in barbed wire fenced fields for years without an issue, 2 of those places were BHS approved livery yards with an excellent name, I also had to ragwort pull. One of mine did have a habit of rubbing his bum on the wire and losing copious amounts of tail in the process so I just ran my tape and posts around the inside to keep him off it, kept him and the other 2 like that for 7 years without any issues.

 

[only_me]

Offer to buy the field from the "townie" landowner (now a farmer?) and see what he says.

Otherwise, smarten up your attitude and behave civil/friendly with him - once you stop seeing him as the "enemy" or in your words a filthy little landlord, you might actually get on. Once friends then you can at least make him aware of safety measures for horses ie. Close gates.

If the field was sold to the townie landlord with approval for a site then you won't be there too long anyway.

 

[OWLIE185]

My advice would be that you should buy your own fields and then fence and maintain as you wish. You will soon find out how expensive it is to erect good fencing. I always recommend Post and Rail wit Equi-fencing on it (it is like a tight knit type of sheep fencing). That way dogs can not get in through the fencing and horses can not kick through the fence line. However it is not cheep if one uses good quality treated post and rail and works out at about £25 per metre (inclusive of installation and vat).

 

[3OldPonies]

OK, I get it and I am putting up and shutting up about a lot of other things, it's just this fence thing really got to me. I know the language in my thread wasn't great having re-read it, and in my defence all I can say is that at the time of writing I'd just come in absolutely soaked to the skin and so wasn't in the best of moods. To be honest, we've always had a tetchy relationship me and this new landowner - he has the field next door too that is just let go, no weed treatment, no topping etc.

Thanks for telling off guys - you've given me a good reality check, though it was hard reading some of your replies but I understand why you all wrote as you did. Ultimately I know you are right and I will be looking for somewhere else, if I get so wound up over some fencing when I already have tons of electric fence owing to the other barbed fences already on 3 boundaries then it's not looking good for the future. It's just so frustrating when you have the chance to get something put right and no-one is listening.

 

[indiat]

What a lovely response! I wish you the best 3OldPonies, I wonder if there are some parts of the country where land will simply become too expensive to keep horses? Very sad.

 

[stencilface]

Nice response OP, although I'm a bit upset that we didn't get a traditional HHO indignation and then flounce

 

[3OldPonies]

Thank Indiat. I think the bit of Berkshire that I'm in is on the slippery slope to being too expensive for most people. To be fair I did have the chance to buy the field, and we've had some great times there over the last umpteen years so I am still at the stage of being quite upset at it being sold so suddenly when I'd been told it wouldn't be for sale as long as I was a tenant. Trouble was when it came to the crunch I didn't (and probably never will) have a spare £100K in my back pocket which is what it would have taken to buy with an answer needed in just a few hours - I've got the impression from what the new owner has said to me about the sale that by the time I knew about it a deal had pretty much already been done.

Stencilface - I can pout and flounce if you want!!!!! I was doing plenty of that earlier before common sense kicked back in!!!!!!

Actually - slight flounce - all you guys pulling your own ragwort (as I do and did this morning) - it is actually the landowner's responsibility - and aren't they all sooooo lucky that us brilliantly responsible (well to our horses anyway) horseowners do it for them and save them the trouble of having Defra knocking on their front doors.

 

[ester]

I don't think defra have ever cared, especially going by the verges around here!

 

[paddi22]

It' so tricky to find razing in places, and fewer and fewer landlords want horses, so I'd be so wary to upset the landlord unless you had a solid idea of where you would move to. My landlord could literally open a lap dancing club in the field next door to mine and i wouldn't say a word as I'd be fecked if i lost my grazing!

 

[Wagtail]

Put an electric fencing along inside the barbed wire. He's the landlord, he can do what he likes. Some landlords dont even put fences up or maintain them.

This is what I'd do; put electric fencing a two or three feet away from the barbed wire.

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

Thanks for telling off guys - you've given me a good reality check, though it was hard reading some of your replies but I understand why you all wrote as you did. Ultimately I know you are right and I will be looking for somewhere else, if I get so wound up over some fencing when I already have tons of electric fence owing to the other barbed fences already on 3 boundaries then it's not looking good for the future. It's just so frustrating when you have the chance to get something put right and no-one is listening.

Well recovered OP

Round here 100k wont buy you any land at all tho (NW Surrey). Even a 2 acre rubbish-type grazing with an old shelter in and saggy fencing, sold before xmas for just over 140k

 

[MotherOfChickens]

OK, I get it and I am putting up and shutting up about a lot of other things, it's just this fence thing really got to me. I know the language in my thread wasn't great having re-read it, and in my defence all I can say is that at the time of writing I'd just come in absolutely soaked to the skin and so wasn't in the best of moods. To be honest, we've always had a tetchy relationship me and this new landowner - he has the field next door too that is just let go, no weed treatment, no topping etc.

Thanks for telling off guys - you've given me a good reality check, though it was hard reading some of your replies but I understand why you all wrote as you did. Ultimately I know you are right and I will be looking for somewhere else, if I get so wound up over some fencing when I already have tons of electric fence owing to the other barbed fences already on 3 boundaries then it's not looking good for the future. It's just so frustrating when you have the chance to get something put right and no-one is listening.

do you know what, I have just read the OP and thought it sounded out of character for you! its always tough renting. All of my fields that I own and rent are stock fenced-some have plain wire and some barbed, there is just no choice. I run electric where I feel it needed-between fields where my boys like to smooch with the cattle and might strike out. The fields are just too big to do it everywhere and so exposed in others that tape and rope just doesn't last. Its a compromise I have to make to get them on hill grazing in lovely big fields.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

Actually - slight flounce - all you guys pulling your own ragwort (as I do and did this morning) - it is actually the landowner's responsibility - and aren't they all sooooo lucky that us brilliantly responsible (well to our horses anyway) horseowners do it for them and save them the trouble of having Defra knocking on their front doors.

round here they just stick sheep on it.

 

[Buddy'sMum]

round here they just stick sheep on it.

Same here. Or pretend they can't see it in the hay field and sell it to unsuspecting horse owners

 

[Beausmate]

The control of Ragwort comes under two government acts, The Weeds Act (1959) and The Control of Ragwort Act (2003). Responsibility for controlling Ragwort rests with the occupier of the land on which it is growing. However, it is expected that all landowners, occupiers and managers will co-operate and take collective responsibility for ensuring that effective control of the spread of Ragwort is achieved.

Taken from the BHS site. DEFRA's Code of Practice appears to be somewhat out of date. No surprise there...

 

[mirage]

It's his field, he can do what he likes with it. My field belongs to my family and is fenced with sheep netting and barbed wire. I wouldn't dream of telling them it wasn't good enough, I just electric fence it off.

 

[chillipup]

It' so tricky to find razing in places, and fewer and fewer landlords want horses, so I'd be so wary to upset the landlord unless you had a solid idea of where you would move to. My landlord could literally open a lap dancing club in the field next door to mine and i wouldn't say a word as I'd be fecked if i lost my grazing!

Surely there must be a niche for lap dancing ponies somewhere?.....

 

[paddi22]

i wish there was! might help if they earned their own money! I've a mare in season now that practically does it anyway to my poor gelding!

 

[MurphysMinder]

I understand you were posting after a bad day, and hopefully realise you are just going to have to put up with it or move. Just to say I rent a field which has barbed wire, and I just run electric tape along the inside. I also pull ragwort, and arrange and pay for the field to be harrowed each year. Its worth it to keep a field that is very valuable to me.

 

[Honey08]

10/10 for your reply, some of these replies weren't holding any punches!

When I moved back to this area and took over my parent's land I had to re fence most of the perimeter. I used stock wire with an electric top wire, and three strands of plain wire for internal fences. The plain wire has caused more injuries than anything else! Sheep itch on the lower strand, often until it snaps, then the coil of snapped wire has scratched or wrapped around legs. The lower strand had to be removed completely. One length of the perimeter is still barbed wire and stock fencing. It was put in when I was 13, I'm now 46. It is the straightest, tightest fence we have, and the only one that my husbands horse doesn't lean on until it snaps. I'd always intended to replace it years ago, but am not doing so until it's on it's last legs, it's so much better than modern fencing. I think that it will be replaced with barbed wire again, and I never thought I'd hear myself say that!

 

[Clodagh]

I have barbed wire and stock netting all round, and raised a foal and youngstock on it. They do trash rugs a bit butsoon learn not to lean on it. It also does a sterling job of keeping them in the field.
Good luck OP, if the field is in a good location I would try to deal, surely you won't see him that often?