Bloody neighbour..yew trees.

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Sugarplum Furry

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My YO's and their next door neighbour don't get on ( a mild understatement!) and since I've been at the yard...nearly a year...I've seen this petty fued escalete to point of ridiculous. But now we're in dangerous territory and I'm really worried about the safety of my horses. I was at the yard at 7 pm this evening feeding the horses, when the neighbour came out and called me across. He said he's planted some yew trees in his garden, they are just on the inside of the dividing wall, and one of the horses was, according to him, nibbling one of them today. Oh effing terrific!!!! So in the next few hours it's likely that one of my horses, or my YO's, is likely to drop dead. He said he didn't know which horse it was, they all look the same to him.

Words can't describe exactly how I feel about him. He's a gardener by trade, he knows how toxic yew is, he's done this deliberately and maliciously. I've put up a length of electric tape to stop the horses getting to the yew, but I am absolutely fuming!!!!!!
 
Hopefully he is just trying to wind you up...... I have heard, but may be wrong that yew is so poisonous that horses have been found dead with it still in their mouth
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So hopefully no ones horses have eaten it
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Not trying to wind me up, I leant over his wall and saw the yew trees and and they are well in range of the horses. And one looked nibbled.

MQ, we must have looked at the same thing on the internet, it's true, death within 2/3 hours and horses found with the twigs still in their mouths. Oh god. I was at the yard well until it was dark so I was there for about an hour. Horses all seemed OK. My YO lives on site and said she'll keep an eye on the horses, the problem is that hers comes in at night so she can see her, but mine are out, in the dark, and she can't see them, AND she's very novicey. Bum. I'm going to have to back up there up there aren't I?
 
You might need to put an extra fence up further back from the hedge. Also point out to him that as the trees grow and spread across your land one side will be getting badly chain-sawed and he's going to have some damn funny looking trees.
 
Is it definately Yew.....
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What a twat
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Hopefully the horses will have been sensible enough not to eat anything...... They dont usually eat poisonous stuff unless there is nothing else to eat
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Good luck when you go up to check.... I am sure they will be fine though
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Ask him how he'd like a court summons or a police officer on his doorstep

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What's a police officer going to do?
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He has planted trees on his land, his trees are being damaged by someone's horses. I understand the worry the horse owners have but the neighbour has done nothing illegal. I suggest that you fence off the area around his wall/fence so your horses cannot get to the trees.
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Thanks guys will report later. OH !!!....re fencing...just had a splendid idea...put up a load of big fence panels in the field on our side of his wall, it'll stop the horses eating whatever he plants and block his magnificent view across the valley. I know two wrongs don't make a right but it's least he deserves!!
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Ask him how he'd like a court summons or a police officer on his doorstep

[/ QUOTE ]

What's a police officer going to do?
confused.gif
He has planted trees on his land, his trees are being damaged by someone's horses. I understand the worry the horse owners have but the neighbour has done nothing illegal. I suggest that you fence off the area around his wall/fence so your horses cannot get to the trees.
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He knows that they will grow. He knows what they will do to horses.
 
Unfortunately, no matter how annoying or even distressing this may be, he has done nothing illegal and there is nothing you can do to him.
 
You will need a permanent fence,to avoid the risk of an electric fence failing. I would advise you to plant your own hedge too. Somthing fastv growing like
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LEYLANDI
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I am sure he will appreciate their beauty, and within no time at all they will dwarf his yew trees.He has no more right to harm them than you do to his plants.(Incidentally Leylandi can grow to 100 ft)
 
Oh dear C, although its unlikely that yours will actually eat any yew if they have plenty of grass - knowing your little one, I bet he is still at that curious mischevious stage
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How bizarre to plant yew in your garden - not the most obvious choice! Reminds me too much of graveyards
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Better get the electric fencing out in the morning
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Oh dear C, although its unlikely that yours will actually eat any yew if they have plenty of grass -


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Don't believe that for a moment!! Horses WILL eat yew if they have grass up to their knees!! And it requires very little to kill a horse!! If I had a neighbour like that through no fault of my own I think I'd be looking for some nasty chaps to pay him a visit!! (And I'm not sure I'm joking!!) Or I'd be spraying weeds along the fence boundatu with some very potent weedkiller when wind was heading in that direction! (Not that I could recommend such courses of action - apart from anything else, it would probably make him worse!)

Electric fence is the only answer - and don't delay!
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Ask him how he'd like a court summons or a police officer on his doorstep

[/ QUOTE ]

What's a police officer going to do?
confused.gif
He has planted trees on his land, his trees are being damaged by someone's horses. I understand the worry the horse owners have but the neighbour has done nothing illegal. I suggest that you fence off the area around his wall/fence so your horses cannot get to the trees.
frown.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

He knows that they will grow. He knows what they will do to horses.

[/ QUOTE ]

But I can't see what law he would be breaking? What would the police charge him with?
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Went back up last night, all seemed well.

No sadly I don't think there would be any legal course of action my YO's could take against him, it's his garden and he can plant what and where he likes. (I know where I'd like to plant his flippin's yew trees though!!). We'll have to go for the electric tape option for now and I'll suggest the fence panels and leylandii trees to my YO's. It really pees me off though, it's one thing to take your neighbourly grievences out on each other, but to endanger the lives of the horses is just sick. This all came about a few years ago when my YO's were going to sell him the field but then withdrew on the deal. The neighbour is so bitter about it, he's openly told me how much he hates my YO's and will do everything in his power to make their life hell. What a little charmer! He chucks rubbish over the wall into the horse's field...old bits of wood with nails in it, bits of metal, recently I found the horses had been eating a glut of apples that appeared in the field and making themselves quite poorly, I questioned him about it and he denied it was him, but I found out afterwards he was the culprit.

I am seriously desperate to move from there and have been trying to find my own land or little yard to rent for ages, but that sort of thing is like golddust around here.

A visit to him from some heavies? Hmmm, I DO know some scary looking bikers. They are actually all chartered accountants and systems analysts, they just like to dress up like hell's angels at the weekends, but he's not to know that is he?
 
The wood and apples do change things a bit - he is clearly a nuisance neighbour (if not in the loud music and all night parties variety) and the local council will have somebody who just lives for jobs like these - might be worth a chat with them.
 
I'm afraid in my experience the authorities are very reluctant to get involved with nuisance neighbours even when they do actually break the law unless you have independent witnesses/cctv.
I would plant leylandii & then put up either a permanent fence or a double electric fence (in case 1 fails). If you can train cctv on ths part of the field (trouble is you have to make sure you don't include his garden in the field of view) as I would guess that there would be a high likelihood that you would come up one morning to find the leylandii/fence had been damaged.
Either that or move yard!
 
Leylandi are poisonous to horses as well. Not as drastically fast as yew, but if they decide to nibble it (as mind did) you need to keep them off. I causes them to have drugged sleepy sort of symptoms and get staggery and ill. If you plant Leylandi on your land, and the branches overlap into the neighbours, he will be entitled to trim it back and throw the clippings in the field.
 
The blokes sounds a right [insert rude word here] the one I would use starts with C and ends in T, planting trees on his own land is one thing, putting dangerous items and throwing apples into the field is totally different, electric fencing around his bollocks sounds a better idea.
 
If the neighbour's house adjoins farmland or grazing land then it is possible there may be a covenant in his deeds preventing him planting toxic plants such as yew along the boundary. You'd need a solicitor to check out the position, so presumably it wouldnt be cheap.
If I were you I'd put an electric fence up well away from his boundary for the time being.
 
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