Canadian geese - advice

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colouredhat

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We've had 2 Canadian geese on the lawn/lake (at yard owners house) for a few weeks, they haven't caused a problem. Occasionally others have arrived but have quickly moved on.
Today there were 4 but they were in the horses field and not the lawn. 2 are fighting Intermittently.
Horse is watching them and is understandably wary, and at the moment they are at other end of 2.5 acre field.
I left him out, did I do the right thing? Should I get him brought in or are the geese likely to ignore him?
I dont want to come home to a peaked pony!
Any thoughts?
 
Hah, living where I do in the swan feeding grounds from Welney I'd say just leave him to get on with it. Our horses have to cope with thousands of swans overhead and landing in the field next door.

Geese aren't likely to do anything to him, they're just providing a spectacle.
 
They soon get used to anything new. Mine would see it as infield entertainment but one was them was liveried on a farm with a flock of geese.
 
We have an acre pool at my fields, where pairs of geese always nest, the horses dont bother with them, and the geese will eat near the horses no problem. Do they come back each year, or is it the first time, as they just might move on if its there first time there.
 
We've had a pair of canadian geese returning for the last three years - we never had them before that. We don't want hundreds of canadian geese, they make a huge mess and are viscious things. So each year we take the eggs, each year they return, lay more eggs and are just as aggressive as before. They chase the horse's, they try to chase us and they chase the cats. The female goose isn't really a problem, it's the male goose - he's a thug, fine until you turn your back to him, he'll then open his wings and run at you hissing.

They haven't ever actually got hold of anybody or anything yet, but I've no doubt he would and that'll be the day they'll be gone for good. If they were non aggressive I wouldn't mind too much, live and let live, but not when they're terrorising us all. If it were soley to me and mother they'd be long gone, but my father seems to feel that while they're on his property they need his protection. It'll be a different story if one chases him or hurts one of the cats.

We're still turning out in that paddock, haven't got much choice but I'm keeping a close eye on everything and would much rather they weren't there.
 
GinaGeo said:
We've had a pair of canadian geese returning for the last three years - we never had them before that. We don't want hundreds of canadian geese, they make a huge mess and are viscious things. So each year we take the eggs, each year they return, lay more eggs and are just as aggressive as before. They chase the horse's, they try to chase us and they chase the cats. The female goose isn't really a problem, it's the male goose - he's a thug, fine until you turn your back to him, he'll then open his wings and run at you hissing.

They haven't ever actually got hold of anybody or anything yet, but I've no doubt he would and that'll be the day they'll be gone for good. If they were non aggressive I wouldn't mind too much, live and let live, but not when they're terrorising us all. If it were soley to me and mother they'd be long gone, but my father seems to feel that while they're on his property they need his protection. It'll be a different story if one chases him or hurts one of the cats.

We're still turning out in that paddock, haven't got much choice but I'm keeping a close eye on everything and would much rather they weren't there.
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Lol, male geese during breeding, how I miss ours :) OP, our ponies herd our one remaining goose, but did the same when there were 6, they won't hurt your horse (but he may stand on them).
 
Just keep an eye out for any unusual behaviour from your horse OP. I used to rent a field next to a large pond, which had a little island on it. Every year Canada Geese would nest there. During my first Spring there (I arrived in Feb), I had awful trouble with them. I found my pony with wounds all over his face and a broken fence. I caught him and tried to bring him across the field to the shelter and suddenly he reared upright, broke away and galloped off. Completely out of character. I had two more attempts and on the third attempt I felt something above us. Turned out the gander was dive bombing them. I watched in shock as both ponies were then chased around the field by this little s*** of a goose. I was told later that the goose had chased Henry into the fence. The same goose would fly up at us when I took Henry out of the field (the pond also bordered the lane). It's not fun having a pony gallop off on tarmac with a goose flying at you!

I'm guessing my experiences are unusual, but it did happen and he still has a pathological fear of large birds 11 years later. The goose left him alone once the eggs hatched, but it was too late, then. Never been a fan of the evil little s***s since!
 
I used to be on a yard by a reservoir and huge flocks of wild geese would land in the fields and eat the grass. We never had any trouble as the farm had domestic geese, so the horses were used to geese and knew that when it came down to it, the geese would give in.
 
We must have forty of them on our fields in summer. We've never had any problem with them, apart from they eat a lot of grass (never a problem for us anyway, we had too much). Will be interesting as to whether they return this year now there are sheep on the land.

Thankfully never had any issues with dive bombing, thank goodness. Our neighbours had peacocks when I was little, and they were a pain, always spreading their tails and jumping up on the fence if I rode past! Really used to spook the horses.:D
 
We have geese at home and my pony was stabled in the same field as them (we have a river going through our field), and sometimes turned out with them. She didn't pay the blindest bit of notice.
 
Fansurrey, what an awful thing to happen.

I have always kept geese with my horses as they act as very good guards, people tend to stay out of fields with geese in and as we have a public fp running alongside, have always felt more secure.

At present, the female is thinking about sitting on her nest so the ganders are very protective and go for anyone and anything going near their shed! One was hanging off one of the ponies tail the other afternoon, fortunately they are all used to each other so nothing happended.

Geese also help to remove buttercups from fields, which are on the poison list for horses, so they can do some good.
 
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