Dogs chased horse (bit of distressing story warning)

dominobrown

dominobrown

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Just had an incident and have been very lucky considering.

4 horses, 3 of mine and one belonging to livery out in the field (live out 24/7) where being chased by 3 bulldog/ pitbull type dogs with the owners trying and failing to control them. Dogs obviously off lead, left footpath and got through a fence to attack horses (path runs adjacent but not through field, clear fence and boundary). All four horses where running around for at least 10 minutes or so, broke fence at one point (which luckily we have repaired quickly and easily enough). None of the horses have any injuries although my horse did stamp on one of the dogs causing a serious head wound (we think, dog was covered in his own blood) which ended the incident by knocking the dog unconscious. Two owners fled the scene the OH managed to speak to one who stunk of weed and was incoherent to speak too, and didn't seem too bothered that dog was covered in blood and said "it would learn it to behave". I am worried if the dog doesn't see a vet it could be fatal though dog owners seemed hell-bent on getting away asap.
Don't know what to think.. report it to who or even at all. Didn't get any details off dog owners who may of been breaking several laws.... not just having dogs out of control. And they must of driven to here... not walked all the way, so obviously drove away too... Unfortunately (or fortunately Maybe?) I wasn't there. Horses are all fine and settled now. My horse that stamped on the dog doesn't like things around his feet (he did stamp on a lamb once and the cats stay out of his stable) but has hunted in previous home and is very good with my dogs and dogs in general... or he used to be anyways.

I just don't know what the answer is with people anymore, it's beyond stupid really.
 
Amymay said:
Regardless you must report the incident to the police.
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I will do but you can’t prove who did it etc. can’t prove the person was on drugs although it obvious. And have no damage to horses. Even if I got details I doubt they would be correct, or they could refuse to give any and if a person called the police while the incident was happening it would be an hour or so before they would get there and people would be long gone.
 
dominobrown said:
I will do but you can’t prove who did it etc. can’t prove the person was on drugs although it obvious. And have no damage to horses. Even if I got details I doubt they would be correct, or they could refuse to give any and if a person called the police while the incident was happening it would be an hour or so before they would get there and people would be long gone.
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It would be simply to log the incident. You can describe the men and the dogs.
 
Report the incident to the police. Back in April, a rottie known to us and often out of control (and has attacked several dogs), got in with two horses on our yard early one morning and chased them. Both horses are veterans, one is 30. We only found out because a concerned neighbour from the adjoining estate, whose house backs on to our fields, saw the incident unfold and came round that morning to let us know. The dog owner, as always when his animal is involved in an incident, eventually got hold of the dog and legged it.
Thankfully horses were ok, albeit stressed.
We reported the incident to the police and the local council.
 
dominobrown said:
I will do but you can’t prove who did it etc. can’t prove the person was on drugs although it obvious. And have no damage to horses. Even if I got details I doubt they would be correct, or they could refuse to give any and if a person called the police while the incident was happening it would be an hour or so before they would get there and people would be long gone.
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They may yet take the dog to a vet and be identified that way. Or FB post to local group to ask if anyone sees or hears of a bully/staffy type with a head injury?
 
Knowing my luck I will get sued as the poor dog will die and it will be all my fault.

Very doubtful that a vet would report/ tell me even if they did take it to the vets. Or the people would lie…
 
Amymay said:
They can’t Sue you for their dog being dangerously out of control.
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If you knew anything about how (un)lucky I am! Yeh I well versed it what you can and cannot sue for….
I believe my horse was acting in a normal way.

(I have had footpath incidents in the past with someone trying to sue me and failing spectacularly and me getting aggressively threatened by someone for telling to put their dog on a lead, called the police and the person turned out to be a police officer themselves…)
 
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There definitely seems to be an increase in dog owners who have dogs with no recall! There was an incident on a local Facebook group recently where a rider was chased by a dog on a beach, fell off and broke her collar bone. The ignorance of some of the comments was astounding!

I’m glad your horses are ok and I hope the incident hasn’t affected how they are around your dogs.
 
I'm so glad your horses are alright. We've been attacked by dogs out riding, one incident the dog jumped and grabbed a riders leg and hung off her leading to stitches. Owner hustled dog into car and drove away but got reg number and police pulled them over. I don't know what happened to the dog 😢
.

One of our horses killed a dog. Little thing yapping and running between their legs, horses put up with it for about 20 seconds then a swift kick to the head and it was gone. Owner called the police, tried to blame the horses. Police had words with her about controlling her dogs.


So many dogs are out of control, I think they should all be on leads, people think they have recall but they don't. The dog is at risk too.
 
dominobrown said:
Knowing my luck I will get sued as the poor dog will die and it will be all my fault.

Very doubtful that a vet would report/ tell me even if they did take it to the vets. Or the people would lie…
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When my on lead dogs were attacked by two out of control GSDs, and one of the GSDs sustained a head injury from a hero passer by wielding a tyre iron, my vet said they frequently ended up with both "parties" in the surgery and were happy to pass details to the dog warden, so you never know. But it sounds like the blokes involved in your case weren't too bothered about the dog anyway so probably didn't take it to a vet :confused:
 
I’m now wondering who goes for a walk carrying a tyre iron. That said it’s not a bad idea, my very well behaved dogs are so often bullied and attacked by out of control aggressive dogs.

Sorry to hear this story and glad your horses are ok.
 
Abacus said:
I’m now wondering who goes for a walk carrying a tyre iron. That said it’s not a bad idea, my very well behaved dogs are so often bullied and attacked by out of control aggressive dogs.

Sorry to hear this story and glad your horses are ok.
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He stopped his car, tried to kick the GSD off my dog, ran back to his car, got the tyre iron, used it. 19 year old hero 🦸‍♂️
 
Dogs must be under control in a public place and this includes on a public footpath.
Please report this incident to the Police with a description of the dogs and the dog walkers. Incist that the Police give you an incident number so that you know the incident has been recorded on their system.
Also report to the Local Authorities Dog Warden.
Also report on either the Horse i App or www.horseincidents.org.uk web site. The statistics are used to locate hot spots were incidents occur and use the statistics to prevent further ones from occuring.
I have Equi-Fencing around all my fields which is a tight form of sheep fencing as this prevents any dogs from getting in to the fields through the fencing.
 
The police take a very strong view point on this type of thing or at least they did with the dog attack I was involved with in 1996.

When a staffie attacked my horse during a prolonged attack on common land years ago and my horse eventually kicked the dog the owner was threatening to sue me - dog knocked out and jaw/teeth presumably broken. I went to the police and gave a statement and they said if I saw the dog again I was to call 999 and they would be out very quickly.

My story got published in Gallop Magazine.
 

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