Gas Gun Menace to Horse and Rider.

MissSBird said:
If you can't cope with the facts of life in the countryside, don't go and live there.
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Excellent advice.....however, if you feel you really do need to organise something you would get tonnes of support from horse people if you were to protest about people moving into the country and then using the lanes and quieter roads as a racetrack.......and then complaining about everything that makes the countryside...well, the countryside...:rolleyes:

PS....they dont bother me or or my horses either, sorry.
 
Spudlet - our place is full of over active imaginations. Have you seen the fields where farmers have strung dead crows up - now that's the stuff of horror!

Scary Scarecrow man is actually hung up in the shed at the moment - he needs stuffing but if you walk/ride past the farm and look across into the barn it looks like someone is hanging! We are normal, sane people - honest!
 
I don't think this particular gentleman is going to get used to it lol
http://www.b-ooom.co.uk/index.html
http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2010/04/02/120589/Campaigners-step-up-crusade-against-gas-guns.htm

Maybe before he embarks on his next european holiday he might like to consider my plea lol!
Would any one like to sign my petition against airplanes flying into stansted as its shattering the peace at my countryside home and the noise might deafen my animals, I mean I knew there was an airport near by when I moved in but thought if I had a word they would be considerate enough not to fly near my house- I'm a light sleeper you see. There are other options that could be used by people such as driving or getting a train to europe, but these spiteful people insist on getting on a plane just to torture me, the countryside was here before the airport after all so lets restore the english countryside back to tranquility. sign my petition at www.towniewithtoomuchtimeonmyhands.com
 
Hmm well I'm in Norfolk and we do have a lot of gas guns locally, ones with drums over to increase the noise , ones that do machine gun fire effects etc.
Horse's get used to them pretty quickly including my mega noise sensitive spooky lad.
As for the no regulation, the farm worker who is a fan of them set a load off deliberately in the hedge line one day, the livery who was riding the other side of the hedge at the time was very luck to stay on board her horse.

Complaint was made to the environment people and farmer apparently did it in retaliation for people riding on his land, that's definitely not us which environment people kindly informed farmer of and it's never happened since.

Environment people did tell us what he did was not allowed and any further problems to contact them.

Year on down the road and no issues at all so success for all parties I think.

Seems current rules/guidelines work well when people bother to use them.
 
Quote "I hope we can regain the Tranquility of the English Countryside which is part of our Heritage"

Where did they ever get the idea that the countryside is tranquil? It's an outdoor factory! These numpties complain about gas guns, tractors working late at night with headlights on in fields.....how do they think the harvest is gathered in before the weather breaks? The pixies don't do it! They complain about the noise of hedging, ditch clearing, combines, ploughing, harrowing...if they don't like it MOVE!! People who really want to live in the countryside & integrate into the community understand how the countryside works & why things are done & don't want to change everything. In the middleages it may have been a quiet place but since the industrial revolution machinery has been used, so get real!!
 
Toby_Zaphod said:
Where did they ever get the idea that the countryside is tranquil? It's an outdoor factory! These numpties complain about gas guns, tractors working late at night with headlights on in fields.....how do they think the harvest is gathered in before the weather breaks? The pixies don't do it!
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Seriously? I thought pixies did everything? :(

I don't mind gas guns, tractors (as long as they are considerate - same as anything), loose dogs barking - there's plenty of them in the farms I ride through (on bridleways before you all get excited ;) ).

What i do mind is people beeping their horns as they go round the sharp blind bend in front of my house. Tractors don't do it - just kn*bs driving too fast. Advice, lay off the horn and slow down - if there's a horse, or tractor just around the bend, they can't do anything to get out of your way you pratt. :rolleyes: :D
 
Quote: To encourage the use of traditional methods of ‘pigeon control’ to protect crops.

Umm, I thought the 'traditional' method of pigeon control was a shotgun :confused:

Why the sudden need to ban gas guns, I remember coming across them for the first time when I was about 11 or 12 years old. I am ...umm, considerably older now, so they are not exactly something new to the countryside.

Of course, what IS new to the countryside is the influx of city / town dwellers who think farmers still pull carts with horses and wear smocks with XXX on the front.
 
Hey look everyone, there are many good farmers who use these things properly but ..

There are one or two rotten apples. The farmer who farms next door to us lives 10 miles away so doesn't give a hoot if his guns start going off at 4am ... or he puts lots near a footpath so no-one uses it, etc, etc. And he is pretty horrible if you mention it (he is also quite handy with his fists, so I'm not really up for telling him!).

So I'm with the 'self regulation' is no good group.
 
I think the traditional traditional method is a small child running up and down the field waving a rattle and screaming... only I think nowadays they give out ASBOs for that kind of thing:D

I live not far from the bloke with a bee in his bonnet about this, and I never notice them - maybe my hearing has been affected by them:eek::rolleyes::D
 
Quote "Of course, what IS new to the countryside is the influx of city / town dwellers who think farmers still pull carts with horses and wear smocks with XXX on the front. "

Oooo Arrrr, Oy see lowdes o them thar men round boy uz.....Nnnn day or dreenk cyda! :)
 
Spudlet said:
I think the traditional traditional method is a small child running up and down the field waving a rattle and screaming... only I think nowadays they give out ASBOs for that kind of thing:D
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That would be a great way of keeping kids busy in the summer though! :D
 
Don't have a problem with gas guns, yes they can be a bit annoying, but so can cows blarting after their calves, foxes screaming etc etc. Years ago my daughter attended a PC rally on a farm which had a gas gun going off. At first there were quite a few spooky ponies, but they very quickly settled and ignored them.
My big moan at the moment is England flags on cars, according to Murphy they are very scary, he doesn't bat an eyelid at lorries but jumps out of his skin every time a fluttering flag passes.
 
my house is in a village right in the middle of crop fields, so is the yard. plenty of scary stuff for horses to spook at (tractors, bird scarers, people in the fields, people sittin in buggy things picking crops, sprayers, forklifts etc) i hardly ever hear the gun things! and we came across a particularly weird bird scarer on a hack recently, it played loud bird noises and even made the bombproof pony i excerise go 'what?!'. it was louder than a gun thing!
 
MurphysMinder said:
Don't have a problem with gas guns, yes they can be a bit annoying, but so can cows blarting after their calves
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Just reminded me, a friend of ours who has a smallholding was reported and had the police round last year because his bull was making too much noise 'wanting the cows'. Still makes me laugh now each time I hear him. :D
 
Please also ban children - my 14 year old 'safe' horse nearly deposited me when he saw a small child walking with her Mum. Needless to say thjey were most amused by the departing ned and clinging on rider!
 
I haven't read all the responses. I do live in the countryside, but am not a farmer, but am a horse owner and rider. Where I keep my horses there are many bridle ways for which I am eternally grateful. However, at certain times of the year, the gas guns emerge. I understand the reasons that they are needed and don't object to their use. I do however, object to them being placed on bridleways rendering them unusable for weeks at a time. People at my yard have come back from hacks having fallen off and their horse galloped home alone - this incident was as a result of a gas gun located behind a hedge alongside a bridleway so no way of seeing and then avoiding it.

It would be most helpful if they could be put further into the field. I realise that this would mean the farmer venturing into the field and would cause a bit of inconveneince to them, but surely better than having them actually situatedon the bridleway and pointing into the field?
 
Ok so just read some posts and realise most people are taking the pee. To clarify, I don;t mind the noise, they don;t bother me at home, they just bother me when they go off next to me while riding one of my horses. To be fair, two of them would jump and go 'oh, a noise' but the other one would surely do something ridiculous that would result in bolting or me hitting the deck or both..........

The ones near me are right on the bridleway. I was out on a hack while ago and saw a couple of people shooting (or rather walking with guns and dogs.......) I called to them, they waited til I was WELL out of the way before they continued thei 'walk' which was very pleasant of them. I would have had something to say if they had taken a shot while I was within three feet of them!
 
If you are within hearing distance (you can hear them for miles) of a gas gun it doesn't take long to suss out the timings it runs on, I would aim to leave the yard just after it had gone off and would know it wouldn't go off again for another 1/2 hr.They are generally on a timer so its not difficult to work out. My horse was not bothered by it at all, but it did used to make me jump!
 
Whilst I am accustomed to timing hacks to gas gun emissions, this gets a bit tricky when they are set to go off every 5 minutes.

In fairness, none of the local farmers place gas guns adjacent to bridleways. I think they understand that any half witted liability lawyer will take them to the cleaners if the gas gun causes an injury. The NFU has stated rights of way distance recommendations. Whilst this may not be law, it does indicate a known hazard.
 
Interesting to see the comments on Gas Guns, the majority are in favour of them then?!! Maybe if the ones in favour of Gas Guns had 50 surrounding their arable areas (the Guns in close vicinity of each other) where they ride and live for 50 weeks of the year, firing 5,500 shots in 18 daylight hours in the summer, they may become quite distressed with the noise intrusion. It can be likened to a battle field.

A couple of years back on the H&H Forums there was a lot of negatitivity about these devices. Obviously these folk have not viewed this new Thread this week.

These Gas Gun devices do not frighten, pigeons and are a waste of money for the land owners (their choice we know). Studies have been completed in Norfolk, that prove that the pests carry on feeding on the crops that house the Gas Guns, and there is no difference with the stripping of the shoots on Rape crops on fields that have not had Gas Guns placed on them, and ones that have. Gas Guns should only be used for two to three weeks at a time then turned off for a period of time, to prevent the pests becoming use to them, and to prevent communities being affected by the noise.

Also there are many Farmers/Land Owners who choose not to use the Gas Guns as they have made the deduction themselves that they do not work. If the ones using them were to self regulate in a responsible manner as per the NFU Codes of Practise for the Devices, a statutory noise nuisance would not be occurring in certain areas of the English Countryside.

There have been Horses and there Riders affected in Norfolk and Riders have been thrown off by the sudden startle of the 156 decibels that is emitted from each Gun. Lets hope that none of these dismounts from being thrown off result in loss of human life, or serious injury.

Hopefully support from thoughtful and empathic individuals will arise from this post. Best wishes and good luck to those who enjoy the Gas Guns around their localities, and hopefully the Farmers in your areas will not increase/purchase more over the next few seasons.

The message must be got across, the Rape can be stripped bare in the winter by pigeons, but it'll still revive and thrive to produce a viable harvest. There haven't been any fields totally destroyed that they've had to be ploughed in, in the areas that have been studied in Norfolk, they've all survived, with or without Gas Guns in-situ. Take care one and all.
 
A few weeks back in Farmers Weekly there was an article about an alternative to a gas gun, I think it was a distress call of birds, which kept them off the fields very successfully.
Without the loud bangs.
 
There have been a number of incidents where riders and horses have been seriously injured as a result of these devices. The reason in many of these cases has been because the devices where hidden from virew behind a hedge, treeline or fence and have suddenly exploded without warning. This has caused the horse to throw the rider and the horse has galloped off which has resulted in the horse coliding with a vehicle or injuring a member of the public.

The NFU do offer guidance in their leaflet but this leaflet does need updating and those farmers and landowners that do place these devices in places where they they can cause an accident do need to act more resposibly in the future.

If riders do not know at the bird scarer is there there is very little they can do to avoid it and this is what caused many of the serious accidents that have been reported to me.

It is all very well stating that your horses do not react to these devices but the reports of the accidents I have received have indicated that horses do recat to a sudden unexpected explosion. After all this is what they are designed to do - to frighten animals!
 
martlin said:
In fact, we should change whole countryside into one giant car park with a MacDonald's in the middle:D
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Please near me as our nearest is 120 miles away :eek:

Indy said:
The gas guns don't bother the horses but scary scarecrow dude is as scarey as can be! In fact he's even scarier to the horses when we take him down because they seem to spend all of their time then checking to see if he's come back and if he hasn't then where on earth can he be - they are special my horses!
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Sounds just like mine lol

GasGunMenace said:
Hopefully support from thoughtful and empathic individuals will arise from this post. Best wishes and good luck to those who enjoy the Gas Guns around
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I hope you continue to enjoy your cheap veg :rolleyes:
 
Dogstar said:
I agree they are necessary, but the guidance states, I believe, that they should be used with discretion to avoid annoyance to the public. My horse isnt too bothered about gas guns but goes mental when she sees those crazy bird scarer windmill efforts (shudder!)
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Yes, one of those windmills freaked out my horse a couple of months ago. She bolted which was a bit scary (it was 1/2 mile away and proves that horses have pretty good eyesight). Even though the contraption was moved about 4 weeks ago she still freaks at that point on the hack.
 
Well I'm from Norfolk and we have shooting close by all year round and bird scarers this time of year so you would think the horses would be pretty used to it all by now. Up to this year I've managed to avoid the gas guns by knowing where they are and by not riding close by when I knew they were due to go off. Two weeks ago my friend and I were riding along a permissive bridleway (farmer receives money from DEFRA for leaving margins to encourage access to the countryside) when a small bomb went off right beside us. My friend & I were both thrown from our very sensible ponies who galloped for home down a lane & across a road. Friends pony came down on the road & I ended up with concussion. When I went back to look all I could find was a white plastic fence post in the field with cartridges suspended on a burning rope and a foot deep crater caused by the explosion. This was virtually impossible to see and there is also no way of predicting when it would go off. One pony is still scarred & can't show this season, both are still really jumpy to ride. So to all those with the sarky comments about this being part and parcel of country life, try riding past one & see how your horse likes it!
 
attheponies said:
So to all those with the sarky comments about this being part and parcel of country life, try riding past one & see how your horse likes it!
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I do, almost every day on a scaredy-cat arab. One is currently a couple of hundred feet from my house and there are several along the bridle way. No one is denying that they can cause accidents when not used in accordance with the guidelines. There are many, many things that can cause accidents when not used correctly or responsibly. Like cars for example. The point is that the majority ARE used correctly and the majority of posters on this thread that encounter them don't think they should be banned. It isn't fair to penalise all farmers for the irresponsible behavior of a few.

Edited to add: Attheponies, your accident sounds terrible and is totally unacceptable. There should have been warning signs at the very least. That doesn't sound like the gas guns I'm talking about near me.
 
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