Horses in or out on bonfire night?.

S

Sandylou

Well-Known Member
Joined
12 January 2011
Messages
559
Location
South Leicestershire
Visit site
Our yard has split opinions on this - do you keep your horses out or in on bonfire night?
The village pub is having a fireworks display and they are right next door to the yard and stables. The field is a 3 minute walk from the yard and pub. What would you do?
 
Mine are already coming in at night anyway but in the years when they have still been out I have left them out. Never had a problem except for one year when my neighbours forgot to tell me they were having a late party and set a load of commercial fireworks off right over the field that a couple of the horses were in. They did get stressed but the ones that were in the next field along were not worried.
 
Mine are coming in, even though I don't know of any displays within reach. Don't want a repeat of the horrendous injury (snapped leg) seen on Facebook in our area recently - a few nights in vs that kind of fatal injury = no contest for me.
 
Depends what the horses are used to, and their characters. Ours are in at night anyway. We live on a hill directly above the town's main firework display and have an excellent view of it all. I was a bit late home last year and the horses were going berserk. They are all good with other noises, banging, gliders etc but seeing the fireworks sent them crazy.

So in EARLY, for us, this year.
 
Out :D Mine are in at night in the winter but I always wait until after all the fireworks are over etc as I just think outside is safer - they're with direct company and they can go to whatever part of the field they feel safest. Plus everything outside is wet, which is preferable to being in a dry stable laden with hay incase a rogue firework gets into the vicinity..
 
Mine are tucked in ! and were really calm and not bothered last year. The years before where the village bonfire and fireworks was bang next door was a different matter I had the radio on and they were in I would not like to leave both mares out if I am honest. Previous ponies where I had no option we stood with them with head collars on the field was surrounded by houses but they were pretty good. Depends on the horse, the last thing you want is for the horse to start galloping around and they slip and damage themselves
 
Sandylou said:
Our yard has split opinions on this - do you keep your horses out or in on bonfire night?
The village pub is having a fireworks display and they are right next door to the yard and stables. The field is a 3 minute walk from the yard and pub. What would you do?
Click to expand...

In - no chance for them to be out - they are much happier in
 
unless you can 100% guarantee that NO fireworks are going to come down over the field i would want them in for the sole reason of having seen horrendous burns caused by them landing near animals :(

mine are in at night all year so will be in as usual. There will be up to 3 displays on any given night from now until sunday, within a mile of them, but they are all very very good and actually like to watch :) I have ridden one horse with displays going off in 2 different directions and clearly visible before and he was NOT bothered at all. I think he has a super influence on the others bless him,clever Bruce bean :)
 
In, but purely because 1. one of the mares is a nut job and sets them all off (they're usually sensible) - she's on loan and is going back on Saturday. 2. the field fencing is being taken down and replaced this week. Otherwise they'd be out.
 
As far as I can tell none of mine care about the bangs but I bring them in anyway. My stables are inside and thick walls so it's very quiet.
 
moleskinsmum said:
We've got three in and two out - depends what works best for individual horses I guess
Click to expand...

That's so true.

To expand on my anwer CM prefers to see what's going on. So if she can see the fireworks she's calm, but if there were just noises then she freaks and has been known to try to kick her way out of stables in that situation. She stays out for the hunt too for this reason. The other two stay with her as having them separately away from her would also stress her.

When they were kept near the local firework display, the field they were in was further away from it than the stables. Plus there were lots of flammable things on the yard including a pole barn with hay and straw stacked high. So again, in this case the field was safer.
 
My two are out, except for the night of the village display (Saturday) which is *literally* a stone's throw from the field, and the massive display's landing area is towards our field. On Saturday afternoon we'll move them to a friend's yard over the hill as she has spare boxes. Last year we had to move them to a neighbouring village as my friend didn't have any space - one won't load so we hacked them for hours over there, it was a nightmare! I wouldn't leave them in their field though - too risky. Goodness knows what next door will do with their alpacas, they're in the "firing line" with their field being next to the landing zone!
It's all well organised and advertised though, moving the boys once a year is a small price to pay for the location of the field the other 364 days a year.
Tonight, however, they will be out with more hay than they can eat, with the run of the 2.5 acres so they don't feel trapped. Nothing more we can do, really. The only thing I'm worried about is that some not very country-savvy people have moved into one of the houses backing onto our field - I wouldn't put it past them to set some off tonight without even thinking that they'd be firing towards our horses and our hay barn.
 
All of ours will be out.

We think it's safer for them to be out as once, a firework landed on a barn roof at another yard and set it on fire. It's going to be wet this year so I know that's unlikely but around here, because of that, we leave them out in a nice big hilly field and they can watch from the hills. I was in the field with them the other night watching the fireworks and they were completely chilled. Even if they were spooked, at least they can run away.

I guess ours are used to it living on the edge of a city.

Oh and they will be unrugged as well.

I don't mind fireworks, it's those horrible stupid lanterns. Only brainless people would set those off.

Call us cruel :D
 
So it's split opinion here too ��
I think I'll leave out as the field is further away from the fireworks than the yard and hopefully the horses will just pass them off as people shooting which they're used to. My boy has been out in previous years but was in the last 2 bonfire nights - I've had him 6 years so been out more than in.

I hope everyone's horses are good & safe tonight and over the weekend x
 
Mine will be out. The yard actually have a small firework night for the neighbouring houses, the horses closest to the field the use come in but the rest of the yard is far enough away to not mind. I tend to stay while the display goes on and then check them after to make sure they are fine but never had a problem and been at this yard on and off for 11 years, this time being 4 1/2 years and never had a problem.
 
Mine will be in, they are in at night anyway at this time of year. They have been out at night when our neighbours have had fireworks in the summer and weren't too worried, as long as they are not in the 'debris area' I'm happy they are ok. As said above, I think the lanterns are more of a danger to us and they seem to be around all year (although Powys has now banned them woo, we are still close enough to get ones drifting in from Shropshire).

I had one who hated fireworks and had to be in with top door closed, lights on and the radio playing. She was also the oldest and most sensible horse I've ever had normally but she really hated fireworks (and the vet!).
 
Mine will be in with the yard lights on so I can check them from the house. One of mine is calm so will hopefully show the younger one there's nothing to worry about. We have fireworks very close to us, I have to pick them up out of the fields the next day, so I wouldn't like mine out.
 
tallyho! said:
I don't mind fireworks, it's those horrible stupid lanterns. Only brainless people would set those off.

Call us cruel :D
Click to expand...

i was out poo picking on Monday and found the remains of one of those larger Chinese lanterns in the field. I had a good look around for stray wires but they do give me the heebie jeebies.
 
In - they are in anyway but there were fireworks near us on a summers night and went to check them and they were going nuts. All I could do was move them into the next field so they were running into a post & rail fence. I couldn't catch them, opened the gate and herded them through.

When they are in, I leave stable lights on and radio on loud. Only 1 horse gets upset, the other 3 are OK.
 
They just keep their normal routines. The one that come in at night stays in, the one that lives out stays out. I don't really give it a second thought, thankfully mine are sensible.
 
I've just been down to feed and check my girls. Their were loud fireworks going off in all directions and they never batted an eyelid (much more concerned with getting their dinner!).

When I left they were happily grazing.
 
Mine have ALWAYS been out. Our field i surrounded 360% with fireworks near and far, and they just seem to love watching them for a while, then get bored. Not once in my life have I had one bothered for a moment by fireworks.

We make many animals, dogs/cats/horses worried by fussing. Ignore the fireworks and the animals, no loud music or extra petting etc, they soon realise there is nothing to bother about.
 
Last edited:
Mine have ALWAYS been out. Our fild i surrounded 360% with fireworks near and far, and they just seem to love watching them for a while, then get bored. Not once in my life have I had one bothered for a moment by fireworks.

We make many animals, dogs/cats/horses worried by fussing. Ignore the fireworks and the animals, no loud music or extra petting etc, they soon realise there is nothing to bother about.
 
Mine will be out. I'm lucky in that the surrounding fields are all owned by farmers who I really can't see traipsing to the furthest ends of their land to set off fireworks, but there may be some at the cottages or the pub a bit further away. My stables have been built so perfectly inconveniently that when I bring the horses in they can't see one another at all (sigh), and I think they're less likely to get silly if they're together.
 
Mine are all out. TBH we don't usually get any fireworks out here (countryside); although can look down over the city which is down in the valley from us....... so can see everyone else's fireworks displays for free!!

Can't see my two being phased by fireworks tho' TBH; they'd probably just think it was thunder and lightning. We are in the flightpath of a regional airport and get stuff flying over our heads on a daily basis, so they're pretty chilled, bless 'em.
 
Mine are out, and every year there's a huge display in the next field. Never had a problem.

However, this year they had them last Saturday which was such a clear, beautiful night that the sound carried as clear as a bell. So much so that the echo off the woods on the other side of the meadow sounded like artillery. For the first time ever they were a bit bothered, they had a bit of a chase around during the loudest bit just before the end (there's about 20 minutes of very very heavy duty commercial fireworks), but settled soon enough afterwards. No harm done.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top