Kicked by another 'escaped' horse

[wally16]

Hi guys, i'm in need of a little bit of advice.

I keep my 2 geldings on a yard which provides individual paddocks for each owner, each paddock being separated with one strand of rope which is electrified. However, recently the electric has been 'broken' and although the yard manager has been notified of it he hasn't fixed it yet.

In the paddock next to mine there are 2 pony mares, and a recent addition of a new pony gelding (all 3 in together). This gelding has been demonstrating rig tendencies and herds 'his mares' around the field. He's also been eyeing up my 5yo sports horse across the fence, pawing and roaring at him. However, although he has been cantering up and down the paddock a bit my horse has more or less been ignoring him. I should point out that before this riggy pony arrived my 2 geldings spent all of last summer in the paddock next to the same 2 mares without any issue whatsoever.

Anyway, this morning i arrived to give mine their breakfast only to find the fencing down between the two paddocks and all horses in my paddock, with all the ground seriously churned up. Found my 5yo all hot and bothered and got him and my connemara out, and noticed the huge gash on the front of his leg below his hock. Couldnt get near the riggy pony or the mares to put them back into their own paddock, but could see none of them had any injuries. My connie also had a kick on his side and a little blood but nothing serious.

Anyway, 10 stitches and a potential 6 weeks of box rest later, i'm not very happy! Especially seeing as i was planning to start competing my 5yo this summer.

So i'm just wondering if anyone could tell me anything about where i stand? I'd already mentioned to the owner of the riggy pony how he'd been behaving towards my horses and tactfully told her that he shouldn't really be out with mares. And also, is the yard manager at some fault for not having decent fencing sorted out?

I've got some gorey pictures of his leg i can attach if anybody is interested! Sorry it's so long!

Thanks in advance

 

[Sanolly]

I'd be claiming off YO's insurance if you can prove that the fencing was reported as broken and not fixed.

Can I ask why you didn't fix the fence yourself or add another strand or two?

 

[wally16]

That is a very good point about me not having fixed it myself, but i knew that my horses would stay put as long as they had grass (which they did) and it stupidly hadn't occurred to me that this pony would try to come through. However, the way that the fencing came down i'm guessing he's stood pawing next to the fence (as he did) and put his leg over the top and paniced and pulled it down. My brother has now fixed the electric box, but that is very much a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted!

Should also add, we have a list on the tea room board where we can report damages and the fence issue was also written on there so i'd say that that is reasonable evidence!

 

[Wagtail]

The yard owner may only have third party insurance and not the hideously expensive care and custody insurance, especially if you are DIY. I expect you would have to go to court if you wantcompensation, and even then, need to consider that YO's barely break even and do you really want to put them out of business? Being a yard owner myself, I would always ensure things such as electric fencing are mended. However, last year, mine broke and as it is buried 3 feet deep for 100 metres and runs under concrete and an arena, I was unable to find the fault. I ended up having to run a line overhead and it took 2 weeks to sort out.