Letter in the Cumberland News

Ashgrove

Ashgrove

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"A letter in the Cumberland News
Friday October 1 2010

‘Horse owners should clean up after their beasts’

I live in Houghton, a very pleasant village with friendly people.
If I allowed my dog to foul the pavements I have no doubt that the friendliness would soon disappear and I would, justifiably, be heavily criticised for being very anti social and for creating an extremely unpleasant and public nuisance.
However, if I had an animal that was many times larger and produced considerably more quantities of faeces than a dog, namely a horse, then I would be part of a group that could, and does, allow their animals to foul the roads, pavements and cycle tracks without the slightest expectation that they should clear it up or do anything about it.
The result is that there is a film or veneer of horse manure, with more substantial deposits every so often, which is smelly, dirty and unpleasant and is unavoidably carried around on tyres and the soles of shoes.
When my children were young we kept horses and my daughter became (and still is) quite an accomplished horse woman, without ever so much as taking a single horse at any stage onto a road or public footpath.
Horses are beautiful creatures to have around, but they are no longer means of transport - they are pets and don’t need to use public roads.
There are rare exceptions – police horses is one that springs to mind. They should be in fields and should they need to be transferred it should be by horse box and not on foot.
Either that or by law all horse riders should carry a sack and shovel and, like responsible dog owners, clear up the mess for which they are responsible.

Peter Flynn
The Green
Houghton"

I've included his name as it is in print in the news paper.
How lucky that he was obviously rich enough to own / livery at a yard with a lot of hacking land, or / and he owned a horse box.
 
Obviously someone who doesn't know the different health risks between horse and dog plop. I'd rather fall head first in a mountain produced by a 17.3 WB than a sausage produced by a Spaniel (No offence to Spaniels or WBs). Also someone who obviously doesn't realise the risks of dismounting, hanging onto a horse with a shovel and sack, clearing said mess up whilst avoiding traffic and trying to mount again with shovel and sack over shoulder, slightly more risky than wandering along with a poo-bag and dog on lead. A pile of horse crap is more noticeable by it's appearance, you can normally take avoiding action and step over it, however, piles of dog crap hidden in a few inches of grass is another matter.

I have to say though, while hacking through our local village, daughter's cob did a rather noticeable pile on a street outside someone's drive and I asked hubby to nip back with the shovel to clear it up, purely because of where it was and out of common courtesy.

And I do clean up after my dogs too, a dozen carrier bags stuffed in my pockets are proof of that.

Mr Flynn if you could take the time to appeal for the elderly of our country and to complain about certain other issues involving anti-social behaviour and abuse instead of some mulched grass or hay we as a society may get somewhere! ;) :)
 
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By Cycle Track I assume he actually means BRIDLEWAY!

Why do these car lovers always assume that we choose to use roads and that there are 'plenty of other places for them to ride'..... if only.

I'm sure he's also unhappy about tractors and trailers holding him up down the country lanes and at the noise that cows and sheep make on Sunday mornings.
 
maybe he has a personal grievance with a certain dealer who has a yard at houghton? if im thinking of the right place? how the hell could we carry shovels. wonder if he has a patent applied for on horse nappies?
 
Not so long ago people living in the same village as my parents were complaining about horse crap on bridleways (not roads) and said that riders should have to get off and scoop the poop like dog owners do.
Thankfully the majority of residents actually have more than half a brain cell and saw how ludicrous this suggestion was!
 
Is this guy for real? Can you imagine riding round with a big shovel and sack to put the muck in. Slight difference between walking a dog and riding a horse, maybe he has never really noticed. How lucky he must be to have a horse which never has to go on a road. Honestly if I had the option to never have to ride on a road I would take it. However to get to the bridlepaths most of us have to use roads and have no choice other than to never hack out again. Also love the presumption that we can all afford horseboxes, if only!!
 
Sounds more like My daughter, when riding from home never really rode and he's starting to go either senile or trying to sell his house.:D:D:D:D:D Some people are never very happy and he certainly sounds like a Grumpy old man:D:D:D
 
Grumpy??? He's from a different planet!! Most old people would be thanking their lucky stars - free compost!!!!
 
Somewhere I've got a clipping about a local council (or similar) in Scotland asking equine businesses to clean up after themselves.

I'm not sure how his daughter managed to never ever go on a road and be a super-competent rider. And horses... aren't pets. You can't reduce them to that.

My parents would run out with a shovel for the manure...
 
I live in a village in the middle of nowhere, they are the same here. Lovely Cumbrian village, every barn sadley converted, and full of offcomers!!!! They like the idea of a country hamlet, but they come here with a suburban mentality.
 
Ashgrove! Send a reply to the paper asking the man if he would like the horse pooh bin outside his house.:D:D:D imagine the size at rate payers expense. Also point out they are grass eaters not meat eaters. Idiot:p
 
The man is a fool, but sadly not the only one about :( We frequently get idiots using the village as a short cut from the motorway, they also think that horses should not be on the road, impeding their progress as they whizz through, breaking the speed limit and not understanding that as there are no pavements, they are quite likely to run over pedestrians, and of course any horse rider daft enough to have got off their horse to clean up the muck! :D
 
Ha, what a plonker! I used to work Sundays at a local yard and one morning was approached on way out turning out by a local resident (was a group of like 4/5 houses and the yard) and the lady asked if we were going to clear up the horse mess on the road as it was smelling and making a mess of their car................................ha

I told the YO ans told me to tell them to do one if they asked again. They moved there knowing that was a livery - plus.......it was on the route up to the piggery - and was coming into winter so they were in for a shock!

If you live in the country - and I class farming villages/towns as country - you have to expect mud/manure!

Plus - - after a rain Horse crap washes away - dog **** doesn't!! It stays there........and even when dog crap is picked up it is still harmful - just look at the wee girl who has lost most of her sign in one eye after coming into contact with dog poo in a playground!

Whilst I wouldnt eat horse poo directly - I have eaten many a meal after mucking out and not washing hands (shavings bed - sometimes used hands) and I am alive - also fell face first into the local riding school surface which is made from the muck from the stalls - never got ill.
 
we have the same prob down in the west country.....................15 houses area of outstanding beauty etc........................and 1 london couple, moved into a small white cottage..............after 5-6months had written to the 7 farms in the hamlet..could they please clean up after the cows as it was ruining the car and could they change the early morning milk as it was waking them up.............................1yr later they had moved on.............if you move to a single track lane with7 dairy farms what do you think you would find:)?
 
hollyandivy123 said:
we have the same prob down in the west country.....................15 houses area of outstanding beauty etc........................and 1 london couple, moved into a small white cottage..............after 5-6months had written to the 7 farms in the hamlet..could they please clean up after the cows as it was ruining the car and could they change the early morning milk as it was waking them up.............................1yr later they had moved on.............if you move to a single track lane with7 dairy farms what do you think you would find:)?
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Tsk... I think the onus is on the country estate agents who sell houses to these poor afflicted city folk to warn them that when they buy thier country mansion that there are these animals called cows, sheep and horses that may grace them with free manure for the roses. Poodles and Bichon Frise' are rarely seen here. A letter then should be printed advising the gardener that he is more than welsome to collect without charge.

Oh, and the local pub is not frequented by bankers or lawyers but farmers and locals, mostly with Jack Russells, Collies and Pointers who use baling twine to hold up thier corduroys and wear things like wax jackets and wellies. The landlord mostly sells pints of Otter, Bellringer or Thatchers. Yes, there is a funny smell. A smell considered homely by local folk.
 
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hollyandivy123 said:
we have the same prob down in the west country.....................15 houses area of outstanding beauty etc........................and 1 london couple, moved into a small white cottage..............after 5-6months had written to the 7 farms in the hamlet..could they please clean up after the cows as it was ruining the car and could they change the early morning milk as it was waking them up.............................1yr later they had moved on.............if you move to a single track lane with7 dairy farms what do you think you would find:)?
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That is hilarious. I bet they'd bought cheap fresh milk in the supermarket all their lives too. What on earth did they think the countryside was for? Looking pretty? Must have thought the cows were pets.
 
hollyandivy123 said:
if you move to a single track lane with7 dairy farms what do you think you would find:)?
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Oh that's easy to answer: Simple farming folk, wearing smocks embroidered XXX and floppy hats who call you Zurr and Maaam, gently driving a haywain behind a beautifully turned out shire horse. Fields full of white fluffy sheep and immaculate brown cows, neither of which ever move or make any sounds at all. The occasional cockerel crowing (but only after they have had their first skinny latte of the day), and deserted country roads, where they can drive their completely impractical mock 4X4 city cars at neck breaking speeds unhindered by other road users of any kind.

Pubs full of cheery local folk (who are never seen anywhere else, especially not on THEIR road to THEIR village), cottages with thatched roofs and roses growing by the door, oh and perpetual summer all year round.........




We have more than a few of these types around here :mad:
 
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