Tally-lah
Well-Known Member
Okay this is a long one and please be kind, I am feeling desperate enough as it is...
I have a rather cheeky three year old cob, Bess, who came to me after being rescued by a good friend of mine. She came to my friend on the verge of death, the other three she was rescued with didn't survive as they had been so badly starved. How she survived I don't know... due to this, I think, she has learned to escape from just about anywhere. In the summer we had a few incidents of her barging through electric tape and jumping fences but nothing major as it was summer, there was lots of grass and she was less inclined to escape. However, now its winter, there is hardly any grass and my girl is constantly jumping out of her field! She is 14.1 at present but can jump a five bar gate, I have watched her. Mostly she just wanders to the nearest patch of grass, puts her head down and eats.
However, Sunday morning I arrived at the yard, looked around and she was gone, as well as my other pony, Fred, and my friends mini shetland, the fence had been ploughed down, literally. My partner and I searched the farm and I called the police. We searched the village and surrounding woods. I was completely beside myself. Called horsey friends and asked them for help. As friends were driving to yard they happened to glance into a field by the side of the road (about 5 miles from my yard) and saw the three ponies! Turns out the police had found them on the road in the middle of the night (this is an A road) and herded them into a field. The owner of the livery yard where they were found then moved them so they could be seen from the main road in case people were out looking for them (which we were the next morning).
We got them home and I put them out with my other horses and thought this might stop them from escaping as they prefer to be together. Got to yard yesterday morning and both Bess and Fred were out again, still on the farm and grazing happily. I put them back into their original field and mended the fence which had been ploughed through as didn't know what else to do. Went up yesterday evening and they were still where I had left them and I heaved a sigh of relief.
Got to yard this morning and they were out again! They had gone through a different part of the fence this time. I have now put them in another field, it's further away from the other horses and I hate it. It's where the farmer dumps all his old farm equipment and I don't feel it is suitable for livestock. I have put up electric tape around the equipment but don't want them in their at all really.
The fencing is so old and is in desperate need of replacing - which I have been on to the farmer about for ages, he's been promising to get it replaced since I moved to the yard three years ago! I don't have stables and I can't move to a yard as have five horses. I have been desperately looking for somewhere else but at present can't find anything suitable. I just don't know what to do and I am so worried that ponies are going to get seriously injured or cause an accident.
Any advice would be appreciated... Thanks for reading massive post.
I have a rather cheeky three year old cob, Bess, who came to me after being rescued by a good friend of mine. She came to my friend on the verge of death, the other three she was rescued with didn't survive as they had been so badly starved. How she survived I don't know... due to this, I think, she has learned to escape from just about anywhere. In the summer we had a few incidents of her barging through electric tape and jumping fences but nothing major as it was summer, there was lots of grass and she was less inclined to escape. However, now its winter, there is hardly any grass and my girl is constantly jumping out of her field! She is 14.1 at present but can jump a five bar gate, I have watched her. Mostly she just wanders to the nearest patch of grass, puts her head down and eats.
However, Sunday morning I arrived at the yard, looked around and she was gone, as well as my other pony, Fred, and my friends mini shetland, the fence had been ploughed down, literally. My partner and I searched the farm and I called the police. We searched the village and surrounding woods. I was completely beside myself. Called horsey friends and asked them for help. As friends were driving to yard they happened to glance into a field by the side of the road (about 5 miles from my yard) and saw the three ponies! Turns out the police had found them on the road in the middle of the night (this is an A road) and herded them into a field. The owner of the livery yard where they were found then moved them so they could be seen from the main road in case people were out looking for them (which we were the next morning).
We got them home and I put them out with my other horses and thought this might stop them from escaping as they prefer to be together. Got to yard yesterday morning and both Bess and Fred were out again, still on the farm and grazing happily. I put them back into their original field and mended the fence which had been ploughed through as didn't know what else to do. Went up yesterday evening and they were still where I had left them and I heaved a sigh of relief.
Got to yard this morning and they were out again! They had gone through a different part of the fence this time. I have now put them in another field, it's further away from the other horses and I hate it. It's where the farmer dumps all his old farm equipment and I don't feel it is suitable for livestock. I have put up electric tape around the equipment but don't want them in their at all really.
The fencing is so old and is in desperate need of replacing - which I have been on to the farmer about for ages, he's been promising to get it replaced since I moved to the yard three years ago! I don't have stables and I can't move to a yard as have five horses. I have been desperately looking for somewhere else but at present can't find anything suitable. I just don't know what to do and I am so worried that ponies are going to get seriously injured or cause an accident.
Any advice would be appreciated... Thanks for reading massive post.