AdorableAlice
Well-Known Member
Arrive at my yard for the final put to bed at 8.30pm last night and find a strangers car on the hard standing outside. A nice gentleman tells me a group of children, (they turned out to be Scouts and Brownies all looked under 14) were doing a midnight ramble. The nice gentleman was to man the lane crossing were a public footpath crosses from my neighbours wheat field onto my grazing land. The path then runs through one big field with cows in and 2 small paddocks and between the cattle shed and rear of a block of 6 boxes.
I was told there were 150 children coming in groups of 20 ish. Bear in mind it is now dark, wet, cold, windy and in the middle of nowhere.
It's a well known and popular path which doesn't cause any problems normally, we tend to see the same people using it through the summer and it is less used in winter.
I thought it best to put the cows/calves and the bull in the shed and put the light on which gave some light onto the stile the walkers would have to use.
In the smaller paddock I had a mare and her weaned foal/yearling which I intended to catch. Unfortunately the first group of children got into the paddocks before I could catch them and all hell let loose. 20 screaming kids in hi-vis jackets with head torches, the children were spread out in a train and some got in front of the yearling and some behind, the mare panicked and shot off in the opposite direction to the yearling. The adult walker at the front of the train opened the gate onto my neighbours land and the yearling went for the gate, the big mare turned and galloped after the yearling scattering the children ................and I went fecking ballistic !!!!......and to add insult to injury my stabled horses had all lost the plot and were spinning like tops in their boxes.
The next group of children had yet to arrive so I caught the totally distressed mare and yearling and got them inside. The yearling settled immediately but the mare who is a very placid cob normally had lost the plot, she was terrified, panting, sweating and shaking.
Another 8 groups crossed the paddocks in the space of 2 hours, the horses could hear them coming from miles away, I had no idea sound could travel so well in the dark and when they reached my yard the horses could see the head torches which drove the horses potty. Even the cattle started charging around the shed making lots of noise.
The organisers did apologise and it is a public footpath so anyone can go on it at any time and there is nothing I can do about it or complain to.
It took ages for the stock to calm down and in the mare's case cool down, thankfully she is not in foal this year. I was incensed last night and cannot imagine what pleasure all these young children got from wallking 12 miles on a cold windy night in pitch black very wet fields.
What on earth would I be facing if that mare had trampled a child, it does not bear thinking about.
I was told there were 150 children coming in groups of 20 ish. Bear in mind it is now dark, wet, cold, windy and in the middle of nowhere.
It's a well known and popular path which doesn't cause any problems normally, we tend to see the same people using it through the summer and it is less used in winter.
I thought it best to put the cows/calves and the bull in the shed and put the light on which gave some light onto the stile the walkers would have to use.
In the smaller paddock I had a mare and her weaned foal/yearling which I intended to catch. Unfortunately the first group of children got into the paddocks before I could catch them and all hell let loose. 20 screaming kids in hi-vis jackets with head torches, the children were spread out in a train and some got in front of the yearling and some behind, the mare panicked and shot off in the opposite direction to the yearling. The adult walker at the front of the train opened the gate onto my neighbours land and the yearling went for the gate, the big mare turned and galloped after the yearling scattering the children ................and I went fecking ballistic !!!!......and to add insult to injury my stabled horses had all lost the plot and were spinning like tops in their boxes.
The next group of children had yet to arrive so I caught the totally distressed mare and yearling and got them inside. The yearling settled immediately but the mare who is a very placid cob normally had lost the plot, she was terrified, panting, sweating and shaking.
Another 8 groups crossed the paddocks in the space of 2 hours, the horses could hear them coming from miles away, I had no idea sound could travel so well in the dark and when they reached my yard the horses could see the head torches which drove the horses potty. Even the cattle started charging around the shed making lots of noise.
The organisers did apologise and it is a public footpath so anyone can go on it at any time and there is nothing I can do about it or complain to.
It took ages for the stock to calm down and in the mare's case cool down, thankfully she is not in foal this year. I was incensed last night and cannot imagine what pleasure all these young children got from wallking 12 miles on a cold windy night in pitch black very wet fields.
What on earth would I be facing if that mare had trampled a child, it does not bear thinking about.