Public feeding/petting horses

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Lychee

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Hi everyone and happy new year! I’m wondering if anyone could advise on this please. My horses are at home and my field is next to a private field belonging to a farmer. There are no signs to say that it’s private. On some occasions I’ve seen people come on to the farmer’s field to make a fuss of my horses. It’s not very often as my house is next to the field and I think most people work out its private. Today a family with a small child came and were stroking them and feeding them bread so my husband went out and had a friendly word. I’m just wondering how I could prevent this from happening in the future. My concern is not only about them being fed but the safety of the people interacting with them. One of the horses can nip, and if they squabble, a hoof could potentially go through the fence etc. I’m thinking a sign is my only option and hope that people take notice. Has anyone had success with this and if so how to word in a friendly but firm way?! Thanks.
 
Won’t hurt trying signs.
There is a field near my house next to quite a busy pavement and loads of people stop to say hi and feed. Once the owner said people had lifted their child into the field to pat the new foal! So dangerous.
Makes me glad mine are slightly out of the way from the footpath that goes trough the farm they are at.
 
I did put a sign up when my 2 were next to a car park. Sign #1 was polite but was replaced by less polite sign #2 as people ignored it.

I think sign #2 said something like "this horse is on a vet approved diet and if you feed her she will get sick - and you can pay my vet bills"
 
Put signs up, don't be polite, those ones will be ignored! I had loads of hassle with some of my ponies that were next to a busy road. I ended up putting up signs (that regularly got removed by idiots ...) Basically saying that these ponies were not to be fed anything at all, if any became ill YOU would be responisble for the vets bills etc and I put up a load of CCTV signs. It did deter most people! The nursery/child minders from the town would walk the kids out in push chairs once or twice a week to see the ponies and were most upset at the signs as they always took carrots for the ponies. I spoke to them and so long as they fed whole carrots, no more than 2 each pony and held them the way I showed them I had no issue with the kids feeding them. But it was the idiots feeding them bread & Jelly tots (Yes I found a bunch of kids IN the field feeding them bags and bags of jelly tots! And shetlands will eat ANYTHING!) that I didn't want around.
 
I have horses that do public displays and spend time in small paddocks next to the display area. I have signs that say "These Horses Bite!" (they don't) and "Please Don't Feed the Horses". I'll not bore you with the long litany of completely stupid things members of the public are capable of, including putting a BABY on the back of a loose horse...........
 
I would be careful putting up signs saying the horses bite or kick as you are then admitting that they do it o if some idiot gets themselves bitten by doing something stupid you will probably have a claim put in against you - as is the way of the world these days!
 
EKW said:
I would be careful putting up signs saying the horses bite or kick as you are then admitting that they do it o if some idiot gets themselves bitten by doing something stupid you will probably have a claim put in against you - as is the way of the world these days!
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This is a fallacy you just have to have enough of them - and a strong keep out message - people are expected by the courts to follow simple instructions and if they have been warned about impending doom and ignore it that is evolution at work. Just make sure if you are going to sign you put up a lot of signs
 
We have had to put signs up, they say "DO NO FEED THE ANIMALS" We also have signs saying there is no public access to the field. We have dry stone walls and fence with electric fencing away from the wall, it stops most people, but we did have one local dog walker who threw cattle creep feed over the wall and fence! A strong word was had :D
 
Thanks everyone for the replies - all very helpful suggestions. I can’t believe some of the stories about what people will do with babies/children and horses they don’t know!

I shall start with signs then and also include one about no public access if the farmer agrees.

Thanks again.
 
The has and illness and is on a special diet, feeding will make them sick seems to work quite well for others. Thankfully we have enough hedge between us and the footpath and they are fenced off the gate. We have a neighbour who has always fed them when he does the birds but is losing his memory and can’t remember that he’s already done so (and the feed items have got more bizarre) so we’ve had to fence them off that bit.
 
I had to do this with my loan pony who was next to a footpath on Salisbury Plain - her companion Shetland would attempt to savage the loose dogs who came into the field and lost track of the number of dog poos I picked up. The landowner received a rather snotty note about the "feral and downright dangerous child's pony" going after a labrador which was in the pony's field. A "these horses will bite" accompanied by a "you will be held liable for all injury as a result of feeding and dog worrying", "do not trespass" and CCTV signs did the trick mostly.
 
I have a sign on the fence saying something along the lines of 'These horses are on a special diet due to illness. PLEASE DO NOT FEED THEM.' Which whilst not exactly a lie, is maybe stretching the truth a bit. My main defence is just running electric fence a few meters away from the fence, so the horses can't get up to it and people will have a harder time throwing stuff over to them. Sure, it means I lose out on about 160m2 of grazing, but it's not worth placing my trust in the general public.
 
A friend of mine with a horse and two shetties was chatting in the village street to a young mum the other day who has two small children, a baby and a toddler. The mum said to my friend ‘we love walking through your field and Hermione always likes to have a ride on your little grey pony’. Oh, how adorable! 😂😂
My friend was rather shocked, to put it mildly.
 
I have put 2 fake (with flashing LED) cameras and double fenced (so people cannot lean over) where there is a gate from a footpath.

I have had a sack of grass cuttings fly tipped in the paddock that they were grazing in, but it fell in the gap between the two fences.
 
I've had people park up infants in push chairs behind ponies whilst trying to get a photo of the other child having a pony ride. They were so close as to be at risk of getting shat on, never mind kicked! I'd love to say that this is due to lack of knowledge, but really, honestly, I just think 'the public' are as thick as bricks.
 
I was asked this weekend if someone could feed bread to the horses. I explained that, no, they should never do that or it would make them ill. The trouble is, people are well meaning but often misguided. Thank goodness they asked first in this instance though. That’s the second person I’ve stopped in their tracks by the way.
 
i had a woman shove a pram under my pony's nose, causing him to back rapidly into a ditch. She asked disapprovingly "does it not like babies then?".
 
TBH, when people will stand next to a 'DO NOT FEED' sign at the zoo, throwing apples to chimpanzees, I don't honestly think that we horse-owners have much chance of common-sense prevailing. I do think that very obvious cctv is extremely useful.
 
Our yard is on a public footpath, but most people are dog walkers from the local houses and are very good about staying away from the horses. Occasionally we get families come along and wander down the barn aisles to stroke the horses. I have a sign on my stables warning people that my horses are on special diets for medical reasons and can be made extremely ill if fed (in all fairness, this sign went up when hooligan and Diva were alive, so it was true). It seems to work as people don’t feed them.

I caught a family feeding friends horses a loaf of bread, I went and explained to them politely why they shouldn’t feed them and they were genuinely quite shocked and apologetic. People just don’t realise in most cases.
I’d definitely try a sign.
 
I grew up dealing with the public and the whole horse feeding thing it was bliss to finally move here .
The field sided a children’s play area and the they spent the whole time being feed industrial amounts of horsey junk food .
They hung around wearing faces apporiate to a horse hauling stone in a street market abroad .
But it was grass clippings that did for the Shetland .
It did not matter what you did the dummies got on them and fell off although the our neighbour was happy when a stupid youth backed his huge three year old .
 
"DO NOT FEED, I BITE" signs should sort out all but the illiterate/youngest of children.

I've only once heard of someone feeding my horse/s without my permission and I was furious. Everyone who has horses in the field with my two mares are warned not to feed them as one in particular gets extremely bargy and as the dominant mare won't actually let any horses out the field/near the handler if she associates the person handling said third party horse with food.
 
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Starzaan said:
Best sign I've ever seen is a friend who lost a horse to idiots feeding potato peelings over the fence.

She put a photo of the horse on the sign, and it read "RIP Duchess - killed by people feeding her over the fence. DO NOT FEED THE HORSES".
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So sad - I used to loan an older pony as a companion / occasional hack for my mum when she visited. He went back to his owners when I got another horse. I knew he died a couple of years ago but found out not so long ago that it was due to someone feeding him potatoes. I would have put up a similar sign. RIP Rosco
 
case895 said:
I have put 2 fake (with flashing LED) cameras and double fenced (so people cannot lean over) where there is a gate from a footpath.

I have had a sack of grass cuttings fly tipped in the paddock that they were grazing in, but it fell in the gap between the two fences.
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I used to have my horses in field by a road surrounded by a housing estate and got people tipping grass cuttings - and getting very arsey when I objected. Would they like it if I tipped my crap in their gardens?
 
Pearlsacarolsinger said:
TBH, when people will stand next to a 'DO NOT FEED' sign at the zoo, throwing apples to chimpanzees, I don't honestly think that we horse-owners have much chance of common-sense prevailing. I do think that very obvious cctv is extremely useful.
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There’s a zoo near us where the staff had sprayed weed killer on weeds by the animal enclosure - complete with warning signs. Cue the public picking the grass and feeding to the animals. Mind you I think the zoo staff should have worked on the basis that the public are stupid and would ignore warning signs
 
Lychee said:
I’m thinking a sign is my only option and hope that people take notice. Has anyone had success with this and if so how to word in a friendly but firm way?! Thanks.
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A footpath goes through our paddock so, we had the usual problems. When one pony was diagnosed with PPID, we put up this sign.
Best part about this was, apart from the treat's no longer being given but, the walkers would ask all about her health condition. If the public are educated (even on a basic level) than that does stop a lot of treating/petting.

Other sign ideas are available here

cushings.jpg
 
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