Rant. Someone cutting my fences !!

Funkyfilly024

Funkyfilly024

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Grrrr, Cant belive the cheek of some people !

Walking the feild line the other day, its mainly hedge but a few gaps filled in with planks and wire. Couldnt belive it - some one has actually snipped through the wire to make a gap in the boundary they could walk through :O
Ive seen a man walking his dog in our field, i dont know if its him but im too scared to confront him and ask if he knows anything, hes a big bloke with a beard and, well, a bit shifty looking ! :S
Before the wire has just been bent back and I have regularly re-wound it, but now it has acually been cut.
Looking further along the land there are other field (not in use) but also peices of fence broken and wound back which I have continually put back in place and now it looks like some has actually been sawn through. Further down some page wire has been cut too!

Its really peeing me off ! The is a public right of way through some other fields, properly gated and signposted with a track that whoever this person/people is can use !

Any ideas/suggestions/help please !!??? Anyone want to guess as if whos doing it?! :S
I am going to put signs up asking people not to as it shall be regarded as criminal damage and reported. But - the land this is happening is on is rented to us and tbh the landowners (a large national water company!) really couldnt give a **** so I dont know where we stand!

On a little note ! Dont worry I have repaired the fences so horsies and sheep are still contained. Hopefully just sit and wait to see if it happens again, but with new fencing materials cost I bloomin well hope it doesnt !

Massive reward if you made it through reading this ! :D
 
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How frustrating, I feel for you.
We have a footpath going through a couple of our field and it seems to us over the years people just think they can go wherever, whenever.
We have had the fences trashed with people going through where they are not supposed to, because its too 'muddy' to stick to their footpath.

Whenever we have politely asked anyone to stick to the footpath it has always been met with abuse from the other side.

The horse are free to roam through most of the fields so the people are not fenced back, but why should they be?

After years of problems we found the best solution was to electric the footpath off, using the legal width of course. Now we have nobody outside of their walking boundary. The can't climb over it like a fence. Its a cheap way of doing it too.

We also contacted the council and complained about the walkers, they were quite helpful actually and provided new signs. They were annoyed we had suffered so much.

Its always a nightmare when you have footpaths on land, I will never ever have a footpath running over the horses fields if we ever move!
 
The most important thing is to ensure that you have got third party public liability insurance of no less than £10,000,000 (Ten Million) as you are responsible for any accidents that your horses cause even if it is not your fault. Many insurance companies do not offer this level of insurance so make sure you ahve got it. If you are a 'Gold' member of the BHS it comes with the membership package.

You can use electric fencing but it has to be well clear of the public footpath and you must also display the recognised yellow electric fence warning signs along it every 10 metres and also at the begining and end of it's run. It must not come in contact with any gates or stiles.

The ideal solution is to re-fence the field with post and rail fencing with Equi-Fencing (a tight form of sheep netting) on it as this will prevent dogs getting through.
 
Ludacrous when they think they can cut and trample fields and put our livestock at risk of escaping ! :O

I have a little niggling thought that maby aswell as the odd dog-walker we may have someone getting into the fields to set up snares, not the horses ones, the grass is too short, but the ones that are ley. :( our poor cat was found by a neighbour a year ago with a snare around her tummy (thank-fully was okay :) )

Gets me fed up the people who walk their dogs there, a padlocked lane seperates our field side from the public field side (the horses are not in the public right of way field), So its like 2 sides of a road. They only need walk 50 or so yards to the west, its not like there isnt anywhere for them to go (i could prehaps have sympathy then )

Thank-you much for the local council suggestion, i will get onto that and if my fence gets nobbled then, electric fence I think will have to be the way.
 
Repair it and put a polite notice up where the repair is, pointing out the obvious that there are livestock in the field and they could escape through the gap and come to harm, and directions (maybe a map even) showing the available footpath route.

Cheap, and should't offend and cause further problems if done nicely.
 
If they are cutting through fencing within a hedge can you tip something slimy & organic so they get covered if they try to do it again?


I had this problem and a couple of buckets of kennel waste did the trick. Chicken or pig muck would be equally effective but even tipping a couple of barrows of manure would put off most trespassers.
 
I do sympathise. I've always had problems with walkers doing what they like in and around my fields. I used to rent a field years ago where they were too lazy to go over the stile and so made a hole in the fence next to it. I helpfully put an upright post there, so people could squeeze through but ponies couldn't. Somebody removed it. Same field had a long stretch of hedge which some bright spark cut through so they could walk their dog on the hay crop next door, resulting in both ponies getting into said crop. Farmer was really peed off, but he was reasonable enough to realise it wasn't my fault (and he HATED walkers, as their dogs ****t on his crops all the time).

The fields I use the most do have one footpath, but no fence cutting problems. Different story with my third field, which has no footpath, but somebody has been using it as an alternative route to the pub and I regularly find the top wire cut. We've had to put stock netting along that side, just so that when they cut the wire, the ponies stay put. It's not even a short cut! They can't save more than 10-15 metres and when you consider that they have to climb a gate, a fence and get wet feet/muddy legs - really, is it worth it, when there's a clean lane to amble down???

Round em up like cattle and have em shot like pigs. That's what we used to say oop North...
 
s4sugar said:
If they are cutting through fencing within a hedge can you tip something slimy & organic so they get covered if they try to do it again?

I had this problem and a couple of buckets of kennel waste did the trick. Chicken or pig muck would be equally effective but even tipping a couple of barrows of manure would put off most trespassers.
Click to expand...

Excellent idea - probably some yokel that has always cut through there - no one likes getting muddy / filthy, so repair and cover floor in front of the gap with nasty stuff
 
s4sugar said:
If they are cutting through fencing within a hedge can you tip something slimy & organic so they get covered if they try to do it again?


I had this problem and a couple of buckets of kennel waste did the trick. Chicken or pig muck would be equally effective but even tipping a couple of barrows of manure would put off most trespassers.
Click to expand...

Love this idea - very devious but well within your rights! I almost want a field where people cut through to try this out lol!
 
We have rights of way through all 3 of our fields with kissing gates for people to use to get through. All well and good but the local kids (under 10 yrs) have decided it is great fun to come into the field and go up to the nice horsies and smack them around the head :mad: :mad: It is my youngster that is getting hit and I'm having problems with her getting head shy now :(


So tempted to cattle prod the little darlings ;)






And yes before I get shot down in flames I have spoken to the kids in question very nicely and explained that it is wrong for them to do this and that one day they may just pick on the wrong horse to smack and find themselves getting bitten or kicked. Kids agreed it was wrong and said they would stop. Bella is getting worse with her head though :(
 
s4sugar said:
If they are cutting through fencing within a hedge can you tip something slimy & organic so they get covered if they try to do it again?


I had this problem and a couple of buckets of kennel waste did the trick. Chicken or pig muck would be equally effective but even tipping a couple of barrows of manure would put off most trespassers.
Click to expand...

Brilliant idea ! We have ducks and chickens, next time their sheds get cleaned out I think its a few wheelbarrows down the field :D
 
Just been back to check the fences today. One section already kicked in again ! :@ the other looking like they have tried but not suceeded (Probs due to barbed wire nailed in) . This makes me think more they are setting snares as why so determined (the field doesnt lead anywhere) ? Hey ho . Not going to give up though, will be back out tomorrow to repair again. Think it will be a battle of the wills !! Have also put my polite but firm sign up, next up is a wheelbarrow of muck added in the fence area too!
 
I had a mate who worked for a cess pit emptying company, his lorry load of cess pit sludge would do nicely for this job, you could have a deep pool of it for the unsuspecting twit next time he decides to try his luck,he'd be upto his neck in it with a bit of luck! Oz :)
 
Electric fencing wired up to the mains is possible, if not the heaviest duty battery/batteries you can find and blow the bugger ti kingdom come :D
 
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