Stray horses appeared at front gate this morning!

pip6

pip6

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Having done our horses, we just went inside the house to start getting ready for work, & the dogs started to bark. Looked out the window, a large coloured horse (about 17hh) & Shettie walking in through front gate (left open ready for cars to leave shortly). They proceeded to go round side of house & start trashing well manicured lawn!:mad:

Got headcollars, caught big mare, shi**y shettie wouldn't be caught & tried to run past & kick me. Managed to get them into yard (off lawn), shettie following mare, round & after 5 minutes into end field. Problem is we have a 2 month old foal in one of fields & very protective mum trying to lunge over gate to shettie I would suspect is rig. Refused to be intimidated by *****ty thing & got them into end field, so at least one between them & mare/foal.

Rang police, didn't want to know as we had got horses off orad. Said would make enquiries but not take horses. We're not a flaming holding pen for them to abuse!!!:mad:Want horses off land ASAP as upsetting everything, & on our land, we don't know if carrying a virus or when last wormed, do not want them on our field. What are we meant to do, let them go to wander onto A road 200 yards down end of road??!:mad: So unimpressed at police response, next time wont catch them but just report them as on the road!!

Ringing around neighbours managed to locate owner, phone on voicemail:mad::mad:

Now late for work, wet through as in work shoes when all kicked off, got to work late. Friend has had to stay behind until owner decides to turn her phone on.

Have heard their fencing is rubbish, know the horses have zilch manners from experience (yet owner is meant to be Parelli trainer). Obviously not used to electric, as mare went to lean over fence to get grass, got belt (from line with lowest charge on it as furthest from yard), ended up as wobbly jelly on knees!:eek: Might have learnt a good lesson though, not to lean on fences. Never know, may save it's life in future by dissuading it from breaking out of field.:(

Rant over, waiting to hear when owner bothers to get out of bed. Hot choccy anyone? You deserve it for getting this far!
 
I would contact your BHS welfare officer asap. The fencing needs addressing urgently, for the safety of the horses when they go back.

Hope it works out - last thing you need. x
 
I agree give the BHS a ring and see if they will give the owner a kick up,the backside .
It's a hard one if your horses strayed or got loose you would want some one to rescue them and you could not just chase them out and leave them too it .
But the police have no where to take them, or any way to deal with this.
 
Was in a very similar situation a few weeks ago, the police asked me what I thought I should do :rolleyes3: I couldn't catch either of my strays and the Shetland could fit under the post and rail :eek3: Owner however was very apologetic and did come and get them. Good luck, hope they don't cause too much more grief.
 
You have my sympathies. Our field is next door to another which is home to about 15 assorted coloured cobs and sh***y shetties ( draw you own conclusions ;) ) and despite the owner being responsible for the dividing fence their foals used to climb through the fence, Shetlands under it and eat our grass and the same- no doubt never wormed and full of lice ( along with breeding up to 10 foals a year none of which get passported or chipped and all colts mysteriously die or " disappear".... I moaned continually to no avail until their "prized" stallion ( :/ ) got in..... ( this was after they had said they didn't want my registered, passported sec C getting in with their coloured mares :/ )anyway it ran towards my sec D gelding who proceeded to get him through into smaller paddock, backed into the bloody thing and kicked the living s**t out of it! Fence soon got mended but it took 2 years to get there!!!
Damn annoying, around here they are always loose as tethered at roadsides and police completely disinterested. :(
Good luck getting sorted.
 
Person collected them at 9am. Big coloured mare belongs to farm down next lane, girl has it in to teach it to load. Evidently it's nearly 4 & they've done very little with it (explains why it was rearing on end of lead rope - not fun when they are that big). Other 'thing', is another livery in for backing. Known to be a g*t to catch & generally do anything with. Very irresponsible when you take 'work' / 'projects' in, to put them in fields with such poor fencing, but then didn't owners check where they were to be kept?

Large animals get out, especially in a rural community like ours. Police should have an agreement with someone (local charity?) whereby animals can be collected & held pending finding owners. They should not force members of the public with a care about the animals not roaming onto main trunk roads to hold them whilst they think about coming out & looking into where they may have come from. Next time gate is staying shut. Let the police & owners deal with the mess when they get on the A road.
 
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With stray animals, I read somewhere recently that if you take them onto your land/premises, then they become YOUR responsibility to house/feed/tend until the police/RSPCA/authorities can trace the owners.

A few weeks ago I was called-out (because I'm a horsey person and the neighbourhood watch have got my details) to help roundup and identify 2 loose horses. I went down there with two old dog leads to make rope halters out of, and with help from a local traveller, the horses were caught, (they weren't his), and we stood there holding one each for ages as the two police officers had nowhere to take or put them. I phoned around and texted friends to get onto facebook and post the horses' descriptions as I didn't recognise them as local horses. The police waited for a local horse dealer to arrive at his field to see if they were his. He arrived, they weren't. But he did agree to take them in. Luckily about halfhour later I got a call back from friends to say they'd located the owner and she was on her way to collect them. And I got my dogleads back too. So all ended well.
 
pip6 said:
Large animals get out, especially in a rural community like ours. Police should have an agreement with someone (local charity?) whereby animals can be collected & held pending finding owners. They should not force members of the public with a care about the animals not roaming onto main trunk roads to hold them whilst they think about coming out & looking into where they may have come from. Next time gate is staying shut. Let the police & owners deal with the mess when they get on the A road.
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Annoying as it is, if you find loose horses, I would treat them how you would like your horses to be treated if they were lose.

No one can ever guarantee their horses wont get out. I have know fences smashed by tresspassers and gates lifted off hinges etc.

We should all assume it could be our horses and be kind.

Slightly different if horses are known escape artists with irresponsible owners, and there is a risk of them getting stuck in your field.
 
Our yard has multiple gates for them to get through before road. All gates are bolted, & chains/padlocks to prevent them being lifted off hinges. Fencing in excellent order, with live electric fence on top of posts. In addition to fences property surrounded by Devon banks, not easily smashed through. We've put the time & effort into the fencing.

Place where horses escaped mainly holey hedges with occasional strand of barbed wire or rotton wodden plank. Very little grass in fields encouraging horses to lean over fence (very restricted grazing for number of animals). No electric in fields whatsoever (why mare fell to ground experiencing electric shock for first time this morning).

Why should I be responsible for other peoples horses when they wont take responsibilty themselves? If they'd tried, but something had happened, no problem. When you know they don't bother with something as easy as putting up electric inside rubbish fence, I don't feel inclined to sort out their mess.

They are being paid to take care of someone elses horse, surely ensuring adequate fencing is a basic level of care. They are not poor people! These two horses have trashed a lawn & a paddock, caused 2 people to be late for work, upset 5 horses including a mare & foal.
 
bouncing_ball said:
Annoying as it is, if you find loose horses, I would treat them how you would like your horses to be treated if they were lose.

No one can ever guarantee their horses wont get out. I have know fences smashed by tresspassers and gates lifted off hinges etc.

We should all assume it could be our horses and be kind.

Slightly different if horses are known escape artists with irresponsible owners, and there is a risk of them getting stuck in your field.
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This!
 
One of my neighbours horses get out all the time and they always come wandering over to my farm to 'speak' to the horses here. It's a fair old hike to my farm from hers but it's across farmland, no roads to contend with. I used to catch them up and put them in an empty paddock but I don't any more. I just leave a message on her answering machine telling her there are here. She usually rolls up an hour later to collect them and takes them home. Sometimes she does have to wander around the farm (it's a decent sized farm) to find them and I don't help her anymore. I have shed loads of horses on my farm and they don't get out and wander over to her farm but if they did then I'd do something about it. Difference is my farm is very well fenced and even if they did get out they wouldn't go anywhere. Hers is not and to be honest (and harsh in some peoples eyes) it's not my problem.
 
I wouldn't want any horse of mine being sent away to a yard where they wouldn't be safe. Fencing is a pretty basic requirement and who knows what could have happened if the horses had gotten onto a busy road.

I know it must be frustrating op, but well done for holding them till the owner could be contacted, can't blame the poor horses, it's not their fault. I can imagine how annoying and inconvenient it was for you, as a similar thing has happened to me before too.

Is there someone sensible at said yard that you could have a word with? Sounds like they need a good talking to! Perhaps you should threaten them with a bill for damages to your lawn- it's bad enough if your own horses trashed your garden- worse still that it was someone else's!!
 
I have over the years been on both sides of this situation.

I regularly used to have to catch ponies belonging to one owner who failed to fence them in properly enabling them to stray onto my land and indeed once she knew that I would feed and care for them, left them for three days! After that I regret to say that I shut my gates and eyes and sent them on their way to the village where they were caught and stabled by the local vet and a large livery bill incurred!

I have also been subjected to the fence/gate vandals - they do have other names as well - and no matter how well you fence, gate, padlock etc your horses will get out. Do not be too sure that it could not happen to you because it did to us and we have double fencing with hedges and gates (locked) but these determined thieves just want to gain access to your buildings and are not the slightest bit concerned about the welfare of your horses. No one is totally safe.

If this is the first time that these horses have escaped I would suggest tolerance but equally I would suggest to the owners that they must either physically repair your lawn etc or pay the bill for someone else to do so - this is only correct if your escaped animals cause damage. That is a convenient moment to mention the state of their fencing! Let us hope they appreciate your care and time and arrive tonight with some gift
in recognition of your inconvenience.
 
Agree with Star with this - it might happen to you one day.

One of our cattle got out last week (we suspect being chased by a neighbour's dog) and then jumped the fence when someone tried to shut him in their garden - that IS a good neighbour. We searched lanes and told all neighbours and then rang the Police, and our son waded the length of the stream in case he had been thirsty and got trapped in the water.Then son had to be rescued by a passer-by as he couldn't get out the water! Cow was found after 36 hours at the bottom of a neighbour's field next to a horse field, yet he had gone past 2 bunches of cattle. It was a worrying time and we were very relieved to get him back in one piece.

So no-one can ever know when their animals might escape due to all sorts of reasons. There have been hunters that disappeared when the rider fell off.

I agree that anyone with poor fencing should get a visit from SOMEONE because the most worrying thing is the thought of a stray animal causing an accident with a car and there being injuries.
 
Guess what happened when person did turn on phone. she wanted to know which field they were in so she could come collect them later in day. No, you come & get them now. My friend was already late for work waiting for her to ring back, & no-way were we leaving property open for her to wander in/around unattended. Absolutely no reason why she couldn't collect them immediately & put them in stables until she had fixed the fencing, but no, she'd rather take advantage of our fields. Comment when she arrived, 'they wont want to go back, you've got grass'. Yes, because we don't overgraze & take in additional animals for money to school etc. She wanted to leave them to get a bellyfull as she doesn't have any grass worth speaking of.

Did she offer to pay for damage or help repair lawn? No. Did some flowers or wine arrive last night in thanks? No.

Our fencing is not like hers. Ther perimeter of the property is surrounded by devon banks. There is no way horses will go through or over them. We have fence posts which aren't rotton supporting the fencing between the fields. On top the fencing we run electric (as we used to have a stallion). According to a friend who has recently seen her fencing, she expected the big one just leaned over it & shettie went under.

Why should we suffer damage to our property & potentially horses (who went nuts with these two running up to the field gates, not good as we have a 2 month old colt with his very protective mum)? For our pains of showing more care to their clients horses than they do, we just get left sorting out the mess & them trying to take advantage of us by attempting to leave the animals as long as possible to eat our grass & damage our paddock (load of skid marks out there). Why on earth would we do it again? This morning the gates stayed locked until the last moment before I left for work.
 
I am pleased to advise you that the BHS working with other welfare organisations are organising 'Green Fields' sites were abandoned horses or welfare case horses may be taken. There will be several sites in each county.

Ownes of horses should be aware that they should take out 'Third Party Public Liabilitry Insurance' for their horse(s) to no less than £10,000,000 (Ten Million Pounds) as a recent court case demonstrated that insurance is needed to that level. Be aware that most insurers do not cover to this level so check your policy. Under law horse owners are responsible fo any damage that their horses cause be it their fault or nyone elses.
 
pip6 said:
Guess what happened when person did turn on phone. she wanted to know which field they were in so she could come collect them later in day. No, you come & get them now. My friend was already late for work waiting for her to ring back, & no-way were we leaving property open for her to wander in/around unattended. Absolutely no reason why she couldn't collect them immediately & put them in stables until she had fixed the fencing, but no, she'd rather take advantage of our fields. Comment when she arrived, 'they wont want to go back, you've got grass'. Yes, because we don't overgraze & take in additional animals for money to school etc. She wanted to leave them to get a bellyfull as she doesn't have any grass worth speaking of.

Did she offer to pay for damage or help repair lawn? No. Did some flowers or wine arrive last night in thanks? No.

Our fencing is not like hers. Ther perimeter of the property is surrounded by devon banks. There is no way horses will go through or over them. We have fence posts which aren't rotton supporting the fencing between the fields. On top the fencing we run electric (as we used to have a stallion). According to a friend who has recently seen her fencing, she expected the big one just leaned over it & shettie went under.

Why should we suffer damage to our property & potentially horses (who went nuts with these two running up to the field gates, not good as we have a 2 month old colt with his very protective mum)? For our pains of showing more care to their clients horses than they do, we just get left sorting out the mess & them trying to take advantage of us by attempting to leave the animals as long as possible to eat our grass & damage our paddock (load of skid marks out there). Why on earth would we do it again? This morning the gates stayed locked until the last moment before I left for work.
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There's strict liability on the owner /keeper for damage caused by straying horses, especially if forseeable due to poor fencing.

If she won't pay up for the damage/times I would take her to small claims. This isn't a good owner where vandals have opened a gate of a well fenced field or a horse where the rider has come off the horse and it has made its way to you, the least they can do is pay for the damage.

The only way it won't happen again and she change her attitude is to hit her in her pocket, and not be out of pocket yourself.

Good luck.
 
Hmm, I also generally think there but for the grace of god, when it comes to loose horses. You never know when an unfortunate combination of circumstances (open gates / fence jumper / electric-resistant pony / ditched on hack etc) might occur and it's your beasts running loose. That said, this person's attitude sucks - she should have been round straight away this morning, apologising, offering to pay for damage and brandishing bribery this evening. And obviously sorting out their fencing...

I utterly embarassed myself with a loose horse situation yesterday. I was driving up the big A road to my field, spotted a cob on the far edge of a crop field, eating the crop. I double took to check it A) was loose, B) unaccompanied, C) untacked and D) NOT MINE(!) and thought "oh heck"... I drove the half mile or so to my own field, liberated my highlands (and triple checked my own cob was still in his field!) and picked up a headcollar to go and catch the loose one.

Flippin' thing was tethered on a patch of grass on the bridleway, owner was there seeing to it and I was standing in horror with headcollar over shoulder repeating "I thought it was loose, honest to goodness I'm not here to nick your horse!" :eek: *backs hastily away*
 
Thank you for doing the right thing by the horses, its not their fault and rather unfair to label the shetland ******, poor thing, hopefully yours will never escape. The lord looks down on everything we do and he will reward you whilst you may not realise it.
 
Unfair? Really? When on several occasions as it ran past me tearing up the lawn it tried to take a side swipe at be with its back legs? Big or small I'd be calling it names. Then there was the front end which was hardly sweetness & light either.

I will help someone who needds help, I do not appreciate being taken advantage of by either the police or the person responsible. If they had made an effort to provide secure fencing & had suffered vandalism, then said thank you & at least offered to tread the divots into the lawn, I'd be more than happy to help. BUT. They have so little care about the animals in their responsibity, they do not repair fencing & it is totally inadequate despite the fact large parts are alongside the lane with holey hedges & little else. They do this know that at the end of the lane is an A road. so who do you think you should be having a go at here? we are on the same lane, & use mulitple gates & devon banks and electric above other fencing to ensure our animals are kept safe. We even chain & padlck the gates to the posts so they cannot be taken off the hinges. We take our responsibilities to our animals & our road users very seriously. If you own land & keep it in good order, you don't appreciate someone else who overgrazes for profit deliberately trying to leave their horses on your land for longer than minimum in order to get some grass into them.

She is making money from these animals, it is no-one elses (definately not mine) responsibility but hers to provide adequate grazing & safe fencing. Maybe she should put some of the money she earns back into providing a suitable set up & reducing the number of animals on the land. As I said before, these are not people struggling to make ends meet. It is a posh house, not a field down a back lane with tin shed set up (not kocking it befoer anyone gets offended, just trying to show they really have no excuse).

I don't see you having a go at the people in the 4 houses they passed before they got to us telling them how heartless they are for not taking poor sweetie shettie & lovely big rearing mare in & leaving them on the road. They might have a stray pooch one day that gets out a hole in the fence & the other people might find it, so they should have caught / cared for these animals & let their land get trashed / grass eaten / possibly animals including foal injured whilst person responsible has a nice lie in & tries to leave them there a while before bothering to collect them.
 
Many people have to tolerate irresponsible neighbours, its a part of life. People can't really ignore loose animals on the road. Fortunately, having a car that resembles a saddlery, I have a couple of headcollars in the boot which have come in handy on a couple of occasions.

It would test my patience if a neighbours horses were getting out on a regular basis but if they were near a road and likely to cause an accident, I'd catch them.

Maybe taking the horses to the nearest bit of council owned land will get a quicker response from the powers that be. A visit from the council animal welfare officer might also prompt your neighbour to sort her fencing.
 
TBF, I would also be calling the shetland all manner of unrepeatable things if it were kicking out and evading capture. I call my own horses such things and I choose to have them... I even like them most of the time ;)
 
Why do these tales always involve a Shetland - of S***lands? I was returning from dog training one very dark midwinter night and came across two horses loose on a road - and of course one was a Shetland. With the help of a (terrified) fellow motorist I got makeshift halters on them and we called the police, who when they arrived were in fact very helpful. After a number of abortive telephone calls a local horse dealer said he would put the horses up in his stables if we could get them there (about a mile). So off we set, one police car in front, one behind to keep us safe. A very unenthusiastic officer was instructed to take one horse while I led the other. He immediately chose the Sh**land. What a mistake! The elderly 17hh TB mare I had in tow was a darling - kept whickering at me and very loving. The Sh**land proceeded mainly on his hind legs, towing the policeman onto the verges, into gutters, up darkened driveways. If it hadn't been a bit scary it would have been very funny. "I keep falling over the B****r" he said.

The sad aftermath was that the horses' owner was found (they had broken out) but a week or two later were offered "free to good home, to go together" in the local paper. The nice old mare was 31! I was miserable, as I could guess their end. I would have taken the old mare but the thought of the mini monster beating hell out of my livery horses was too much.
 
OP you did the right thing but I can understand your frustration at the attitude of the owner. I would feel the same. My BIL left my horse and another that belonged to a friend of mine's out by mistake. He didn't realise they were in the field when he drove through and left all the gates open. I got home and asked if he had closed back gate and he said no, went to look and no horses. He had been there over an hour so horses could have been gone for ages. I then had a phone call from the owner of the other horse as she had been contacted by a neighbour informing her that her pony and one they didn't recognise were on her lawn. She only lives half a mile from me and they had obviously made their way straight there. Friend was in work, I grabbed some headcollars and made my way down when I was met by another friend leading both horses back to me as she had seen them when driving past and new straight away who they belonged to. There are many horses around me and I would know the owners of most and would always catch any strays and contact owners as I know they would do for mine too but I am sure they would always appreciate the care and I certainly appreciate the fact that we all keep an eye on each others animals.
 
If your horse got out of is field due to a falling tree breaking the fence or someone letting them out etc. Would you want some kind caring person to help, them and shut them in a field or stable , or would you prefer they were left to wonder on to an A road .

I understand your frustration. You did the right thing in taking in the horses. I hope he owners appreciated it.

We can't expect police or others to take all the responsibility. To many people say 'it's not my responsibility' and turn away.
 
We'll ring & leave a message if their phone is switched off again. BTW, trees are not part of our devon bank system. Only way they can be damaged is by a large digger! Very high soil / stone banks with vegetation on top & sheep fencing on horse side of bank.

Have heard they were incredibly irresponsible with mare at weekend in a public place, may be dead foal as a result. So no, we would never bring them inside our property again.
 
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