The love of the countryside by the non rural public

Greylegs said:
I was once hacking my old boy along a bridle path which ran along the edge of a field. Enter someone walking along towards me with a dog but so totally absorbed with texting on their mobile that they actually ran into my horse before they noticed I was there. I had (I should add) come to a halt and repeatedly called out to them to try to warn them of my presence, but to no avail. Thankfully they saw the funny side ...
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Oh god! That reminds me of when I nearly ran someone over :O
The field was VERY clearly labelled a bridlepath...it was unmissable, especially with the addition of hoof prints all over the place!
Luckily I had spotted them sitting in the grass on the way there, when I came back, they were gone. Since I had just been on a blast around the next field, I must have only been a minute, not long enough for them to have walked all the way out of the field, so I took it easy. They were laying, stretched across the bridleway, in VERY long grass, listening to music!! They were completely hidden! It's a very busy brideway, so they were lucky! When they spotted me (trying to get the horse past someone laying on the ground!!) I told them it was a bridleway and they moved off.
 
Chan said:
Oh god! That reminds me of when I nearly ran someone over :O
The field was VERY clearly labelled a bridlepath...it was unmissable, especially with the addition of hoof prints all over the place!
Luckily I had spotted them sitting in the grass on the way there, when I came back, they were gone. Since I had just been on a blast around the next field, I must have only been a minute, not long enough for them to have walked all the way out of the field, so I took it easy. They were laying, stretched across the bridleway, in VERY long grass, listening to music!! They were completely hidden! It's a very busy brideway, so they were lucky! When they spotted me (trying to get the horse past someone laying on the ground!!) I told them it was a bridleway and they moved off.
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that person lucky it was not more serious.
 
lhotse said:
The village church that stands on the edge of the Cotswolds, dating in part back to the Norman Conquest, now stands silent because of the townie magistrate who has moved in next door. He didn't like the church bells sounding at 11am to welcome the sunday congregation. Hopefully, the parish council will throw out his complaint soon, and if I was the farmer owning the fields behind his house, I would be putting some pigs there for the next few months!!
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Argh things like this make my blood boil - if you don't like the sound of church bells, don't move next door to a church!!
 
I once had a run in with a horse when out running on a very foggy morning a few years ago. Didn't see each other and managed to stop about a meter apart! Luckily the horse was unfazed and the rider and I found it very funny but thinking back it was dangerous for both of us but the fog descended quickly and hiviz was useless in it!
 
Mad_Cow347 said:
I was working at my firms london office this week & they were all laughing at one lad who is 18 as he'd asked what animal pork came from, when told to guess he went for cow. It does worry me that people can get to this age and have no idea on these things (particularly when it's what they are eating)... Although I guess at least he knew it was from an animal.
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A bloke at work, who's lived in a town, not a bustling metropolis but a Kent town, all his life, said 'can you eat tree apples?' As opposed to what other sort?!
 
eleanor79 said:
A bloke at work, who's lived in a town, not a bustling metropolis but a Kent town, all his life, said 'can you eat tree apples?' As opposed to what other sort?!
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And another bloke at work once said something about feeding my horse turkey. I thought he was joking and said 'She's so awkward, being a vegetarian', and he said 'Is she? Do horses really not eat meat?'!
 
eleanor79 said:
Argh things like this make my blood boil - if you don't like the sound of church bells, don't move next door to a church!!
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Mad isn't it.

Tbh, I used to live right opposite Durham Cathedral and I stopped even really hearing the bells after a while. Visiting friends used to remark on them, especially the Curfew Bell, but it became background noise to me.
 
How does anyone "nearly run some one over "on a bridlepath. ???I have always worked on the principle that if I cant control my horse within the distance I can see ,then I am out of control.
 
Mike007 said:
How does anyone "nearly run some one over "on a bridlepath. ???I have always worked on the principle that if I cant control my horse within the distance I can see ,then I am out of control.
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the person was laying in the long grass across the bridlepath so from a distance you wouldn't see them. Also Chan did say she walked because she thought someone was there
 
Mike007 said:
How does anyone "nearly run some one over "on a bridlepath. ???I have always worked on the principle that if I cant control my horse within the distance I can see ,then I am out of control.
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He was totally invisible until you were right on top of him! I walked past him, but I did usually canter/gallop down the stretch (it was lovely and straight). Thankfully the grass was also cut not long after!

ETA - I suppose I should have said "could have" rather than "nearly" as there was no nearly about it :P
 
EffyCorsten said:
HA! I'm so acutely aware of the possibility of looking like an idiot country bumbkin when I shockingly venture into a city so I try so hard to look like I belong. I must stand out like a sore thumb! the hay in the hair probably gives me away also.
Plus we tend to be easily impressed by city things and I'm sure that's very evident! :D
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I went on Jury Service a couple of years ago....which involved traveling by train to Leeds ....Imagine a female Yorkshire version of uncle Bryn from Gavin and Stacey ....that was me....." I couldn't believe it......you can pay BY SWITCH on the train!!!"
 
Back in the eighties - the time of disaster movies and killer bee scare I met someone in very inappropriate footwear on the bridleway through my farm.
She was leaning on a gate watching the goats & their kids.
"Oh how sweet you have tiny houses for the baby goats" Err no they are beehives. I didn't think running that fast was possible in 4" stilletos.
 
Update on my new neighbour. He is now complaining bitterly about the bird scarer that is going off 24 hours a day. I hadn't even heard it until he mentioned it! He has been hunting for it (I knew where it was but didn't let on :D), found it eventually and is now determined to find out who owns the field and get them to turn it off..... He will go ballistic when the combines start later in the year, right next his window..... :D
 
Love this thread!
We once had people drive into our field as the gate was open because we were expecting a hay delivery.
They got out of the car, and proceeded to have a picnic!
My husband went over and politely asked them to finish the sandwich, pack up and go. They were shocked as thought it was public land as the gate was open!
He did ask for their address so we could picnic on their front garden, but they declined!
 
MrsElle said:
Update on my new neighbour. He is now complaining bitterly about the bird scarer that is going off 24 hours a day. I hadn't even heard it until he mentioned it! He has been hunting for it (I knew where it was but didn't let on :D), found it eventually and is now determined to find out who owns the field and get them to turn it off..... He will go ballistic when the combines start later in the year, right next his window..... :D
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What an absolute moron, tell him to s*d of back to the city.
 
Capriole said:
Mad isn't it.

Tbh, I used to live right opposite Durham Cathedral and I stopped even really hearing the bells after a while. Visiting friends used to remark on them, especially the Curfew Bell, but it became background noise to me.
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Same here, nearly, I live within 100 yards of a village church which rings every quarter-hour and I never hear it!
 
We had a working pupil who gave up eating eggs after watching a hen laying as she didn't realise which part of the hen's anatomy they came out of, despite trying to explain to her she declared eggs were hen' s poos and said the supermarket should have warnings to let people know so they wouldn't buy them!!

Another day my dad had a lady come onto the yard panicking as a few of our horses were stretched out in the sun sleeping and she thought they must be ill as it was nearly lunchtime and high time they were up!
 
I once had to lead a romantic couple out of a field, where they had set up everything to have a nice picnic with "the nice, black horsey". Truth to be told, they had somehow crawled through a double, wired electric fence and the horsey in question was a breeding stud who does not take kindly to strangers! They were lucky he was on the other side of the field and hadn't noticed them. They still didn't seem to believe me when I explained how dangerous it could have turned out.

In the same yard, which was also a lesson yard, I once found a mother with three small children who had let themselves inside the stable and were cooing and ahhing by the box stall of an agitated Arab stud. Then, to my utter horror, a tyke crawled outside the box stall, right under the door and by the legs of the stud! Never in my life had I deported somebody so fast from the stable, and the mother was upset to why I wouldn't let them to pet and feed the "pretty pony".

And now, in a different yard, it's been numerous times already when I have had to herd outside the fencing small groups of unattended children who are just playing around the field, close to the horses! When catching their parents, they are frequently annoyed and get nasty, because they apparently believe I'm being rude for not letting their lovelies play with the horses and that I am exaggerating how dangerous it can be!

I really cannot understand the reasoning behind letting small children, unhorsey at that, to run unattended among a herd of unpredictable flight animals, many of which are easily over 600kg, and believing that they are something like magical, friendly unicorns from some cartoons, who'd never harm a child...
 
I did feel very sorry for this one. 35 years ago the Jobcentre sent us an Indian lad to help with the harvest, he was lovely and stayed on as a general farm worker. He was a real townie and scared of many things in the countryside, but he was also a great boy and a real worker. After a real bumper harvest we had to move several hundred straw bales to make room for the in-wintering bullocks; he came and told me there were lots of 'animals' in the bales. I had a look and there was a healthy rat population so I gave him my dog to kill them off. Much later he came back to the house, hot and bothered and as close as he ever got to being cross. He hadn't understood that the dog was meant to kill the rats and he had been trying to get them from her before she shook them! Quite what he was going to do with them was never clear..
 
eleanor79 said:
Same here, nearly, I live within 100 yards of a village church which rings every quarter-hour and I never hear it!
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Me and my other half lived near a church with 15min bells. We both got ill from not sleeping because they kept us awake all night especially if we had to be up early - you'd just lie there knowing that the next one coming would be 4am ugh. We lasted a year then moved. It still haunts me to this day! Dreadful things. Anyone who manages to block them out deserves a medal!
 
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