Thumbs up for not feeding horses

[Overread]

It is also a sore subject for many of us having had the constant battle to stop people feeding our horses. I don't know where / when it was stated that everyone has the right to feed other peoples horses whatever, whenever and wherever they like with no reference to the impact on their behaviour, waistline and health but many people seem to think that this is an inherent right.

I suspect it always happened and likely happened a good deal more in the past when horses were commonplace. However the people were more understanding of horses and the number of people "roaming" was in general a lot less.
These days you have a lot of people from the urban areas coming out to the countryside for the day by car.

The thing is most people have no clue about anything horsey at all. And feeding or petting horses in a field is seen as a safe thing that is normal. A horse behind a fence is non-threatening and many are generally friendly and inquisitive so it encourages such behaviour. It's like ducks at the pond - in theory bread isn't too bad so long as they don't each too much - and the ducks do love bread and swarm over for it.

The harm comes because bread is not very nutritionally high in content for ducks and the ducks will gorge themselves and thus end up malnourished. But its a safe activity everyone is seen to do; is encouraged in general TV shows and the like and heck most of us did as kids as well - so most see no harm in letting their children also feed the ducks - or horses.



Heck consider that most petting zoos have feed on hand for hand feeding to animals; whilst under supervision. So for most people who are not in the horsey world their introduction is the idea that its ok to feed a little treat here and there. The idea that petting/stroking and treating is bad equine etiquette really only exists within the knowledgeable equine world; which is too niche for the average person to be aware of.

Signs with "don't feed" sometimes will or won't work; they'll more likely work if "under veterinary treatment do not feed". They also have to be placed right so that they are noticed, which means one must be aware of how people use pathways near to paddocks and also what angle will catch peoples attention. The sign looking new or at least well kept is important too; a battered dirty and half hanging off sign is likely to be ignored as if its in such a state most will consider the information to have passed relevancy.