Walkers in my field - what if horse kicks one?!

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RachelB

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Having read another almost similar post - I have been meaning to ask this for a while:
We have a footpath running round three sides of our fields, along the perimeter. Once upon a time the fields had cows in and the footpath wasn't fenced in but ran across the edge of the field. We have a lot of dog walkers who allow their dogs to run round our fields (with or without our horses in them), round our stable block etc, and they s**t all over our fields and p**s all up our stables and hay stacks
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We have had a few altercations with the dog owners, and are attempting to put up electric fencing with signs low down on the bottom of the fence to stop the dogs getting in without getting zapped.
Recently we have had another problem. Our fields are in a rectangle and the footpath runs along the two short sides and one long side of the rectangle. People have actually started climbing through our fences and walking through our fields, across the one long side of the rectangle that doesn't have a footpath. We are very worried that either the horses will kick/bite someone/a dog, or the people will spook the horses who will damage themselves running round (my horse has had a tendon injury so is particularly fragile and another tear could mean The End for her).

So my questions are:
1) How can we stop people tresspassing across our fields? Would a "private" sign work, or just good old electric fencing (with warning signs of course)?
2) Where would we stand if someone/someone's dog DID get hurt by our horses whilst tresspassing across our fields? Would we be liable? If so, would signs to warn people that the field is private property and that they should not be tresspassing make any difference?

It's a bit of a dodgy situation as so many people resent us being there anyway as we have to ride across the cricket ground car park to get to the road
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We have a right of way running through our field. We make sure the electric fencing is not on the path. If people or dogs stray off the path you are not liable if they are injuired by your horses.
 
In the summer we even had some people having a picnic with a barbie in the middle of our field. We had to ask them to leave so people are so thick.
 
Like someone said if your a BHS member ring the legal helpline or ring NFU although they may ask if your insured with them before putting you through. May try to sell you insurance. Do you have 3rd party on your horse that should cover you.
 
We have a right of way through the middle of our fields. It goes straight through the middle so a fence is not possible. We have had to take insurance out to protect ourselves. Most people are very good and put dogs on leads, stick to the path etc. However, occasionally we have the prat brigade!! Once we had some people close off the gates and pitch a tent. Have no idea how you go on if they are on your private land.
 
I have footpath running through my fields and dog walker ARE the biggest pain in ARSE!!!- you can have electric tape, BUT you must have proper gate for walkers to go through and sign on saying electrified
I HAVE HUGE sign and have had stand up agruement with with dog walkers WHO think my feld is their dog exercising area!!! IT IS NOT.
They do have a right to walk across with their dogs to be either on lead OR under close control. And you must not cut off the correct footpath route BUT IT IS THIER RESPONIABLITILY (dog walkers ) NOT TO WORRY ANY ANIMALS........

see my sign
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People are just silly aren't they? We also have a footpath and touch wood most people are excellent, minus the odd one or two. However we did have an amusing incident in the summer when a man was walking ever so slowly round Genie's field, every now and again crouching down and picking something up. When he came back a second day in a row the YO went over to him and spoke to him, and it turned out he was picking a certain type of mushroom! After a few words he never came back. Thank goodness the horses stayed away from him... imagine if he'd given them some!
 
A few summers ago, on more than one occasion, I caught someone having a BBQ in my field - the landowner! I had to remove their rubbish, including the disposal BBQ tray, when they had left. Needless to say, they know nothing about horses or keeping a field.

Someone used to actually LIFT my fencing to cut across it with their dog. They would twist the middle wire around the top one so they could slink under it - and leave it like it. I had to undo this every day and wrap so much baler twine round it they got fed up. This was every day!
 
Thanks for the advice guys. I'm not a BHS member or with the NFU, but I'll see if I can get on some advice line or other.
The footpath is completely fenced off from the horses' field, so they have no excuse whatsoever to be walking through the field. If I put electric tape along the bottom of the existing fencing, I put those yellow warning signs on it every 50m or so and then electrify it. It's just a pain in the bum as dog walkers think they can allow their dogs to run up to the horses, poo wherever they like, then they walk off and leave the dog poo in the middle of the field (actually it's usually strategically placed by the mutt to ensure it will have maximum effect when one of us treads in it). It's also not very nice lifting the tarpaulin covering the hay stack, only to find that it's covered in dog pee
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If I ever catch someone leaving dog poo in the field, I vow to follow them all the way home and return it to them...
I'll have a word with the YO and see if we can put some private signs up at each corner. Yelling at passing dog walkers/people who think they can traipse across the middle of the field doesn;t seem to be working
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posts like this make me glad to live in scotland where we all have a right to access land - on foot, on horses or on bikes. the world would be a better place if everywhere had a similar law .........
 
I think you can electric fence but only if there is a sign stating that the fence is electric.
I also have a footpath through mine and once found some lads trying to climb on my shetland pony!
Made damn sure the fence has a strong charge after that!
 
I had people walking to work through my fields, it was private property and they also crossed a railway line as part of their short cut, I just used to cackle to myself as either the trains would get them or my rather boisterous colts would!
 
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posts like this make me glad to live in scotland where we all have a right to access land - on foot, on horses or on bikes. the world would be a better place if everywhere had a similar law .........

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Not really.........it leaves people open to getting into trouble if their animal hurts someone! I do not believe that people should have the right to use and mess up land that someone else is paying to look after/use!

Plus, we cant go ANYWHERE as far as I was told. We cannot go through a field that has crops in it, also we cannot take a dog off a lead through a field of animals as if it worries the animals it can be shot (well thats what the farmers round my parents do!). Also we cannot go over private land, or through a field that is locked and has no right of way.
 
you can go anywhere - with the exception of ground belonging to a school, hospital or a garden - even fields of crops , although if a farmer asks you to go a different way then you should !
there's no such thing as a right of way and no fields should have locked gates .......
 
I replied to the earlier thread. We had a guy who insisted on exercising his great danes across our land. My husband found out who he was and went and exercised our four jack russells round his garden. We haven't seem him since!
 
It's so anoying poeple walking through fields, as long as you have 3rd party insurance then your covered if your horse kicks someone, i was at a yard once where there was an old right of way through the school and some idiot walkers walked straight through the middle and in to the path of a horse jumping in there, and then told us off for being in there, a safe gateway for walkers had been put in next to it, they just wanted to be difficult.
 
I find it so annoying, my horses sometimes have to go in a field with a footpath through. In the summer I try to electric fence them in the back corner away from the footpath. People can be such a pain, they stroke, feed and encourage them and then make a fuss when the horses follow or start to harrass them. Have had a man strike out a one of them with a walking stick before , and we were watching from down the track, My hubby was not happy and shot up the field and threatened the man with his own stick. Not the best behaviour I know but he saw red.
 
Firstly you need to determine the precise line and status of the Public Right of Way accross your land. This can only be done by contacting the Definitive Map Officer at your local County Council.

Once you have determined this then if at all possible you could fence the Public Right of Way. You should not use electric fencing along the boundary of a Public Right of Way. Your best option would be to use high post and rail fencing with Equi-Fencing attached to it. The Equi-Fencing is like tight knitted sheep wire but tight enough not to allow a foal to put their leg through it. You could put electric fencing on the inside of it provided you have yellow warning signs. You can also put signs on the fencing advising people that it is Private Property.

You can be held liable for any injury your horses cause even if people are trespassing on your land so you should ensure that you have third party public liability cover to the sum of £10,000,000 for your horses. You get this with Gold BHS membership. Very few insurance companies provide this level of cover which is essential as indicated by a recent court case.

If you need any further advice please do not hesitate to contact me.
 
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