What do you do if your horse poo's in a public place?

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Tayto

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Is there any law about picking up horse poo while out hacking?

Yesterday we were out hacking and went through a housing estate to get into the woods. Typically, my horse could not wait till we were in the woods and poo'd in the middle of the road. A woman came out of her house and chased after us telling us to pick it up.

We were unsure if we were breaking any kind of law by not picking it up?

Firstly - what am I supposed to pick the poo up with
Secondly - where am I supposed to put said poo?
Thirdly - How am I supposed to hold on to my horse while picking up the poo
Fourthly (<<<< is that even a word?) - re-mounting my horse would be near impossible as she is a pest to mount and I would probably cause an accident with an oncoming car while wrestling my horse to allow me back on board!

Comment/thoughts please :D
 
to my knowledge there is no requirement to pick up after your horse in the way there is to pick up after your dog
 
I didnt think there was - I felt awful that she had done it there and felt a bit red faced afterwards but I didnt really know what to do. Maybe the woman should look at the bright side and use it for her roses!
 
If my horse poos on the small estate near me, or near the local school, I will go and pick it up after my ride. But anywhere else, No.
 
I have had people rush out with a shovel to collect the poo for their roses before :D

Some folk are very strange - horse poo on a road surely is inoffensive?
 
Ignore the woman. You are not breaking any laws. She ought to put it on her rhubarb. (Yes I know that custard is the usual thing!)
 
The only place I will pick it up is on the path that I ride on that leads away from the yard and really, I pick it up to keep the peace with the neighbour who seems intent of making life difficult for all of us. And it is just my yard too. He was standing outside the house, moaning at YM for some insignificant thing (again!) and a horse from another yard strolled past, on the path and pooped! YM pointed it out and he avoided the subject. Pathetic if you ask me.
 
Being vegetarian animals the droppings break down quickly and are washed away by rain. They don't have the same health implications as dog and cat poo.
However, its better to ride near the edge of the road (not pavement though) as it can be slippery for motorbikes if its in the middle of the road.

I've only had abuse from one man who lived in a new house in a village next to the bridleway.
Just ignored him, as he was obviously finding village life a surprise.

However, I did once go back in my car to pick up my horse's droppings after a woman stopped to chat outside the Coop and I had to stand my horse on the (wide) pavement so traffic wasn't obstructed.
I felt that in the interests of good public relations, clearing the pavement was fair. :o
 
yes, dog poo is more harmful than horse poo.

Has anyone ever witnessed a mounted police-horse-rider clearing up?

There is nothing I can find on horse manure laws but I've found this on dog dirt law:

The Dogs (Fouling of Land) Act 1996, allows
authorities to designate any land in their area as poop
scoop areas where dog owners must clean up after
their pets without having to refer to central
government. The land must be publicly accessible and
open to the air, however the following is not included;
• Carriageways with a speed limit of more than 40 mph
• Land used for agriculture or woodlands
• Land which is predominantly marshland,
moor or heath
• Rural common land
Exceptions to the offence are:
• The person in charge of the dog has a reasonable
excuse for not clearing up (being unaware of the
fouling or not having the means to clean up is not
an excuse)
• The owner or occupier of the land has consented to
the faeces being left
• The person puts the faeces in a bin on the land
• The person in charge of the dog has a registered
visual impairment

If you see the lady again please ask her to take it up with her MP if she wants a new law.
 
As others have said, there's no requirement to pick it up. However, in the interests of PR, if she'd come after me like that, I'd have politely pointed this out, but would offer to come back after I'd finished putting my horse away to bag it up for her garden if she supplied a bag. I used to ride on a pavement when I did roadwork on a nasty blind bend. A couple of times Henry stopped and did some business and I got off and kicked it into the gutter. I knew that most people didn't mind me riding on that pavement (and one stopped to commend me for being sensible!), but I did cringe when I saw that others had ridden on it and let their horses foul it.
 
horselessb said:
don't you all carry a spade and bucket with you 24/7?!?!?! :D
Click to expand...

When we were on holiday in Turkey last year, two mounted policemen rode by the front of the hotel - closely followed by a man, on foot, carrying a shovel and a bin bag!

Would add though, they were riding on a promenade between the hotel gardens and the beach, it was a wide path rather than a road.
 
I remember hearing that because horses are not meat eaters, that means they don't carry disease in their poo likes dogs or cats.
and that's why their is a law for dogs ( but not sure 100% about horse )

sorry, that wasnt helpful really was it :confused:
 
Unless there are local by-laws in place to disallow horses discharging their bowls in public or it was a private housing estate then your horse is legally allowed to poo on the public highway.
 
I also have a path alongside where my horses live so if I walk back past it I kick it into the hedge in the interest of public relations and cyclists not trying to mow me down for it :-)

I understand why motorcyclists etc may be annoyed for safety reasons and in your situation I would try and have a reasonable conversation about it being vegetable and not harmful like dog poo and for that reason it is not illegal, at all. Not even a bit!

I find it weird that people are offended by horse poo, it doesn't really smell unless super fresh, its just like compost really... I suppose I am biased since I am surrounded by it often :-)

There is so much dog poo along our path and I think that is very disrespectful, weird how it is so different.
 
We have a track that leads through a very very posh gravelled driveway to one enormous house (at one point it was a potential home to the beckhams!) so if he poo'd on there I think I would be so mortified I would pick it all up and shove it in my pockets if I had to. Other than that its only grass and it washes away very quickly and isn't easily missed.
 
StoptheCavalry said:
We have a track that leads through a very very posh gravelled driveway to one enormous house (at one point it was a potential home to the beckhams!) so if he poo'd on there I think I would be so mortified I would pick it all up and shove it in my pockets if I had to.
Click to expand...


LOL that made me laugh :D
 
I've JUST commented on a Facebook post about this, it was a pic of some poo on the road and it said "will horse riders pick this sh** up please you selfish gits, kids walk down here. Or I'm going to beep my horn and rev my engine every time I go past you"

To which I replied "I don't kick every dog I see just because 'some' people don't pick up after them. Just sayin"

Idiot.
 
No law but...

our local bridleway group goes out and picks up horseriders' horsepoos if they're:

- on a pavement
- on the paved bit of bridleway as it enters/exits the guided bus station
- in the parking area by the village shops/outside the shop doors which open onto the road
- across someone's private driveway entrance or mown lawn-verge
- on the housing estate cul-de-sac where children play football in the street

(these areas all get checked several times a week)

and we have a phonenumber which residents can phone if they find a poo in a bad area, and we go out and pick it up.
 
My lad ALWAYS poos when we hack out, so unless he manages to hold it in until we reach the fields or bridleways I always return & pick it up (poop scoop in the boot of the car!) when I get back to the yard. Keeps the villagers happy! :)
 
Very rarely have this problem as my lad doesn't seem to like doing his poos in public, he always goes in stable as soon as he sees his tack!

Had the opposite problem some years ago when a very keen gardener near the yard stopped me one day and asked if we could make all our horses do their business outside his house so he could put it on his compost heap! If only they could do it on command :rolleyes:
 
Like said, no law saying you have to pick it up.
I just wanted to ask though, does anyone realistically get off their horse on the beach and pick up the poo? I have been looking to go to the beach, to Skegness, and one of the rule for horse riders there is that if your horse drops, you must immediately pick it up.
This has put me off going to that beach, as realistically, both me and horse will be more at risk if I get off as, a rearing, excited 16.2 ISH is not easy to handle at the best of times, never mind while on a beach and while trying to pick its poo up. Getting back on would be then out of the question, and she would probably be a hazard to other beach users if I were to get off. While on board I can keep her reasonably quiet and out of the way of people, and I can definitely make sure that she doesn't gallop off or rear like a lunatic!
I just wondered whether that rule is enforced and whether people actually follow it.
Ps. sorry to hijack your post OP
 
Thank God I don't have to hack anywhere near anyone's house, I would be so scared someone would shout at me, or people would mow us down with their cars. I admit I really don't like it when people move into a village or a new build estate on the edge of the countryside and then whine about every little thing that isn't entirely picturesque. Horse poo isn't going to hurt anyone and even though I probably would go and pick up after us just to stop them whining I would really resent it and I don't think we should encourage this kind of pandering because before you know it, it will be the law that horses have to wear nappies or something.
 
My horse often defouls the village, he likes to think its a public service for the resident roses! :P
 
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