Why do people think it is ok to feed your horse?? Really annoyed.

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fine_and_dandy

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I know I found out yesterday but this has just really got to me and I'm quite annoyed.

I have spent a long bloody time investing in training my horse for him to be a nice person to be around and something so small can just balls it all up.

Basically yesterday Bailey was very "mouthy" - trying to get in your pockets and mug you for food. He doesn't get treats per se, and I don't carry them in my pockets, so he doesn't do it normally. Anyway, yesterday, he got told off for getting too over zealous and ended up nipping my friend (fellow livery). He got an absolute b*ll*cking for it, but it made both of us wonder why he had got so bad in his behaviour.

Cue said person (fellow livery) who goes up to my horse with some "sweets" (as he calls them) I was in the stable at the time trying to do up the front of the rug and Bailey kept trying to go towards him to get the treats - I told him off and then told said person not to give him any. It turns out that as he has a soft spot for Bailey, pretty much every time he is up he goes and gives him a treat. Without being nasty, I told him that he is not ever to do that because I don't know what he is giving him, it isn't the diet I want him on and despite my best efforts he is undermining my training that my horse is used to. I have also told the yard manager and asked her to keep an eye in case it continues.

I am just so peeved. I don;t go around giving treats to anyone else's horse unless I have permission and even then it is a rarity. Bailey even attempted to nip me and my elbow was in the way so he clouted himself (scared himself whilst he was at it) and I really bellowed at him - he was very sorry after.

I'm not up every day so it is like I can correct it day on day; he is rising 4 and I am going to have to reinforce this training all over again because someone else who I know means well, just didn't bloody think.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH.

I don't even feel better after posting this. Just really really peeved.
 
When my son had his first pony she was extremely rude if given treats and would result to real nasty biting so she NEVER got given any, a new livery moved onto yard and her husband used to come with her to do her horse, turned out he always carried packs of extra strong mints and kept treating all the horses, especially as my son's pony as she was the smallest on the yard and he thought she was cute ! low and behold he didn't have to deal with her biting and barging and general nastiness, when I found out what was going on I asked him really nicely not to give her anything and explained what she does if given treats, he continued, so I put a note on her door asking for no treats, he still continued to do it, eventually it came to blows when the pony bit me in the boob and gave me a big black bruise :o, finally he took the hint and stopped doing it but he never did speak to me again :rolleyes:
 
I sympathise! I have a VERY cute horse who can puppy dog eye a treat out of even the hardest hearted person....but he has metabolic issues and I'm OCD about his diet, impossible trying to control it!

No advice I'm afraid, if you work out how to stop it happening please let me know!
 
Well there is a note on his door, YM has been told and he has been told. My friend knows as well and she is up a bit more than me so she is going to keep an eye. It will be fairly obvious if he carries on because of the change in Bailey's behaviour.

Failing that, I'm going to put a picture of a shark on Bailey's door. Although it will be a shame because he is friendly and loves being patted etc. I will not be putting up with it though.
 
Very rude but a common problem none the less. There is someone on our yard who 'treats' the horses on hay to a mouthful of haylage, needless to say these horse regularly kick doors, lunge out and are generally after food.

I treat my own horse in a controlled and training manner and I HATE it when others treat him! :mad:

I sympathise whole heartedly, I am far less polite when asking people not to treat my boy if I catch them, particularly if they have kids. I once asked repeatedly for another livery to stop treating my horse, she didn't so I made a point of giving one livery's kid a chocolate bar when they came to the yard, she got a little miffed and asked if I would mind stopping as he child kept asking for choccy bars and I replied that I would if she would stop doing the same to my horse. She very cross, but then actually bought me a card to say sorry.

Now admittedly I feel a little sorry for the kid who got to gorge for a couple of days before being cut off but I made my point.
 
OP I've asked myself the same question a hundred times.

I remember shouting (and I have a very loud shout!!) out of my son's bedroom window at some stupid woman who was feeding my 2 over the fence. God knows what she was feeding them, she was rummaging in her handbag giving them anything she could find. Think she almost pooped her pants when I yelled "STOP FEEDING MY HORSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!" as she leapt in the air and walked off as quick as she could.

It's something that seriously annoys me.
 
I feel your pain.
Our field is next to a car park, and even if you put up signs saying don't feed the horses, people still do.
I was called a grumpy woman by someone in the summer because i asked her not to feed them.
I have found allsorts on the ground by the gate, bits of ham sandwhich, peach, and the other day bits of onion.
You also get the plaintive reply of "it's onley grass"
My OH usually says "if it was a rotty hanging over the gate you would'nt feed it, and the horses have bigger teeth!"
It drives me mad. :(
 
Pedantic said:
Nation of A............
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What-ho Pedantic!

Thought I hadn't read your rallying cry for a bit! (I have to confess I've nicked it a couple of times recently)...:o

I can quite understand why the OP is annoyed. As has been said before: if you have a well-behaved, mannerly horse, other people often say: "Oh! You are so lucky so-and-so is a good boy".

WTF? Luck has b-all to do with it. Training, patience, time, consistency however...
 
LatetohorsesLaura said:
Very rude but a common problem none the less. There is someone on our yard who 'treats' the horses on hay to a mouthful of haylage, needless to say these horse regularly kick doors, lunge out and are generally after food.

I treat my own horse in a controlled and training manner and I HATE it when others treat him! :mad:

I sympathise whole heartedly, I am far less polite when asking people not to treat my boy if I catch them, particularly if they have kids. I once asked repeatedly for another livery to stop treating my horse, she didn't so I made a point of giving one livery's kid a chocolate bar when they came to the yard, she got a little miffed and asked if I would mind stopping as he child kept asking for choccy bars and I replied that I would if she would stop doing the same to my horse. She very cross, but then actually bought me a card to say sorry.

Now admittedly I feel a little sorry for the kid who got to gorge for a couple of days before being cut off but I made my point.
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Pure genius!! OP, don't get too het up about it - bloody bad behaviour on their part but not worth bursting a blood vessel over. I have a section A that is the same as yours - nipps and ransacks pockets - I never give him treats and have told everyone to not give him anything. My mare on the other hand - she can have as many as she likes because she is in no way nippy and could do with making friends with mankind a bit more....!
 
I'm glad I am not the only peson that does NOT like people giving my horse treats. I had the exact same problem a month ago with the exact outcome - I did not know why my horse started pawing the ground, nipping people as they walked past and generally not being his well mannered self. Then I find that people are giving him treats. After some "gentle" words, it eventually stopped but it did take a while for people to realise it wasn't good for my mare!

Hope everything resolves itself with your horse and put our foot down with these people because otherwise they keep doing it..
 
Mrs B said:
As has been said before: if you have a well-behaved, mannerly horse, other people often say: "Oh! You are so lucky so-and-so is a good boy".

WTF? Luck has b-all to do with it. Training, patience, time, consistency however...
Click to expand...

EXACTLY. Nearly 3 and a half years of training, patience, time and consistency, and in particular the last few months where I have been preparing him for his ridden career. If luck was all to do with it, it is a shame I can't be quite so lucky not to have people interfere with my horse.
 
A girl on our yard has her horse on a strictly controlled amount of haylage per night. A few of the other liveries decided it wasn't enough and started throwing great handfuls of the stuff over her stable wall once she'd gone home. She wrote nice notes, then nasty notes, then the YO asked everyone not to do it. It still happened. In the end the YO's husband had to build a massive wall of chipboard and boxes round the stable before it stopped. :(
 
One of the elderly ladies on the yard had a soft spot for my ex share horse and used to give him mints everytime she passed. She loved it as he dragged whoever was leading him over to her if he saw her, thought it meant he really loved her. She wasn't as happy when he knocked her over though....
 
How annoying!! When my new mare arrived the first thing i done was put up a notice saying do not feed titbits as shes young and very sweet and i want to keep her that way!! Were at a RS so there are alot of lesson people who feed the horses treats and it really narks me right off!! Mine gets a treat for coming in from the field and thats how it will hopefully stay lol
 
I have never fed treats from hand after seeing a finger been bitten clean off due to treats being fed many years ago and when I found out that a livery was feeding sugar lumps as a "treat" to my mare - who is on constant diet I flipped - sugar lumps ffs !!!!!! she got politly but firmly told not to. It is incredibly rude to feed some one elses horse if not given permission to and can not believe ppl do it grrrrrrrrr I to now have sign on door telling ppl not to
 
You try having your own place.... think you are safe from it as no tracks/paths adjoin?

Wrong :mad:

Horsey neighbours think its 'sweet' to feed polo's etc THROUGH the boundary fence to mine. 5 to 6 strands of barbed wire, with wide tape to the top..... fenced 6 inches inside their fence which is only 2 ft tall (if that) in places)
This is along 4 paddocks!

Despite repeated requests not to, they carry on! :mad:

Now have lost a large amount of width off all my adjoining paddocks as have moved in the lower temporary electric fence to 6 ft inside my boundary instead of being just inside the main fence - just so mine cannot get there to get said bloody treats :mad:

Horse people eh? :mad:

;)
 
i know the feeling well & its another reason i hate livery yards.
we have just mine & close freinds on private yard & have an inpenetrable barrier between them & the public, electric fence on their side close to 4" wide hedge boundry with stock wire on the inner side & barbed wire on the outer side plus warning signs every few feet warning of aggressive horse in field (its worked so far :) )
 
It annoys the hell out of me when people feed MY horse! I found out the other day that one of the young girls who is working there at the moment has been feeding her and she actually argued with me when I told her not to feed her ANYTHING! She kept saying but its only a little bit of carrot... I eventually got my point accross that I didn't want anyone feeding her!
 
Someone nearly killed B last yeat by feeding her without my permission. She is old and can't chew well. Last year someone gave her a carrot and it got stuck in her throat, it ended up with a vet having to try and tube it out.
 
When I was on a bigger yard I put a sign up saying Ice bites. She doesn;t unless she's titbitted and it was a bit mean as she didn't get stroked but as a baby I didn't want her titbiting and she will nip when the treats run out so I didn't want her to bite any1!

When we had them at the old house and the builders were there they used to share their lunches with the girls over the fence! Very sweet but not ideal as Ice was only 2. I have previously put signs up saying

'1 of these horses is old and diabetic, feeding her could kill her. Another bites. Please do not try to find out which is which!'

Good Luck
 
I had the same issue with our private field. Neighbours thought it was ok to feed the horses apples without me knowing and even cut the hedge down to reach them............................then rang to complain when all 3 horses were doing a merry dance around their manicured lawn! Retrieved said horses and erected futher fencing but my big boy just thought it was more fun to jump the lot. after repeated warnings not to feed the horses they seem to have finally got the message and a screwed up lawn in the process. The neighbours response "you didn't have such big horses before!". I've been there 10 years so god knows how long he's been feeding them extra apples.
 
this is what "just feeding him a little titbit" did to my baby boy, stupid ignorant cow fed him Laburnam from the garden, he went from slightly porky to this in 2 weeks even with our vet on hand, blood tests, medication, a huge vets bill & a yard move.
Holidaymay2010094.jpg

thankfully now he is back to his normal slightly fat & cheeky self, just needs some muscle on his bum now.

046.jpg


still fighting through small claims court for vets costs from her.
 
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I had this problem at my old yard, although my horse never got nippy, she would lick my pockets and ate a zip on a coat when i wasnt looking.

I put up a big sign saying these horses bite! Then I told the silly know it alls on the yard that were doing it that my horse would suddley bite for no reason and that treats were the reason for it.

Little naughty to lie, but It soon stopped! Lol!
 
this is what "just feeding him a little titbit" did to my baby boy, stupid ignorant cow fed him Laburnam from the garden, he went from slightly porky to this in 2 weeks even with our vet on hand, blood tests, medication, a huge vets bill & a yard move.
Click to expand...

I'm lost for words at the idiocy of some people.
 
Well I thought we managed to avoid this when we got our own yard as one of my horses got a bit nippy when fed treats that people wouldn't stop... is it always the ponies they go for?!

Anyway last year we started to notice this woman walking along the public footpath with a plastic bag which was full and then on the way back it would be empty and the horses would be nearby the hedge... we found out she had been throwing apples over the fence to them. I kept wondering why my pony who used to "fleece" you, had suddenly started it again but also kept walking up to strangers at the footpath and as much as I don't mind people petting the horses if they are bold enough to go near the footpath, it was the first time any of them had shown an interest in the footpath. After that we moved them away but the next time I saw her walking along she hid the bag behind her back and I think the dirty look (oops) I gave her and the plastic bag she was trying to hide stopped her doing it.

We will see if she starts it again this year!
 
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