(mostly a vent, skip to bolded line if you want to give an opinion and move on 
)
I have, over the last four years, posted here and there about the, errrm, problem property next door. No, not the neighbor with the cows 
, they are thankfully gone and the new ones have no farm animals beyond poultry. The other ones. The slumlord property with the conex boxes and RV that have been in the same place since at least 2005 (per Google historic tabs) that are being taken over by blackberry, the dilapidated barn that is slumping slowly and roof panels fly off whenever there is a wind over 30 mph; it has two residences on it and both are rented to people who like to do extended (cough started and never finished) car projects with the many projects in the front yards for a few years now⊠and two horses on pasture rented to a third party not on site. The property is a corner property of a fairly busy intersection, and the horses wrap around the rental houses so they they have fenceline on two roads.
When I built my house but horses werenât here yet, I had someone come bang on my door that my horses were getting out and getting tangled in the fence. I told her they werenât mine, but drove around the corner anyway and shored up the fence (they werenât tangled, they were stepping over/leaning over). There were several houses closer than mine, why she insisted on coming to my house is beyond me but it keeps happening. They were doing the same on my side too, so I mailed a letter to the tax payer on record and the horse owner, whose name I got from AC and then used the parcel map to find a mailing address. The letter spelled out who I was and the state laws on legal fence and breachy animals, and gave notice that they had breachy animals in defective fence. It wasnât bitchy, just a legal notice, which was CCed to AC. The horse owner called me and tried to be a jerk, but I headed him off and didnât engage.
I was out of town in late summer 2017 after my horses had been brought home, and someone came and banged on my door in the middle of the night and insisted to my Dad that my horses were out and in her yard and he needed to deal with it NOW. He laughed and said he doubted it, and she got pretty aggressive with him until he took her out to the barn and showed her my horses.
I reported him to AC several times for horses not getting water from 2017 to 2020. I would wait a day or two or three for him to come out, so yes left the horses without water for that long, then would report them and fill the water, documenting with pics and video. He would tell AC that âpeopleâ need to mind their own business. He finally got a float waterer, but there was an incident where that got turned off and I again reported him after waiting a few days. He told AC he suspected I was trespassing to turn the water off and get him in trouble. I asked AC if he would give me a number and I would text HIM about the animals. Within a week I was able to snap and send a picture of one of the horses rubbing his head on the hydrant, which had turned it off. No reply.
Last year, I put a horse up for sale and had a lot of people come try him. Two people told me they thought the barn and horses were me, and one said she almost kept driving. I was and am clear on my directions, second driveway past intersection, grey house, red barn, white horse trailer, visible arena.
Three weeks ago, had a note in my mailbox from someone down the road about âyour horsesâ tangled in the fence âover by your old barn.â Not mine. I left him a note on his mailbox thanking him for his concern, included my name and number, and a picture of my horses in case he ever saw anything amiss at my place. I texted the horsesâ owner again about the note and the fence, no reply.
Two nights ago Iâm at the BFâs when my phone rings. Dispatch calling to tell me of a report that my âtwo brown horsesâ are out. I check all my cameras, the one most likely to crawl through his own butthole if a friend was wandering around was in his stall eating hay and I could see at least two others (pixilated greyish and brownish blobbies) calming eating hay. Now I have three âbrownâ horses but have accounted for at least two, which leaves one more and the burritos, who would be most likely to escape 
. I call Dispatch and provide the name of the property owner and the horse owner. While Iâm checking my cameras, I see one of my upstanding neighbors honking at my gate, then shove thru and run up to my front porch, bang on the doorbell a few times, cuss, and then leave. I appreciate his intentions but no. No shoving thru my gate, which has a sign also saying to not go onto my property, no cussing on my porch, just no.
Would it be tacky to get a sign with a vertical line down the middle, with the words PROPERTY LINE in big letters? Maybe smaller letters for ânot my horsesâ and an arrow pointing west? I hate to think that my neighbors think as they drive past my place, that the shithole next door is also me. Am I stuck up? Hells yes I am. I also worked and work hard to build and maintain my farm, and the thought that itâs general opinion that the âold barnâ and thin, wormy, mangey horses are mine just hacks me right off.
Sheâs getting pretty annoyed, still needing to assist them while performing her own head count.
