I would keep the horses up closer to the house for the next week or so-- do you have a fenced paddock where you can see them from the house? If not, get some step-in posts and a string of hot tape to make a temporary paddock.
But while yes, this all sounds creepy, don’t get ahead of yourself with wild conjecture. Your horse was probably just overreacting to new surroundings. There could easily have been a coyote or similar animal in the woods (that is no actual threat to her, but she’s feeling insecure in her new pasture).
Generally most intruders come by vehicle for a quick getaway versus hiking in through woods or adjoining properties. Out in our exurbs everyone puts up a remote gate, hardens the road front, and then just has regular pasture fences between the backs of different acreage. Since you know the driveway gate was left open and you saw foot prints up near the house, concentrate on hardening the frontage and don’t get too paranoid about people in the woods. You can also run hotwire along the back by the woods if you want
I did follow the tracks, they went between my hay shed and my fencing, then long grasses that died down for the winter covered all the mud beyond my fencing and I couldn’t follow where they went. We have hunters that we’ve heard in the far distance since we’ve moved in, so likely possible. The odd prints and latching of my gate, still not sure why even a hunter would go in vs knocking on the door.
Did the footprints go into the paddock with the horses?
I’m just tossing this out there as a possibility, as I don’t know your horses, but an acquaintance came home to find that someone was pulling out of her driveway, with her horse on a stock trailer. They were caught pretty fast, but the mare was 16.3 hands, the stock trailer was about 6’, and they got her on the trailer by shocking her with a cattle prod on the back legs. She sustained burns that took a while to heal.
Is it possible that someone came into your paddock, the horses walked up to them, and they shocked them with cattle prods? People are just evil these days. I don’t know if you would see signs of them being shocked, especially with winter coats -?
Thanks for the advice, I think you may have misunderstood slightly. The tracks were around my horses shelter which right next to are two gates, I have a buffer area on the side of it for grooming and a wash stall then the paddock gate entrance. That’s where the foot prints were and the gates messed with. My barns are on the far east of my property and my house sits on the west. Luckily our road frontage begins as a hill, so our property sits about 10ft above the road and then slowly slopes down as you drive the road frontage of our property, just before my horses paddock it drops down in to a roadside steep ditch then hits a wood line. Thinking as opportunistic thief looking to get to my tack room/horses/whatever, I’d definitely enter from the back, where our new neighbors will be. Like I mentioned, the shelter and hay barn act as a blind spot to me from my house looking down if somewhere were to come that way. My horses paddocks and barn are super visible from the road. Definitely not going to be paranoid, but foot prints and messed with gates are definitely alarming. Especially to see the state my horse was in.
First off, that is so alarming… Any more details? Who was taking her horse and what did they say when they got caught?? But its ironic you mention that because both my aunt and a friend mentioned that it sounds like someone got her with a prod, bb gun, pellet gun, something along those lines. She let me come near her today and I checked her over, she doesn’t have a super long coat but I couldn’t find anything. Even just coming in a half hour ago from feeding, she is still wigging out over 24 hours later, still on high alert looking towards the front of her paddock and wood line along the road, trotting up and down the fence, and not acting normal…
When you highlight the text, a little grey box that says “Quote” hovers over it. Click that and there you go. I don’t know if it’s any different on a phone than my laptop.
This is such an unsettling situation. I hope there is a logical, benign explanation and not something nefarious going on.
Two things that have seriously wigged my horses out in the past: electrical shock/stray voltage and smoke. I just mention this in case there is a possibility you have either going on.
Predators, too— and a perceived predator doesn’t have to be an actual predator like a mountain lion or bear. In Tennessee we had armadillos in the pasture that terrified my one horse. I’ve heard some horses react really badly to hogs, both domestic and feral. I had a friend who got injured by her horse when a loose emu got onto her property!
Location definitely plays a role here, but in Florida there has been a regular issue for decades (mainly up and down the 75 corridor) of horse theft and slaughter.
In Ohio I knew of two barns that had neighborhood teenagers sneak in at night and stab horses with screwdrivers.
I wouldn’t expect someone coming to steal tack would bother opening gates and risking horses getting loose and alerting neighbors. Unless they have to go through the field gates to access your tack storage area.
I don’t remember a ton of details - IIRC, the people were just stealing a horse, and she happened to be in the stall closest to the stable doors. It was their own trailer (at least, it didn’t belong to my acquaintance). But this mare was highly opinionated, and they said that when she wouldn’t load, they just took a cattle prod and burned her hocks until she jumped in the trailer. Years later, she still had the scars. That’s why I wonder if the prod would leave a mark or not.
There aren’t any ground wires in that pasture, are there? Anything near the road? Is she shod? Trying to think if she might have gotten shocked by something that was random.
get a good camera system that covers all major areas of the property, including one facing out to the main road. I use Blink; they have indoor and outdoor ones and I can see everything from my phone.
padlock all exterior gates, and make sure the gates can’t be lifted off the hinges.
run Hotwire along the top of the fence (not beside the board, on the top) and have the off switch be in a hidden place. Makes it harder for people to hop your fence or tear down posts to get a horse out.
get a good lock on your tack room, lock it every time you aren’t in there, and make sure it’s very obviously locked. ** I like the electric keypad types. At the same time, replace all exterior door hinges with extra long screws so they can’t be kicked in.
you can electricify metal gates. I suggest doing so on all exterior gates. A good shock is a big deterrent to someone thinking of stealing your horse for a quick buck.
have all halters, leads, etc locked in the tack room.
get a guard dog. Even a little yappy dog can make a good deterrent, as they alert everyone about everything. Geese can be good guard dogs too.
Get ‘no trespassing’ signs with the AK-47 symbol on them and put them along the perimeter.
if your trailer is in an easily accessible spot, put a wheel lock on it.
microchip all your horses and have identification photos in case they are taken.
Lastly, at this point you know someone has scoped out your property. They may or may not decide to come back, but they probably don’t know they messed up by leaving prints. I’d vary your schedule as much as possible so you become a difficult target. Drive off to pick up your daughter only to come back 10 minutes later. Park in weird places so they can’t tell if you are home or not. Have a friend come over and do something outside your house when you aren’t home. Sign up for periodical police visits to check the property. Make the thief’s job hard, so hard they look elsewhere.
** statistically whomever came onto your property has been there before or lives nearby. A neighbor kid, the handyman who was there a week ago, the workers who deliver the hay, even the Amazon delivery driver. Make it really obvious to those people that you would be a difficult target.
I just want to say that when our house was being built, we were there frequently, with our dogs. So the fact that the house is still being built does not mean that the new owners are not checking out construction and giving their dogs a tour of the place while they do it.
The presence of bears or pigs, or cougars in the area can result in freaking out a horse like this. But you also obviously had a human intruder as well, who may or may not have been associated with these possible animal intruders. For sure, the extra cameras are going to have to be a necessity for you. And beef up your access to the property. Make your perimeter fence around your house and paddocks dog proof, and get a good one… and “outdoor” dog, with a protective nature.
Thanks, I know it seems likely it was dogs as many people have mentioned but there were absolutely zero dog tracks. I walked from the back of my property to the property next door which the home is surrounded by mud once you get about a 25ft perimeter to the house itself, being a new build, and there are zero tracks. There is about a football field worth of woods and tall grasses from my horses fence line to before you get to the mud perimeter around the home. If it were the new home owners outside with dogs there would definitely have been tracks. The builder and the people placing appliances are the the only ones leaving tracks around the driveway and heading to the porch/front door.
Thanks, great advice. We have three dogs, one being a very protective Jack Russell, but the area of my property this happened they can’t see from the house and we aren’t too up for an additional dog as much as I’d love a Doberman. No exterior gates and I do plan to place hot wire over my top board as an extra deterrent… and to keep my mares from scratching their butts My aunt mentioned a goose, I think that is a great idea actually!
I have the Arlo system up around our house and a cellular camera down in my horses shelter, I’m definitely going to get more. One facing my gates so anyone that walks up can see the camera and I can see them. And another pointing down to my two paddocks and the roadside fencing to pick up any activity walking my fencing coming off the road. I placed a few no trespassing signs as well as a 24/7 video monitoring sign on my fence facing road side.
The way the gates were left, I’m almost curious if someone was there when I pulled in to the drive. Any crook with a half decent brain would know to put things back so it’s undetected and be mindful of prints. I’m wondering if they fled to the property next door when they saw my headlights pull in to my home. I agree, it’s very likely someone nearby that can drive by without my noticing and knows our vehicles, etc. I’m hoping with the extra signs, obvious cameras going up, etc, they get the hint that I know they were there. A bigger lock is going on their paddock gate and I do have it locked and made so gates can’t be lifted off the hinges.
My aunt mentioned a goose, I think that is a great idea actually!