Came home to terrified horse and foot prints on property!

[chestnutmarebeware]

Peafowl are definitely excellent avian alarm systems, but having had both peafowl and geese, I can say with certainty that people are WAY MORE terrified of geese (even benevolent ones) than peafowl (or guineas)! I don’t know why that is, but I only had two and they were friendly with people, but the meter-reader, for example, would drive his pickup truck up the electric pole, roll down his window, and half-climb out to peer at the meter. Anytime visitors saw the pair bustling up to say hello, they would panic. Maybe a good portion of the population has been bitten by a goose at some point in their lives?

I know for a while, at least, some military bases in Germany were using loose geese to patrol the grounds, because, unlike dogs, they could never be bribed by a stranger with food!

[Spudsmyguy]

@sp2813

I think any logical person wouldn’t come through your paddock gates without asking.

You want to bet? I had two strangers, a mother and toddler daughter, about to open the paddock gate where my mare and her new foal were, after they went under the hot wire where my geldings were located. Luckily I was home and chased them away. There’s tons of people on here who have come home to find people on their property or in with the horses, thinking it’s a petting zoo of some kind.

These are stupid people who have no sense of boundaries but a huge sense of entitlement.

[candyappy]

@StormyDay

• 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.

I second this! My dogs hear just about everything and even when in the house they " know" when the Fedx, UPS, visitor or rural mail carrier is coming down our long drive…

Could it have been someone contracted( or one of their workers) hired to work on the new house build being curious and looking around? This time of year it doesn’t take much to freak out an excitable horse to begin with?

[TheJenners]

@Spudsmyguy

@sp2813

I think any logical person wouldn’t come through your paddock gates without asking.

You want to bet? I had two strangers, a mothers and toddler daughter, about to open the paddock gate where my mare and her new foal were, after they went under the hot wire where my geldings were located. Luckily I was home and chased them away. There’s tons of people on here who have come home to find people on their property or in with the horses, thinking it’s a petting zoo of some kind.

These are stupid people who have no sense of boundaries but a huge sense of entitlement.

So much this!

[sp2813]

@candyappy

I second this! My dogs hear just about everything and even when in the house they " know" when the Fedx, UPS, visitor or rural mail carrier is coming down our long drive…

Could it have been someone contracted( or one of their workers) hired to work on the new house build being curious and looking around? This time of year it doesn’t take much to freak out an excitable horse to begin with?

I have three small/medium dogs. One is a Jack Russell who is super protective, they alert me to everything but as I had mentioned my barns sit on the side of my property than my house and not in main windows view, only two bedroom windows actually face the barn. If anyone came from that side of the property my horses shelter and hay barn easily block them from my view whether I’m in my house looking out a window or out in my yard, so my dogs wouldn’t have been able to see and if someone is being super quiet they wouldn’t hear either. Again there’s no tracks coming from that house to mine if they walked from the drive or even the front yard of that house to mine. There is a 25ft parameter of mud around the new build before you butt up to the woods between my shelter and mine, so there would be tracks. Plus, I think most people are still logical to not do that, just walk up the back of someone’s yard and let themselves in a paddock. Also, this was between 6pm & 8:30pm, most workers are gone from that house by 3pm each day. I’ll forever have to wonder, I guess!

[moonlitoaksranch]

Perhaps someone was playing with a drone? Drones can scare horses. If it ran out of batteries, they may have gone into your paddock to retrieve it. Maybe you can borrow a drone and see if they react. Also, you could work on desensitizing them.

[sp2813]

@Spudsmyguy

You want to bet? I had two strangers, a mother and toddler daughter, about to open the paddock gate where my mare and her new foal were, after they went under the hot wire where my geldings were located.

Wow. That’s just plain DUMB. Do you have a lot of neighbors or are you in a rural area? I live in more rural outskirts, outside the suburbs of a city. I don’t have anyone behind me you can see just one house to the side of me with current neighbors. Since whoever it was never showed up on my front yard cameras, they came from the road or vacant neighbors all the way to the back of my property and then walked up my fence line to get it.

[sp2813]

@moonlitoaksranch

Perhaps someone was playing with a drone? Drones can scare horses. If it ran out of batteries, they may have gone into your paddock to retrieve it. Maybe you can borrow a drone and see if they react. Also, you could work on desensitizing them.

That’s a really interesting thought. They do scare the crap out of animals.

[Spudsmyguy]

It’s semi-rural but it’s getting more built up by the day. These people were invited over by my neighbor to come and see the baby. They knew where they were going and pulled into the neighbor’s driveway and walked over, under the hotwire and she had her hand on the gate to open the mare and foal pen when I come blasting out. She told me the neighbor said it would be okay?! Okay to trespass and harass someone else’s livestock? What if her little kid got hurt while on my property? I read the neighbor the riot act when they got home.

[candyappy]

@sp2813

But it’s obvious someone snuck through the back of my property while I was not home and went through my gates.

Do you have gates at the back of the property? That would be something I would change and electrify the section heavily to deter anyone ( kid or adult) from touching your fences in any way should the idea enter their mind.

Gates at the back giving strangers, thieves or neighbors easy access by cutting a chain is not something I would want.

[StormyDay]

ok, its just you are coming across more as dismissive as if people don’t get their houses/barns/etc broken into on the daily. I’m sure that isn’t how you intended it, but its how it reads.

[sp2813]

@candyappy

Do you have gates at the back of the property? That would be something I would change and electrify the section heavily to deter anyone ( kid or adult) from touching your fences in any way should the idea enter their mind.

Gates at the back giving strangers, thieves or neighbors easy access by cutting a chain is not something I would want.

No gates, just the gates entering my buffer area where I have a grooming stall and some extra space and then the gates to my paddocks. My hay barn is right on the corner of my property and where it meets my soon to be neighbors property that’s currently vacant. I should have posted an aerial view of my property lol!

[Djones]

@sp2813

No gates, just the gates entering my buffer area where I have a grooming stall and some extra space and then the gates to my paddocks. My hay barn is right on the corner of my property and where it meets my soon to be neighbors property that’s currently vacant. I should have posted an aerial view of my property lol!

I bought a pretty cheap driveway alarm that has been far better than I expected it to be. Sure my dogs trip it occasionally but it works well to sense when the eyebeam is broken and sends an alarm to a base in the house. You can get multiple sensors and align the tones with a given sensor (low gong for driveway, shrill beep for the barn entrance, etc). Let me grab the link from Amazon. The outdoor part has a solar panel to keep the batteries topped off.

Amazon.com: eMACROS Long Range Solar Wireless Driveway Alarm Outdoor Weather...

[TheJenners]

Ok

[sp2813]

@Djones

I bought a pretty cheap driveway alarm that has been far better than I expected it to be. Sure my dogs trip it occasionally but it works well to sense when the eyebeam is broken and sends an alarm to a base in the house. You can get multiple sensors and align the tones with a given sensor (low gong for driveway, shrill beep for the barn entrance, etc). Let me grab the link from Amazon. The outdoor part has a solar panel to keep the batteries topped off.

That is a great idea! I’m checking it out!!

[Bluey]

@Djones

I bought a pretty cheap driveway alarm that has been far better than I expected it to be. Sure my dogs trip it occasionally but it works well to sense when the eyebeam is broken and sends an alarm to a base in the house. You can get multiple sensors and align the tones with a given sensor (low gong for driveway, shrill beep for the barn entrance, etc). Let me grab the link from Amazon. The outdoor part has a solar panel to keep the batteries topped off.

amazon.com

Amazon.com: eMACROS Long Range Solar Wireless Driveway Alarm Outdoor Weather…

Amazon.com: eMACROS Long Range Solar Wireless Driveway Alarm Outdoor Weather Resistant Motion Sensor & Detector-Security Alert System-Monitor & Protect Outside Property : Electronics

We have several of those, the old kind with batteries and the batteries last us over two years.
If you can’t get some with solar chargers, the battery ones are just fine for what you need.

[Fiesta01]

@sp2813

My aunt mentioned a goose, I think that is a great idea actually!

Yes! Or a flock of Guinea hens. Very loud when something out of the norm is going on.

ETA just saw @TheJenners beat me to it.

[erinmeri]

Having grown up with peafowl, I’d say he’d shoot all of you. I still hear their “meows” in my dreams. Lol.

[NancyM]

I just tried to order that remote solar powered driveway alarm, but Amazon won’t ship to my address. I’ve been wanting one of those for a while.

[Simkie]

@sp2813

I have the Arlo system up around our house…

My Arlo cams miss stuff…not like ALL the time, but frequently enough that I notice it and am frustrated by it. I had a farm sitter that routinely didn’t trip the cameras when she left.

So the fact your Arlos didn’t pick up anything by the house doesn’t necessarily mean that someone didn’t come knock on your door.