Utterly frustrated with neighbor's horse at large

[horse_of_course]

So, it happened for the fourth time this morning. My neighbor’s horse escaped from her enclosure and walked nearly a MILE down the road to my farm to mingle with my horses. Three of my horses are kept outside 24/7, so I heard squealing over the fence at 4:30 this morning and went out to find the mare from down the road. So my hubby and I put her in an empty pasture and drove to her house in an attempt to wake her up. Knocked on the door, beeped the horn, nothing. Called her twice, left her a voicemail and sent a text, still nothing. I went back to bed! I woke up at 6:30 to feed and turnout and the mare is still where I left her. My husband goes back to the neighbor’s house and kids are walking out the door on their way to school, so message is relayed. Now, the problem is not that I’m unable nor willing to capture and retain this horse, I know her and she’s a good girl. It’s that THIS IS THE FOURTH TIME IT HAS HAPPENED! Maybe the first time I’d secure the fence a little better, but after the 2nd and third times!?? Now the fourth!? It always happens in the wee hours of the morning, when motorists are likely to HIT an animal in the road and I can never get ahold of the owner to tell her to come get the horse. We do not live on a busy road, but I don’t think that’s a good enough reason to think you don’t have to take drastic measures to ensure your horse cannot escape. My fear is that one of these days this sweet horse will be hit and be killed, mamed or hurt someone. It’s truly an unfortunate situation. RISPCA cannot legally do anything, and even if I had called the cops, animal control MIGHT have imposed a small fine.

Thoughts?

[californianinkansas]

I wish that there was some way that you could charge her a board-type fee each time this happens.

[Marla_100]

Is she a single Mom with possibly no one to help repair the fences and maybe no money to do so?

Maybe you or your husband could stop by and offer to help her shore up her fences. Many people have horses without the means to properly take care of them. Also sounds like her horse needs a buddy to keep her company since horses are herd animals and many hate to be alone.

[sublimequine]

I’d probably start calling the cops every time it happens. Become a thorn in the neighbor’s and AC’s side until something is done.

[NurseHorsey]

I’d go and have a nice come-to-Jesus talk with the neighbor. Go over after work or during a time when you know that she/he will be home so that they can’t dodge you. I would then tell the neighbor that if this happens another time, you’ll be informing the police/authorities of the issue. I don’t know if there’s anything they can really do about it but it’s a good threat usually (unless said neighbor is a lawyer or cop, in which case… I have no good advice!).

[Nezzy]

How do you even know if her horse is vaccinated? this person is a problem.

[cutter99]

Call the police and animal control. This has the potential to kill someone as well as the horse. Serious problem!

[Laurierace]

I would stop catching the horse and call the police.

[GoForAGallop]

Start calling the police every single time. Catch the horse, put it away safely, call police, tell them you found it wandering and “you think it belongs to 2222 Your Road” and can they go check?

If she’s not woken up by lights and a policeman knocking at her door, then I envy her sleeping capabilities.

Let THEM start harassing her about putting together better fences.

I’d feel bad for her, and ditto the person who suggested going over to help her fix fences, EXCEPT she’s clearly unworried about the situation, hasn’t apologized, and who the heck sleeps through knocks on the door and horn beeps?!! People shirking their responsibilities, that’s who.

[whbar158]

Is the fencing rough looking? Is there a barn? Since the horse is escaping at night its not pulling away from people, but when I was growing up with horses at our house there were a few nights they got out…usually human error! I was in charge of night feeding usually (teenager) and usually I was pretty good, but yes there were times I forgot to latch something properly and said horse was wandering around for breakfast.

Are there other horses at this place?

[Dune]

Maybe she wants to gift you with her sweet horsie.

[trubandloki]

[QUOTE=Dune;7410212]
Maybe she wants to gift you with her sweet horsie. ;-)[/QUOTE]

Didn’t that happen here around Christmas time?
It was a great story.

[horse_of_course]

[QUOTE=Dune;7410212]
Maybe she wants to gift you with her sweet horsie. ;-)[/QUOTE]

Haha, I wish I could keep her, she is a great horse. I really wish the owner would take the same pride I do in caring for my horses. I will add that she appears to be in good health, so no concerns over general feeding or care. Two times ago when I didn’t call her to tell her she was there I secretly hoped she wouldn’t find her at my farm and I COULD keep her!

Marla 100 - while I’m normally a very neighborly neighbor, there is unfortunately some history with this woman. She is a single mom, to two high school aged kids, a boy and a girl. They are both capable and have helped her in the past. Her parents live within viewing disctance from her, so there really is no excuse other than sheer laziness and trust that her horse will respect two tiny, unelectrified strands of rope fencing about 3’ off the ground. I would offer to help her if she were not already indebtted to me by A LOT of hours of work when I rough boarded her horse for her. She did not keep her end of the bargain and decided to leave in the middle of the day, while I was at work, with no notice whatsoever, to skirt around the issue of not working off what was owed to me. Would you extend a handout to someone like this? My husband and I both work full time, he goes to school and we also run a 9-horse boarding facility. I’m perfectly capable of putting up fence, I’ve installed well over 1000’ feet of split rail and slip board fencing in my lifetime by hand and by auger. In short, neither of us have time, nor does she deserve a handout, she chose to house the horse at home and chooses to purchase cheap and unreliable fencing and not maintain it. She has owned horses her entire life and knows better.

My question to you all is what would you do in this situation. Hold the horse? Bar her from entering your property until the police come? When this happens again, and again, when do you do something different? I’d really hate to see the horse get hurt, so that it my #1 concern right now, not whether I can avenge a vendetta from years back. I’m over that, I don’t care, I’m an adult and I have better things to worry about. Frankly, I mostly want her to keep her horse contained so I don’t even have to DEAL with this woman.

[horse_of_course]

No barn, not even a lean-to, but there are some trees. Paddock is a mess with garbage everywhere, fence is two strands of poly rope about 3’ off the ground. I think she busts through it because it never seems to be toppled over, just sagging in some spots. I’ve had my fair share of forgotten gate latch episodes in my life, I’ll admit. But my farm is contained so if a horse is loose through a gate they can’t get far. That’s because I’m set up to keep horses. She just threw together some rope, a few posts in her backyard and called it a day.

[Miss-O]

Good luck OP. I fought this issue for close to a year. The neighbors and I called AC and cops repeatedly. AC did nothing. The cops would come out but stopped coming after a month or so. Apparently it’s not illegal in Pa to let your horse roam at large. Even on busy country roads. We saw the horses nearly get hit by school buses and we had a gas truck nearly flip to avoid one. The driver was so shaken up he pulled into my driveway and I made him tea to calm his nerves. I went to township meetings and finally went on air on a local news radio show. The radio show ended up getting no response from our AC at our craptastic humane society but it put pressure on our zoning commission which made a local zoning law to prohibit the issue. The terrible owner moved the horses to the next township over where they are experiencing the same exact problem.

[alto]

[QUOTE=horse_of_course;7410297]

My question to you all is what would you do in this situation. Hold the horse? Bar her from entering your property until the police come? When this happens again, and again, when do you do something different? I’d really hate to see the horse get hurt, so that it my #1 concern right now, not whether I can avenge a vendetta from years back. I’m over that, I don’t care, I’m an adult and I have better things to worry about. Frankly, I mostly want her to keep her horse contained so I don’t even have to DEAL with this woman.[/QUOTE]

Call the police each & every time.
Let them deal with the loose horse situation - the owner is assuming that you will always look after the horse & so far, you’ve been meeting expectations.

Call the police now about this latest horse escape & ask them to oversee return of the horse as you’ve had difficulties in the past with this person.

OTOH you may want to avoid a situation that inspires retaliatory behavior, so base your decision upon what you know of these people … much easier to deal with an occasional loose horse (that you can ignore in the future) than with “objects” ending up in your pastures & other petty vandalism.

[horse_of_course]

No barn, not even a lean-to, but there are some trees. Paddock is a mess with garbage everywhere, fence is two strands of poly rope about 3’ off the ground. I think she busts through it because it never seems to be toppled over, just sagging in some spots. I’ve had my fair share of forgotten gate latch episodes in my life, I’ll admit. But my farm is contained so if a horse is loose through a gate they can’t get far. That’s because I’m set up to keep horses. She just threw together some rope, a few posts in her backyard and called it a day.

[horse_of_course]

Miss-O - what a terrible situation! It is sort of relieving to know I’m not the only one experiencing this though. The funny thing is that there is an even bigger horse farm directly across a very busy road from her, so it’s anyone’s guess why she doesn’t roam there, but I suspect it’s because she’s familiar with my place.

Alto - your recommendations are good. I called the ACO this morning and am waiting to hear back. My family and I know her and she is a horse person, so I’m hoping that might work out. I’m actually not worried about any retaliation from the horse owner. I grew up on this farm and either know or am related to everyone surrounding her. If she decided to give me trouble, she’d be burning more bridges than she could survive without.

[alto]

@horse_of_course;7410382

but I suspect it’s because she’s familiar with my place.

:yes: miss mare is just trying to get back “home”

[Lady_Eboshi]

Ditto what everyone is saying about putting this on Animal Control. It is not up to a private citizen, however altruistic, to enforce Roaming Livestock laws–it’s up to the police, and they need to do their job but they can’t if they don’t know it’s happening.

The situation sounds like the owner has no business having a horse; perhaps the horse is roaming to begin with looking for food or water that isn’t being provided.
The whole thing is definitely a matter for law enforcement due to liability concerns; what if you’re leading that horse home, it spooks, gets away from YOU, and THEN smacks a car? The owner could then say “Who the heck are you and what were you doing with my horse?” You might find yourself in court. Avoid!