VENT! Stupid people trespassing on horse property!

[birdsong]

When I was a child the neighbor allowed his young child to climb into out rear pasture (nearest to their home) where he tried to hug a colts hind leg. Well that colt kicked him in the face just glancing off his chin. It took all the meat and pealed it up to his ear!! If it had been a dead on kick to the chin it would have killed him!!

Another time while riding patrol as I was riding with a part belgian partner. He suddenly jumped…I glanced down and a small child had run up behind him and grabbed his leg. The mother had actually stopped her car to allow him to do it!! I yelled stop to him whereby he began to cry and run to the car. The lady screeched out of there like we were going to arrest her. We were just attempting to see if her child was ok!!

Some people are so stupid!!

[Thomas_1]

Do you want to borrow my 11 year old hand reared horse??

I once went outside and could hear this little way in the distance constant yell. At first I thought it was a buzzard calling (UK bird of prey). Then, some 3 hours after first hearing it thought that’s odd its still there and the thermals aren’t so good this time of day. So I stopped to really listen and realised it was a call of “help” “help” “help”

I set off to the direction of where it was coming from and thinking a car might have gone off the little track about half a mile up from the farm. As I was walking up I realised it was getting closer and it was definitely help and it was coming from one of my fields. I jumped over the gate and couldn’t see anything at first and then looked up to the electricity pylon. There were about 9 horses gathered just grazing round the base but my chestnut hand reared was standing upright on his hind legs and striking out with his forelegs and up the pylon were 2 engineers from Scottish Power!

Seemed they were doing a service and forgotten to ask for permission to access and they’d been up there for 5 hours! Every time they tried to climb down one of the legs my horse was leaping there and thinking it was some sort of game standing up and terrifying them.

Now Scottish Power instructions say in big red capital letters at the top of the work sheet “BEWARE OF ORANGE HORSE. ASK OWNER TO TAKE HIM AWAY OR TO GIVE YOU A GUARD”

[S1969]

[QUOTE=deltawave;2969812]
I’m not a lawyer, but the whole premise of “attractive nuisance” is not all that cut and dry. Having a pool (for instance) safely fenced is just plain GOOD SENSE. You hear about ridiculous frivolous lawsuits on TV, but in the majority of cases reason does prevail and parents ARE held responsible for their own kids, as it should be.[/QUOTE]

I agree. Your insurance company will charge you more just for having a pool, but that doesn’t make you responsible for making sure every kid in the neighborhood doesn’t scale your fence and disable your pool alarm. Fences are required for pools…lack of a fence and you are negligent. But you are not legally obligated to patrol your pool 24/7 to make sure people don’t trespass or otherwise break the law.

We live on a rural road in a small town and get tons of cyclists in the summer and a fair number of walkers/runners who specifically choose our street because it’s pretty and has a couple of farms. 99% of the time they look and don’t come close to the fence or the horses but occasionally they do. We’ve never had a problem, and actually appreciate the couple of times that people have stopped because a horse looks odd or dead (it’s always the 30 year old QH sleeping, but he could be dead so we think it’s nice they are concerned.)

If you have adequate fencing and gates, I think you shouldn’t lose sleep over people getting their fingers bitten off from outside the fence. Obviously if people are harrassing your horses, that’s another issue completely.

[equusrocks]

Ok, I don’t want to make light of this, because I know it’s a serious issue…

But…I can’t help it. I had to find this video. Note how guy strolls up, and then…awww:lol:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zrscjp9csHc

[apcohrs]

[QUOTE=sublimequine;2969973]
That’s why putting up signs saying, ‘CAUTION: HORSES BITE’ or something like that is always a good idea, even if your 30 year old swaybacked gelding has never bitten a person a day in his life. The outsiders don’t know that. :D[/QUOTE]

actually … you will be totally screwed if you do this and something happens. it will be considered proof that you know that your horse is dangerous and did not take special precautions to prevent people from reaching him.

‘attractive nusiance’ is not a term made up just to make us paranoid. It most certainly does affect legal liability.

I would have been that horse crazy kid in the pasture 40 years ago. Now that I own a horse in this sue-happy era, I see things much differently.

When I boarded at a barn that attracted ‘tourists’ I made every effort to shepherd strangers around and supervise safe introductions to well behaved horses (mine is a real love bug). But if i EVER get a place of my own, the roadways will be heavily planted with very thorny bushes, and the fences will be hotwired. The driveway will be gated, and I will have a loud dog to alert me to trespassers.

I’ll still make an effort to welcome well-behaved visitors, but … unsupervised access is very scary and a huge legal liability.

[Sithly]

Question: Can you still shoot rock salt at people, or is that frowned upon these days?

[JohnDeere]

Only with a permit sithly.

Im drawying a blank–what’s that stuff they used for fencing during WWII? It grows like wildfire–something like wild mulberry but thats not right. It takes about a year or 3 to really get big, horses cant eat it, and it keeps everyone away from your fences.

[ESG]

@equusrocks;2970079

Ok, I don’t want to make light of this, because I know it’s a serious issue…

But…I can’t help it. I had to find this video. Note how guy strolls up, and then…awww:lol:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zrscjp9csHc

Further evidence that the gene pool could stand a little chlorine.

[JSwan]

Thomas, I don’t believe cloning is ethical but I would make an exception just to have a copy of that horse! :lol::lol:

It’s a crying shame we have to be so paranoid about lawsuits. One of my fondest childhood memories is of petting the neighbors Percheron and feeding her grass - I did it all the time and would spend hours standing outside the fenceline.

Unfortunately, these days I’d be so worried about being sued I’d never let anyone do that; especially a kid.

Sign of the times… :no:

@Thomas_1;2970000

Do you want to borrow my 11 year old hand reared horse??

I once went outside and could hear this little way in the distance constant yell. At first I thought it was a buzzard calling (UK bird of prey). Then, some 3 hours after first hearing it thought that’s odd its still there and the thermals aren’t so good this time of day. So I stopped to really listen and realised it was a call of “help” “help” “help”

I set off to the direction of where it was coming from and thinking a car might have gone off the little track about half a mile up from the farm. As I was walking up I realised it was getting closer and it was definitely help and it was coming from one of my fields. I jumped over the gate and couldn’t see anything at first and then looked up to the electricity pylon. There were about 9 horses gathered just grazing round the base but my chestnut hand reared was standing upright on his hind legs and striking out with his forelegs and up the pylon were 2 engineers from Scottish Power!

Seemed they were doing a service and forgotten to ask for permission to access and they’d been up there for 5 hours! Every time they tried to climb down one of the legs my horse was leaping there and thinking it was some sort of game standing up and terrifying them.

Now Scottish Power instructions say in big red capital letters at the top of the work sheet “BEWARE OF ORANGE HORSE. ASK OWNER TO TAKE HIM AWAY OR TO GIVE YOU A GUARD”

[cheryl_ann]

John Deere,

Is it ‘multi-floral rose?’ Very thorny and nasty. Grows wild here; hate it, but it would no doubt be a very effective barrier from street to fence.

[ESG]

@JohnDeere;2970166

Only with a permit sithly.

Im drawying a blank–what’s that stuff they used for fencing during WWII? It grows like wildfire–something like wild mulberry but thats not right. It takes about a year or 3 to really get big, horses cant eat it, and it keeps everyone away from your fences.

Isn’t it some southwestern thorn plant, that supposedly grows about 5’ a year, or something crazy like that?

[JanM]

My understanding is that each state makes it’s own laws. When I lived in New Mexico lots of people with pools or hot tubs had the building type gazebo or pool enclosure and it connected to the house-that way if someone broke in it was considered burglary–and since it was a free range state any livestock that was injured or killed-even if it escaped and ended up on a road the driver or other person that hurt or killed the animal had to pay for the animal. If you had warning signs up about an animal and the person trespassed the trespassing person was in big trouble not the homeowner.

Now in Virginia (I moved away from there years ago-so it might have changed) if someone was injured on your property even if it was posted “No Trespassing” and fully fenced you were totally screwed. And if you had an injury to a person for any reason (even trespassing) by an animal the homeowner was liable.

So I think a lot of the liability problems depend on the state laws, and the local legal climate. However, remember that if a trespasser or some other idiot sues you will have to go to court, and even if it gets thrown out you still can have big legal bills. Unfortunately, I really think a lot of people think that if you have a horse or a farm that you must have big bucks, and that’s very tempting to many sleazy, money-grubbing people. It may not be the world we grew up in, but it’s a different world now and you have to accept the current reality. You can’t risk your property and your money because you don’t want to be viewed as the mean person that doesn’t want to share their horses.

[Slewdledo]

School was canceled today due to snow, so we had some little darlings pressed up as close as they could get to a back fence. Went up to check on some mares and do a couple vaccinations. Little kids are watching our every move. You can hear them chattering like children do, and it gradually gets louder and louder:

“GOSH! I’D LIKE TO PET SOME HORSES!”
“YEAH! WOULDN’T YOU LIKE TO PET SOME HORSES?”

I just ignored them - they kept on yelling passive-aggressive things like that. Mares apparently knew much better and were far from that part of the field, bless them. Fence is hot, too.

I’d have pulled a mare over for them to pet if 1) they’d asked nicely; and 2) there wasn’t a nice, gentle horse next door to them that I know for a fact they can pet any old time. Nooooo, it has to be the forbidden.

[chai]

ESG, the sad thing is that some people really ARE that dumb. I came home from the grocery one day to find a man and his two year old in the field with my ultra aggressive TB mare. I flew across the driveway, screaming at him to get out of the pasture. She had recently started a new trick where she would put her head up to you, then squeal, strike out at you and spin to kick. That foolish man could have been killed! And his baby??? What could he have been thinking? He was definitely a contender for a Darwin Award.
My brother in law is also my insurance agent and he told me that because horses are an ‘attractive nuisance’ you must post your property with a no trespassing sign to protect yourself from liability. I hated to put up a sign like that, but in this day and age, you can’t take any chances. Even with the sign, I found a man from the Dominican Republic in my yard with his 10 year old daughter two years ago, patting our donkey through the fence. He actually turned out to be a great guy who had donkeys when he was a kid…but still…the danger is that someone will get bitten, kicked…even a splinter, and then you’re off to court!

[Fallbrook]

[QUOTE=deltawave;2969510]
Gee, I can’t count how many times my dad and I used to do this when I was a young kid. Call us both stupid, I guess. No, I never would’ve dreamed of climbing through a fence, but maybe those were friendlier times–we never were scolded or chased off, in fact more often than not we’d get a friendly wave from the house or a smile from the owners if they happened to be nearby.

Not at all supporting the practice of trespassing or intruding. Our “horse petting” forays were limited to the pastures that lined public roads way back when there WERE pastures in Central NJ. :sigh: But geeeeee . . . :([/QUOTE]

Me too - this is how I caught the horse bug. Our neighborhood was next to a farm that had ponies and morgan horses. I used to quietly “hang out” at the fence line and watch the teenage daughter ride. One day they noticed me and kindly asked if I would like to meet the ponies. That was 42 years ago. My Dad started taking me to another farm to ride, then we bought a horse, moved to a farm, bought more horses, bigger farm…etc…

So thanks to Dr. Pickering for letting me pet the ponies all those years ago!

[Kate66]

[QUOTE=Sonesta;2969774]
An annoying as it is, I am like DMK and always take the time to speak to them nicely and explain the dangers and help them properly pet the horse and then make sure that they understandt that they must not - EVER - come up and pet them without me again. I tell them if they stop by and I have time, I’ll help them pet one again.

I do this because 1) I remember how horse crazy I was as a kid and sempathize with the child or even the adult and 2) I hope to educate them so they don’t make the same mistake again.[/QUOTE]

I would be horrified if someone actually entered my pasture or my barn… but I have to say that I may fall into the “most hated” category for many of you. When I am out for a walk and walk past a pasture with horses in it, I am STILL likely to walk up to the fence and see if they want their noses patted. I have never really thought about it and I have had horses for 30 years. I generally think I am quite a good judge of character with horses and am reasonable at reading body language. I have never been nipped or bitten - ever. I am always delighted when I see people stopping outside my pasture and patting noses. I would hate for them to feed anything else other than grass. I guess I am just comfortable that my horses are never going to nip anyone over the fence.

I would have been so devastated as a kid if someone had come and yelled at me for doing what I thought was being nice to a horse, by patting their nose.

[JumpOne]

When I was in college our barn was technically “open” to the public as it was on campus. My horse was very friendly and would never hurt a fly, but a friend’s horse in the barn was quite the opposite. She had to put up mesh over the front of his stall with multiple signs that read “I BITE”, and guess what? People STILL put their fingers in there to try to pet him! This was a horse that bit his owner on a regular basis. Despite all her efforts they threatened to throw her horse out of the barn! Unbelievably dumb people!

[Chardavej]

There is a new subdivison “growing” along the line of my property and already I am having such problems with the kids and even the adults! Once I saw one of the horses staring down at the bottom pasture and I looked and could see someone down there walking their BIG dog!! I jumped in the golf cart and got there just as he was crawling under the fence and I asked him (very nicely) I can’t have him trespassing we have horses, he said I know, I said well I can’t take the chance of you getting hurt, he was probably 65 years old or older!

Then my husband and one of the boaders went for a trail ride and found the bottom tow pasture gates wide open and our no trespassing sign shot up with BB guns!!

Then the last nice weekend we had I had to go down three times to the bottom pasture and tell them to GET OUT! I was nice but finally got nasty, I asked them what made them think they had to right to crawl through our fence??

We are going to run hot wire around the whole property, I just am at wits end. They walk along the property line with their BB guns, I have told them I don’t mind BB guns, I understand being a kid, but to NEVER shoot them towards the property but away. I can’t stop them from shooting them, but I don’t want to get nasty for in fear of retaliation when I’m not there and I just can’t take that chance so I am nice as I can be so they wont shoot a horse at night in anger.

Here is an idea of what is going on:

http://s36.photobucket.com/albums/e28/chardavej/Huggys%20first%20day/?action=view&current=Huggies1stday115.jpg

http://s36.photobucket.com/albums/e28/chardavej/Huggys%20first%20day/?action=view&current=Huggies1stday116.jpg

http://s36.photobucket.com/albums/e28/chardavej/Huggys%20first%20day/?action=view&current=Huggies1stday004.jpg

Since these pictures were takin the development is down the whole line now and they have built ones right up to the property line.

Here is the gate leading to the bottom pasture and in that lower pasture are two more gates and woods, those gates were open and normally this gate in the photo is open (thank God it wasn’t! All the horses would have been gone!)

http://s36.photobucket.com/albums/e28/chardavej/Huggys%20first%20day/?action=view&current=Huggies1stday002.jpg

At least the horses are immune to construction equipment! LOL!
http://s36.photobucket.com/albums/e28/chardavej/Huggys%20first%20day/?action=view&current=Huggies1stday006.jpg

[Grannie_s_Grey]

While I was at work, my gate was left open by some unknown idiot. Horses didn’t open it, I had a snap (which disappeared) on it. My neighbor called me because my horses were in the ditch by the road. I now paddle lock my gates
and dropped hot rope about two feet inside the perrimeter fence.

[3horsemom]

we board at a lovely private barn with a long curvy drive the leads to the barn set way off the road. one day we were coming home from a horse show and as my husband turned in the driveway he was met by a caravan of cars, each filled to capacity. now we are in a 3/4 ton pickup pulling a 2 h gn and the first car was a kia. the kia refused to move out of the way. now my dh is a really sweet, mellow kind of guy but he was tired, he was missing the cowboys game and the d#%n kia would not move! like he was playing chicken or something. so my husband proceeds to move forward inch by inch until i am convinced that dh is going to run the guy over. i mean what if they had been friends of the b.o.?! not likely, but…
so i hop out of the truck and walk over to the guy and he rolls down his window and omg it was like being at a grateful dead concert. one whiff and i wanted some m&m’s. they wanted to just drive up and see what was on the property and pet some horses. we keep the gate shut now.