I have a neighbor who’s backyard borders my fence line. There is a big tree on my property in the corner where horses hang. Neighbor resents my horses being there. They will burn to smoke them out, we think they hit one of our horses-big wound on her back,and now they pointed a laser light show -snow flake lights. We put up a camera after the horse was injured. I was thinking of putting a wood privacy fence in this area. My horses were spooked from the light show the first night but then enjoyed it the second night.
We have tried to be respectful but this guy is not happy having us here. We have had issues with the septic leaking on our pasture and burning of toxic materials . We have been here 4 months and it has been tough. He was best friends with previous owners who did not have horses. I feel it would be visual block . Thinking I could put electric on my side so horses don’t play with fence. Thanks
Neighbor resents my horses being there.
can you barrow a pig to put there for awhile?
Really need some additional info… is the property yours or is it rented? Rural, suburban or city? How big is it?
Are you in an area that is under Zoning ordinances ?
that snow flake thing would be met by my 5 million candle watt anti aircraft search light
yes I know you are wanting to be kind, but if they had hurt one of our horses the police would have been there,
As Clanter said we need more info.
one thought though, is there horse poop under the tree? Are you cleaning the area? Since the tree is on or next to the property line, if it smells due to the horses, the neighbor may have a right to be unhappy. As far as the septic leaking- did you notify the town, board of health etc?
as Pezk said… flies may be the real problem for he neighbor… we use all sorts of fly control stuff primary for our benefit but to reduce problems
Good fences make good neighbors.
Build it tall, add a hedge for even more height, and keep the horses away from it.
We live in Wood County. The health department and Sheriffs department was called on the septic and burning carpeting.
We have 2 horses on a 4 acre pasture . I use fly predators and clean up. We own the property and have been fixing buildings and grounds. The Sheriff department suggested not talking to him anymore since he got so upset about having to correct his situation. We had one 8 foot fence build to remedy his burning which has calmed down that is by the house.
I really just wondered if anyone has used the wood privacy with electric to keep horses off it.
This is East Texas there are cattle and horses on the street. He has 1 acre in between 5 to 15 acre places.
Thanks for replies wish us luck . We will continue to be good neighbors. He is too crazy to confront.
Consider, if you can’t handle your crazy neighbor, even with police help, you could always move.
Crazy people are not worth holding your ground and getting anyone hurt, animals or humans.
Bluey thanks for input. Yes I do think he is crazy and after the first month I had contacted my realtor.
I have projects to finish and we do keep looking for properties.
So ironic I retired from the mental health field so I do work at at keeping things level and quiet. He is also semiretired as is his wife I know we turned his world upside down. The others on the road are great.
To move across the country for this is unfortunate but we got to Texas which we love.
well welcome to Texas, sorry about that neighbor
My wife is a nurse on a physic ward, while out and about more than once she has commented that person over there is just like one of her patients
we got a very big German Shepherd Dog who kept our weird neighbor under control. LeRoy never barked or growled but could just give him the evil eye of watching his every move… soon the neighbor never came near… they sold and moved to Colorado
I just put up a privacy fence to block neighbor’s ridiculous lights from shining on my property and in my windows. Fence is horizontal ‘shadow box’ style – allows for some wind to pass through + posts are 6x6 + we added a brace on either end and one in the middle.
Whatever you build keep ‘wind’ in mind. Wind will work on a poorly built fence and eventually it will start to lean/come apart, posts will break, etc.
I doubt you’ll be able to keep horses away from the entire fence (top to bottom) unless you add a seperate electric fence (another whole line) 3-4 feet in front of the privacy fence (so it’s out of horse’s reach) which means you’ll be giving up some pasture space. Bit maybe that’s okay given your unfortunate situation. Or perhaps your horses won’t even eat or damage the fence to begin with. You could wait and see – add electric later if need be.
Most zoning rules across the country only allow for a 6’ privacy fence, and there also might be set-back requirements which means you’ll lose a little bit more ground. So do check your zoning rules. Where I live in NY the set back is 18 inches from property line – not too bad.
Sidebar: My fence is 8 ft. high though – totally illegal – and with good reason! Building inspector did NOTHING about neighbors lights which are illegal – no shields on them. So I built my massive fence in retaliation. Building inspector has seen it and is turning a blind eye.
Fast growing hedges work well too, probably better than a fence. You can buy a true hedge (but this takes a long time to grow in) buy fast growing trees, or my personal favorite for bad neighbors; bamboo. With bamboo you won’t see your neighbor within a few months. Of course it takes more upkeep than the hedge, but it grows fast and tall and as far as I know is safe for horses.
It is safe for horses – but it takes more than a few months for it to really take off and create a ‘tall’ filled in screen – more like a year or two.
Certain kinds of bamboo are wildly invasive, very hard to control, will sprout up EVEYWHERE – a nightmare. The stand has to have a metal or thick plastic barrier around it-- at least 2 ft. below ground and a bit above ground as roots can jump the barrier.
Horses LOVE to eat the new shoots – quite nutritious.
I am going toward privacy fence with electric in front. I resent the cost but the worry is pretty bad right now.
We built an 8 foot fence by the house to block the toxic smoke . We were so lucky it helped.
The fence will give me more privacy at the barn which is not close to their house but is a wide open view.
The horses are going out in the back field but they are still insecure about being away from the barn . They are senors that grew up at our farm in NJ . I has been a crazy 4 months.
Thanks to everyone . Oh Clanter I have a big black Lab and the neighbors have a yellow one . The dogs are friends.
My big @ss fence blocks a wide open view to neighbors too. LOVE my fence! I can still see the second story and deck area of their ugly McMansion – but in a few years the strategically placed trees I planted will help with that.
Best of luck with your fence – privacy is rewarding no matter the expense.
This idea of the double fence has a lot of benefits, especially if any of the house windows or outdoor entertaining spaces have a view of that side of the property. Giving up some pasture to have an attractive fence and then other trees and shrubs in front of it (with a hot wire in front of all of that to keep the horses off) makes a really attractive landscaping effect: it can give a sense of depth to the area which fools the eye into thinking there is forest or open space behind it and blurs the recognition of where your property boundary is. Also, that extra buffer between the neighbors is always good, even with nice neighbors. Not only is it a visual barrier but it helps a bit with noise and just makes for wonderful privacy. It also creates a safety barrier to protect your horses even more; with a heavy tree and shrub layer the neighbor cannot even see your horses through the fence.
Another benefit? Height. OP will surely have some height restrictions on the fence but groupings of Spearmint Junipers or attractive dense shrubs can grow to whatever height you desire. I mention Spearmint Junipers because we planted those in the back yard. They were in 2 gallon containers and on sale super cheap. It was amazing how fast they grew, especially in width, and they have a max height of 15’ to 20’, which is nice.
Stillhere…The timing of your post has me chuckling. We have a similar situation - and I was discussing it with a friend on the phone as I scanned your post.
Our neighbor’s house is about 50 feet from our barn. Despite their having 15 acres, they chose to turn the postage stamp slice of yard behind their house - and closest to our barn - into some sort of outdoor Disneyland complete with lights, BBQs, firepits, speakers etc etc. As they are down in, it has created an amphitheater effect so sound is wildly amplified. Add to this a chronic issue with 4 vicious & barking dogs. Oh, and the dogs like to hide in the bushes along the fenceline (wire see-through deer fencing), stalk the horses, and then jump out and terrify the horses strategically.
So yes, feel your pain.
We have tried to address diplomatically but a recent yelling altercation over their dog’s behavior has led us to see that the husband is unstable. He said many awful, personal things to us and we just kept saying, calmly, “we only want your dogs to stop barking”. He told us that we are “marked”. So I admire your trying to be the good neighbor but our efforts were useless - crazy is as crazy does.
Needless to say, it is time to move. But with horses, moving is never simple or quick, at least not in our area.
So in the meantime, we have:
- Added dense, tall bamboo at the fenceline. I do not care if it grows all over his back yard. We are controlling it on our side.
- Added trees and hedge bushes that are fast growing. (#1 + #2 = $4000) along the fenceline.
- Added a visual screen/mesh that attaches to the wire deer fencing and is 6 feet high
- We no longer turn out the horses along that side of the property which is a huge loss of use of pasture space but after a near torn check ligament thanks to their dogs, not worth it
- There is a white noise machine inside the barn for when the horses are in the barn to try to block all of their noise & dog barking
- Security cameras as I too fear the husband might physically harm the horses
- We have also kept a log of all events that are problematic so that we can document any issues in the future if need be.
I am so sorry for your frustrations. Please know you are not alone. I have learned a lot from this experience and our current farm buying focus is one that is private and has no close neighbors. Now to win the lottery so I can afford such a farm! 
Things have settled a bit here. We have the fence guy building a new turnout near our house so we can proceed with the privacy fence. How does the visual fence work? What is it made of?
I send my neighbor peace everyday- it helps me stay calm. We don’t have the sound issues that is tough.
If we find a property that would work we would move quickly too.
