Ever since we bought this farm I have tried to be very conscientious about the neighbors. While no one is really that close, we do share property lines with non-horse people. I assume that since they chose to buy a house in a rural area that they are not going to object to the normal activity and smells of a farm, but I try to respect their property and hope that they will do the same for me. I either spread the manure with a drag to fertilize the ground or pick up the manure that is in concentrated areas. I do this mainly for the horses, but I also don't want any complaints from the neighbors about the smell. I do not find horse manure offensive, but others might. I keep all the fences in good repair and we have had only a couple of occasions when a horse got loose and actually got in some one's yard, but there was someone there immediately to retrieve the horse and clean up any mess. Usually the neighbors are amused.The hardest thing for me to deal with though is people scaring the horses. They are not usually doing it intentionally and do not realize that they are putting my horses at risk. I cannot expect them to even think about whether or not their activities will scare my horses or not, so as much as possible, I have tried to arrange the paddocks and horses where they will not have too much contact with the neighbors. Yesterday, however, we almost lost two yearlings due to dogs and a sledder next to the paddock. The horses got so panicked they went thru the fence. Luckily, I was right there and prevented any major damage to the horses, but the paddock is unusable until we can put in a new post, which is difficult when the temps are below freezing. The father of the sledder came over to apologize, but I told him that I was not upset with his child - he should be able to sled on his property, but I appreciated the fact that he was concerned.
We are moving the horses to a new location in a week or two. It is a new facility that we just purchased with lots more land and no one close to the paddocks. Ten years from now that could change as people keep moving further an further out of the city. Hopefully the new neighbors will be as considerate as the ones we have had here. I think that as long as they see a well run farm that is kept clean and in good repair with horses that look healthy and happy, we should have no problems. In fact even the non-horse people have been good about alerting us if they thought something was amiss with one of the horses.
Even though I am fortunate to have this "Lost World Farm", I have to remember that there are others just outside my world that my horses and I will be in contact with. Most people seem to enjoy the horses and I hope to keep it that way, but because it does seem to be a "lost world", I have to come back to the "real world" often and make sure that we are all compatible.
4 comments:
How lucky you are that the parent took the time to talk to you. I find that a rarity nowadays. Gracious behavior is almost unheard of.
Unfortunately, most non-horse people fail to recognize the danger they can put horses in unwittingly. Before we had our own place, they were subject to 4th of July revelry with fireworks, quads on the trails and any number of things that spooked them. My favorite was: we were leasing a barn not far from a small airport and Sunday's were hot air balloon days, well you guessed it, one balloon landed right in their paddock. It wasn't pretty. We were also treated to the wise guy helicopter pilots flying low and hovering over the riding ring. Great fun when you have a young horse in training.
Now that we have our own place, we keep it clean and go quietly about our own business. A road borders one side of the property, we are constantly picking up garbage and cans etc. I am sort of surprised by this because it is a very nice area. The worse thing we have had happen is some teenagers jumped our fence last summer and let the mares (who lived outside)out of their paddock in the middle of the night, if we hadn't put a padlock on the gate to the street they would have opened that and they would have either been running the streets or been killed. This also happened to the woman who sold us the farm, so I'm guessing it's an ongoing stunt. Three horses from down the road were let loose also. Thankfully nothing happened. Nice kids. So I understand where you are coming from with neighbors, a word of advice, padlock any outside gates and good luck in the new place.
Yes, I was surprised that he did that, it is nice to see parents that take responsibility for their children.
I am amazed at the lack of sensitivity in so many people when it comes to animals, and especially horses. I wish all kids were required to be with horses for part of their lives - the ones I know who have been are frequently so much nicer to be around! Horses have a lot to teach and most people miss out on it.
Linda, I'm just coming to your blog, and reading back a ways, this post really hit home.
We have very nice neighbors but not horse people and thus sometimes clueless about what might be hard on the horses. We've had fireworks, ATV races, kids tossing sticks over the fence to make the horses run, etc.
I don't have much patience with this kind of behavior, so generally my husband will tackle the education "talk." As much as we love our little place, if we get the chance to go for more acreage in a more "horsey" community, we likely will do so.
Will continue reading! I'm loving your blog so far.
Post a Comment