Horses in back gardens! Whats going on?

potsofmoney_(I_wish)

Hi all,
I'm just looking to see people's opinions on this trend for keeping horses in backgardens. On my road there are two that I know about. I've just got off the bus and there was another one tethered on the grass verge. :eek:

Now sadly I don't live in the middle of the countryside, we're not talking Country Homes here. I live on a large estate. I do have a large garden, but I would never dream of putting a miniture pony in it never mind anything bigger.

There is also a trend to tether these horses on council land. Yes they do have water, but it just doesn't seem right to tether a horse on a daily basis. We have regular fires started up by some of the local undesirables and I do worry about the horse being taunted or even attacked by a dog of the dog owner was not aware that they were going to come across a horse. The horse in question is always tethered on dog walking land, which is why I see it so regularly.

Anyway although I could I won't go on. I'm just really disheartened if this is an acceptable way to keep one of these beautiful animals

gratefulforhelp_2

It is a common (old-fashioned) practice to tether horses on common land. My pony used to mow our front garden, but really ponies are rubbish lawnmowers, sheep are much better.

Someone in our village keeps one in their garage.

moomin5

I used to help look after 2 shetland ponies belonging to an old lady in my teens which lived in stables in her garden. It wasn't a big garden but being shetlands the restricted grazing was probably best for their health and they used to get walked/driven for exercise. My Dad's neighbour has a horse living in her garden, she's put a stable up & woodchipped the rest but as i only visit i've no idea if the horse lives there all the time or if she has grazing elsewhere.

HRV

Where we live (urban area in west mids) it is traditional to do this and there are horses (largish heavy ones) in all sorts of places- common land, gardens, next to Asda etc, on the grass outside the local hospital.

I originates from when the area had vast numbers of canals and the horses were used for that. I'm not justifying it but around here they're not gypsies.

In my job I have to go on home visits to new pupils homes and we see the horses all over the place ( my colleague opened the lift in a block of flats one day to find one in there!!)

I'm not local origianlly and have to say it took some time to get used to the horses everywhere

svjenni

omg I thought this was just a bradford thing - it drives me mad!

building_with_lego

HRV wrote: »

Where we live (urban area in west mids) it is traditional to do this and there are horses (largish heavy ones) in all sorts of places- common land, gardens, next to Asda etc, on the grass outside the local hospital.

I originates from when the area had vast numbers of canals and the horses were used for that. I'm not justifying it but around here they're not gypsies.

In my job I have to go on home visits to new pupils homes and we see the horses all over the place ( my colleague opened the lift in a block of flats one day to find one in there!!)

I'm not local origianlly and have to say it took some time to get used to the horses everywhere

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Thank you for this- what a brilliant mental image!

Jellicat

I suppose theoretically if the land is a decent size and you are feeding plenty of hay, and the horse has another for company, it could be considered OK but I would imagine in the winter horses would poach a small area of grass into very sloppy mud and they'd be at risk of mud fever and things. Also, horses are supposed to have a shelter to retreat to in really bad weather, and ideally you should have a stable in case the horse gets hurt and needs box rest. I wouldn't say that responsible owners of the horse community would consider it an acceptable way to keep horses. Apart from horse welfare concerns there's also the issue of being a nuisance to neighbours regarding noise, smell, flies etc. Maybe if your garden was an acre (even then you're supposed to let land rest from horses) every now and again and you lived on the edge of a small village, but in this situation I wouldn't have thought so. If you had the land and money though it would be cool to keep a couple of ponies in the back garden

With the amount of delinquents doing sick things to animals kept in fields its not something I would ever do in a remotely urban area.

potsofmoney_(I_wish)

My childminder was approached the other day by a man asking how long her grass was. This wasn't a dodgy pick up line, he wanted to graze his horse (the one I saw on the grass verge) on her lawn.

Beggers belief really

hethmar

Poor ponies, not much of a life on a council estate I should think In Ireland they are everywhere, even kept in blocks of flats. Its madness.

gratefulforhelp_2

HRV wrote: »

Where we live (urban area in west mids) it is traditional to do this and there are horses (largish heavy ones) in all sorts of places- common land, gardens, next to Asda etc, on the grass outside the local hospital.

I originates from when the area had vast numbers of canals and the horses were used for that. I'm not justifying it but around here they're not gypsies.

In my job I have to go on home visits to new pupils homes and we see the horses all over the place ( my colleague opened the lift in a block of flats one day to find one in there!!)

I'm not local origianlly and have to say it took some time to get used to the horses everywhere

There's a scene like that in "The Commitments":rotfl:

Jellicat

potsofmoney_(I_wish) wrote: »

My childminder was approached the other day by a man asking how long her grass was. This wasn't a dodgy pick up line, he wanted to graze his horse (the one I saw on the grass verge) on her lawn.

Beggers belief really

The bloody cheek!!!! I can't believe this still goes on!

hethmar wrote: »

Poor ponies, not much of a life on a council estate I should think In Ireland they are everywhere, even kept in blocks of flats. Its madness.

:eek: I'm gobsmacked. Never seen anything like this near us!