Horses and the Law

While there may be no "legal duty" to be a good neighbor, common sense would dictate that whoever was operating the machinery or was there working, should have shut the chipper down immediately upon noticing the horses were frightened by the equipment.

The farm owner should have given his neighbor a "heads up" in regards to the work being done in the next pasture.  

While the property owner and the contractor were held not responsible for any liability to the neighbor by performing their work upon that property, anyone with any common sense and a conscience would have told the neighbor of the impending work and would have stopped the work immediately upon seeing the horses level of fear and the reaction to the noise.

Just because there is no law preventing certain activities and behavior doesn't make it "right" to ignore common courtesy.  

I agree totally with Barbara.  Seems courtesy is a thing of the past when it comes to neighbors.

I have had several incidents with a close neighbor that insists on target shooting in close proximity to my horses.  Here in Oklahoma there are no laws stating that you cannot discharge a firearm in rural areas, irregardless of how close to homes, people and animals.  We also must rely on common sense and courteous neighbors.  I have told them, and I know they have seen,  how it scares the horses and have asked that they at the very least tell me before they start.  Of course they don't.  Both my horses ended up with injuries as a result of two separate target shooting incidents and there is no recourse.  I am just grateful they are both doing well.

My sympathies to the owner that lost his horses and am sorry that the courts ruled as they did.

If the farm owner had horses of his own and knew that it would be a problem for his own horses then he should have informed his neighbor. BUT, as many of us know, non-horsey people are clueless. The tree guys probably thought the horses were "playing" or something. My neighbor, who is also a vet, turned out his mares next to my pasture with my proud cut gelding; ending in injuries. I asked why he didn't tell me he was putting them out there. he said he didn't "think" about it.  Then he asked if my gelding was a stallion as he had seen him trying to mount my mare, before he turned his horses out.

so sorry to all who have injuries and worse due to the non-horsey people.

this was certainly unfortunate and would have been nice to let the owner know but if they weren't horsey people they probably had no idea what would spook a horse.  I feel that using a chipper is an appropriate thing for anyone to do on their own property.  Luckily our horses are used to chippers, chain saws,sprinklers and leaf blowers from our own use......they have to be shewed away since they want to see whats going on.  My heart pains for your loss.

I agree with Phyllis--oftentimes "non-horsey" people believe that horses are as placid as cows or other livestock--but the reality is that horses are highly individualized and high-strung animals.  The operators of the wood-chipper might have fallen into the category of people who believe our equine friends are as lethargic and stable as pommel horses--and some are.  But the truth is that the vast majority of horses out there are not.  Neither owner, I believe, was at fault here, but it makes me shake my head and wonder when people are going to educate themselves about these beautiful creatures...after all, if we can't have a horse/human mutual cooperation, then what is the world coming to?

I just finished a clinic with American Association for Horsemanship Safety. We covered this sort of material, so this is timely. I will be the angles advocate, horses are domesticated animals that require space, work, training, desensitizing, care etc. Humans are prey animals that don't use their brains about horse behavior, and often don't do the preparation to care for a domestic horse. Rather, the horse is kept as a commodity, for an end result. Human animals often seem willing to make another human responsible for consequences of loss. Had these horses had a safe place to live, enough room to flee perceived danger, enough desensitization to adjust to on-going loud noise, enough exercise to moderate their energy level things might have been different. The real loss is the innocent animals.

I agree with Amber.  I've owned horses for many years and I wouldn't expect injuries from the noise of a wood chipper.  Or firearms. Or the horse next door (were it not an actual stallion).  My horses have heard fireworks and gunshots from neighbors, and yes, they've been startled.  But they haven't lost their minds and raced around in such a panic as to cause themselves any harm.  I would wonder about the normal state of these horses.  As owners it's up to us to help our horses gain confidence to live comfortably in the human world.

As a lifelong horse owner I have felt that it was my responsibility to desensitize my horses to a variety of stimuli such as loud noises like guns and chainsaws.  As a result, when the neighbors are target practicing, which they do a lot, there are no repurcussions to my horses.  As a matter of fact they are more curious that anything about what is going on because they are not afraid and will try to approach the noise.  So I think the fault lies with all the humans involved here, and common curtousy should have prevailed...unfortunately for the horses it didn't.  Shame on them all.

What would happen if the horses spooked by the chipper ran towards the operators of the chipper and injured or killed them, or what if the horses once loose ran over someomes child or destroyed something with monetary value?  If the fence was legally secure and these accidents occurred matbe tree surgeons would make a rule to STOP THE MOTOR to avoid secondary danger to the tree surgeons themselves caused by the machine.  They are taught to avoid being hurt by not cutting the wrong branch, and they most likely are taught not to run the motor under an avalanche risk area SO STOP SMOKING THE TREES AND REALIZE SOME SAFETY FACTS so trees can be cut safely.  Even if the safety of the horses is not an issue, the safety of people and property is.

For us horse people it's obvious!  Any loud noise is going to scare any animal and may have a negative result.  I think that it should be a legal process to inform the neighbors so they can take the proper safety measures with there animals and avoid an injury or death of an animal.  A scared horse may even run over a small child and cause an injury or death of a child. SAFETY IS VERY IMPORTANT when animals are around, you never know how they may react!

this will open a huge can of controversial worms!

ok, machinery scared the horses. what about the owner of the horses? why didn't he train his horses to be more comfortable around noises, machinery, or other things.

one could have a horse just walking on down the road, and someone is mowing their yard, it spooks the horse cause of the noise.  who fault then?? the owner that did not train the horse to be ok around road noises, or the person that wants a tidy nice trmmed lawn?

why is that all animal lovers think that every one else on the outside are the one's that must be responsible for their pets.  what of pet owners?  should they not be responsible to thier own pets, and the training of them?

i have 3 horse's.  i use a riding lawn mower on my place, we are always building fences, and making all kinds of rackett here, and around the horses. we have had very large old pine trees cut down by contracted businesses. about 30 of them, in fact. guess what? my horses weren't even bothered, or upset by the work that had to be done on our property.  

our horses are not afraid of noisy moving moterized, or machinery. why?? because we have intentionally introduced every possible noise that man has manufactured.  our horses are probably the safest to ride on the roads, keep in our pastures, and actually, dont' have issues of running panic every time some new noise comes to their ears.

thats the difference of owners that work with their animals and the owners that think that every one else should take their animals in consideration, because they own them next door.

as for the good neighbor policy, spoken or unspoken word of this concept, is a thing of past history. most neighbors don't even know thier next door neighbor, and they come and go every day from the same community, may even catch sight of each other on weekends.  but since one these days dont' even know their neighbors, thier neighbors lifestyles, animals or even that families kids, how can anyone preach the good neighbor stuff??  what community today has the good neighbor and care about neighbor first policy in effect in this day and age?  nope.. today is take care of self, take care of yours, feed your pets, take care of your kids and clear your property of unwanted trees if you so please.  but this has nothing to do with your neighbors place, or their horses problems with noises.

Sara

I have 4 questions 1)What was the source and when was it published reflecting your statemnt; Humans are Prey animals. 2) Who was the Author. 3) What time line in history reflected Humans were prey verses grazer/veg. 4) Which were we originally? We do not have the teeth of a prey animal?

Yearn to Learn

Granted" We are presently the Greatest Preditor, on earth, simply because our technology allows us to kill, without the victim knowing we exist.