On another thread Me said he thought it better to talk to people rather than get them into trouble from a safe distance. I agree with that on the whole, but we are facing a very tricky problem with a neighbour over a public footpath and I wonder whether I do need to do something from a safe distance.
My neighbour is a nice lady but, well, she's a bit unreliable. She is a widow in her 50s living with her adult children and they don't farm any more. Consequently the land is rough as a badger's you-know-whats, the fencing is falling down and the farm buildings are literally held up by baling twine.
Along our boundary there is a public footpath which is quite well-used. It only crosses onto our land in one place for about 100 yards but it goes a long way on my neighbour's land and she historically hates the walkers. If she could she would stop the footpath being used.... and that's the problem for us.
For my neighbour has 2 quite aggressive horses in her field. One is a tiny Welsh pony but he has Small Man Syndrome. The other is a big black cob who looks quite intimidating. They regularly chase walkers and on one occasion someone fell in the chase and I thought he was going to be badly hurt. My neighbour's attitude is " its my field; they walk over it at their peril", which of course is wrong as a) she knows her horses aren't safe and b) horses aren't classed as farm animals.
Over the summer we have seen an increasing number of people leaving the footpath and walking over our fields and through our gates , or worse climbing our fences, to avoid the horses next door. Yesterday a nice couple were prevented from crossing the stile by the bigger horse who was baring his teeth at them. So they came to our stable yard. We let them through but I really don't want this to become a regular thing, for all sorts of reasons. I don't want people wandering all round our place.
We have considered going to talk to our neighbour ( again) about this problem but husband and I agree that if she gets a whiff of a chance to have the footpath moved to our side of the fence, or that people will just avoid her side she will jump at it. So Im thinking of speaking to the local authority.
Discuss?
PS: the horses chase the walkers whether or not they have dogs with them. Most dont