Fireworks

MrA

Well-Known Member
Feb 8, 2012
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Last night I was up the field at about 7pm and we had a huge number of local displays going off. I'm not a fan and the sooner they ban them or just limit to silent public displays the better. But it seems that ale is completely nonchalant about them.

Some of the fireworks seemed to be going off from just the other side of his hedges and he barely looked up despite enormous bangs and huge flashes of colour. I wonder why he doesn't worry about them?

He quite often jumps at other noises such as a sudden rattling lorry going past or the first time I used my clicker on him!

I was just wondering if he was perhaps exposed at a young age to them and mum wasn't bothered so he isn't either or if some horses just don't acknowledge fireworks as something to be scared of?

I'm incredibly grateful he wasn't stressed as I know lots of other horses have a terrible time at this time of year with awful consequences. I also got out of work last night to find my bike had be intentionally vandalised and had two deliberate flat tires so knowing Ale was calm and settled helped me feel a little better after that fiasco!

Anyway any thoughts welcome. Do you think fireworks are okay or not and what are you horses reactions. Apologies if there has been a thread already I missed it!
 
I am please Ale was so settled.
We had 50/50 split here. Two horses weren’t bothered, one was agitated but not too bad, Mylo wasn’t happy at all. Luckily he has a large stable so I wasn’t too worried a bout him charging around and bucking in it! It was only the very close ones that were upsetting them, so I knew they wouldn’t be lasting too long as they were private displays. Still annoyed though that people think it’s ok to let fireworks off directly next to a stable yard.
That’s not good about your bike, is there any cctv to show who did it?
 
Thankfully my guys couldn't care less, this year the whole town has been incredibly good and very few fireworks were set off out outside of the big town display. Last year was a different matter there were loads for weeks, one evening someone in the houses on our lane set some off in daylight, 50m from where I was crouched under Jess with my face up close and personal with the bottom of her foot, bloody lucky she barely flinched!
Last night my naughty neighbour had his annual bonfire, goodness knows what he was burning but there were several explosions and thick black smoke (smelled like things that shouldn't be burned, plastic or tyres :mad: ), again the horses barely flinched. My other neighbour shoots in his field year round (he trains his gun dogs) so they are pretty used to bangs.

I know Jess wasn't exposed to fireworks before she came to me as a yearling, she was bred on a remote hill farm in wales and they never had any on the farm, but she has never been bothered by them.

I personally love a good firework display, and particularly the bangs, I don't think they should be banned completely but do think they should only be allowed to be sold to/set off by professionals and be notifiable (as in put in the paper or something when they display will be). My old dog was terrified of fireworks as he got older, it's not that I don't appreciate the stress it causes, but if it was only 1 night in each town where there was a single display it would be feasible to manage animals reasonably without completely banning fireworks.

What bastards for damaging your bike, I hope you can get it sorted out easily enough.
 
Storm doesn’t bother any more and Chloe isn’t fussed. However it was hard the first few years when I brought them home to live as neighbours all had big noisy displays which could be seen by Storm and J. I suppose over the years they just got used to them. ii had to use Insta calm sachets for a while which helped both. This year there must have been a display somewhere fairly close because I heard bangs - Zi was a bit jumpy as in his old home there won’t have been any close enough to be heard.
@Ale sorry to hear about your bike. Curses on whoever did that, really stupid and mindless:mad:
 
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Funny enough both my two boys were out of there paddock this morning. No harm done, no fences broken, a couple of poly post dislodged and wire was sagging down so they both jumped over. Its unusual so I can only think that some fireworks must have spooked them. There were some closer bangs. Fortunately being up on the hill we are away from them really but we do get the full town display. I think the animals get use to them if they are at a distance.
I did curse two weekends ago though as my neighbours (fairly new ones but long enough to know that farm animals live nearby) had fireworks, fortunately I was out in the field feeding the sheep when they started going off, so I was talking to the sheep trying to calm them down. I could see the horses running about in the next paddock over, but I think because they could hear me talking to the sheep with the odd call over to them they stayed calmer. It would have been nice if my neighbours would have just out of courtious come and knocked on the door and told me they were having a party with fireworks. Especially as I'm right in the middle of calving.
Thank goodness I didnt move the lambs down to the field near there house, they would have been right underneath them going off. They are scatty enough with the dog working them so I do dread to think what might of happened with fireworks overhead. I hope they dont have anymore though as the sheep are now in that field.
What gets me is that they let them off away from houses but towards fields those that live near farms. I then usually find I have to go round picking up the bits of wood and wrappers before the animals eat them.
 
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I always think Belle isn't bothered by them as she never seems to be when I'm there at the yard, however, I do notice, just as this morning, she had been unsettled in her stable last night, nothing major but she'd clearly been moving about a fair bit more as her bed was messy, so maybe those that go off later at night when the yard is generally peaceful do upset her.
Personally I don't much care for them and up until this year one of my cats was terrified of the banging/whooshing one's, shes not been bothered this year, but she is an old girl now and I wonder if she's getting a bit deaf as she slept through most of them!
 
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I know Ziggy and Mattie didn't care. I wondered if fireworks might have been behind Charlie's fence-trashing activities on Tuesday, but it happened during the day so I hardly think so. We have big private displays all around us, there are lots of houses like fototballers' mansions and the families there have displays as big as the ones you see at the town fireworks, so horses have plenty of chance to get used to them ;) .

Our old dog Peri is terrified of fireworks, Fortunately she is now addled and completely deaf and sleeps right through them!
 
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Thankfully my guys couldn't care less, this year the whole town has been incredibly good and very few fireworks were set off out outside of the big town display. Last year was a different matter there were loads for weeks, one evening someone in the houses on our lane set some off in daylight, 50m from where I was crouched under Jess with my face up close and personal with the bottom of her foot, bloody lucky she barely flinched!
Last night my naughty neighbour had his annual bonfire, goodness knows what he was burning but there were several explosions and thick black smoke (smelled like things that shouldn't be burned, plastic or tyres :mad: ), again the horses barely flinched. My other neighbour shoots in his field year round (he trains his gun dogs) so they are pretty used to bangs.

I know Jess wasn't exposed to fireworks before she came to me as a yearling, she was bred on a remote hill farm in wales and they never had any on the farm, but she has never been bothered by them.

I personally love a good firework display, and particularly the bangs, I don't think they should be banned completely but do think they should only be allowed to be sold to/set off by professionals and be notifiable (as in put in the paper or something when they display will be). My old dog was terrified of fireworks as he got older, it's not that I don't appreciate the stress it causes, but if it was only 1 night in each town where there was a single display it would be feasible to manage animals reasonably without completely banning fireworks.

What bastards for damaging your bike, I hope you can get it sorted out easily enough.
How interesting that Jess was never exposed to fire works and yet is fine with them, I wonder what it is that caused panic in some horses.
 
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Funny enough both my two boys were out of there paddock this morning. No harm done, no fences broken, a couple of poly post dislodged and wire was sagging down so they both jumped over. Its unusual so I can only think that some fireworks must have spooked them. There were some closer bangs. Fortunately being up on the hill we are away from them really but we do get the full town display. I think the animals get use to them if they are at a distance.
I did curse two weekends ago though as my neighbours (fairly new ones but long enough to know that farm animals live nearby) had fireworks, fortunately I was out in the field feeding the sheep when they started going off, so I was talking to the sheep trying to calm them down. I could see the horses running about in the next paddock over, but I think because they could hear me talking to the sheep with the odd call over to them they stayed calmer. It would have been nice if my neighbours would have just out of courtious come and knocked on the door and told me they were having a party with fireworks. Especially as I'm right in the middle of calving.
Thank goodness I didnt move the lambs down to the field near there house, they would have been right underneath them going off. They are scatty enough with the dog working them so I do dread to think what might of happened with fireworks overhead. I hope they dont have anymore though as the sheep are now in that field.
What gets me is that they let them off away from houses but towards fields those that live near farms. I then usually find I have to go round picking up the bits of wood and wrappers before the animals eat them.
Sadly near by a horse jumped out of her field due to the fireworks and onto the main road. Not a happy ending and so awful. Being in London if it was licensed displays only we would still have tons of noise. I wonder about the suggestion of silent displays where you wear headphones for the bangs.
 
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There seems to have been so many deaths this year, dogs, horses, some bastard tied a firework to a cat....and let off a firework in a rabbit hutch...there are some sickos out there. We had a horse killed in our previous village on millennium night due to fireworks, broke its neck, was left lying in the field for days as couldn't get anyone to come and take it away. I would like to see them banned from private use unless they are silent ones but the lights alone can be very frightening as well for animals.
 
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Someone I work for has a friend over currently from America. They couldnt believe how much has been going off for the last few weeks. Apparently over there they have silent ones. There also only allowed to let them off on special days. Dont know if this applies to all America or just certain parts. But maybe there more proactive than we give them credit for.
 
We had them in the garden, but silent ie just lots of sparkle, and we're in a built up area. Our dog doesnt seem to mind at all.Warned the neighbours, as there were a few crackly ones, and told them to pop round if their dog was upset at all. I'm afraid I think the public displays are worse round here - they're SO loud. Luckily the horses are now in the forest side of the fields, so further from the golf club across the road, that has one every year. All in all though, I could live without them.
 
My feeling is that when there are silent ones available there's no need for the problem. Maybe a compromise could be reached where banging ones are only sold for licensed displays and if Joe Public wants his own then they can only buy silent ones? I'd also like to see a levy on them that was given to charities for veterans such as The British Legion and Help for Heroes - it's not just our pets that get distressed by weeks of fireworks.
 
I also just don't understand the littering side of it, I'm always picking rubbish up off the street and out of my field. Obviously if you fire a rocket off it's going to land somewhere. They could probably manage these days to rig up some sort of projector light show and headphones for the sounds. Some people think that banning them indicates that people are turning soft. I just think its more about the impact things have on others
 
I live next to a school field and every year we are showered with debris and chemical fallout from the firework display - I have had still burning rockets land on my car and shatter the windscreen and yes they had to pay for the repairs.

If you drop anything on the street in front of a policeman you could be fined for littering but people think it is perfectly OK to allow firework debris to litter the streets and people's property.
 
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