[Appsolute]

Ok I must admit- I forgot about my found dressage whip!

I live in the “country” not many English riders around, but there is a county park with a popular horse camp. Any way, I had been meaning to purchase a dressage whip – needed one to reinforce my leg on my youngster.

One day driving out to the barn I pass something in the middle of my country road – wait… was that a whip? Turn around, sure enough! A dressage whip just like I needed! It was a cheap one, and by the damage on the grip I could tell it had been run over. Didn’t feel obligated to hunt its owner down.

Its been a few years and I still have and use that funky whip.

[shakeytails]

I'd probably pick it up if it looked decent. I'm not proud. On the rare occasion we lose a bale or a few off a pickup load- unless it's actually in the road- we keep on driving. Too much trouble to reload, and we figure somebody will stop and pick it up!

[Bacardi1]

No, I wouldn't. Particularly if it was nice hay.

A couple of years ago I had a couple of bales of very nice hay fall off of my truck. I know - my bad for not having them secured well enough. I saw them fall, & turned around at the very next possible turn-around on the highway. They were gone by the time I got back around. Couldn't have been more than 5 minutes. I'm thinking someone with a truck must've been right behind me - definitely possible in our rural area. Still - hope that guy enjoyed his chuckle & free 2-3 bales of hay that I paid a premium for. While yes, I missed the hay, I feel a bit sorrier for the thief.

[danceronice]

I would be uneasy because around here something like that is more likely to have been dumped than just lost, and someone would only be dumping hay if there were something wrong with it!

[Hippolyta]

If I lost a few bales on a regular route, I would go back to get them, so I wouldn't take any in case owner was coming back.

[cowboymom]

I wouldn't take any if it looked like it had just happened but if was on the interstate I would (and have). I've also picked up a nice bale or two of straw that way. I account for the circumstances, if it seems someone is coming back or not. I know for sure DH has lost a bale or two that other people picked up so I think it all works out.

Never considered the possibility that there would be mysterious horse killing properties to any of the hay though! LOL We knew most of the hay guys and hay purchasers on our routes so we could practically figure out it just by looking at the tension on the bales!

[SarahKing]

One of my coworkers recently told a story about how her boyfriend and his friends saw a round bale on the side of the road about 1/2 mile from home. They high tailed it back to the barn, grabbed the tractor (forklift? I dunno what she said), and took it home for the goats.

[MaybeMorgan]

I lost a hay bag out of the bed of my truck - I HOPE someone picked it up and used it!

[S1969]

Seriously people think that the hay would be so *bad* it would be dangerous? What do you think might be wrong with it?

I don't know...I live in a fairly rural area. Anytime I've seen hay on the road I know it's one of my neighbors who lost a bale. Usually it's not worth my stopping (for 1-2 broken bales) but I would never be afraid that it was "tainted" or dangerous to feed.

[ReSomething]

BIL brought us home two bales once. I certainly never thought of it as being potentially poisoned! As far as leaving it, well I suppose it would be more fitting to leave it overnight in case someone had a ways to go to get home and then turned around to fetch it - but at gas being over $3 a gallon it might not be cost effective to do that.
I certainly wouldn't call someone a thief for picking it up off the side of the road, not if they didn't see it fall off your truck. I just hate to see stuff go to waste. "Opportunist" perhaps.

[equinekingdom]

I think if I saw hay by the side of the road I'd probably leave it - wouldn't know how long it'd been there unless I had driven the same route recently and seen it several times. Most hay in this area is pretty inexpensive, so if it was just a standard $2 grass square bale, I'd probably take it home if it wasn't broken. No one's going to come all the way back for one cheap bale. If it was newly dropped I'd probably leave it, and if it was close to home, I'd go back later and see if it was still there.

If I dropped a bale or two, I'd want someone else to pick it up and use it. If it was expensive, NICE hay, I'd want someone to tell me I'd dropped it, or I'd stop and go back and pick it up and FIND a way to put it back on my truck/trailer!! I'd even put it up front in the cab....hubby wouldn't be happy, but...ya know.....anything for a nice bale of hay I paid for.

[cowboymom]

I remember picking up several tons of hay with a wonderful old rancher at my ranch job during college. He was the nicest guy but "tighter than the bark on a tree" as he described himself.

The hay was small squares and grass and pretty loosely baled and as we bumped out of the hay field one of the broken bales (that we had picked up) fell off the top of the 5 ton stack. Bless Hank's heart-he had me stop the truck and we went back and threw, literally, a third of a bale of grass hay about 20 feet in the air back onto the stack of hay we were hauling out. I doubt any of it made it to the ranch 25 miles down the road but I remember Hank telling me apologetically almost "waste not, want not"... He put up probably 200 tons a hay a year but he stopped for a third of a bale of grass hay. He grew up in the Depression and he's still a very successful rancher.

I thank God and my good luck that I was able to learn from people like him and his mother.

[danceronice]

Never considered the possibility that there would be mysterious horse killing properties to any of the hay though! LOL

Where I live, unless I knew for sure, say, the guy who owns the front forty abutting our front forty, was haying, AND I'd been the same way yesterday and didn't see it there, I might be concerned someone dumped a moldy one. Might break it up and scatter it off the road for the deer. People have dumped weirder stuff in the ditches around here.

[big_red_ottb]

At nearly $20/bale for hay, you can bet I'd stop if I lost a bale on the way home, but then again I usually buy hay in relatively small amounts and I would definitely miss a lost bale or two. Whether I would stop and pick up a bale on the side of the road depends on where I happened across it and whether it seemed "abandoned" or not...if it looked decent I might stop and examine it, but not likely that I'd take it. We have the very good hay, and the hay that I wouldn't feed to goats up here.

[furlong47]

One day driving out to the barn I pass something in the middle of my country road – wait… was that a whip? Turn around, sure enough! A dressage whip just like I needed! It was a cheap one, and by the damage on the grip I could tell it had been run over. Didn’t feel obligated to hunt its owner down.

Its been a few years and I still have and use that funky whip.

On several occasions I have seen crops out on trails in the middle of the woods - surely lost by somebody trail riding. Usually I'm in the middle of an orienteering competition and don't have anywhere to carry them, so I just leave them. If I were just out for a hike or something, I would have many more crops by now

[kcmel]

I lost 3 bales within 5 miles from my house. (Yes I saw it fall but knew I couldn't reload it based on how it fell from the stack.) By the time I carefully got home and got into the van and went back for it, it was gone!!

This happened to me too. People suck sometimes.

[f4leggin]

I'd pick it up. I trust my judgement to assess if it was any good. It's not like random people are dropping hay on the side of the road in the hopes that some body will come along and poison their horses with it... I also would absolutely return it to the right owner, if I knew where it belonged. Chances are without picking it up it will be become a hazard or go to waste.

[cowboymom]

We've found all kinds of "trail treasure" from flashlights and water bottles and hats and gloves and once a GPS but the best one ever was a little flask half full of whiskey. I still have the flask. Though I have to admit I wasn't on the trail when I found it-apparently I wasn't the only one that was looking for a moment of privacy there! LOL

[Traum]

The only thing I think when this thread pops back up to the top is that someone better get that hay before it runs all over the place! Loose hay can be mighty hard to catch, ya know

[yankeeclipper]

I really hope it was all left on a trailer fender or something 'cause the thought of the horse slowly stripping it all off and chucking it over the back ramp/out a window is making me laugh too much for my current excruciating chest cold! .

now that would be funny.

We have a horse at the barn who is known for pulling his blankets off over his head with buckles still clipped. One funny day apparently he took the whole blanket off but couldn't get the neck cover over his head and was found standing in his paddock waiting for rescue.