The other day I went out to move an irrigation line on one of our fields, and when I got out there, three horses were in the middle of the field. I didn't know whose the horses were, all I knew was that they weren't ours. I assumed they had jumped a fence from one of the nearby fields, and their owner would be along shortly to take them out, so I didn't worry too much about it. But when I went out there again the next day, they were still there, eating away at our alfalfa. Right about this same time, this guy walks by leading another horse, looks over at the three horses and jokingly says "You guys stole my horses." I chuckled and replied that it was unintentional, and he said that after he put that other horse away he would take care of them. So I went about my work, moved a few other lines on a few other fields, and drove by to see if they were still there. And they were. But I figured at least now we knew they guy knew they were there, and he was just making sure the fence around his field was good so they wouldn't get out again. But, when I came out the next day, of course, there they were again. Ugh. But when I went out there today (five days later as far as I can remember) they were finally gone. I found the whole thing quite annoying.

They didn't eat all that much, but where they laid down has flattened out all the alfalfa, which ends up being a whole lot more damage than everything they ate, though still not a whole lot. And since they weren't where they were supposed to be, they had no water troughs, so as we would turn the line on each day they would rush over to try to lick water off of the pipes, which got a little annoying as you tried to move stuff around. In the end though, they didn't do much to hurt the fields, the deer do more damage every year.

So am I justified in being annoyed with this guy, or is it no big deal? He knew they were there and it still took him multiple days to finally take care of them.