Kells residents shocked by horseplay

Residents in Bective Place, Kells, were shocked and surprised to find seven horses wandering about in their estate when they woke last Friday morning. Locals could not believe it when they looked out their windows to find the horses going in and out of their properties and grazing on the green area in the estate. Many gardens in Bective Place were damaged by the horses who ate the flowers, plants and bushes and broke flower pots and window boxes. The horses also fouled all over the estate. The drama began early on Friday morning and the horses were first noticed at around 6.30am as people got up. Local children were back to school and there was huge excitement among the children to see the horses and parents had a hard time trying to keep the children away from them and to get them out to school. Local resident Denis McGrath said nobody had any idea where the horses had come from or what to do to remove them from the estate. They contacted gardaí, who told them they were making enquiries to find out who owned the horses but it was almost 12 hours after they were first noticed, before the horses were removed. Residents were concerned not only about their properties and their children but also that horses would go out onto the busy Gardenrath Road and cause an accident. Mr McGrath said the horses were like 'magnets' for the children and they were anxious that the horses be removed before the children came home from school. The horses moved toward the green area in Bective Place and residents let them do their own thing, rather than spook them by approaching them. Mr McGrath said that about 5pm, a man came into the estate, rounded up the horses and trotted them out of the estate and herded them along the main road to Hermitage Glen where they seemed to have broken though a hedge from the field behind the estate. He said that the horses had destroyed vegetation and flowers and estimated that 70 to 80 per cent of properties in Bective Place suffered damage. Mr McGrath added that in his case he does not have a lawn but the horses had smashed the plant and window boxes and eaten the bushes and vegetation. He said there was now a question over whether residents are going to pursue the owners for damage to their property though residents have not yet met to discuss this. Mr McGrath said that if the man had apologised he felt the issue would have been dealt with but the fact he came in and did not even recognise that people were there, had annoyed the residents.