Am I Being Petty?

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Horlicks

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I have two horses on a DIY yard, I've been the only one there for 6 months, new horse arrives with very little warning and I've not met the owner yet BUT....

already they have used my barrow, shavings fork, broom and poop scoop and left a trail of shavings across the yard.....

Now ordinarily I wouldnt mind if they had asked me first but this has really got my back up

So am I being petty? and what would you do?
 
Welcome them to the yard and say they can use your tools until their own arrive which you assume will be sometime this week

Proves a point without being too confrontational and allows them to turn the situation around without losing face
 
Nohorse said:
Maybe they think the stuff belongs to the yard rather than another livery?
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this exactly! my diy yard has 'yard tools' so we dont buy our own
name it all!!! in BIG letters!!!! and if you see them useing your tools, ask for them back, mentioning you have to have your own
 
I would speak to yard owner as perhaps new livery thinks your tools are communal yard tools. I went to a private yard with friends and I bought all the tools etc but when friend left and new liveries arrived the YO gave them free rein to use my tools, my barrow, my rug racks, my water buckets, my jumps so when I left they got a shock as the yard was left bare. Livery was mortified to find out I owned everything as she had asked YO what the protocol was and they were told help yourself to anything.

Very frustrating for you, best to definitely bring it up now.
 
Ive not even seen them at the yard yet, the horse has been turned out before I get there in the morning and was still out when I left last night. The yard consists of three stables at a private house, the owners are an elderly couple, the "yard manager" is such an "old woman" that most of time he is useless and is only around at weekends.

If I was new to a yard I would make an effort to meet the other livery/liveries and certainly wouldnt borrow stuff without asking. Surely if you are on DIY you expect to provide your own equipment I always have. I certainly had to when I first came here. At a previous yard I had my future fork broken by someone else using it and then they denied all knowledge of it.

Heading down there shortly to poo pick and turn out, Im not going to hang around forever waiting for them to turn up though....
 
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WelshD said:
Welcome them to the yard and say they can use your tools until their own arrive which you assume will be sometime this week

Proves a point without being too confrontational and allows them to turn the situation around without losing face
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Tactful, I like this :)

It is petty in the grand scheme of things, but if it happened to me it would (and did) drive me bonkers :mad: so I am on the same page as you.
Barrows etc are expensive so why should you share with others, especially if you have to retrieve it or can't use it when you want?

When I was on a DIY yard I named everything, although it didn't make any difference if I kept them in the communal toolshed. I kept my brush and forks in my tackstore under lock and key.
 
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Thanks NL - I will go armed with a marker pen, sadly there is nowhere to lock anything away. I dont keep tack there as there is only a tiny communal feed room and thats it. Hay etc is stored in a lean too.

I really wouldnt mind if I had been asked first but the owner has just presumed that it is yard equipment. The last livery that I shared the place with always used my barrow because her's had a flat wheel - she couldnt be bothered to change it and it drove me nuts, Especially as she would leave it full of poo in the field.
 
Horlicks said:
Thanks NL - I will go armed with a marker pen, sadly there is nowhere to lock anything away. I dont keep tack there as there is only a tiny communal feed room and thats it. Hay etc is stored in a lean too.

I really wouldnt mind if I had been asked first but the owner has just presumed that it is yard equipment. The last livery that I shared the place with always used my barrow because her's had a flat wheel - she couldnt be bothered to change it and it drove me nuts, Especially as she would leave it full of poo in the field.
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why on earth didnt you say something then?

i can understand you being annoyed but this new livery has been there what, a day? Id give them the benefit of the doubt
she/he probably doesnt know you consider it good form to be around to 'meet' her other liveries. perhaps she works longer hours than you?

When you see her, just politely tell her its your stuff.

Relax :D
End of problem. Its not like this has been going on for months. She's new, she's been there a day. More than likely has no idea its your stuff.
 
say something! I shared with my friend a couple of years back! they done the same, used everything! my barrow got broken, my muck fork snapped when they were using it and they said they'd go halves with me for a new one? I thought WTF If they had their own mine wouldn't have got so much use and would have not broken! but I couldn't lock my stuff away because then they wouldn't do any poo picking in the field, so I was stuck!

also they took my fly spray, mane and tail conditioner, hoof oil etc, with out asking and never replaced it! at the time I was a student earning £60 a week and they both worked full time, one earning A LOT of money and none of it ever got replaced! im getting annoying writing this actally, so ill stop here! haha
 
I had this when we had a new livery, I came down once to see her using my wheel Barrow and fork.

When I asked if I could possibly have my bits back she apologised saying she hadn't realised she needed her own bits as the last yard was all shared.

So I'd just bring it up with her as she may well have no idea it's an issue?
 
If it carries on and you don't bump into the new livery soon, do you drive to the yard? If so, just keep your yard tools into the back of your car for a few days. New livery will wonder what's going on and either will ask after them, in which case she can be put straight about who's they are, or will simply go out a buy her own set. I've had to do this in the past when in a simlar situation to yours.
 
I found a brush on the yard snapped in two yesterday (not mine but not the point), so I wrote in large black letters on my shaving fork, my horse's name.
Anyone breaks that, they're getting a £30 fine as that's how much it will cost to replace.
 
It may just be a mix up, either they have presumed or been told the tools are yard owned, just explain or label them and I doubt you'll have any trouble.

The little DIY yard i'm at has a combination of yard owned, individually owned and once owned but no one can remember who by equipment.
 
yes you are. leave a note saying just to let you know these are not communal tools, but belong to x.(yourself). how else is livery supposed to know who they belong to? And maybe they don't have time to wait around to meet you etiher..
 
Communication is the key......as others have said they may have thought it was communal equipment. As for not seeing them, they may have a different work routine to you, so not necessarily a lack of manners.
 
Agree with SusieT. Only thing I'd add to the note is what Welsh d said about them being welcome to use them for a few days till their own arrive.
 
Well I hung around until 5pm and no sign but everything is now labelled.


I have said things in the past to the other livery but was met with one excuse after another - I don't want to fall out with anyone as it is such a small place but it is my equipment and I can't afford to replace it if it gets broken!
 
Maybe she's hung around since she's been there hoping to meet you too? It can be hard in the early days of being the newbie at a yard so a little diplomacy won't go amiss. If you meet her and don't like her then throw caution to the wind! But at least give her a chance; she probably assumed the tools were yard property or maybe useless YM told her she could use them.
 
When I bought my lad, I had no tools at all. He had been kept at his loan yard, which was a riding school with communal tools.
Before I moved, I asked my new YO if there were any tools I could use until I got my own, and she told me to help myself. I had every intention of getting my own asap, but couldn't afford it all at once after all my purchase costs.
I had also asked her about hay etc, and she said she would get me some ordered in to be there for our arrival.
When we turned up, there was nobody there except her, and I wanted the boy to stay in for a couple of nights. I had straw, but they hay hadn't turned up, so she told me to help myself to the heston bale in the barn, which I did.
The following day, I mucked out with the "communal" tools, which were lying around all over the place, and met a couple of liveries. Nothing was said.
I then went to fill up my haynet, and one of them followed me. There was then an akward exchange where she asked me why I was using her hay. I was mortified, and told her what YO had said. I apologised profusely, and said I would reimburse her as soon as mine came, and get my own in the meantime, which she grudgingly accepted.
The following morning, I got down to muck out, and all the tools had been hidden. Turned out they belonged to the (very cliquey) few liveries, and rather than say anything to me when they had the opportunity, they decided to hide them away instead.

For many reasons, it became apparent that the YO was a muppet, and the liveries were horrendous beatches, and I lasted there 2 weeks. MY friend who moved with me ended up having a huge bust up with one of them and we left the next day.
Just trying to say that it might not be the new livery's fault, but I still agree that they should try and make contact just to be polite, never mind the tool borrowing.

I now have all my own stuff, and the boot is slightly on the other foot. We all have occasions when we want to borrow other people's stuff, and none of us do so without asking. My fellow liveries are very resfectful in that way, but we have one livery who has had her pony for two years now, and her parents have never bought her tools. She always borrowed from her friend, but her friend has now left, so they are borrowing from everyone else (with permission). I told the girl she was welcome to "borrow my tools until she gets her own", but a couple of months later she still doesn't have any. Her parents always try to blag stuff, and I know this will just be an ongoing situation, which will start to grate very soon. Not the girl's fault, but after having my mate up there^^ go poopicking with my 3 week old, very expensive 2 wheeled wheelbarrow, only for her Friesian colt to kick it to smithereens, I am a bit precious about my stuff.

Sorry for the essay, I got a bit carried away, but OP hopefully they are just like I was in the beginning, and not like our young fellow livery at the end!
 
I have my own yard, so don't really have the problems, but I don't really see it as such a big deal if someone uses my fork or brush etc when I'm not using them, as long as they are put back where they were and in the same condition. If they were lost or broken I would be annoyed. We used to have DIY liveries, and one of them always used our tools instead of hers because hers were old and broken. The only reason it bugged me was because we needed them at the same time, and she would always leave them at the stable block she was on, rather than where she got them from in the pony yard, so we had to go and fetch them back too!

Trailing shavings across the yard would bug me though!
 
Honey08 said:
The only reason it bugged me was because we needed them at the same time, and she would always leave them at the stable block she was on, rather than where she got them from in the pony yard, so we had to go and fetch them back too!
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My mate whose horse broke my barrow used to chunter and moan because she had to wait for me to finish mucking out to use MY tools!!
 
Horlicks said:
Well I hung around until 5pm and no sign but everything is now labelled.


I have said things in the past to the other livery but was met with one excuse after another - I don't want to fall out with anyone as it is such a small place but it is my equipment and I can't afford to replace it if it gets broken!
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Mind you, by the sounds of it if you fell out it wouldn't be a problem as you never see her:D;)
 
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