Am I being unreasonable? sorry, long!

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Dolcé

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just want some opinions before I ask YO to step in - not something I want to do but my pleas have so far fallen on deaf ears! A livery at out yard insists on leaving the field gate wide open when she brings her horses to the yard and leaves it for an hour or more at a time. Our 13 are in the adjoining field, separated at some points by only electric tape, we also have a houdini who often finds his way into their field (YO is aware and will improve fencing when weather improves). Our yard is not secure and whilst it has a long track it is still open to the road. Our pony has already been out once, I suspect through the open gate although cannot be definite about this but there was no sign of him having got through any fencing to the yard. I have asked this person several times to keep the gate shut as I do not believe it is safe to leave any gate open when there are horses in the adjoining fields - something I was taught years ago as a child - she did agree but continues to leave it wide open.

My fear is that if something spooked our horses, or if we are trying to get one of the 13 through our gate (our walkway is through her field) and they all get past us we will end up with horses galloping out and onto the road.

Am I being unreasonable, is it acceptable to leave gates open when there are any animals in adjoining fields/shared access or possibly, in the case of our houdini, ponies in the field. I feel that my next action has to be to ask YO to TELL her to keep it shut, I know YO feels the same way as that is who taught me that they should never be left open, I also know that YO will have no qualms about telling her. I avoid involving YO in these things as she (YO) is a friend but when my horses are being put at risk do I have a choice? I dont want to cause any trouble for this livery but what else can I do to get her to shut the gate?
 
She says that she is leading 2 horses (her sister leads the other 2) to which I asked her to walk the 20 yards back down to shut it when they have put the horses in, they turn out again after feeding. Tonight they brought in 1 each and still left it open so basically either the horses are not well trained enough to wait whilst a gate is closed (I can do this with 3 or 4 in hand) or they are just too lazy to close it and have to open it again when taking hay in or horses back.
 
Even with two horses you can shut a gate after you. Ok if horse is a handful just walk back and shut it. Simples. (you would think)

I would say to YO.
 
Definately tell yard owner. All our paddocks are seperated with electric tape within a 12 acre field. The only time our main gate gets left open is when they are all being taken out to their respective paddocks in the morning or when they are all being brought in at night. which is a bit like a relay, taking 8 out to 3 different paddocks! But wouyld certainly never leave it open any other time, and even if they did get out, our yard is secure!, just not worth the risk. I'd be livid tbh if someone put my horses at risk.

(They all belong to my friend and I and we always put everyone out and bring everyone in at the same time.)
 
Jackdaws, that is what I told her when I spoke to her, I have never heard of horse people leaving gates open before, it just isn't done - but then wondered if I have an odd opinion on that!
 
She must be a townie, is she?
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I have shut a series of gates leading 3 horses, one of which was my yearling! A livery yard not far from us does lessons and holds shows and they are over loaded with gates, if you compete there you must close every single gate. This is because some of their livery horses got onto the road, and so the stories say, a horse got knocked over. Their gate/fencing had been maliciously opened, but nonetheless.... this is what happens when gates aren't shut. Whatever authority governs the riding school, said that if they didn't improve their fencing/gate system, they would be closed down!!!
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In all honesty, previous to this incident, they had great fencing and two sets of gates! Now they have totally sectioned off the first car park so you can't get to the show ring, practice ring, second car park, or the road, without going through a gate! xx
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Just Googled it, and this is the incident I was referring too
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http://www.marketrasenmail.co.uk/Registe...iting.935300.jp

I will say that the lady in the report saying the fencing was poor was utter rubbish. I have been to yards with poor fencing, and believe me, their fencing is more then adequate. Like I said in my previous post, their gate system was up and running before this incident, they've just had to make it doubley secure to ensure high safety standards are kept.

Lets hope this opens the eyes of people who leave gates open xx
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Lots of fat lazy, clueless horse owners at livery yards do this type of thing. Come across it myself often.
Its just that they don't give a flying **** about anyone else or anyone else horses ( or probably even their own, that much)!

Get everyone who does care, to gang up on them by getting everyone to complain to YO and make sure they name names.
YO is probably scared of them! Before you know it other safety issues will start to slide.
These types have a way of bring yards down to very poor standards as everyone is too scared to stand up to them.
 
I'd speak to yard owner to get her/him to enforce that gates should be shut BUT as far as this:

[ QUOTE ]

My fear is that if we are trying to get one of the 13 through our gate (our walkway is through her field) and they all get past us we will end up with horses galloping out and onto the road.


[/ QUOTE ]

goes why on earth don't YOU shut the gate? You must have gone up the walkway to get your own horses and surely you would shut the gate as you pass rather than moaning about people leaving it open?
 
We do, every time we see it! Thing is, if we are already at our gate in the dark and they open it we wouldn't know it was open (it is about 200 yards away and no lights). It did become a little like gatewars at one point with us shutting it and them immediately going and opening it again. I just don't see why I should have to worry about what will happen when we are not there to close it.

They have left it open when our pony has been grazing in the walkway, they think he shouldn't be there (he shouldn't but if he escapes into it when we are not there to put him back then there is not a lot I can do) and often can't see if there are others in the field or not because of the dark.
 
As someone who has been through the nightmare of our 3 horses getting out onto the road due to a gate being left open I am shocked that anyone can be so thoughtless.
We now have a minimum of 3 gates between our horses and the road and even when we are bringing them in on a night all get shut behind us then opened again for the next batch.
OP your YO has to get firm with this selfish person before an accident happens, we live down a lane away from the road but when all 3 went together they just galloped off down to the village (about a mile). Sadly we lost one as a result of that night. It isn't worth it.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Lots of fat lazy, clueless horse owners at livery yards do this type of thing. Come across it myself often.
Its just that they don't give a flying **** about anyone else or anyone else horses ( or probably even their own, that much)!



[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds like our liveries.....
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I would ask her politley and explain the problem, that you are concerned that your horses could escape, and the road is nearby. If that didnt work, then I would go to Yard Owner. But I think its better you explain to her, otherwise, she may just think your being unpleasant.ANd for some unknown reason,
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she may not realise the protential problem she could cause.
 
I completely sympathise with you & cannot understand how people can be so stupid, we had liveries from hell at our yard who would leave the gate wide open bringing in one horse with 2/3 people with that one horse, all that was holding my ponies in was a thin strand of electric which wasn't electrified. Having asked them several times to close the gate while listening to all their pathetic reasons why they couldn't, I had a row with the father & said "But what if my ponies get out on the road?" To which he replied "Frankly I couldn't care less if you pi**y ar*e ponies do get out & get run over" Nice nice people, & sadly I don't know what the answer is, good luck.
 
I don't understand why YO hasn't already spoken to them about closing gates every time they go through. If the gate is left open for an hour at a time she must have noticed. Quite apart from the safety issue, leaving a gate hanging loose just causes more maintenance work, as the hinges drop.
I would speak to YO, it is her job to deal with other liveries, not yours. On many livery yards it is very much frowned upon to try to resolve issues yourself as this can lead to further problems.
 
OK, I spoke to one of them this morning and very nicely explained that if I had to mention it again I would ask YO to tell them, whilst that is not the action I want to take I feel that I have no option. I was assured very apologetically that it would not happen again so lets hope that is the end of it. Thank you all for your opinions, I feel reassured that Im not being unreasonable and glad you all gave me the bottle to stand my ground.
 
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