sam72431
Well-Known Member
I moved my horses to a cheaper yard back in June as one of them is being turned away for a year as he is only three and the other is pretty much just a happy hacker, also i wanted to save my money for when my youngster is broken and at the last yard they werent allowed to live out. When i moved they were allowed to live out straight away even though i had use of a stable for each of them, the livery is only £20 a week and that is for stable and turnout and not a lot else.
My mare is in a different field to my youngster with two other mares, one of the owners said she was quite happy to leave her mare out until late october as generally that is when the owner of the yard likes the horses to come in by, I started bringing my youngster in earlier as the other geldings that he is in a field with did but i left my mare out as the ground wasnt too wet. We decided to aim to bring them in the weekend just after bonfire night (6th or 7th) so i bought all the bedding and laid it. One evening when i was feeding my mare in her box i was talking to one of the other liveries and we noticed a huge crack above the door! When i had fed my mare we had another look and basically the whole of the front of the stable was unsupported the only thing holding it in place was a thick electric cable that runs along the top of the stables.
Of course I decided not to even bring my mare in to feed her, I spoke to the owner of the yard about it on the following monday (he is very hard to track down) he said he would have a look at it and sort something out the following weekend. So i had to feed my mare either in the field or outside my youngsters box, i wasnt too bothered as I didnt think it would take too long to fix.
The following weekend came and nothing was done, on the monday the yard owner said that as the wall was so badly damaged he would move her to another stable, but that this stables roof leaked and it was much too low for my mare who is 16.2 to fit in so he would fix the roof and build the wall up so it is higher, another week went by and he then removed the roof, I did ask whether he could just ask one of the pony owners to move into the stable once the roof was fixed but he said that he didnt like to do that as it caused arguments! Luckily the owner of one of the mares said she didn't mind leaving her mare out until my mare had a box.
He slowly started to build the wall up but by the time the snow hit had only done about two layers, I saw him when it was snowing which was about mid December and he said well of course i cant do it now because the sand is frozen, it was now about five weeks that i hadnt had a box and my poor mare was having to live out, she is a dutch warmblood and is a wimp at the best of times, and was/is not coping well. On top of this i had to keep up with the poo picking in a heavily waterlogged field, I also work full time so it is dark by the time i get there and I also work in the evenings and some weekends. I also had a cold for about six weeks which turned out to be severe tonsilitis which left me completely drained so of course the poo picking got behind.
The owner of the yard had a moan about it, and i explained that if the horses were coming in it wouldnt be an issue he said that it is the same in the summer, i explained that in the summer it doesnt get dark at 4pm and the fields aren't waterlogged, it was a week later that i decided that wasnt going to continue paying for a stable that i didnt have hoping that this would spur him on to do something as he had said that even though the sand was frozen he could buy some in, which he wasnt keen to do, as i couldnt track him down i started leaving less livery money as i really felt i was being taken the mick out of. We pay by leaving the money in a envelope in a tin every Sunday. Three weeks later (the monday before Christmas) he finally realised I had been paying ten pounds less for the last three weeks and rather than speaking to me about it he left the envelopes with my name on with written sums showing that i had paid less than i should, i think he thought i had made a mistake.
I couldnt track him down during Christmas so I left him a letter with my livery on Boxing day explaing why i hadnt paid the full amount for three weeks, it wasnt at all rude i just explained that i know he is busy but that i really thought it had gone on too long, that my mare not being a native pony wasnt coping well in the bad weather we have had, that she had never lived out before, that she is prone to mud fever i said luckily she hasnt had it but it wont be long until she does, that she has slight arthritis in her feet so she shouldnt be in constant wet and cold.
It was only yesterday that he read the letter and he had right moan at me about it saying that it wasnt the way to go about getting a rent reduction, and it isnt up to me to decide how much he charges for the stable, that i should of told him that she has medical conditions, even though he didnt ask to be notified of any and that if the poo picking isn't under control within a week he is going to ask me to leave! He also said he didnt understand how having a stable would make any difference to mud fever as the field wouldnt dry up overnight! Have I really done anything so awfull? I have been doing the normal amount each week and gradually catching up on the poo picking that got behind when i was ill the week before christmas i did ten barrows! I did four last week and I've done five so far this week and the field isnt even that bad i think if i did another four it would be completley clear which I am going to do anyway, he also moaned because I had tipped some poo on the other side of the fence in a hedge! I only did this because the muck trailer was full and it was the only day i had free to poo pick! In my other field we have a muck pile but he said that is the only field that is allowed in as it is a long walk to the yard, well it is just as far from the back of my mares field where all the poo is to the yard!
Sorry its so long but i just needed to explain everything, do you think the yard owner is being unfair? Have i done anything so awfull? Would you of done similar in my positon, I dont see why i should continue to pay for something that i havent had for two months! And why do yard owners speak to you like you are a naughty child and not a paying customer! I understand they have to have some authority but at the end of the day i am a paying customer, i wouldnt walk into a shop expect to be spoken to like that, why can yard owners never do what they say they are going to, he said when i arrived he doesnt get involved in what goes on in the yard and as long as the horses are being cared for properly he doesnt mind, he likes the poo picking to be done but he isnt too fussed about how often!
Thanks rant over, I would love your opinions, would you of done anything differently?
My mare is in a different field to my youngster with two other mares, one of the owners said she was quite happy to leave her mare out until late october as generally that is when the owner of the yard likes the horses to come in by, I started bringing my youngster in earlier as the other geldings that he is in a field with did but i left my mare out as the ground wasnt too wet. We decided to aim to bring them in the weekend just after bonfire night (6th or 7th) so i bought all the bedding and laid it. One evening when i was feeding my mare in her box i was talking to one of the other liveries and we noticed a huge crack above the door! When i had fed my mare we had another look and basically the whole of the front of the stable was unsupported the only thing holding it in place was a thick electric cable that runs along the top of the stables.
Of course I decided not to even bring my mare in to feed her, I spoke to the owner of the yard about it on the following monday (he is very hard to track down) he said he would have a look at it and sort something out the following weekend. So i had to feed my mare either in the field or outside my youngsters box, i wasnt too bothered as I didnt think it would take too long to fix.
The following weekend came and nothing was done, on the monday the yard owner said that as the wall was so badly damaged he would move her to another stable, but that this stables roof leaked and it was much too low for my mare who is 16.2 to fit in so he would fix the roof and build the wall up so it is higher, another week went by and he then removed the roof, I did ask whether he could just ask one of the pony owners to move into the stable once the roof was fixed but he said that he didnt like to do that as it caused arguments! Luckily the owner of one of the mares said she didn't mind leaving her mare out until my mare had a box.
He slowly started to build the wall up but by the time the snow hit had only done about two layers, I saw him when it was snowing which was about mid December and he said well of course i cant do it now because the sand is frozen, it was now about five weeks that i hadnt had a box and my poor mare was having to live out, she is a dutch warmblood and is a wimp at the best of times, and was/is not coping well. On top of this i had to keep up with the poo picking in a heavily waterlogged field, I also work full time so it is dark by the time i get there and I also work in the evenings and some weekends. I also had a cold for about six weeks which turned out to be severe tonsilitis which left me completely drained so of course the poo picking got behind.
The owner of the yard had a moan about it, and i explained that if the horses were coming in it wouldnt be an issue he said that it is the same in the summer, i explained that in the summer it doesnt get dark at 4pm and the fields aren't waterlogged, it was a week later that i decided that wasnt going to continue paying for a stable that i didnt have hoping that this would spur him on to do something as he had said that even though the sand was frozen he could buy some in, which he wasnt keen to do, as i couldnt track him down i started leaving less livery money as i really felt i was being taken the mick out of. We pay by leaving the money in a envelope in a tin every Sunday. Three weeks later (the monday before Christmas) he finally realised I had been paying ten pounds less for the last three weeks and rather than speaking to me about it he left the envelopes with my name on with written sums showing that i had paid less than i should, i think he thought i had made a mistake.
I couldnt track him down during Christmas so I left him a letter with my livery on Boxing day explaing why i hadnt paid the full amount for three weeks, it wasnt at all rude i just explained that i know he is busy but that i really thought it had gone on too long, that my mare not being a native pony wasnt coping well in the bad weather we have had, that she had never lived out before, that she is prone to mud fever i said luckily she hasnt had it but it wont be long until she does, that she has slight arthritis in her feet so she shouldnt be in constant wet and cold.
It was only yesterday that he read the letter and he had right moan at me about it saying that it wasnt the way to go about getting a rent reduction, and it isnt up to me to decide how much he charges for the stable, that i should of told him that she has medical conditions, even though he didnt ask to be notified of any and that if the poo picking isn't under control within a week he is going to ask me to leave! He also said he didnt understand how having a stable would make any difference to mud fever as the field wouldnt dry up overnight! Have I really done anything so awfull? I have been doing the normal amount each week and gradually catching up on the poo picking that got behind when i was ill the week before christmas i did ten barrows! I did four last week and I've done five so far this week and the field isnt even that bad i think if i did another four it would be completley clear which I am going to do anyway, he also moaned because I had tipped some poo on the other side of the fence in a hedge! I only did this because the muck trailer was full and it was the only day i had free to poo pick! In my other field we have a muck pile but he said that is the only field that is allowed in as it is a long walk to the yard, well it is just as far from the back of my mares field where all the poo is to the yard!
Sorry its so long but i just needed to explain everything, do you think the yard owner is being unfair? Have i done anything so awfull? Would you of done similar in my positon, I dont see why i should continue to pay for something that i havent had for two months! And why do yard owners speak to you like you are a naughty child and not a paying customer! I understand they have to have some authority but at the end of the day i am a paying customer, i wouldnt walk into a shop expect to be spoken to like that, why can yard owners never do what they say they are going to, he said when i arrived he doesnt get involved in what goes on in the yard and as long as the horses are being cared for properly he doesnt mind, he likes the poo picking to be done but he isnt too fussed about how often!
Thanks rant over, I would love your opinions, would you of done anything differently?
