StowfordPress
Well-Known Member
This is likely to be a long post so apologies but I need a rant and some advice as I’m at my wits end.
I’m trying hard not to jump to conclusions, but went and rode my young horse today and got on to my stirrup lengths being noticeably changed and he was really off compared to usual; and I’m about 80% sure somebody has ridden/ been riding him without my permission. A few months ago the y/o allowed someone else to ride my horse without my knowledge; they took photos so I know this for a fact, hence my reasonable suspicion this time. the yard is very cliquey and not treated like much of a business, so confrontation about anything will just lead to being asked to leave the yard, which we’re not in a position to do for various reasons quite now, especially with lockdown.
There are various other problems we have with this yard, which I don’t want to name until/ if we leave as they make us fairly identifiable.
While it is cliquey, for the most part we can keep to ourselves which I’m happy with, but every few weeks or so something new will come up which results in some sort of drama we get pulled into.
How do I handle this? We’re in a dead spot for yards, they are few and far between and either full, too expensive/ far or have spaces for a reason. The yard we were on before this was more expensive and managed to be worse.
The options we can think of are:
Staying put and going to see them more to try to prevent people from interfering as there would be less chances to and taking our tack home.
Moving my older two to a friend’s land, which would mean grass only and to ride I’d have to box to a school, which isn’t the end of the world but not ideal, one of them is retired so it’s just the one that is ridden. But they would have 24hr supervision and the land owners have always enjoyed having horses there so they would be fairly doted on. Then put the youngster on full livery somewhere else so there’s immediate access to facilities as he’s in moderate work. However having horses at two different places would mean much more travelling than ideal.
The next option is to put the two horses in work on DIY, part or full at the same place and have the retired mare on the friend’s land. Same reasons as above but I’m reluctant to separate my older girls as they’re very attached to each other. The retired mare would still have company.
Finally, we could attempt to find a yard that would take all three, but this is very unlikely as there is nowhere with spaces available for three and it’s likely to be expensive. If we found this I would consider finding a sharer or someone to loan the ridden mare to reduce costs, but she’s a difficult horse: brilliant to ride and will jump the moon, can be handled by novices on the ground, but she has opinions about people and has been known to decide she doesn’t like certain people ( not out of the blue, she’ll make it clear from the get go). When she decides this as odd as it sounds she will buck/ rear/ kick, in hand and under saddle. It’s very uncommon she does this but since it has happened
before it makes me reluctant for safety reasons.
Selling any of them isn’t something we’ll consider.
Sorry for the essay and anyone who read this far can have a digestive. I’m honestly at a loss so any help or support is appreciated.
I’m trying hard not to jump to conclusions, but went and rode my young horse today and got on to my stirrup lengths being noticeably changed and he was really off compared to usual; and I’m about 80% sure somebody has ridden/ been riding him without my permission. A few months ago the y/o allowed someone else to ride my horse without my knowledge; they took photos so I know this for a fact, hence my reasonable suspicion this time. the yard is very cliquey and not treated like much of a business, so confrontation about anything will just lead to being asked to leave the yard, which we’re not in a position to do for various reasons quite now, especially with lockdown.
There are various other problems we have with this yard, which I don’t want to name until/ if we leave as they make us fairly identifiable.
While it is cliquey, for the most part we can keep to ourselves which I’m happy with, but every few weeks or so something new will come up which results in some sort of drama we get pulled into.
How do I handle this? We’re in a dead spot for yards, they are few and far between and either full, too expensive/ far or have spaces for a reason. The yard we were on before this was more expensive and managed to be worse.
The options we can think of are:
Staying put and going to see them more to try to prevent people from interfering as there would be less chances to and taking our tack home.
Moving my older two to a friend’s land, which would mean grass only and to ride I’d have to box to a school, which isn’t the end of the world but not ideal, one of them is retired so it’s just the one that is ridden. But they would have 24hr supervision and the land owners have always enjoyed having horses there so they would be fairly doted on. Then put the youngster on full livery somewhere else so there’s immediate access to facilities as he’s in moderate work. However having horses at two different places would mean much more travelling than ideal.
The next option is to put the two horses in work on DIY, part or full at the same place and have the retired mare on the friend’s land. Same reasons as above but I’m reluctant to separate my older girls as they’re very attached to each other. The retired mare would still have company.
Finally, we could attempt to find a yard that would take all three, but this is very unlikely as there is nowhere with spaces available for three and it’s likely to be expensive. If we found this I would consider finding a sharer or someone to loan the ridden mare to reduce costs, but she’s a difficult horse: brilliant to ride and will jump the moon, can be handled by novices on the ground, but she has opinions about people and has been known to decide she doesn’t like certain people ( not out of the blue, she’ll make it clear from the get go). When she decides this as odd as it sounds she will buck/ rear/ kick, in hand and under saddle. It’s very uncommon she does this but since it has happened
before it makes me reluctant for safety reasons.
Selling any of them isn’t something we’ll consider.
Sorry for the essay and anyone who read this far can have a digestive. I’m honestly at a loss so any help or support is appreciated.
