Cheeky/ridiculous posts you see on Facebook.

SaddlePsych'D said:
Person who very frequently advertises full livery spaces at their yard, asking for volunteers to work there. "Under 14s must be accompanied by an adult"

If I were paying full livery, I would expect the people looking after my horse to be paid for their work and I definitely would not expect the work to be done using free child labour!
Click to expand...
Hmmm, I'm a bit torn on this, having been one of those weekend pony girls at a riding school in my youth. Which is a very long time ago. Yes they used us to support their business and paid us nothing apart from the odd ride, and yes it was slave labour really - long hard hours. Actually quite horrible at times - bitching, nastiness and horses not kindly kept (thankyou, Greenacres in Harpenden). No health and safety as far as I remember, which would have to change these days. Yet I learned a lot which I think most teenagers don't get the chance to do these days, and I just loved the ponies. Apart from extraordinary amounts of exposure to horse management I had to get on with people, work hard and take responsibility. I was fit and strong, and always have been - I think my ability to lug hay bales now comes from doing it from the age of 12.

If I was paying full livery somewhere would I object to a proportion of free child labour? - probably not, if the child benefited from the experience and was decently treated and supervised. (And I'm talking 14+ really, not small children).
 
Abacus said:
Hmmm, I'm a bit torn on this, having been one of those weekend pony girls at a riding school in my youth. Which is a very long time ago. Yes they used us to support their business and paid us nothing apart from the odd ride, and yes it was slave labour really - long hard hours. Actually quite horrible at times - bitching, nastiness and horses not kindly kept (thankyou, Greenacres in Harpenden). No health and safety as far as I remember, which would have to change these days. Yet I learned a lot which I think most teenagers don't get the chance to do these days, and I just loved the ponies. Apart from extraordinary amounts of exposure to horse management I had to get on with people, work hard and take responsibility. I was fit and strong, and always have been - I think my ability to lug hay bales now comes from doing it from the age of 12.

If I was paying full livery somewhere would I object to a proportion of free child labour? - probably not, if the child benefited from the experience and was decently treated and supervised. (And I'm talking 14+ really, not small children).
Click to expand...

I would absolutely lose my mind.. I'm not paying £650+ a month for a child to learn how to do things around the yard.. And especially not to the likely detriment of the manners of my 4yo, not to mention the additional liability to both child and my horse. I have no objection to them working in a riding school (I did it a lot throughout my whole childhood) on school owned horses, in a place set up for kids, but they have no place on a commercial livery yard IMO.
 
AShetlandBitMeOnce said:
I would absolutely lose my mind.. I'm not paying £650+ a month for a child to learn how to do things around the yard.. And especially not to the likely detriment of the manners of my 4yo, not to mention the additional liability to both child and my horse. I have no objection to them working in a riding school (I did it a lot throughout my whole childhood) on school owned horses, in a place set up for kids, but they have no place on a commercial livery yard IMO.
Click to expand...
Fair point, I hadn't factored in the possibility of more variable horses than in a riding school setup.
 
AShetlandBitMeOnce said:
I would absolutely lose my mind.. I'm not paying £650+ a month for a child to learn how to do things around the yard.. And especially not to the likely detriment of the manners of my 4yo, not to mention the additional liability to both child and my horse. I have no objection to them working in a riding school (I did it a lot throughout my whole childhood) on school owned horses, in a place set up for kids, but they have no place on a commercial livery yard IMO.
Click to expand...
This all day. Maybe a young person on a recognised training and qualification programme with adequate supervision. Maybe. Although in some RS my observation has been that the supervision is poor.

I did the helping out at RS thing when I was younger, and it is absolutely not the same as working on a commercial yard.

Abacus said:
If I was paying full livery somewhere would I object to a proportion of free child labour? - probably not, if the child benefited from the experience and was decently treated and supervised. (And I'm talking 14+ really, not small children).
Click to expand...
I think in this case the response from the YO was very telling, as was the idea that they would accept under 14s for this work.
 
SaddlePsych'D said:
Person who very frequently advertises full livery spaces at their yard, asking for volunteers to work there. "Under 14s must be accompanied by an adult"

If I were paying full livery, I would expect the people looking after my horse to be paid for their work and I definitely would not expect the work to be done using free child labour!
Click to expand...
I’m sure I saw that one!

I can add… teen wanted to back ponies. Must have own insurance and experience of backing ponies previously. For a dealer, no mention of pay.

Now I can kind of see both sides and maybe there was some kind of remuneration involved, but the level of risk involved in backing someone’s pony is considerable. Would I put my child under someone else’s instructions to do that? Would a child who would benefit from the experience (and therefore get something out of it) have the skills needed to do a good job?
 
maya2008 said:
I’m sure I saw that one!

I can add… teen wanted to back ponies. Must have own insurance and experience of backing ponies previously. For a dealer, no mention of pay.

Now I can kind of see both sides and maybe there was some kind of remuneration involved, but the level of risk involved in backing someone’s pony is considerable. Would I put my child under someone else’s instructions to do that? Would a child who would benefit from the experience (and therefore get something out of it) have the skills needed to do a good job?
Click to expand...
As a young teen I was backing ponies for the local vet under his daughter, an older teen, supervision. She was too heavy for the small welsh beasties that he had taken in as payment for an outstanding bill. No money changed hands but I got given a couple of dogs and no vet bills until I was 18.
 
Not a horse related one, but I'm joining a few small town/village Facebook groups for the area where I'm going to be moving to so that I can find out about local events etc. They all ask questions for joining, usually why you want to join and if you live there. One of them wanted your "FULL ADDRESS and POSTCODE". Umm... that level of personal info is a bit much, so no thank you I think I will pass on that group!
 
SaddlePsych'D said:
Not a horse related one, but I'm joining a few small town/village Facebook groups for the area where I'm going to be moving to so that I can find out about local events etc. They all ask questions for joining, usually why you want to join and if you live there. One of them wanted your "FULL ADDRESS and POSTCODE". Umm... that level of personal info is a bit much, so no thank you I think I will pass on that group!
Click to expand...
There's a similar one here - big NO from me, bit creepy and goes against GDPR...
 
Ceifer said:
Does anyone know of anyone decent to break in a young cob 14.3h that doesn’t charge extortionate pricing?

someone who clearly doesn’t want to pay a fair price for breaking livery…
Click to expand...
Trouble is the prices are so extremely different. Locally anywhere between £130 a week and £250 a week. All quote 6 to 8 weeks
 
dorsetladette said:
Trouble is the prices are so extremely different. Locally anywhere between £130 a week and £250 a week. All quote 6 to 8 weeks
Click to expand...
130 is too cheap and 250 too expensive 🤭.
I think the 6-8 week thing is most breakers being too afraid to say that realistically to get something broken nicely is longer than 6-8 weeks but the second they say that the owner goes off and finds someone who’ll do it in less time.
 
Ceifer said:
130 is too cheap and 250 too expensive 🤭.
I think the 6-8 week thing is most breakers being too afraid to say that realistically to get something broken nicely is longer than 6-8 weeks but the second they say that the owner goes off and finds someone who’ll do it in less time.
Click to expand...
Really stressful trying to make the best choice. Totally get that the most expensive isn't necessarily the best, but it really is difficult. Also understand that 'how long' is a piece of string, guess they need to give a time scale so people can budget x
 
dorsetladette said:
Really stressful trying to make the best choice. Totally get that the most expensive isn't necessarily the best, but it really is difficult. Also understand that 'how long' is a piece of string, guess they need to give a time scale so people can budget x
Click to expand...
Yeah I agree.
The thing that mystifies me is the owners who pay for breaking livery and don’t then monitor the progress.
When I used to work for a breakers yard we used to encourage owners coming up to see their horses.

There’s a girl local to me who is a decent rider. She offers breaking services cheaply and she always does a bad job. She has no facilities to do any ground work and I don’t think she’s been taught herself how to back/break in. It’s a real skill to do it properly and if done properly generally there are very few issues. I was taught a very regimented way to approach it but I’d say I’ve broken in/assisted with 70 + breakers in 20 years. Only 3 were problematic and 2 of those were re-breakers.
A RC friend sent a horse to this pro rider. After 6 weeks it came back with absolutely no clue what any real aids were. The video that the pro rider sent her was of her riding said horse and being lead on a lead rein up the road 🤦‍♀️. The horse then had to be sent to another breakers and redone. Which is always worse than starting with a blank canvas.
 
Lulwind said:
Someone nearish me looking for a sharer to help bring a horse back into work that has not been ridden for a number of years. Financial contribution required
Click to expand...
Someone near me is looking for the same. Mare has been off for a few years being a broodmare. Suddenly bringing her back into work, looking for a sharer to ride her while owner travels for a few weeks... Also financial contribution required
 
Ceifer said:
Yeah I agree.
The thing that mystifies me is the owners who pay for breaking livery and don’t then monitor the progress.
When I used to work for a breakers yard we used to encourage owners coming up to see their horses.

There’s a girl local to me who is a decent rider. She offers breaking services cheaply and she always does a bad job. She has no facilities to do any ground work and I don’t think she’s been taught herself how to back/break in. It’s a real skill to do it properly and if done properly generally there are very few issues. I was taught a very regimented way to approach it but I’d say I’ve broken in/assisted with 70 + breakers in 20 years. Only 3 were problematic and 2 of those were re-breakers.
A RC friend sent a horse to this pro rider. After 6 weeks it came back with absolutely no clue what any real aids were. The video that the pro rider sent her was of her riding said horse and being lead on a lead rein up the road 🤦‍♀️. The horse then had to be sent to another breakers and redone. Which is always worse than starting with a blank canvas.
Click to expand...

Too many people think he getting on is the hard bit. Its not, any idiot can get on a horse. Its the riding away that takes skill and is worth paying for,
 
Ceifer said:
Yeah I agree.
The thing that mystifies me is the owners who pay for breaking livery and don’t then monitor the progress.
When I used to work for a breakers yard we used to encourage owners coming up to see their horses.

There’s a girl local to me who is a decent rider. She offers breaking services cheaply and she always does a bad job. She has no facilities to do any ground work and I don’t think she’s been taught herself how to back/break in. It’s a real skill to do it properly and if done properly generally there are very few issues. I was taught a very regimented way to approach it but I’d say I’ve broken in/assisted with 70 + breakers in 20 years. Only 3 were problematic and 2 of those were re-breakers.
A RC friend sent a horse to this pro rider. After 6 weeks it came back with absolutely no clue what any real aids were. The video that the pro rider sent her was of her riding said horse and being lead on a lead rein up the road 🤦‍♀️. The horse then had to be sent to another breakers and redone. Which is always worse than starting with a blank canvas.
Click to expand...

Yes - why would you send your young horse away and not follow the progress? I had a particularly pushy lady offer breaking to drive services 4hrs away from me. She really couldn't understand why I wasn't interested and took offence when I declined her offer of transport - just no! I mean she could be the best in the country - but her location just didn't work for me.

I grew up an a stud, my parents tool on various breaking and schooling liveries as a side line which we all were involved with. I've done plenty myself and like you say the only ones with issues were the ones started/attempted previously. I have one at home who hasn't ever come right from previous experiences.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top