DIY Yards and sweeping

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Binkybex

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Is it ok to ask your DIY liveries to sweep the whole yard?

My friend is at a yard that has large areas of concrete between the stables/yards and the YO has decided that everyone should sweep the whole yard on a rota basis.

There are a mix of people on this yard DIY, Full, people with lots of horses, people with 1 horse and grooms etc.

Now in my opinion DIY's should be expected to sweep the area in front of their stable and pick up and poo/rubbish they leave elsewhere on the yard and it is the YO responsibility to make sure that the yard is tidy as a whole. Therefore this YO seems to be using the DIY's as slave labour?

Am I wrong? Tell me if I am
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eerrrm i would only expect the diys to clean up their own mess, and if they have spread the whole yard then yes sweep the whole yard, if they havent made anymess, dont sweep the whole yard!!! dont see why the diyers should sweep up for the fullies!!!!
 
At my yard everyone sort of sweeps up after themselves the but the last person there always makes sure everything is tidyish so the YO dosen't moan. Were a friendly lot and tend to share small jobs like sweeping
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Lol, if I were paying full livery I would not be sweeping anywhere
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When I've been on a livery yard I often swept everything, and weeded
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. I wanted to do it - sweeping is very good exercise lol

I wasn't impressed at being expected to poo pick when my horses were on part-livery (not mentioned when looking round the place or we wouldn't have gone there).
 
At our yard if our horse does a poo, you clean it up. Simple as. If the yard is particularly messy one of us will sweep it. It may be different on bigger yards with different types of liveries I suppose all together, but Iv never experienced a problem with it
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Id be annoyed if I was a DIY livery being made to sweep the yard and others werent though
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Im on a large DIY yard, and we are expected to sweep up the area outside our stable and any mess we make. (also a £5 fine if you leave any poos anywhere - CCTV everywhere) I think this is fair- they also provide covers for the wheelbarrows so no mess is spread across the yard and ensure that any hay/straw carried across the yard is done so in the wheelbarrow with the covers! They do employ someone every now and again to give the whole yard a sweep but its never too bad as everyone is clean and tidy and you would be spoken to if you were found leaving a mess. This is the way it should be in my opinion and I would not be happy to sweep the whole yard on a rota basis - its too bloody big!
 
We all keep the area outside our stables tidy and if you tie elsewhere on the yard you clear up any mess you make. The yard is always spotless, no one has to be asked to keep it clean.
 
I would expect to have to sweep up the area directly outside my stable as well as pick up any poos and such, and also to leave the immediate area looking presentable, nothing left on the floor and so forth.

Bit unfair to ask one person to be responsible for the whole lot, as you just know people will come up with excuses and it'll be the same one or two mugs who end up doing it!
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No, this sounds a bit unfair. I think everyone should just be made to do the area outside their stable and clean up any mess their horse makes- thats fair.
 
I was at a yard once where some people swept and some didnt - overall the liveries had little pride in their yard- I left-was fed up of the state of the place DIY'd at another yard where peeps voluntarily cleaned yard always nice- everyone proud of the yard. Only Full liveries didnt help- but then thats the whole point of paying out extra £70 a week, I always speep the yard if it was clean before moe- yep the whole thing but then ours is only small with 4 boxes!
 
One particular ex-YO of mine was quite strict about things like that... every so often we would all make sure the "extra" bits of the yard were swept and tidy, and the hay soaking baths kept clean etc. YO would moan like anything if she had to do it more often than was fair to her, and eventually everyone cottons on and it got swept/cleaned every couple of days! I don't know if it still goes on as I left a couple of years ago but when I go up there it still looks tidy!
We do it on an "as and when" rota on my current yard too. Any mess is cleared up immediately, and the entire yard is swept every week or so by one or other of us.
It's things like the muck heap that bug me as I seem to be the only one interested in keeping that tidy, even though other things are kept immaculate by the other two...
 
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Thanks everyone

the guys at the yard are good and try hard to keep the whole place tidy but there is only so much time some people have when they are working full time and so on.

YO seems to be trying to make the yard more "upmarket" without actualy spending any money
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very interesting replies
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When I was on DIY I would have only had time to sweep the whole yard at weekends or holidays, so would have been stuck if rota said I had to do it mid week.

Yards I have been at with a mix of full/part and DIY have been swept by whoever looks after full/part liveries. DIYs just do their area.

I am on 5 day livery now, we are all DIY at weekends, and muck in with clean up operations at the weekend when we all have time.
 
I would say that you sweep up your own stable and then comunal areas if you make a mess in them with haynets or bits falling off your wheelbarrow. Rotas are ridiculous if you work full time. Today I left the house at 6.30 and didn't get home from work until about half an hour ago, there is no way I could have swept the yard tonight.
 
My yard is a small DIY yard with a manager type person. We all sweep up outside our own boxes, and down the centre of the barn if the horses drag bedding out etc, and the manager (for want of a better word!) sweeps the inner yard daily and the outside areas less frequently as they dont get messy. All of us muck in and sweep sometimes because it's a nice thing to do. But then I think we are an odd bunch because we all paint the boxes/barns/fences/feed room etc in the summer, just because its nice to help (and the YO always does brill BBQs!!). If there were full liveries I wouldn't expect them to do anything but it wouldnt annoy me that I had to sweep, because our yard feels like it's 'ours' and most of us like to keep it nice (some more than others)
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Now in my opinion DIY's should be expected to sweep the area in front of their stable and pick up and poo/rubbish they leave elsewhere on the yard and it is the YO responsibility to make sure that the yard is tidy as a whole.

Am I wrong? Tell me if I am
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This is precisely the way i see it, generally i think a livery should tidy up after themselves but imo its the YO's responsibility to keep the yard tidy and swept

I forgot to add i will do this kind of thing if and when i have time, i have done all sorts of jobs at my yard including weeding!

But i would not be happy about being told i had to do it on a set rota
 
I disagree,

Hay and such like doesn't stay "directly" outside your own stable, it blows all over the place.

Why should it be down to the YO to clear up other peoples mess just because it isn't "directly" outside their stable?
 
DIY = Do it Yourself - so why should the YO have to sweep up after you all?

Full Livery - buggar doing anything if you're paying to have everything done!

And to be honest, we're all on DIY and if the yard looks in a sad state, then I'm happy to sweep it up. I dont want to be on a yard thats a mess.

Our YO never has to tell us to do stuff, I think we all take pride in the yard

xx
 
I think that everyone should be encouraged to feel a sense of pride about the yard that they stable on. This doesn't mean telling people that they have to sweep the whole yard, but people can always be told that the yard is to be kept tidy.

I've always been on DIY - have never been told to sweep the whole yard. But as with others, feel happy to do my bit to keep the place looking smart and tidy.
 
Part of the problem is that your yard is spread over a large area and has several separate barns. Certainly the DIYs should sweep the immediate area outside their stables and clean up after themselves from the hay barn or muckheap - anything else seems a bit excessive.

Our yard is smaller, and all DIY, and there are one or two if us who sweep the entire barn and surrounding area every day.
 
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Why should it be down to the YO to clear up other peoples mess just because it isn't "directly" outside their stable?

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Because that is what the YO is getting paid for. The liveries, whether full/part or DIY are customers. Certainly DIY customers should expect to tidy up after themselves but can hardly be expected to clean the whole yard, especially if the yard provides full livery for some customers. That is part of the job of who ever does the full liveries. Even if there were no full liveries general maintainance is the responsibility of the YO. Is there going to be a rota for fence mending/ door painting etc next?

The post title made me laugh because when we were at livery we were asked to sweep the area a little way from our boxes with a 'rake' (like those for sweeping autumn leaves), we said that it was not possible to sweep mud and make it look good. When we moved to our own place we bought one of these rakes and called it Susan after the YO.
 
We all tidy up the area in front of our stables, and any mess we make. However there are of course some who are better at that than others!! It's always pristine outside my stable, but the person next to me is not so fussy! We do however have a groom who sweeps all of the outside every day in the week. I'm in the barn though so it doesn't help me!
 
DIYers to sweep up around their stables.

Full liveries shouldnt have to lift a finger, thats what they are paying for...if they want to help out though...great.

YO should make sure the rest of the yard is tidy, if they employ yard staff for the full liveries then I'd expect the yard staff to keep on top of things, if you keep up with it on a daily basis and make sure everyone including DIY'ers respect the place, then really a 10 minute sweep is all it takes, its not like its a huge chore and thats what there paid for.
 
I was on a DIY yard with rotas for sweeping and cleaning and all sorts. I hated it - I swept up everyday and kept the feed room tidy anyway - why couldn't we carry on.

I hated being told NOT to sweep because it was XYZ's turn, or not to do things with my horse because ABC had swept up earlier.

I am happy on a yard on a farm, yes its a bit scruffy round the edges in places, but my horses are happy, so I'm happy and I still sweep outside my stables (in different places) every day. YO would never ask us to do it differently - just that we keep the schools and washroom clear of poo and hay.
 
im on part... diy at weekends and i sweep the whole yard... but it is only a small yard.. our diy's sweep the whole yard twice a day even though there is full, part and diys on the yard
 
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