DIY Yards - Rotas & Coronavirus

[Dyllymoo]

Hi All

I've just moved to a new yard and although its still DIY because it is large (23 horses) they have a rota for during the pandemic where you can attend once a day in a designated 2 hour time slot. Mine is 5.30-7.30pm which works for me due to working full time. YO is happy to help bring in/ turn out or she has said we can organise amongst ourselves if needed (or horses are ok to live out 24/7 in summer whatever suits us).

I've been told YO will review when Boris Johnson makes a statement, I'm assuming 4th July as that's when hospitality etc. will open but then I thought maybe it wont be until the 2m social distancing is reviewed as realistically it would be harder (not impossible) to make sure that happened.

I'm just musing really. If you are on a rota at your diy yard, when do you think it will be relaxed/ lifted? Have your YO's given you any ideas?

Its not a worry as such its just a musing. I will eventually mention to YO but obviously day 3 may be pushing it!

 

[dogatemysalad]

Our 60 horse yard carried on as normal, so I'm interested to know how time slots work. Does it cause problems if there isn't a horse to turn out with? How do people manage to do yard jobs, feed and ride within that time?
Do you find you need to feed immediately after riding in order to leave the yard at the end of your slot ?

 

[Dyllymoo]

Our 60 horse yard carried on as normal, so I'm interested to know how time slots work. Does it cause problems if there isn't a horse to turn out with? How do people manage to do yard jobs, feed and ride within that time?
Do you find you need to feed immediately after riding in order to leave the yard at the end of your slot ?

I've only been there a few days but YO is there to bring in/ turn out as necessary so that is never a problem. a lot of the horses live out 24/7 in summer (not just because of covid), there are around 5 that come in during the night and more come in during the day and out at night. There is a real mix of routines so always someone to go out with. I don't know how they decided the slots previously but I asked for an afternoon/ evening slot if possible as I am still working full time and was given mine, and there are 2 other people that are there at that time.

I don't feed twice a day as he has enough grass so he has a small feed in his stable for his supplements when he comes in in the morning (he is out at night and in during the day as this is what his field mate does and he can get really hot during the day).

I've always managed to do my jobs etc. in around 45 mins including mucking out and poo picking as I would normally do all jobs in the morning and ride and be at work for 8am, so I'm finding 2 hours absolutely fine.

I don't think if you are there 1 minute after your slot you get frog marched from the property, it is more to allow people to be able to socially distance themselves effectively. For instance I was allowed to go up in the morning on sunday to check J after his first night out, I stayed 10 mins and stayed in his stable so that I wasn't in anyones way. I literally checked him over, gave him a cuddle and left. But as of today its once a day.

 

[dogatemysalad]

It's certainly easier on summer turnout and when the grass is good. At the end of the day, whatever rules the YO puts in place have to be followed and if the YO can assist, it's just how it is and won't be for ever.
I think if my yard imposed restrictions, my horse would have to choose between his feed and being worked. I know which he'd choose

 

[Dyllymoo]

Sorry I think you have misinterpreted the reasoning behind my post, I'm not moaning about it, in fact I'm quite liking my morning lie ins and not getting up at 5am, I was just musing. of course whatever YO says goes, and if she does it for the next 6 months, so be it, but I was just curious about other DIY yards on rotas

 

[dogatemysalad]

Sorry I think you have misinterpreted the reasoning behind my post, I'm not moaning about it, in fact I'm quite liking my morning lie ins and not getting up at 5am, I was just musing. of course whatever YO says goes, and if she does it for the next 6 months, so be it, but I was just curious about other DIY yards on rotas

No, didn't think you were moaning at all. I'm curious about how people have been managing too. There are so many variables in people's lives and their horses needs. For some people, it won't make much difference, but for others it may have a bigger impact.

 

[Shay]

We've never had rotas - just kept socially distant. But we are only 20 odd horses between 12 owners. A few yards around us tried rotas but they were pretty much abandoned after a few weeks. The impression I got was that it was fine when everyone thought it would only be 3 weeks, then another 3 etc. But by the time we got to 12 weeks, with attending to care for livestock always having being a permitted reason for travel, then riding coming back etc everyone really just went back to normal. But as I said - we never stopped. The only thing we did do was let everyone on yard know when an external professional was coming in so they could choose not to be there at the same time if they didn't want to be. We had farriers, EDTs, a Physio, two different saddlers etc. All attending as normal.

 

[chaps89]

We carried on as normal at our yard.
There's usually 3 of us down together in the morning, another 2 at lunch time, then 2 of the original 3 go up similar time in the afternoon, then I tend to go up last, so we're all fairly staggered anyway.

Share horse yard got put onto a Rota system - DIY liveries got an hour and a half, part/full liveries got an hour. That was extended to 2 hours/an hour and a half respectively a few weeks ago. As of June 20th no Rota in place at all. That seems a bit random given all of their other Rota changes etc have been in line with government changes, but I expect the reality is they know they can't keep people away forever and that people paying many hundreds of pounds a month may move if restricted too much.

 

[Muddywellies]

We've had no measures put in place by yard owner. Just tried to keep away from people like you do in the shops and I didn't use any communal mucking out equipment. As we already know, in the outdoors the risk of catching it is far lower and my area has been extremely lucky re cases. So for us it's been business as usual.

 

[Dyllymoo]

Its interesting. Where I was before were 6 horses, we were asked to go up once a day, this lasted a few weeks (3 or 4) and then YO asked we go back to normal but adhering to SD which was fine.

Will be interesting to see if we do go back at new yard as I know there are some people with vulnerable family members who have a late evening slot and go up when no-one else does.

 

[Midlifecrisis]

Our yard has 28 horses in 3 barns/stable blocks and we had time slots allocated up to 2 weeks ago when it went back to a free for all. I preferred the time slots...2 hours in the morning and 2 later on in the day and half hour booked slots for arena work. It worked well apart from a couple of people who ignored it. As more people returnEd to work the time slots have been removed as there were complaints about being tied into times.

 

[Cowpony]

We've had a rota for the whole time, which is just beginning to be relaxed. We're on a yard which is also a riding school, so all the RS horses were turned out and just checked and hayed up each day. One or two of the more excitable ones got worked but that was all. Everybody on livery went onto DIY, including the working livery horses. Some people had to learn a lot very fast! As mine is stabled for part of each day I was incredibly lucky and was given a slot at both ends of the day, which meant that I could ride as long as I was quick, but I really couldn't hang around. I'm pretty slow mucking out! I only saw 5 other people during my slots and we were all very good at distancing. Absolutely loved the peace and quiet, and being able to get into the arena whenever I wanted!

We've now got longer slots, so at the weekend I can at least clean my tack or give my horse a more thorough groom, but we still aren't encouraged to hang around. The small cafe is shut and although the office/tack shop is open we are careful to distance and don't spend much time in there. Lessons have restarted for experienced riders - originally only private, but now we can have 4 on a group lesson in a large outdoor school. But the instructor keeps well away from us and we have different gates for going in and out so we don't get too close to the next lesson waiting to come in. We also have different car parks for liveries and riding school pupils so we are kept apart as much as possible.

At the moment it's really well organised, but I'm not quite sure how it's going to work when they relax it a bit more. It could get chaotic with people coming and going and nobody knowing who should be there at that time, or people deciding that it's back to normal and behaving accordingly.

 

[clairefeekerry1]

We are diy (farm basically) and never had any restrictions. They did all get turned out 24/7 as the pandemic started and we’ve just kept our distance. There are only a handful of us so it’s worked fine.

 

[Dave's Mam]

We were locked down for the initial 2 months. Half hour slot per day to check & no riding / lunging etc. Sort your pony & leave.
This was then relaxed to 1.5 hour slots, riding allowed, social distancing to be maintained.
2 weeks ago, yard fully opened, social distancing to be maintained.
Thank flip.