DIY Yards

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PennyJ

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What is the form about clearing up behind you and your horse on your yard?
If someone doesn't clear up behind them, or deliberately does a lousy rotten job of it, what is done about it on your yard?
 
Every now often I have a good shout up and everyone on the yard grabs a tool and within 20 minutes its sparkling *SIGH* ... I have tried reasoning, I have tried rules, I have tried threats ... but the shout up works best and leads to the best results. I do have a lot of kids on my yard though so a shout up tends to get through to them.
 
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does your yard not have a fairy who does all those things? (Including emptying bins, forking up muck heap, clearing drainage channels, picking up wasted haylage) I thought every yard had one! ;)
 
This is te only thing my YO is strict about keeping the yard tidy, we have to sweep up outside our own stables, and we have to pick out feet before turning out to not leave trails of shavings! Lol she will say to the culprit if they haven't done it :).
 
On our yard there is a couple of girls the yard owner (who wants nothing to do with the yard!) gives a free parking space in return for their trailers in order to make people keep clean! They are doing an OK job of it (minus annoying some liverys by trying to make them clear up things like outside the menage when their horses are retired so they dont use it.....) but winding others up because some liveries have the attitude of its a DIY (completley) yard, if you want it run like a proper livery yard you need to employ staff to fix things and clear up communal areas! I personally am the little fairy that clears the drains, the main bits of yard, poo picks the school all the time even when my horse hasnt been in there, grits the yard when its like an ice rink......
 
i feel your pain! my yard is driving me mad at the moment! it ust to be a lovely little yard, every one kept there arieas tidy and swept ect behind them. but just recently YO has let some rather "skanky" people on to the yard that like to use the school and no pick up poo, muck out and leave straw every ware, leave headcollars ect all over the yard and genraly make the place look untidy. hopefully they will get sorted soon though :(
 
I seem to be yard fairy (along with one other) but I must admit I think the faries will go on strike soon! Is it really so hard to poo pick the arena if your horse goes in it, or to pick out hooves before leaving the stable and into a bucket? If you can't pick out into a bucket perhaps you could sweep it up after?! If your horse goes on the yard perhaps you could bloody pick it up?! When it is below freezing it would be lovely if people thought of others and didn't chuck their water across the yard leaving a lethal ice rink - for the faries to grit!
Every now and again the yo complains to me about the mess (I am just a diyer like everyone else on the yard, I just like to sweep up and keep it looking nice as it is a lovely yard), then every few months a grumpy letter or note goes on the board - fat lot of good that does!! All it serves to do is get peoples back up. I wish the yo would take 5 mins and just have a casual chat with everyone on the yard and just mention it - I think it would have a better response.
 
Each owner clears up after their own horse - simple. All horses have to have feet picked out before t/o and every owner is expected to sweep up their area daily. These duties are included in the diy contract and also clearly stated on yard rules.

As the YO I will take responsibilty for jobs such as spring cleaning the barn etc, but my liveries often lend a hand on general tidying without being asked, so am very lucky that we all share the same attitude!!
 
Sidney said:
Each owner clears up after their own horse - simple. All horses have to have feet picked out before t/o and every owner is expected to sweep up their area daily. These duties are included in the diy contract and also clearly stated on yard rules.
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That is included in the contract we have all signed too! Until the yo follows it up though I can't see people sticking to it as all they get is ocassional threats and grumps from the yo - but no follow up to this.
 
On our yard the liviery section is clean and everyone (well except one lazy cow who's never there and horse lives in filth..well it would if other liveries didn't clean it out for her) cleans up after themselves...the YO on the other hand is disgusting!! Her section of the yard is filthy and left to her the whole place would be a stinking pile of dirt.
 
Well I have always been of the understanding that you clear up after yourself - regardless of whether you are on DIY / Part / Full.. if you or your horse makes a mess then you should clear it up. There will always be the odd person on a yard who is a messy so and so but (if you can stand it ) I have found leaving their rubbish exactly where they left it and not tidying up after them (or taking things away - like tackboxes/brushes / brooms etc - and putting it in a safe place) gets a response quite quickly ;)
 
This used to REALLY annoy me at the DIY yard I was at. I kept my areas spotless, and also did the communal areas as no one else bothered. It used to really pee me off when in the morning before work, I would pick out both horses feet before bringing themout of the stable, then turn out, come back and sweep the concrete out side my stables, Literally as I finished sweeping, someone else would drag their two horses out of their shavings beds, and across the front of my stables leaving poo and wee soaked shavings all over the area I had just swept. They also used to tie up outside stables (nothing wrong with that) but invariably their horses would swing round, poo exactly in the middle of my stable door, and they would just leave it. Grr.

I did just used to tell them though, politely, or sweep the crap back in front of their bit if I was feeling petty.

Have to say, I visited recently and the place is a mess.
 
It was more annoying by people saying 'oh I haven;t got time to sweep up in the mornings, I've got to get to work' well yes, me too, but seriously, it takes 30 seconds to sweep the crap back into your stable and shut the door! Or even better, pick out feet first! Grr.
 
Brandy said:
This used to REALLY annoy me at the DIY yard I was at. I kept my areas spotless, and also did the communal areas as no one else bothered. It used to really pee me off when in the morning before work, I would pick out both horses feet before bringing themout of the stable, then turn out, come back and sweep the concrete out side my stables, Literally as I finished sweeping, someone else would drag their two horses out of their shavings beds, and across the front of my stables leaving poo and wee soaked shavings all over the area I had just swept. They also used to tie up outside stables (nothing wrong with that) but invariably their horses would swing round, poo exactly in the middle of my stable door, and they would just leave it. Grr.

I did just used to tell them though, politely, or sweep the crap back in front of their bit if I was feeling petty.

Have to say, I visited recently and the place is a mess.
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You must have been at the same yard I am at - this is EXACTLY what happens! (to sweep your doorway up takes a full 5 seconds I think, I don't know how people can't find the time!).
 
Ditto all the above! A fellow livery once tied her horse up outside my box, with a haynet and a large trug of water in case the poor wee thing got thirsty while she mucked out. She very conscientiously swept up the hay, droppings, dirt from the hooves.... then because the water trug was heavy just tipped the water out, on a freezing day, which ran down the yard past my other horse's stable leaving me with ice rinks to walk my horses over.
I now run a DIY yard and include a.m. turnout in the price. I don't have time to pick all the hooves out (I work full time as well) so I've got in the habit of spinning the horses round a couple of times to empty their feet. People think I'm mad, having an early morning "waltz" with the horses, but all my owners are good at sweeping outside their doors, but never sweep the middle of the yard.
 
Thank you everyone who has replied - at least I don't feel like I'm the only "yard fairy" in the country now. I might have that printed on the back of a hoodie actually...

Like someone else posted above - it is just the one person who is doing her best to turn the place into a slum. Well I think I shall just declare my own kind of war on her and her slovenly ways. After all, if she knows she is meant to clean up after herself and her horse, but chooses to do so in an incredibly slovenly way when she claims she works as a cleaner, then it is perfectly reasonable for me to call her a Slattern when I sweep up her mess, No?

Maybe if this persists, should I Let It Be Known to the whole yard and therefore to her that I am Chairman of the Housing Review Panel at the Council? I know she lives in a Council House. Do you think that might put the fear of God into her and make her clean up behind herself at the (unfounded) thought I could stop her getting a new kitchen or something?

All suggestions gratefully received. It's an election year, so I don't want to lose my rag...
 
I am the only one on our yard, its a small yard which consists of 8 stables, but like I say.....I am the only one there, I've been there just over 10 years now and me and YO have a good understanding, we have our little "debating issues" every now and again but generally I am a good livery and keep the yard clean and tidy and brush up after myself . I generally keep the yard cleaner than my house :o :p



Edited to say, I like the word generally ....... it would seem :o


:p
 
Not on a livery yard but do share my yard with 2 others and this winter i made the decision that i would not tidy the muck heap, sweep up the yard, tidy the feedroom etc etc as i have done for the last 25yrs.

All i do now is sweep the crap back over their stables and keep my muck on one side of the muckheap, it took a couple of mths but is now starting to work and they are beginning to notice that the yard fairy has upped sticks and left and are slowly starting to tidy up behind themselves...............
 
I am our yard fairy. I am the fairy which sweeps the car park every weekend where everyone has dragged haylage and straw across it without sweeping it up. Lazy gits! I was doing the car park/yard last week when a 12 year old jumped up rat girl said to me "Why are you doing that again?" I felt like slapping her. I snapped at her that it's all part of owning a horse and being on a yard. I then asked the same owners when they were going to clean the small paddock up of poo - I last used this paddock in September when my mare came out of hospital and I fully cleaned it up - it looked lovely and we were saving it for Spring so we had a nice paddock area - the reply was "Oh, do we have to do that?" What do they think is going to happen to the poo?? Anyway, I managed to guilt-trip them into doing it.
I am the only person who poo picks the boys field and the only person who smashes the trough on icy mornings and removes all the ice. I will be made redundant from work in about 18 months and my aim is to rent a yard and have a really good part-livery yard. At least that way, I will be getting paid for my fairy duties!
 
I used to be the yard fairy but have resigned! I now just try to look the other way at the mess, other DIYs never tidy up the communal areas where hay etc is tracked through the feed room, straw left all over the yard , dog poo etc. I now just look after my own horses
and listen to everyone else moaning about the muck heap etc and not lifting a finger themselves
 
I am my yards sweaping fairy :)
I think it's all part of being on the DIY yard, some people are tidy some just don't give a monkeys and others just plain lazy!
I find it baffling though that people can't see beyond the area outside there stables, and why people don't take pride on what there yard looks like (or would look like if the fairies didn't do it!!)

I am a very neat and tidy person, i seem to be constantly attached to a broom and pride my self on having a well folked up and stepped muck heap, and maybe i annoy people for being too tidy, but i have a sence of pride about where i keep my horses.

Hey Ho the joys of DIY livery :)
 
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