Experiences of suspected contagion on livery yard

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I am curious if anyone else has experienced being the "possibly contagious" one and how your YO/YM and other liveries handled it. Not to give any specifics, this as yet unconfirmed condition is what my vets call a "nuisance", it is not dangerous, but it might as well be the plague. I'm wondering if I've been unlucky with the yard I've landed at or if people always make you feel like a leper in these circumstances? I don't mean having to isolate etc, I mean the way it's handled and what is said/not said. Very vague I know, sorry!
 
If I’ve joined the right dots, yes I’ve had experience of this. I’m talking 25 years ago when on livery at a big livery yard, competition centre and riding school.

Initially yard didn’t want to knowledge it at all, between us liveries it was fine but it took a lot to get yard to take action and in the end every horse was washed with whatever it was I can’t remember. It took individual liveries vets and the vet practice the yard used to essentially force YO’s hand.

Mine was one of the later ones to be diagnosed by which time isolation boxes had run out, so he stayed in his normal stable. The yard didn’t stop riding school lessons and although in theory they were separate, people did wander. A couple of us actually put a big red cross on our stable doors, mainly for the small children who probably couldn’t read “please do not touch”. We also wrote “keep away - plague” on the signs but the YO didn’t see the funny side and made us take them down. We thought that was quite amusing!

But in all seriousness, these things happen and I hope nobody is making you feel too bad about it. Better an inconvenience than anything more serious.
 
I'd say be honest, apologise (even though it's not anyone's fault I find it helps to acknowledge it) and keep the yard up to date with regular updates and explain the precautions you have taken/what your vets has advised other's do, if you are the 'infected one'.

Also, be seen to follow through to the letter what your vet recommends.

And try to stay out of the yard politics, however tempting it might be otherwise!

I speak as someone who because someone else wasn't upfront and honest, I (and other's) ended up with a large vet bill, big extra expenses, a lot of interruption to my horse's day to day routine because of infection & lots of stress due to nastiness/politics that ensued.

I'm assuming it's ringworm so arguably less serious implications than other potential things but I'd still make a point of sharing & showing what you've done/are doing for your horse and to protect other horse's where possible.
 
MuddyMonster said:
I'd say be honest, apologise (even though it's not anyone's fault I find it helps to acknowledge it) and keep the yard up to date with regular updates and explain the precautions you have taken/what your vets has advised other's do, if you are the 'infected one'.

Also, be seen to follow through to the letter what your vet recommends.

And try to stay out of the yard politics, however tempting it might be otherwise!

I speak as someone who because someone else wasn't upfront and honest, I (and other's) ended up with a large vet bill, big extra expenses, a lot of interruption to my horse's day to day routine because of infection & lots of stress due to nastiness/politics that ensued.

I'm assuming it's ringworm so arguably less serious implications than other potential things but I'd still make a point of sharing & showing what you've done/are doing for your horse and to protect other horse's where possible.
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I have lost count of the amount of times I've apologised already, and great detail has been gone into! I'm not specifying the condition - which now seems very unlikely actually from initial test results - but some people do seem to expect you to have 20/20 hindsight (not that I'm aware of any other issues regardless). But there's definitely a feeling of ritual humiliation 😢. Almost to the extent of me feeling reluctant to be quite so open and honest in future should anything similar occur. I would still do the right thing of course, but "holier than thou" is never a good or helpful thing when people feel bad enough already 😢😢
 
I think a lot of people (myself included) have a horror of ringworm/lice/mites etc- but it's not an excuse to be unpleasant to someone unfortunate enough to have an infected horse. (Assuming they're doing something about it, as you are).
I'd forgive the odd shudder when the subject comes up, I've had to treat louse infections in my ponies before and, despite knowing they don't live on humans, I've been itchy for hours afterwards at the mere thought of them! 😂
 
bonnysmum said:
I have lost count of the amount of times I've apologised already, and great detail has been gone into! I'm not specifying the condition - which now seems very unlikely actually from initial test results - but some people do seem to expect you to have 20/20 hindsight (not that I'm aware of any other issues regardless). But there's definitely a feeling of ritual humiliation 😢. Almost to the extent of me feeling reluctant to be quite so open and honest in future should anything similar occur. I would still do the right thing of course, but "holier than thou" is never a good or helpful thing when people feel bad enough already 😢😢
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You have my sympathy as it's a difficult position to be in. I found it tough even though I had the goodwill of most - but not all - of the yard (as I was seen as a victim of collateral damage of person X, not the cause of it).

Do you have a yard FB or WhatsApp group? I just put my updates on there & then refused to engage if people wanted to talk about the situation as a whole further - as by then it was a political hotbed I wasn't touching!

It had the advantage of being an audit trail visible to all but also meant I didn't feel I was repeating the same thing, so saved my own sanity a bit.

I then just deflected to either my YM or vet if people wanted to know more or voice their opinions - or as in one case, I was accused of lying about various things!

Hope the situation improves soon for you. It'll hopefully be long forgotten in no time at all.
 
Ringworm although a nuisance is nothing to be frightened of. It used to spread through racing yards like wildfire on the jockeys mitts and also most jockeys have their own saddles which come off one horse and onto another. It can live in wood for years! Years ago I sent a young horse away to be broken in and she got it and the vet prescribed Fulcin but Im not sure if that is still around. My grandfather used to use salt and treacle on the cattle but that was very many years ago. Just make sure you disinfect all tack and rugs equipment etc. I was told also many years ago that it runs a 6 weeks course and then goes but Im not sure if that is true. Ive known people use Canastan on small patches of ringworm both on themselves and on their horse. Hope it all clears up soon for OP.
 
I’ve been on a yard with suspected strangles and was horrified as no precautions or restrictions or anything at all were taken…except a second electric fence line appeared between fields. Assisted livery person handled all the horses she was dealing with whilst not washing hands/wearing gloves etc. I found out accidentally no communication about it at all.
 
I've received sideways glances and caught echoes of mumbling when I first bought Little Madam as I was in the UK at the time and she came from France. This somehow seemed to make her a bigger source of worry than the various other (British!) horses that arrived or competed during the time we were there. This despite the fact that she was isolated on the yard just by the set up. She could see other horses but not touch them and had her own mini barn. She didn't even have anything!
 
I sent my horse away on sales livery, few days after she got there found out yard she came from had a case of something nasty. I immediately told new yard, and there weren’t particularly nice to me. (I was annoyed as I could have kept quiet, and they’d never have know.) my horse didn’t have anything nasty.

Karma got the new yard a few years later when a horse on their yard caught the something nasty!
 
I bought a horse recently imported from Ireland when I was still at school, maybe 15/16 years old. I broke my leg on him pretty much the week I got him, so he was then on full livery. He had a couple of scaly patches on his nose when I rode him the last time, but more as if he'd rubbed them by stuffing his nose somewhere he shouldn't have.

I had no hassle off the livery yard as YO was the dealer/importer who had just sold him to me. They simply isolated and treated him. However, the next door riding school made a huge fuss! I was verbally attacked at school, whilst hobbling around with a full leg cast on crutches, by one of the 'helpers' there. Apparently I'd single headedly put hundreds of small children at risk!

By that time, I was nothing to do with his isolation or day to day care.

I also had, as a 13 year old, my first pony, who got lice. That livery yard was less posh and it was shrugged off. I washed him in stuff and I don't think he was even isolated from the heard turnout. I don't think anything else caught it.
 
Well results are back and, as expected, negative, so we are not in fact plague carriers. Those who were being funny about it have not acknowledged my update so I guess I conclude they are the ones with the problem and not me. It's a shame people feel the need to be like that as we're all in the same boat, just trying to care for our horses the very best that we can. I do think that when you have kids (as I do) you probably have a bit more perspective on things like this. Stuff happens, get over it!

(PS the livery who was particularly complaining that I may have infected her horse - before I knew there may be an issue - never did isolate it. Make of that what you will. I won't be losing any more sleep over it!)
 
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bonnysmum said:
Well results are back and, as expected, negative, so we are not in fact plague carriers. Those who were being funny about it have not acknowledged my update so I guess I conclude they are the ones with the problem and not me. It's a shame people feel the need to be like that as we're all in the same boat, just trying to care for our horses the very best that we can. I do think that when you have kids (as I do) you probably have a bit more perspective on things like this. Stuff happens, get over it!

(PS the livery who was particularly complaining that I may have infected her horse - before I knew there may be an issue - never did isolate it. Make of that what you will. I won't be losing any more sleep over it!)
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I'm glad your horse is alright and sorry for your experience with the other liveries. As you said, stuff happens and as long as you are stupid about, it's no one's fault, just one of those things.
 
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