Full/part livery people- does your stuff vanish?

[Shadowdancing]

Horse is now on full livery through the week and I do her at weekends.

Absolutely love the yard, the staff, the people, the turn out, facilities, it's great.

Only one minor annoyance, my things keep vanishing! I've not seen her everyday headcollar since I arrived... her feed buckets and water buckets have disappeared... everything is clearly marked with her name so I don't know why they can't find their way home? It's so annoying as I still go up daily to say hi and feed her so I don't end up trying to come ride when she's just been fed. They must take the bucket out afterwards and it's going walkabout, so after riding when rushing to get off to work- no buckets!

I think everything just ends up in a pile through the day, headcollars, buckets and all and no one puts things back where they were- is this common?

 

[Magnetic Sparrow]

One yard I was at had the same problem. My water bucket in someone else's stable, feed buckets missing, tools gone awol (part livery). In the end I covered the handles of every item with bright blue insulating tape. It helped my find my missing stuff quickly.

 

[michelledud]

Do you know where the "pile" is? Can you retrieve your things back?

I'd have a word with the owner/staff to voice your concerns nicely (at first&#128522. If they realise you're bothered about using your own buckets etc (other liveries might not be, or might not visit regularly and notice what's happening?) then they might start taking better care of your stuff.

It's hard when it comes to buckets/haynets etc that you have to leave out all the time, but I'd just make sure you lock away everything that you can!!! 😳

 

[michelledud]

I've done that, my colour choice of insulating tape was yellow 😂

 

[be positive]

I use my own every day headcollars generally on the liveries, so much quicker if turning out and bringing in than faffing about picking up a different one for every horse, the livery headcollars usually stay outside their own boxes for the owners to use when they come.
Water buckets get taken out each day and normally go back to the box they came out of but are easily muddled up if they are all the same type, I wouldn't be checking for names on them, as they are now all big tubs of different colours it is so easy to remember that *** is purple ****has blue etc but they still get mixed up once in a while.
Feeds I make up in buckets that are tipped into rubber feed skips, skips are taken out in the morning while mucking out, they often end up in a pile by the hose during the day getting put back outside the boxes at some point ready for evening feeding but some yards may take them back to the feed room ready to be filled, not many will leave an empty bucket in a box for the day it looks lazy to not remove it, so find out what your yard does I am sure they will have a routine that you are not yet aware of, if you are only going up to feed I would expect them to get the feed ready for you and leave it in the feedroom.

 

[bluebellfreddy]

I agree with everything be positive has said, when you work on a busy livery yard it is often hard to keep everything in one place. Especially if you are the only one that has there own stuff, if you are using the same head collar on every horse and you have happened to pick up a "special" one.

Your options are talk the the yard owner, or buy some cheap crappy stuff you don't mind going missing. I also think it is strange that on full livery they are not making the feeds up for you, I am also not suprised if they are using your feed bucket to give a small feed when the other horses are being feed.

This is coming from somebody that has both worked on a yard and also now keeps a horse on full livery, there are things that frustrate me even now. But you learn to keep EVERY thing in your little place.

 

[ihatework]

Over the years I have been on 4 different full livery yards.

2 nothing ever vanished
1 yes now and again things would go missing, used on other horses and left lying somewhere but if I asked where it was the grooms generally knew and could retrieve easily.

The other was the biggest PITA ever. There was a separate riding school section and there were a lot of teenagers employed. Never ever again!! My expensive rugs would be found on RS horses. I had a full set of expensive boots washed and hung to dry. I went to put away the following day not only to find them missing but then to locate them in the RS tack room with silver marker pen all over the outside proclaiming they belonged to the establishment ...

 

[SEL]

Our yard has a separate riding school on site with a load of teenagers & I'm always recovering my stuff. Even my Ardennes headcollar ended up in their tack room - it's xxl & big on him.

I now buy stuff in bright colours - but the tape idea is a good one.

 

[Wagtail]

I run a full livery yard and prefer to use my own feed buckets. They are all the same size, easy to clean and to carry stacked up. I just put my clients' buckets to one side and don't use them. I do tell them though. I occasionally will use my own head collars on other horses if one has an annoying buckle or doesn't fit correctly, or to save a livery's leather one from getting ruined if it's wet. I would ask the staff where your things are if I were you.

 

[Abi90]

On full livery and nothing ever goes missing. I think my headcollar got used once but I found it not far from where it normally lives.

I went to the Falklands for 3 months and came to everything where I left it. Including the rugs that had been to the cleaners and come back!

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

I haven't seen my broom in about 3 months, however I know how it is, it's been used and left somewhere, then used again and moved. I just use the one that is closest to his stable.

I can see how it would be annoying, but when I lend a hand at the yard I can see how when using one headcollar for all the horses, or stacking feed buckets, things can go 'missing'. I would have a friendly chat now and nip it in the bud so to speak

 

[criso]

Our yard has a separate riding school on site with a load of teenagers .

I had a problem on a yard with a riding school attached too but adults not teenagers. I moved fairly quickly after it opened but lost more stuff in a couple of months than I had in 5 years on other yards.

I would expect yards to usethe stuff I have supplied for the following reasons

- Haynets, they are not random. I have different hole sizes for my horses depending on whether they need slowing down or encouraging to eat more. I also don't expect to spend extra to buy one that Fat Frank is less likely to chew a mouth sized hole in to find it replaced by a poorer quality one.

- Feedbowls Some of the yards I was on had horse competing at a high enough level that they we really careful about feed and banned substances so I have got into the habit of not sharing bowls in case some are being fed bute or other banned substances.

- Rugs/Headcollars I would worry about disease spreading. I've seen ringworm spread by sharing headcollars. This was the owner so not the yards fault. They bought a new horse who was isolated when it first arrived however shared a headcollar on both horses. The new horse turned out to have ringworm which wasn't visible at first. The other horse caught it and passed it on to some of the other horse he was turned out with.
Had a lovely brand new black fleece covered in hair when it was borrowed and put on a mainly white coloured horse who was moulting. I never completely got the hairs out so don't want my rugs used elsewhere.


I am lucky as I am on a small yard which makes it easier to keep track of things, headcollars live outside the horses stable and go back there when not on the horse. Even on livery we have areas with our hay allowance and to store feed/supplements and the ym has her routine and put bowls and nets back in these ready to be refilled. Just one person so that helps too.

 

[MrsMozart]

Part-livery - nothing disappeared. My friend and I had eight horses between us and they were all together at the end of the block, so stuff had a natural zone.

 

[JulesRules]

Not on my current yard but on my last yard. It was really irritating. Only small things like lead ropes and bucket covers, or once my fly mask.

In the end I told the YO that the cost of buying new bucket covers was going to be deducted from my livery bill as they were being chucked on the floor by her staff when they fed my girl and then blowing away.

It's such a relief to be on a yard where my stuff is safe

 

[EventingMum]

On my yard we supply buckets etc, clients don't have any tools etc because they don't muck out etc so all they tend to have is tack, headcollars, rugs, grooming kits. The rugs in use and everyday headcollars are kept by the stable and everything else is in the livery tack room or rug store in that horse's space and anything used is automatically put back after use. We have never had any problems with losing clients things, I think the key is having staff that know to put things away in their place, as most of my staff have their own horses they respect clients property.

 

[Hexx]

I was part and full livery on a yard for 10 years and nothing went missing and that was a livery yard of 32 horses. Sometimes a new groom might use the wrong head collar - a couple of us had blue head collars with blue lead ropes, but I was always greeted with "sorry, so-and-so has your head collar on, we'll put it back" and it always did go back. Things got done wrong when us liveries tried to help out - I did once put another horse's turnout rug on mine as it was the same colour - the YM soon put me right!

We had an amnesty bag, where anything left out on the yard would be and you would have a week to reclaim it before it went in the bin - that definitely focussed people's minds on putting things away, so that we had a nice neat yard.

 

[SO1]

Yard provides the buckets and normal haynets. Some of the buckets are the flat feed ones others are coloured trugs. My pony has small red trugs as he just has a small amount of dengie molasses free mixed with his supplements.

The horses all have their own head collars and lead ropes as they tend to have different sized heads. The head collars are all different colours so it is easy to see which head collar belongs to which horse/pony. However I can see if there were head collars that were similar it might hard to know which head collar belongs to each horse. My pony wears a grazing muzzle. The grazing muzzles and head collars are all hung up outside the stable of the individual.

My pony is special needs in that he is a native pony who is fed a bit differently to the others as he is a dieter!. He has steamed hay in a slow feeder haynet. I purchased the slow feeder haynets for him.

Once the horses have had breakfast/dinner they take the buckets out of the stables. The dinner one is then the lid on top of the breakfast one. After breakfasts the buckets are taken away for washing ready for the feeds to be made up.

Nothing has gone missing but then I don't have my own tools as he is on 7 day part livery if I want to skip out my pony's stable after I have ridden in the evening I use the yard tools.

 

[Equi]

The only thing thats annoying me at the moment is the YO keeps throwing my leather head collar on the floor in front of my stable despite there being a hook literally on my door!! It just sits in the water and then gets ruined and the rope does too. If it happens again i'm hiding it, they can use their own for him.

 

[EmmasMummy]

I just go and hunt it down as thankfully there are only a couple of us. I have 2 headcollars for exactly this situation, and quite often one will be being used on the other pony there which I am not fussed about because at least then I know where it is.

I get more pissed about my daughters stuff going missing, though I know where her gloves are (in the YO tack room!) .

 

[rachk89]

Yes but usually through my own fault. I put stuff down and forget where. It turns back up in a few days once I have remembered.

My mucking out tools get used by other people frequently but I don't mind as we kind of all share. I have tape around all of my tools apart from the boom. I forgot to do that one and when I remembered it was in a pile of identical brooms so I couldn't be bothered after that.

Have had to replace a fair few buckets but now they all have my horses name written on them in big letters so it's really obvious. Haven't had one go missing since.

 

[rascal]

This is why i do not like livery yards, or having someone share our field, everything goes missing. You either end up replacing it, or having to waste time looking for it. At the last yard we were on it was the feed that went missing, and a load of electric fencing that another livery stole when she moved yards.

 

[AdorableAlice]

Slightly aside from the topic, if any of you are competing under rules the sharing of feed buckets can be a disaster waiting to happen.

 

[little_critter]

The last yard I was on was assisted DIY but also did full livery. Several times I found my wheelbarrow had been 'borrowed' by a full livery (I'm diy so need my wheelbarrow).
Said livery was stinking rich - I mean their own country manor rich- so could easily afford their own.
When I got fed up and found her using it again when I needed it, I simply emptied the contents of the wheelbarrow back into her stable and took my barrow back.
ETA the barrow had my name on it and was parked outside my stable so it was clear it wasn't a yard barrow.

 

[Micropony]

Slightly aside from the topic, if any of you are competing under rules the sharing of feed buckets can be a disaster waiting to happen.

Well absolutely. Me and my horses have only ever competed at the very lowest levels yet but there are plenty on the yard who could be in serious trouble if traces of someone else's controlled medication ended up in their horse's feed. And I wouldn't be at all happy if my horse got a skin infection because the staff chose to use their own equipment on him rather than what I had supplued. Fortunately the yard are pretty respectful of individual horses' feed buckets and other equipment, but some of the posts about that on this thread have surprised me tbh. Things might be 'easier' but I wouldn't have thought some things were good practice.

 

[Tyssandi]

Horse is now on full livery through the week and I do her at weekends.

Absolutely love the yard, the staff, the people, the turn out, facilities, it's great.

Only one minor annoyance, my things keep vanishing! I've not seen her everyday headcollar since I arrived... her feed buckets and water buckets have disappeared... everything is clearly marked with her name so I don't know why they can't find their way home? It's so annoying as I still go up daily to say hi and feed her so I don't end up trying to come ride when she's just been fed. They must take the bucket out afterwards and it's going walkabout, so after riding when rushing to get off to work- no buckets!

I think everything just ends up in a pile through the day, headcollars, buckets and all and no one puts things back where they were- is this common?

Stuff vary vary rarely disappear here

 

[pixie]

No, on my yard each owner's equipment is used only on their horses. All buckets are taken out and scrubbed together every morning, but they go back to the same stables every day when mucking out is finished. Each horse has its own rugs and we use them only for that horse (unless the owner has two that use the same size and ask us to switch). Headcollars go on a hook outside each stable so no need to mix them up. Anything that has been left out gets returned to owner's area of the tack room.

 

[LeannePip]

I'm on a part livery yard and things very rarely dissapear here - my horses headcollar wasn't outside her stable the other day so i borrowed one to turn out (then returned it!) next day headcollar was back. Couple of temp staff had been doing the yard whilst one of the normal staff was away and obviously didn't know who's headcollar was who's!

 

[abbiejohnston]

All the time I'm constantly looking for my things. It's my whips/crops that are never where I leave them keep having to buy new ones as I can't find them anymore. Found 2 of the the other day so now I have 5!

 

[be positive]

Slightly aside from the topic, if any of you are competing under rules the sharing of feed buckets can be a disaster waiting to happen.

I was one who said there is a possibility of of feed bowls getting "shared" I am on my own so I know who is getting any meds and normally the meds are added as I put the feed into the stable, when we have anything competing under rules, we did race one from here as well as event, I am extra careful to ensure there is no cross contamination, although I have nothing here that is on regular medication so it is normally only a short term course that needs to be very carefully monitored.

As for the other comment about spreading ringworm or similar if all the horses get turned out with others, are handled by the same person the likelyhood of a spread is there whether they share a headcollar or not, it is part of my job to be aware of any health issues and avoid a spread if something does get onto the yard and is why all new horses are kept apart on arrival, once they are assessed to be healthy then they start to mix with the others, if they appear to have ringworm then it would be treated appropriately and in isolation.

 

[chestnut cob]

I don't think I've ever really experienced anything going missing on a livery yard. At previous yard, the odd thing disappeared and if we mentioned it to a certain person, it would "suddenly" reappear. Other than that, never had anything go missing. I have my own feed buckets and every YO has always used those as well as my own headcollars.