Help...do I stay or do I go?!

princess_jay

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I'll try and keep this as short as I can ;)
Right.. loved my yard up until recently when 15 new stables were built and quickly filled... we suddenly have all these new horses and no more facilities! Also, some of the new people are quite rough... The great thing about my yard is that the horses have 24/7 turnout in summer and all day turnout in winter, however the fields are now deep deep mud around the gates and in the last few weeks we had; a horse twist its ankle in the mud, a horse get mud fever, an older horse pull her pelvis out and is being monitered (vet said if we were going into winter he would have put her down :( ) and the fencing is horrendous - its all wire and horses keep getting stuck on it.. I do like my yard, hay and straw is all on site and its ok money wise...
BUT my best friend has just been kicked off due to 'ongoing personal issues' so she is moving to a new field that is further away and currently just a field... but the owner is applying for pp for stables and a menage... I don't want to seem like im running away just because my friend is going but im starting to get fed up with the dangerous fields... i dont want to risk leaving and find the grass isnt greener (!) but not sure im happy at current yard any more... what would you do??
 

...yep - the yard owners aren't 'horsey' - they don't understand how dangerous it is! I witness my friends horse catch her shoe on it only yesterday... was so upsetting... i get the feeling it will take a serious accident for them to change it?!?

I think in my head i do want to move im just nervous about going somewhere thats not 'perfect'... or am i being silly?
 
i'd move, i wouldn't keep my horse somewhere that others are being caught up on the fence, it's just not worth it.

i know someone who moved 5 times in a year, every place she moved to she thought it would be better than the last but turned out it was all talk to get another livery, she moved to another place (where she is now) and is very happy and so is her horse, he's got friends and good grazing, it's all very safe and the stables don't leak!

so you may find you will have to move a couple of times until you find a good enough yard but i wouldn't stay.
 
field... but the owner is applying for pp for stables and a menage... I don't want to seem like im running away just because my friend is going but im starting to get fed up with the dangerous fields... i dont want to risk leaving and find the grass isnt greener (!) but not sure im happy at current yard any more... what would you do??

I moved to a yard where I was promised that a menage would be built in a couple of months time and true to the yard owners word the menage was built. However circumstances meant that after four years I wanted to leave and so I started looking around for alternatives and I went to see another yard where the yard owner promised that a menage would be forthcoming. I didn't move to that particular yard in the end, and how lucky I was.... the 'proposed' menage still hasn't been built some six years later!!:eek:

So i guess the morale of the story is that some people you can trust and some people you can't. If you are in no dire rush to leave your present yard I'd do as previous posters have suggested and wait and see if this menage is built.

I have been on yards previously where trailing barbed wire and stables clinging together with nails and bailing twine were the norm and believe me the injuries my horse kept getting were really not worth being at that yard even though I stuck in for five years. I know from personal experience that some horses (particularly naive warmbloods who have no field sense) can injure themselves on fresh air but you don't want to add to the risk by your horses environment causing your horse injuries if you can possibly help it.
 
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For me it is a no brainer. My horses safety and welfare come first before anything else. Get out before it is your horse caught up in the fence or worse would be my advice.
 
None of this bodes well for the future, what was wrong with your mate and the " on going personal issues", who's to say you won't find yourself getting same treatment.
Quite politely while you're ahead and see what happens- you can always go back.
 
Thanks everyone - Im now soooo excited to see this yard on saturday - the more i hear about it the more idyllic it sounds! I can manage without a school for a couple of months - would rather know my horse was safe in PROPER equestrian fencing!

Keeping everything crossed that I actually like it on saturday and if I do im leaving my yard asap!

Is the general rule you have to stay a months notice when you leave a place or can you just go?! The YO has an attitude of 'if you dont pay your livery on time your gone.. i have a waiting list now' blah blah so i might just say 'well i dont want to keep all those people waiting so you can have my stable this weekend! ;)
 
Better to be safe than sorry , and anyway you can always adapt your horse to living out 24/7 mine does for health reasons and has taken to it like a duck to water even though he's always been stabled at night in winter. Being organised i.e the right rugs etc , then when the stables get built , it'll be the icing on the cake.
 
I'd move! If my horses safety was at risk I wouldn't stick around. I'm very fortunate to have very horsey YOs, so if there is anything we're unhappy about, it'll be sorted straight away. Would you rather leave (and POSSIBLY make it look like it's because your friend has gone, or stay and have your horse injure itself) if you decide to leave, explain exactly why your going to your YO. I hope you sort something out :-)
 
Been to see the new yard today with another friend from old yard and we both love it - both moving there together! Original friend with 2 mares is going tomorrow then me and other friend will go in about 2 weeks :) Sooo excited - its lovely - 22 acres, on a bridleway! School and stables will be built soon but my horse loves living out anyway so that doesnt bother me!

Thanks everyone - I knew it was the right thing I just needed fellow horsey folk to tell me it was right! Its scarey moving but at least our 4 mares will all be together on lovely land :)

Im just dreading telling the YO! Which sums it all up really- frightened to say what we really think as we just get backlash from it!

Good bye and good riddance i think!
 
Pay up to the day you leave and go, preferably on good terms. The horsey world is very incestuous and you don't want bad rumours following you.
 
......I witness my friends horse catch her shoe on it only yesterday... was so upsetting...

Yikes... the prospect of my horse doing the same would be sufficient for me to move yards if there was no field or paddock with safe equine fencing that I could use.

Great that you and your friend have found somewhere together that you both like. Good luck with the move and don't be scared. Hopefully it'll be a good decision to move :)
 
Thanks everyone - Im now soooo excited to see this yard on saturday - the more i hear about it the more idyllic it sounds! I can manage without a school for a couple of months - would rather know my horse was safe in PROPER equestrian fencing!

Keeping everything crossed that I actually like it on saturday and if I do im leaving my yard asap!

Is the general rule you have to stay a months notice when you leave a place or can you just go?! The YO has an attitude of 'if you dont pay your livery on time your gone.. i have a waiting list now' blah blah so i might just say 'well i dont want to keep all those people waiting so you can have my stable this weekend! ;)

You can go when you like, it just means you've paid for a month you won't be there, I'd go asap
 
Thanks for the advice everyone - we moved yesterday!! She's settled in really well already, was happy to see her old friends and rolled as soon as she got in the field with them :) Heres some pics of her first evening and the last one was how I found her this morning!!
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/xxmoments_forever_fadedxx/2011/DSC01709.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/xxmoments_forever_fadedxx/2011/DSC01717.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/xxmoments_forever_fadedxx/2011/DSC01719.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/xxmoments_forever_fadedxx/2011/DSC01724.jpg
This morning:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/xxmoments_forever_fadedxx/2011/DSC01729.jpg
 
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