How do you deal with cuts of hay/straw when on full livery

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wallykissmas

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I'm on a lovely full livery yard but have noticed in the last few weeks everything is being cut, less bedding, less hay, less turnout, less poo picking but more horses in the fields and more horses on the yard.

I'm feeling a bit disgruntled and left scratching my head as to if I'm getting a bit narked about nothing but my livery price hasn't been cut.:confused:
 
Maybe they're struggling? I'd mention it, casually, to let them know you've noticed it and just monitor it. i would rather pay a bit more, if it meant my horse got what it needed. Def wouldn't want it being scrimped on!
 
Not yet, I appreciate you can't resolve any issues without talking to yo, but am feeling annoyed at going to yards that promise all these things then it all changes.

Past experiences has also shown that you don't question the yo.
 
There is yard owner who has nothing to do with it other than make the rules so I am told and then yard manager who does everything. So would be yard manager who I would need to speak to really.
 
OP I find the same as you. I don't understand all the threads on here with replies saying discuss issues with YO/YM. In my experience most are wholly unreasonable people and you either stay or go and that's that, no point attempting to discuss it when its only going to cause an atmosphere. Clearly your YO/YM needs more money for some reason and is packing the place full of horses and minimizing services to achieve it. I don't see the point in trying to figure out why, businesses rarely admit they're struggling for fear of losing customers as they no longer feel secure. Also, it could be something in their personal life making them want more money. Either way I can only see you're going to get told lies. I really don't have much faith in peoples decency. They've already lied once about the level of service you can expect, to get you to move there.
 
Sugar_and_Spice said:
OP I find the same as you. I don't understand all the threads on here with replies saying discuss issues with YO/YM. In my experience most are wholly unreasonable people and you either stay or go and that's that, no point attempting to discuss it when its only going to cause an atmosphere. Clearly your YO/YM needs more money for some reason and is packing the place full of horses and minimizing services to achieve it. I don't see the point in trying to figure out why, businesses rarely admit they're struggling for fear of losing customers as they no longer feel secure. Also, it could be something in their personal life making them want more money. Either way I can only see you're going to get told lies. I really don't have much faith in peoples decency. They've already lied once about the level of service you can expect, to get you to move there.
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Glad to see your awake at a similar time to me, stressing about horses and yards !!

It does seem that the yard has been packed, fields split, bedding cut and turnout time reduced.

Yesterday when I visited my horse early afternoon he was in with dry legs to which I can only conclude he went out in a very dry paddock which there isn't many of !, didn't go out for very long and has been brough in early or didn't go out at all. Only one of them is acceptable for me.

I will admit I do have standards but don't think they are abnormal being decent turnout ground and time within reason I'm not totally unreasonable. But don't pack your yard if your fields can't cope. A decent bed to keep them warm and dry legs off and hay.

I'm wondering if to go back to DIY which I can cover but hate to keep moving around. It makes me feel bad as yard owners/managers never seem to let people leave on good grounds.
 
Most likely scenario is that prices, fuel,food,rates,wages (even minimum wage!) etc. are rising and the owners can no longer keep their original standards without raising prices.They think if they do that people will leave.Try discussing your concerns politley with YO and offering to pay a little more.Monitor the situation.If things don't improve leave and don't feel at all bad or guilty.
 
I would speak to the yard owner first. If the cuts are being made due to prices of hay and straw going up, or due to shortage, then YO should give liveries the option of paying a bit more to get more. I have not put prices up this year because my haylage costs have not risen. If they had, then rather than cutting rations, I would write to the liveries informing them of the livery price rise and explain why. Never had a problem with this as people understand. There is a shortage of hay and haylage in some areas due to the wet summer. This may be the reason. But no way would I be leaving my horse somewhere where cuts are being made. It can lead to all kinds of problems. Gastric ulcers, for example.
 
Wagtail said:
I would speak to the yard owner first. If the cuts are being made due to prices of hay and straw going up, or due to shortage, then YO should give liveries the option of paying a bit more to get more. I have not put prices up this year because my haylage costs have not risen. If they had, then rather than cutting rations, I would write to the liveries informing them of the livery price rise and explain why. Never had a problem with this as people understand. There is a shortage of hay and haylage in some areas due to the wet summer. This may be the reason. But no way would I be leaving my horse somewhere where cuts are being made. It can lead to all kinds of problems. Gastric ulcers, for example.
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Spot on Wagtail.
 
Every thing is much more expensive and yards will be struggling .
LOL at the only only costs they have is hay and straw and rent .
There's someone whose never run a commerical yard or a private one for that matter the cost of running a yard has gone up a lot in the last couple of years.
So they have to get cost down and income up, I would suspect they have increased horse numbers and are trying to cut costs.
OP you need to speak to them and has your livery price been raised recently ? If it has not there's your answer.
 
LOL at the only only costs they have is hay and straw and rent .
There's someone whose never run a commerical yard or a private one for that matter the cost of running a yard has gone up a lot in the last couple of years.
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Mmm, yes it's interesting that the OP may not have any conception on how much it costs to run and maintain a yard.
 
The yard is busier as more horses have come, so I'm wondering if the changes are due to the staff not having as much time for each horse and standards have slipped because of that. Not excusable of course but knowing the reason could help you decide what action to take. If the YO is not the sort of person you can discuss your concerns with, then you're left with three options;
Ignore it and watch your horse suffer and you get stressed and miserable.
Decide to leave.
Opt for part livery or DIY and make up for the shortfall.
 
Where I am, Part Livery (effectively, Full livery M-F) has gone up £15 a week in the past 18 months :(
A 25% increase! Yes, we now have an amazing floodlit school, but standards for mucking out are now awful, half my horses' bed is gone by Wednesday, despite him having 2 bales of shavings put in on a Friday night (by me!) as, if I left him till Saturday he'd be lying on 2" shavings. I wouldn't mind, but I set up my own bed 8" thick with huge banks, with about 10 bales in a 14 x 12 stables (bought most of my old stables bedding as horse very clean).....
They don't muck out, they shovel huge piles of clean shavings out with the poo.
I have "discussed" it with YO but a week later there seems no improvement, so looks like I'm headed for DIY with bringing in (at work 8am - 4.30pm)
I never used more than 5-6 bales shavings per month when I was mucking out myself! Now using, 8.66 a month and need more!
Our fields were split in half in Autumn....so now my cob is in mud only having half day turnout and surprisingly, my livery hasn't been reduced in price (that last bit was a joke!)
 
amymay said:
Mmm, yes it's interesting that the OP may not have any conception on how much it costs to run and maintain a yard.
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I agree with this - except, in most cases, price goes up but standards go down!
If they mucked out properly on our yard (shavings included in price up to 2 per wk) they'd SAVE money!
Is 11 stables reasonable for 1 girl per day? (Genuine question)
 
jnb said:
I agree with this - except, in most cases, price goes up but standards go down!
If they mucked out properly on our yard (shavings included in price up to 2 per wk) they'd SAVE money!
Is 11 stables reasonable for 1 girl per day? (Genuine question)
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I used to do 27 a day :) - Muck out AM and skip out usually twice PM. (this years ago for in inner city yard with no turn out) Feed hay 4 times day, water 4 times a day, and tack up/untack etc for the riding school lessons so yeah 11 is reasonable if that's an all day job.
 
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