How to approach livery?

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Gypley

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I have mentioned previously that myself and a friend took on our own yard. We have 5 stables, 3 of which for our own horses and the other 2 we have filled with liveries to help cover the cost of our rent.
We were very picky when it came to who filled the space and eventually settled on two women who wanted to move together as their teenage daughters had become good friends at their previous yard.
Ladies moved it and its really nice, ladies are lovely and their kids are well mannered. After some initial teething problems with horses not getting along everything is now going swimmingly.
BUT (you knew it was coming, didn't you!) Family 1 are fantastic, we don't see them often but that's neither here nor there, they pull their weight and that's all we ask.
Family 2 are also lovely, have a lot in common and make the yard a nice place to be... When they turn up.... She works long hours and more often than not the poo picking doesn't get done. They will be there for 5 mins and shoot off again.
Currently they haven't done any since Sunday. I have been on holiday for a week and my friend has done my share of the work (we cover for each other when were away) but my friend has felt as if she has been looking after 4 horses instead of 3 this week. It's not as if a 5th of the poo picking gets left for her to do, everyone else picks up the slack. This is just one example of something where she could be doing more. She also has her own muck heap as she's the only one on shavings and we can get local allotments to take ours if its only straw. Despite being asked numerous times, her or her daughter will not stomp it down and keep it tidy.
We have politely asked if maybe she could do a bit more, to be told either she's really busy at work this week, or once daughter has broken up from school, she will be up all the time ... Well weeks have past, daughter has broken up and STILL they're not pulling their weight.
I don't want to upset anyone, and I don't want to leave a note on the board asking if everyone could do more as I don't want family 1 to think we don't appreciate what they do. But I also understand that family 2 is a self employed single mum with 2 kids, Nd it's not easy trying to run a household, business, kids and a horse. But she has a responsibly and it's not fair on the rest of us to be picking up the slack, if she doesn't have time then her livery will have to go up, but I don't want to upset them as we could potentially have far worse liveries to come through the door.
Any suggestions how to approach this in a diplomatic way, but assertive enough not to be a pushover?
 
I'd explain how you feel and explain nicely that you're going to increase the price of the livery to cover the extra work. Your livery may well be fine with this as some people are time poor but cash rich(er) .

If there's a problem with that, well, you take on a major responsibility having a horse and if you ain't got the time nor the money you shouldn't be a horse owner.
 
Slightly Foxed said:
I'd explain how you feel and explain nicely that you're going to increase the price of the livery to cover the extra work. Your livery may well be fine with this as some people are time poor but cash rich(er) .

If there's a problem with that, well, you take on a major responsibility having a horse and if you ain't got the time nor the money you shouldn't be a horse owner.
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I agree with this. Give her an option to pay a full livery price (if you have the time to care for one more horse that is!) you don't want to scare her off, but neither should she be assuming you will pick up her chores when she's too busy if she's only paying for DIY.
 
Her home life isn't your problem. She owns a horse and has to take the responsibility that comes with it. If you sit her down to talk about it you risk her taking a huff and leaving, but you've got to do it because this will only get worse in the winter. If you've got the time and energy I might be inclined to speak to her and suggest she goes on full livery. The preamble would be something about how she's mentioned several times that she's very busy, and you can see that this means that she doesn't have time to do her share of the work...
I wouldn't agree any half measures with her though, because whatever you do she'll take the piss. Either she's DIY, or full livery, or she leaves. You might worry about someone worse coming in but honestly, she is going to be a complete drain on your energies in a few months time!
 
Tell her you understand how busy she is, and that if she is too busy to do her poopicking or whatever, it will be charged at a rate of £x. Make it worth your while if you are picking up after her.

If you dont want to do it (why would you, youve got your own stuff to take care of) tell her she needs to sort it, or she will be asked to leave?
 
The thing is, I don't want to push family 2 into leaving as I'm worried family 1 may follow as they're good friends :/
 
Is it worth putting up with her just to keep all of them, if one is making things difficult (in summer, wait till winter!), family 2 may or may not follow her if she goes, they might just wave goodbye to her if they like the yard and she gets the shove.
 
I did think about talking to family 1, but I wouldn't like family 2 to find out and think I've been talking about them behind their back. My problem is I don't like to come across as bad cop . I'm not very good at potentially upsetting people , but I know I'm going to have to say something, suppose ill just pick my moment and make her a coffee ! Fingers crossed shell take it well !
 
Gypley said:
The thing is, I don't want to push family 2 into leaving as I'm worried family 1 may follow as they're good friends :/
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You can't please everyone all of the time. I agree with others, speak to the lady from family 1, they've probably noticed the problems. Maybe they will offer to do more work - but you shouldn't be propping this other owner up, at least not for free. You need to decide what you want to discuss, and stick to your point. Maybe something along the lines of:
"You've mentioned several times that you're really busy, and we both know that you're having problems getting all your work done here. So I thought maybe we should sit down over a cuppa and see what we can do about it". One thing though, you need to know what your solution is, you are the person renting the yard, remember that.
Oh and, you said that actually two of you rent the yard, so what is your friend's view on this and how is she helping to sort it out?
 
Tinypony said:
Oh and, you said that actually two of you rent the yard, so what is your friend's view on this and how is she helping to sort it out?
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Friend feels the same, we just both find it hard to approach the subject. But it's getting to the point where were both getting the hump with it and are starting to dislike family 2, which is unfair as we haven't actually approached them about not pulling their weight.
It's not really right for us to get arsey if we don't give her a chance to sort it out.
 
So talk to her. face to face and say how you feel. have a coffee there to chill moment but talk. maybe she doesnt realise how she is not pulling weight. explain how it means more work for you. Do you remeber the advert "its good to talk" not easy but hey :))
 
you never know but if you did offer her 'services' for a cost she may be willing to accept them....or even hoping you may suggest this to her?? this may be a good posiblity if you do have a bit of free time to do her horse???
 
Could she do all the poo picking at the weekend and you do it in the week? If you work long hours with 2 kids I can see how it doesn't get done after work but she could make up for it by doing extra at the weekend, couldn't she?
 
Was the arrangement for DIY, if so, surely she should check her horse daily and allow 20 or so minutes to do the jobs associated with DIY livery?

No excuses, whether she's too busy, too poor, too flippin' keen to get home and sink a bottle of wine -doesn't matter. This lady has a horse and she either takes responsibility or she pays for full livery.

Don't worry about upsetting anyone, this is business, not a sanctuary for hopeless horse owners. Speaking plainly and not entering into a debate is the tough side of running a yard. It doesn't mean you aren't nice, some YO's are really great but still have to lay the law down sometimes in order to keep the yard a good place to be.
 
In going to give her some options, either she does a barrow every day, or she pays us to do it or we will poo pick mon/fri and she can do the weekend, so long as she clears the field both days.
How much is reasonable to ask for ontop of her livery for poo picking each day? I was thinking 1.50/2 per day? Is this reasonable or am I selling myself short?
 
If there are 5 stables, can you not divide up the rota between you all, then at least they have to do 3 days between the families? At my last yard, there was a herd of 4 in my field. My two, another DIY and a full livery. We arranged it so that I poo picked 2-3 days a week, the other DIY did 2 days a week (although he only had one horse, she was the 17hh who crapped like a cow as opposed to my tiddlers who did it on the muck heap anyway!). YM did 2 days on behalf of the full livery. Sometimes it got a bit muddled, but it always got done that way.
 
Ideally I wanted to steer clear of rotas as there a bit too regimented. It doesn't take 5 minuets to run round with a wheelbarrow once a day, especially if all of us are doing it. And I'm not ott, I don't mind if maybe you miss a day as you had to pick Betty up from ballet, as long as I can see they do it on a regular basis and don't take the mick out of everyone else. It annoys me that they had time to muck out every day, but don't have time for a bit of poo picking now they're living out ?!?
 
At the DIY yard where I keep mine, they charge £3 for poo picking for a wheel barrow full. I would not charge less than £2 if I were you.
 
personally i would charge £5 for every day you have to poo pick for her (that's how much my friend charges fellow liveries where she is), and £5 should you have to muck out. that is perfectly fair and she should understand. or also if family 1 are good friends they could help her out instead?
 
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