Is there always this 'type' of woman on every yard??

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pipper

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Im Lucky in that my family own our own land so dont have any problems with other people. But I have a number of freinds on livery yards. We were discussing the pros and cons of yards v private land and the subject of 'interfering women' came up.
Without exception every one of the yards had one!!!
A woman who struts about thinking she knows what is best for every horse and owner. Who thinks that she is the most experienced in horse care ect. I dont mean the bitchy horrid ones (although they seem very common too) but the 'do as i say not as i do' type.
It must be the law that every yard has to have one LOL!!
 
It can work the other way too though. I've had lots of people ask me to look at their horse's health problem/catch the difficult one/ask what they should feed/fit their new piece of tack (usually unnecessary) over the years, primarily because they don't want to pay a professional. I'm always happy to help but some people don't half take the p**s and want it all the time and then you find you are the subject of the yard gossip and called a know-it-all and so on. Generally speaking I don't interfere with anybody's way of doing things unless I think it is either very cruel or very dangerous to horse or rider. Luckily I'm usually earlier or later on the yard than most of the other people so don't see anyone.
 
Yes, there's one on my yard as well. Avoid like the plague, no matter what the vet/farrier/EDT says, she has an opinion. No matter what ailment a horse has, she has experience of it. Nightmare!
 
Yeah, my husband. In fairness he is quite knowledgeable. Thankfully it's a small yard. He feels his helping. We have to the "the talk" every now and again to remind him that people can do as they wish with THEIR horses. And we also have to discuss that giving advice also comes with the pitfalls if something goes wrong. If they screw it up themselves I really don't care and do not wish to put myself in the firing line.

Hubby for some reason feels he should be offering advice to everyone about anything. This only started when he got back from Saudi. He was an assistant to a major racing stable. We also have the talk when he starts trying to boss me around.

Terri
 
fatpiggy said:
It can work the other way too though. I've had lots of people ask me to look at their horse's health problem/catch the difficult one/ask what they should feed/fit their new piece of tack (usually unnecessary) over the years, primarily because they don't want to pay a professional. I'm always happy to help but some people don't half take the p**s and want it all the time and then you find you are the subject of the yard gossip and called a know-it-all and so on. Generally speaking I don't interfere with anybody's way of doing things unless I think it is either very cruel or very dangerous to horse or rider. Luckily I'm usually earlier or later on the yard than most of the other people so don't see anyone.
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Agree with this, ive had my fingers burnt with this before, people would seek me out asking " what do you think" "what should i do" ? in the past id give my opinion when it was asked for, only to find depending on what i said, it gets twisted into something else, its not my problem if you dont like what you hear after asking ! if anyone wants an opinion now they can get the appropriate professional, but when you do this, youre being rotten not helping them, its a no win situation thankfully im in my own place now and only have myself to advise.
That said i still get texts and phone calls occassionally still asking
 
Oh yes definitely! Some people in the horse world are very strange. I have recently moved yards and had thought everyone was lovely but slowly I am starting to see peoples true colours!!
 
Agree with fatpiggy on this totally! Case in point, on Christmas day I was late for dinner with friends because hubby had to dress a stone bruise for the woman who actually does know it all. The vet who she works for in a side business was away. He spent 5 days looking after that for her. As in just wrapping and keeping horse comfy. Vet comes back, he pokes and prods finds a tiny piece of something in the sole. Well she couldn't wait to throw it in his face. How no wonder he wasn't getting better, blah blah balh. Um, I don't root around in me own horses feet and we won't for someone else either.

Same for when the YO's horse got a puncture. Hubby decides to dress it everyday. He says he does for the horse and I'm sure he does. Me on the other hand, I wouldn't help. You lay around in bed all damn day and won't learn how to do it yourself you can sod off. The more you do, the more you do. Anymore my stock answer is call the vet. You can't do something on your own and refuse to learn I charge €25 per incident. That gets them motivated.

Terri
 
None on ours, though most people will offer an unloaded opinion if ASKED :) My YO is my go to for everything I haven't come across and I am her go to on joints/muscles etc so we get benefits from each other :)
 
YES. I've known a woman that every time she was getting the vet out for her horse, she tried to convince at least 1 other person that their horse needed the vet in order to share the call out. She was a nightmare in diagnosing everyones horses and finding fault!

I reckon just about every yard has one - if you think your yard doesn't, then it's probably you ;):D
 
I do also agree with fat piggy, I have been in that situation too. I was thinking from the op more of the yard idiot who interferes unasked for in everything, however minor, & gives the impression their way & their opinion is the only way. Eg I like straw bedding, if actually asked I'll explain why, but also explain why other people don't. The yard know all ime barges into your stable uninvited & proceeds to lecture you on why her choice of bedding is the only acceptable one, & that you have to follow suit. And that goes for everything from choice of sweeping brush to method of pts. The type who fatpiggy & others describe, like me on occasion, is usually the mug trying to help an injured horse, invariably at 7pm on a freezing sat eve, while waiting for a vet & trying to calm owner down. Yard know all mean while will offer a running commentary while sat with a brew. And more often than not, a horror story about how the last person in the same situation didn't follow her advice, & the horse was pts as a consequence.
 
pipper said:
but the 'do as i say not as i do' type.
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pipper said:
Oh rats, that would be me then ;) but, the yard is mine and I quite often ignore myself ;)

Littlelegs [ And said person is always clueless. ]

Absolutely, I don't have two thoughts to rub together :)

Smokey [ No matter what ailment a horse has, she has experience of it. Nightmare! ]

If you are around at the business end long enough (40 years in my case) you do get to see a fair old bit, never everything of course, but quite a lot. I keep my mouth shut unless asked though.
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I think it's written in the small print of most yard contracts to have at least one person you described on a yard, if that vacancy is yet to be filled then I think an advert is placed in specialist magazines?!!?
 
I was going to say not on the yard I am at and then thought maybe it's me! I don't think it is :) there are people on my yard who like to give advice if someone has a problem/ horse with injury (including me) but they are only ever suggestions for people to follow if they wish or not. We would never interfere with how people choose to keep their horses that is the yard manager's job if something is not right but then we have very good yard managers :)
 
Yup.....have had that on quite a few old yards. But my current one doesn't have any of the normal yard personas that you have it's quite nice that everyone gets on fine with each other and there are no argue ments
 
Old yard didn't, new yard does have a resident know it all! Fortunately I'm confident in what doing & very good at zoning out annoying people!
 
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