keeping peace and yard damage.

[Markus]

My Family own a DIY Yard and recently had a renter leave because they felt they were being harassed by another renter, this is the second person to leave because of this individual, but of course this person and their friends have a different story.
This is a situation that inevitably crops up now and then at yards, but I was wondering If there is any ground rules I can establish to minimize conflict between those renting the stables.

I sometimes have problems with particular individuals establishing a dominant role on the yard and I wonder if me personally making myself more present on the yard might solve this problem.

I also often see horse owners abuse their animals, I have footage of owners kicking their horses over and over in an attempt to get them in to their horse box, with the horse eventually becoming so stressed it runs off dragging a girl behind it, Again, I don't know weather I should confront the horse owners about this as I might be criticized for not knowing anything about horses, and how this might be a fair way to treat an animal, not that I can force myself to see it that way.

I also had some substantial damage done to the yard, I know who's horse caused the damage without a shadow of a doubt, but sadly they never came forward and warned me about it so I could fix it.
I find this highly disrespectful and I'm wondering If I have lost control of the yard.
any advice?

 

[AmyMay]

I sometimes have problems with particular individuals establishing a dominant role on the yard and I wonder if me personally making myself more present on the yard might solve this problem.

I'm sure it would. I've only been on yards where YO's were very much a presence, with a zero tolerance attitude. Yards ran like clockwork, were hastle free (for the most part) and kept their liveries for a very, very long time (think 20 years odd.....).

As for abuse - again zero tolerence.

 

[Markus]

Thankyou for your response.

 

[conkers]

Agree with Amy May. The best run yards are those with YO's who are obviously present (not just sat in the house drinking tea) and who have firm, sensible rules. As long as you are consistant in how you treat people your yard should run a lot smoother.

Re abuse to horses, if you see it - stop it. And if people don't agree with you they can always move else where. I think that the commonly used phrase is - Your Yard, Your Rules.

 

[martlin]

From a YO point of view:
DIYs are a nightmare (sorry to any posters who have horses on DIY ), but livery in general is much more about people management than horse management. You need to find a balance between being in charge, having presence and authority, and being unobtrusive
I let some little conflicts roll, so to speak, but make sure that I do know all ins and outs, not out of nosyness, but to be prepared, should the situation escalate and require my intervention.
Learn to say ''no'' in a million different ways, that skill will serve you well.

As to horse abuse, well, it depends, I mean, clear abuse needs to be stamped down pronto; but you need to be sure what is and isn't abuse. Somebody losing their rag with a horse is one thing, it happens, and is best tackled sensitively, continuous, persistent abuse should be tackled head on. You need to ask yourself a question: Am I happy with this happening on my property? If not, just serve notice to the offender.
Also, remember that you can ask people to leave, even if they feel they haven't done anything wrong, you don't have to state the reason at all, so maybe it would be worth to weed out some troublemakers.

 

[Venevidivici]

Agree with Martlin. If you need to weed out known troublemakers,give them notice,say 'It's not working out' when they ask why&when they ask 'In what way is it not working out?' you can reply that you have issues with the way they (x,y,z,whatever) and whilst you appreciate they see it differently,you all have to agree to disagree,as is your yard,your rules and you say it's not working out,so best for everyone if they move on etc etc Never a pleasant experience and the buildup to it is always worse than the deed itself but the 2times I've been forced to
do it,within only a day or two later the only thing I regretted was not doing it sooner. Life is too short. You live&learn &evemtually end up with a nice bunch of people-the idiots,liars and mentalists pass from yard to yard,moving as and when their current YO has had their fill of their behaviour. Do it-you won't look back. Ps I would never stand for cruelty on my yard. If I saw it firsthand and it was not a totally isolated incident ,they'd be given notice on the spot.

 

[Venevidivici]

PPS an increased presence on the yard definitely helps establish your authority and you know better what's going on. If I knew,for absolute definite,who/what horse had caused substantial damage to yard that was unequivocally their fault,I'd bill them. If they refused to pay.....goodbye! With reference to recent threads on here,maintaining a yard costs more money than a livery could ever imagine unless/until they ran a yard themselves!!

 

[Cocorules]

Agree a greater presence helps. The first yard I was at had a YO who used to tell every livery that he told every livery that for £10 a week he was not going to tolerate any hassle and would sooner see us go. If you want to change things suggest you put up a list of yard rules. If you then see any breaches you need to pick people up quickly on them.

 

[PolarSkye]

My Family own a DIY Yard and recently had a renter leave because they felt they were being harassed by another renter, this is the second person to leave because of this individual, but of course this person and their friends have a different story.
This is a situation that inevitably crops up now and then at yards, but I was wondering If there is any ground rules I can establish to minimize conflict between those renting the stables.

I sometimes have problems with particular individuals establishing a dominant role on the yard and I wonder if me personally making myself more present on the yard might solve this problem.

I also often see horse owners abuse their animals, I have footage of owners kicking their horses over and over in an attempt to get them in to their horse box, with the horse eventually becoming so stressed it runs off dragging a girl behind it, Again, I don't know weather I should confront the horse owners about this as I might be criticized for not knowing anything about horses, and how this might be a fair way to treat an animal, not that I can force myself to see it that way.

I also had some substantial damage done to the yard, I know who's horse caused the damage without a shadow of a doubt, but sadly they never came forward and warned me about it so I could fix it.
I find this highly disrespectful and I'm wondering If I have lost control of the yard.
any advice?

You have raised several issues here, so I will address each separately:

- Bitchiness . . . yes, I believe being more "present" and visible on the yard will help with that, but you have a fine line to walk between making sure liveries feel comfortable and happy and getting dragged into alot of petty arguments. It might be worth getting everyone together for a "yard meeting" and just saying that bullying and bitchiness won't be tolerated, full stop. Don't get dragged into specifics . . . but do take a firm line . . . and be prepared to give notice to trouble-makers. Going forward, vet prospective clients thoroughly - my current yard doesn't advertise, gets business solely by word of mouth and YO does alot of homework on prospective liveries, including asking current liveries about them.

- Abuse . . . if some of this is caused by lack of knowledge, you could offer to help (e.g., the loading issue) . . . and in your shoes I'm afraid I'd be sending serial abusers packing pronto. Not only is abuse unpleasant for the horse on the receiving end, but it is bound to create a tense/unhappy environment for the other horses and clients.

- Damage . . . this is a tricky one. Horses are big animals and can unwittingly cause damage by leaning on fences and gates, biting/chewing, etc. I think as a livery yard owner you need to accept and absorb the cost of a certain amount of wear and tear . . . but you do need to establish an atmosphere of respect for the yard and it's unacceptable for damage to occur and liveries not tell you so that you can fix it quickly - this is one thing that really winds my YO up. As for who pays, if you're going to expect liveries to pay for "damage" you probably need to define that damage in their livery contract, along with the associated costs. To be honest, having been on three DIY yards, I've never been charged for damage Kal caused (and he once managed to knock his stable wall down meaning it had to be completely rebuilt!) . . . all three YOs saw it as part of having horses on the yard.

Good luck.

P

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

i live on my yard.


We have ground rules they have to sign and agree, like breakages must be paid for or replaced.
Whats the damages jumps I would do the above.

fencing - We do have rails broken by horses rubbing or kicking out , especially when new horse in ajacent fields. These are down to me to repair as Yo.




We had a big clydesdale here owner swore it was 16 hh yeh right 16.3 and a bit . (higher than the yard allowance)

It would lean on door till opened got the stable off the bricks ( 8 times in all ) by leaning so hard, walk through post and rails- lean on them till they break so it can reach grass on the other side. This horse broke rails almost every day normally 2 rails at a time.. It did it because it knew it could. Its now an X livery. I wont put up with continuous deliberate damage .

I would either say if your horse continues to damage I will send you repairs or I would give notice.



Another situation a DIY horse again would chew (through it slip rails) kick the stable so hard it also pushed the front of the stables off the bricks. So bad sometimes we could not get the stable door open as the door bowed. This happened almost on a daily bases, every time we walked past it to the gate to lock it for the night it would start again. The owners in the end ( when we gave notice) were told to make good the stable back to how it was (concrete the bricks down etc) This they did but gave us a bill for doing it £ 460 we told them no way were we paying when it was their horse. Especially when their livery for the 3 months we got £ 144 in livery from them only


You say you have had trouble with this one person before ! Was it the same gripe this new person left for?? There is more likely its true if this is the second who left for the same reason.
I would be showing myself on the yard a bit more, do some tidying - painting something like that where you can keep keep an ear and eye open and note anything you actually witness.

With regards of the owners kicking their horses , is it all the time or just when the horse is being stubborn about going in. In this instance maybe you can offer an alternative way of helping get horse in stable help them or show them.


You need rules on a yard , that way people know whats allowed and whats not and you give warnings if broken with dismissal if they push it too far.


This way you will have a happier friendlier yard.

 

[Archangel]

My advice would be to remove the troublemaker. In 33 years on livery yards I have only been on one bitchy one and that was due to just one person who dripped poison on everything - I think I stayed there 3 months - it was horrible. The next yard I stayed 8 years and then the next 17 years so it really was the one person - get rid of troublemakers.

Re the damage, rails kicked out and general low level vandalism I would expect the yard owner to pick up the tab as wear and tear (within reason) but wilful damage above that I would expect to pay for. In fact I have a great yob of a horse and he puts something aside every month to pay for his damage He is just huge and leans on things like the field shelter and it moves a metre up the field and falls over

They are great ignorant things sometimes and tempers flare but yelling, screaming and abuse in the place of proper handling of these noble creatures is not on. If you witness any put a stop to it and warn them if they do it again they will be given notice.