kids at yard

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kombikids

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does anyone else take theirs? always seems to be a sore point but i think if its done sensibly its ok. mine comes with me sometimes (hes 2 so also 3 ft nearly)although he stays in the car for bring in and turnouts and only gets out to be carried. He does not wander around the yard on his own, he knows never to leave my side and only to go near a horse with mummy. If i ride i have a babysitter but sometimes he has to come for muck outs etc.i do get dirty looks sometimes just for having him there - does anyone else get this? (not meant to be rude to the guys who wrote the posts below as that is just silly) would it put you off from choosing a yard for your horse if there where loads of small kids there?
 
I know where you are coming from and also how do we expect the future generation to grow up and e horse if we don't let them on the yards?

I bet if you asked some people on here who moan about kids on yards if they were on yards when they were kids the answer would be yes!

As ever though it takes just a few mums who are ermm less observant to ruin it for the rest of us.
 
I hate yards where kids run about upsetting the horses, but have no problems with someone bringing up their kids and supervising them properly. At my last yard I saw a potentially scarey situation where two other clients young children, 4 and 6 years old had gone off exploring and were in a large deep pond messing about, their parents were out of site and earshot. I was angry that the parents just expected everyone else to keep an eye out for their children.
 
I think it's ok to take them as long as you can supervise them and they are well behaved. I would be put off a yard where there were small kids around, but then I don't have kids.

I understand that people with kids need to be able to take them to the yard sometimes though. The probem starts when they run around out of control, getting in peoples way etc (yes, I'm a grump!)
 
i put if supervised.

i dont have kids, and dont want to be bothered with other peoples kids running riot either. i deal with this by being at a child free yard.
kids have ponies and have the right to have fun with their ponies, and thats fantastic, i just choose to be somewhere else whilst their doing it:)

...goes back to being grumpy and bad tempered and....
 
I don't have kids, but do take my OH's nieces to the yard with me sometimes, and they have a go on Murphy. They are 7 and 2. I'm happy to take the 7 yr old on my own, but she has a couple of "golden rules" like not walking behind horses, and not making sudden movements or loud noises. She stays with me all the time. If the two yr old comes, so does my OH and his brother, and she is under very close supervision at all times. She rode Murphy at teh weekend, with me holding the reins and people either side holding her legs.

I don't think there's anything wrong with kids being around as long as they are supervised. It's a great thing for them to be able to join in with.
 
My daughter is 10, and in no way horsey.. her choice, however she will come to the yard and wait for me, and to be honest YO normally gets her helping out, ie opening stable doors, holding buckets etc.. As long as kids are supervised by their parents and are being sensible then surley having kids at a yard shouldnt be a problem. Saying that, Unrulley horrible children should be left at home!

Awaiting a backlash now for comments
 
My yard is also a riding school so there are always wee ones tottering about - not a problem as long as they're not left to their own devices whilst mum has a wee gossip and coffee in the cafe. I don't mind them asking the millions of questions either - honest I don't. Can you tell I'm not a mum. In all honesty though I don't have a problem as long as they aren't left for someone else to watch out for - I do find that on occasion some parents treat the yard as a bit of a childcare substitute and drop the kids off first thing in the morning and don't return for them till dark o clock.
 
I have a five year old daughter and to be perfectly honest, I don't particularly enjoy bringing her to the yard, and given the choice, i wouldn't. I have brought her on occasion when I have no other option, and she is usually quite good (sits in the feed room and does her colouring or dot-to-dot books). She isn't really a horsy child though, and while she does enjoy seeing the horses and saying hello to the foals, i am conscious that it is quite boring for her.

I can't stand yards with loads of kids on ponies hurtling around everywhere, I am so glad that its not like that where Brook is. Its quiet and peaceful and workmanlike, and i like it like that.
 
I dont like kids whatsoever (sorry) but think its fine for them to be on yards so long as they are supervised. Unsupervised children are an accident waiting to happen........
 
I agree I have no problem with kids at yards if they are supervised sadly that is 80% not the case at a certain yard and the kids run riot and are left at the yard all day on their own to do as they please with the ponies
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I have always been strongly in the kids should be allowed up at the yard camp; Live and Let Live I believed... however I have recently experienced some of the negative side effects of people who don't supervise their kids properly.

One family come up with four young children. The youngest, whilst adorable and only 6, is very hyperactive, she likes to come and help you and chat to you and follow you about which is all very well but she doesn't concentrate and if you are leading a horse and she is following you it can be dangerous - also sometimes you want to just get on with your horse and not feel as if you are semi-babysitting someone's kid while you do it.

the other day she was watching someone ride and talking at them holding a huge pink umbrella... the poor girl riding was only 13 herself and her pony was spooking and galloping off, she didn't know how to tell the parents the kid was causing a problem and they were busy mucking out and hadnt' noticed. It is hard to tell someone else's kid off as an adult, as a 13 year old, you don't know what to say. It was a horrid situation for her and she was pathetically grateful when I came over and told the little girl to take the umbrella away - not really fair on the 13yr old at all.

So I guess I am revising my opinion which is that young kids are fine up at the yard as long as they are supervised and not allowed to go bothering other liveries unless it is clear the liveries don't mind.
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I dont like kids whatsoever (sorry) but think its fine for them to be on yards so long as they are supervised. Unsupervised children are an accident waiting to happen........



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I agree with the above! I don't mind as long as they're looked after but I hate it when kids (sometimes non-horsey) are allowed to run around. Who would be to blame if they got kicked or injured?
 
If they ARE supervised then I suppose they are OK, the problems arise when the parents have a different understanding of supervise. There are often children at our yard and they wander right behind the horses, they run around on bikes/scooters all over the place. One had a toy machine gun which he was firing very noisily and scareing the horses and even when his "owner" told him to stop several times he just ignore her, she had to tell him that I was going to smack him to get him to put it down (not that I would by the way). Just last weekend there was a family somehow connected with people who have a pony at the yard and their 3 small children were wandering around in the yard although my horse was tied up in the yard and I was standing outside the yard on my husband's horse waiting for them to move the little beasts so I could ride in and dismount (yes I could have got off where I was but small children should not be running around where there are horses). It is afterall for their safety, I am not bothered about them scareing the horses, they'll get used to it but the child could be injured depending on how the horse reacts.
 
A yard that i learnt to ride at which was a riding school used to leave us completely unsupervised with the horses all day long, children from about 7-13 were just allowed to do as they please. Its a wonder the horses survived us really as I and others at the time didnt have a clue what we were doing! They had us leading the ponies up main roads to take them to the field which was a 15min walk, damn right irrisponsible if you ask me but we were allowed to do it and without an adult in sight!
 
varies hugely.

it does put me off because i am not generally a 'child person'! however there is a lday with 2 ponies for her 7 yo and 11 yo daughters. they are immaculately behanved, and the mum really tries to bring them up when she knows the yard is quiet - she is really very considerate, almost too much really. it is very much appreciated by all though. we have a 16yo whose mum is also around, more so because the girl is extremely immature for her age, not in behaviour but more so confidence and ability to cope on her own. the 17yo we have is yet to get her licence but she is more than grown up enough to act responsibly and no one would consider her a 'child'.

we have recently had a new lady, who has brought her 4yo down once. i can't sy i was impressed to see him swinging from the top door of stable, hanging onto my leather headcollar - grrrrrrrrrrrr! his mum was about 30foot away and didnt say a thing - she is a very nice lady, but as she's new i didnt want to go storming over and shout CONTROL YOUR CHILD! i just kind of ignored it and removed the headcollar when he left the general area...
 
Quite happy for kids to be around as long as they are well supervised, but sadly they are usually not. Before we moved into a separate DIY block at our place there were people on the main yard who would bring their kids and let them cause havoc. They would run, scream, swear, the works. Then there are the other kind whose children appear to be very well behaved and you are thinking all is well, until mummy wants to go for a hack and sweetly asks if you can keep an eye on the children. I always refused (I'm not taking responsibility for anyone else's brats) but YM always got saddled with them for hours on end, like it was a free babysitting service.
 
Very wise. Someone at our yard is still not speaking to me since I asked her to control her dog a couple of weeks ago. God knows what she would do if I (heaven forbid) suggested she might think about controlling her children!

It is so much down to the parents attitude. On Saturday afternoon we had a few young children on the yard enjoying the ponies and the sunshine under their parents' supervision and they were all perfectly well behaved and a pleasure to be around (and that's from someone who doesn't do children). If only they were all like that!
 
I think it verymuch depends on the kids. Well behaved kids of 7 or 8 can often be safer to have on a yard than 12 or 13 year olds that mess around and think they know too much to listen to people who try to make them behave more responsibly.

From the age of 12 until I was about 16 when I moved to a yard out of cycling distance, I used to cycle down to the yard at 6am every morning, ride, muck out and cycle home at 7.15. I'd then be ready for school & on the bus by 8.10. I was trusted by my parents & yard owner to be responsible enough to do this safely. There were also responsible adults around that I could ask for help if I was worried about something. Another 12 year old in the yard was known for building jumps for her pony actually IN the yard so she was jumping on concrete and didn't like being told that it wasnt a good move - need I say any more?

I have a lot to thank the riding school for who allowed me to work for rides from the age of 8 all day at weekends. Yes, we were a big group of kids on the yard but there were always at least 2 responsible adults around & we did respect them. I think this made a big difference!
 
cant believe the horror stories, do people really let the kids just go and not look out for them?I would never ever ask someone to look after him for me! Although i do threaten that the farmer will come and take him away if he leaves my side, terrorising him with that works wanders.... i spend all my time making sure hes not in the way - i even dress him in water proof dungerees so that when i empty the wheelbarrow i can sit him in there and wash him off aftewards!!! heS the only kid on the yard, my last yard had loads and was a nightmare so i think that younf kids and horses dont really go together!
 
I'm all in favour if the're supervised correctly. The main issue being the understanding of the word correctly.
With Sidney being on box rest at the minute Saturdays are the hardest for him as its the day when some smaller kids are taught at the yard. Mostly they're all ok but I did have to remove a small child from Hovis's stable on Saturday. She was kicking his stable ball around like a football which was bad enough but it was winding Sidney up horrendously. Her grandma was stood at the other end of the barn saying absolutely nothing. I was amazed.
 
I'm all for parent supervision, although i did say no in your survey. I just don't think a yard full of horses (some who are unpredicatble) tractors and various machinery is the best place for kid.
Although I think you are probably one of the few responsible parents that make sure your child is not wandering off.
It would influence my decision on a yard how many children were around.
 
I'm 13 (so obvously do not have kids!!), and I am at the yard everyday, usually with mum about. She leaves me up there sometimes to sort the horse etc.
I am not stupid about it, I don't go messing about in the woods around or whatever, I sort the horse out and get on with what I have to do. IMO, I am sensible about stuff.
There are a few kids on the yard (6-8?) that run round unattended and getting up to things, and they annoy me so much..
 
Kids need basic rules drilled into them, like dont walk behind ponies, dont feed ponies that are not your own, and dont tie up TO THE SAME TIE RING AS ANOTHER PONY
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we have had a current influx of small brats at our yard. they are left to run riot and are unsupervised, god know what whill happen when one gets bitten or kicked. they make sand castles in the menage and "borrow" things, throw stones about and crack whips ( any wonder my TB mare is a little wired) if they were controlled then Ok, but uncontrolled then no way

Sounds harsh but kids are like dogs, should be on a lead, or shut in a stable.

mmm can you guess I really don't do children!!
 
I am on an adult only yard..and tbh thats the way I like it.
Though I do think it is fine and have been on other yards where children were allowed..so long as they are supervised and dont run riot and get in the way and scream about and act stupidly round the horses and I am not expected to look after them and blah blah blah!!! Which probably takes some of the fun out of it from a childs point of view!!!!
I was taught (a long time ago!) at a riding school where we were very strictly supervised by the YM...she taught us how to behave and she stood no nonsense. We did 'own a pony' days whereby we had one pony and it was our responsibility for that day to do everything...it was a fantastic way to learn how to be around horses and the basics of looking after them. My friend and I were down there all the time helping out...and she trusted us and we would never have wanted to betray that trust.
 
No problem with well behaved kids and parent around. Occasionally I don't mind looking after them for a short period whilst parent rides - I don't have kids but am used to having them round. However, I expect to be asked first.

As Cairo is a kid magnet (why do kids love heavy horses) they often end up with me and to be honest, I don't mind. I let them groom him, which he adores, and help make up his feeds and often they have a ride - however, he is an exceptional horse, 99.9% bombproof and used to kids.

Chancer, though very good natured, I am much more careful with - at 3 1/2 he can still sometimes swing round to look at things and I will only let the older kids groom him who are used to horses. I make them fully aware that he could move suddenly and too watch him at all times.

I cannot stand kids running round screaming and behaving badly - I will tell their parents they will be badly hurt if they let them continue in their behavior and have been known to shout at all parties to move it before they are killed - normally when I was bringing Fleur in.
 
I think that is the key to it, that a lot of kids these days have no respect and are allowed to do as they please. I'm afraid I don't take kindly to that sort of behaviour and won't put up with it. I work with special needs kids and don't put up with it from them either and as a result they know their boundaries and life is better for everyone
 
You sound very sensible kombi so I think on the basis you describe is fine. However, what I do object to is people who let their kids wander round aimlessly, do nothing when they're wailing like banshees and generally either getting in the way or during their rambles are in serious danger should a horse escape/the unpredictable happens (as it can with horses).

Generally, I think that unless kids are supervised at ALL times, they shouldn't be on the yard.
 
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