Kids on the Yard

Martine - you read my mind!!!;)

Whoever said that we should be more tolerant is forgetting that these days if you constructively criticise a child they usually respond by acting all 'kevin-the-teenager' (and in the case of my yard start bitching about you behind your back).

I pay alot of my wages to keep my horse so I think when I come home from work I should be able to enjoy the precious two hours I spend with her. It is absolutely true that alot of YOs do not give a toss about the adults who usually have to pay more and it is all about getting money.
 
I have to agree with the fact that children can sometimes be a source of annoyance. One yard i was at ended up having bikes, skates and toys left everywhere even the arena! It drove me mad, so that and the grazing (or mud baths) made me leave. The next yard was super yes they had kids- but these kids were intelligent and friendly and loved their ponies and looked after them better than i looked after my own horse!

I think it depends on the mentallity of the parents and the way the yard is run.
 
There are a couple of kids on my yard who tag along but don't have ponies, they are the worst for being where they should'nt be and creating far too much noise!

Last night one said child was riding a scooter down the back of the stables and May absolutely freaked at the noise, (I had just shut her window at the back and she could'nt see what it was) luckily I had just stepped out the stable otherwise I would have been seriously squashed!

The others are quite respectful, but I do tell them off when they are out of order!! And they are now banned from using my jumps as they never put them away!
 
I agree Rambo. I think the "adults" are to blame a majority of the time. Also doesnt help that our YM doesnt give a damn, he is non horsey nd completely clueless a majority of the time.
 
I Do have to add that we have three absolutley wonderful kids on our yard. These are the thoughtful ones who remeber school rules and polite manners and are also the first to ask proper questions.
Like why are doing that exercise etc.

I was also questioned repeatedly why i dont jump my grade B at home! And challenged to a high jump competition! I have to say that i didnt rise to the bait and went make to practising our dressage instead!
 
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It does open a whole new debate on the nature of liveries and how much we should give our children - but right now I don't have the energy

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I often think of this, how much we give our children, maybe there are times I try to justify to my OH what we spend on our daughter's horse. I look at it from different angles, to some it might seem extravegant, there you see a child with a horse, oh parents must be loaded. What you don't tend to see is another parent who has a child equally dedicated to gymnastics or music spending as much money and time on these activities.

My 14yr daughter spending time with her horse is teaching her hard work, commitement, time management and so much more, when many of her friends are standing bored in shopping centres and street corners! Horses kept me out of trouble as a teenager, that I am grateful for..
 
I had to give up a lot of things of have my horse, I even had to move country!! My parents could not afford to have a horse in England let alone 3!! Over here, i havnt had lessons for about 14 months as we havnt had the money to go to them...i have also had to work damn hard to be where i am now with my horse. I only paid 1000€ (£600 ish) for him, and he had never jumped at 10, he wasnt balacned and he acted like a 4yr old! He has since jumped a 3'6 course - at home, and i know that my hard work is paying off but i dont think a lot of teenagers, that have horses, actually know what hard work is..their parents have lots of money and are able to buy them a 'perfect' horse/pony, which, quite a lot of the time, is not right for them....

oops...i didn't pay for him, my parents did
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Kids do get alot but that is dependant on the parents. The person a mentioned with the lunging with leadropes. Parents bought her a Good Grade C 7yo for £15k, she also has brand new Ifor Trailer and goes out to shows when she decides to tell her parents (normally on a sunday morning).
But the parents are just as mental 90% of the time they are convinced their kids are in the right, as anyone else is just picking on their child in the eyes.

Would love to send some kids to a profesional yard for a day and see if they learnt anything! Or at least were shouted at and had manners drummed into them!
 
I'm lucky, my YM has an "adult only" rule at my yard which is a breath of fresh air after the last YM who allowed anyone who would pay which meant loads of children cantering round and round the outside of the arena creating a deep track, leaving poo everywhere, jumps/litter evrywhere. grr! they were so annoying.

However she has let on two 15 yr olds on the agreement that they are never left up there by themselves which is working really well. one has an older sister who has a horse and the other shares her horse with her Mum so it's not a problem and they are kept from annoying the rest of us. Actually they are really polite lovely girls... The YM justifies this rule by saying she doesn't want to take responisbilty for them which I think is fair. She isn't having any more though! I would never move onto a yard with loads of children. As someone said earler I have my horse to enjoy him, not to get frustrated by out of control children!
 
Mymum bought me a pony when i was 9........... previous to that I had to go to a yard everyday for a year to learn to muck out etc and look after horses..... when I got my pony I went evry single day without fail, she said that buying me a pony kept me off the street corners and out of maccie d's, until i went to uni.... I didnt have time to be drinking cider in the park, I was riding.... but I was civil and curteous to all other people at my yard, and looked after my pony to the absolute best of my ability. So not all kids who get ponies are all bad!!
 
I can see both sides of this, and would think that ultimately the YO is responsible. If the children are going to be allowed to leave the jumps out, then of course they will! There needs to be a set of rules about the use of the school. I do however find it encouraging that at half term kids do still want to spend a day at the yard with their ponies, and that should be encouraged. I would have thought having several children looking after one pony was a fairly normal situation.
 
At my last yard it could be a bit like this - especially in the summer we found that because the parents were paying for grass livery and the field was about 2 miles away, the kids would bring their ponies into the yard in the morning, tie them up and just leave them standing in the yard ALL DAY - blocking the gangway, making a mess and making the pony thoroughly miserable. They would also get shirty with the staff if we told them they should not do this and 'blamed' us because we were using the stalls for the riding school ponies (even though they did not pay for use of a stall).

At my current yard we have no really young girls, most are about 15, they are all very good riders and tend to come up, do their horses and then go. We all have stables of our own as well which helps. Because we have one 'permanent' jump in the outdoor and strict rules about putting jumps away in the indoor (cos of the riding school using it) we don't get problems with people leaving stuff around.

But I ride with the younger girls all the time, I wouldn't be asking the 'when are you finishing' or hasseling them. They have as much right to use the facilities as I do. Understand that if they are leaving stuff out though, that is irritating.
 
I consider myself to be really lucky as I am the only livery on the yard.
At one point we did have 1 child, she was a pain. She would bring all her friends down and do nothing! Her mum did everything while she ran around screeming.
She would never ride, the only time she did was when anyone else wanted to ride or have a lesson. I blame her behaviour on her mother, she let her get away with murder.
However I do know a young girl who has a pony on a yard and she is so well behaved. She knows that she has to do her pony before she can play and is always polite. I have helped her out a few times when her pony was being naughty which I really dont mind doing.

I personally would not want to be on a yard with children, they tend to be less aware of what is going on around them and this is what causes accidents.
 
Out here in Spain, there are lots of yards and I can think of only one that is a real playground, but everyone knows thats what it is and is therefore accepted. I take my horse when he needs to learn about everything scary!!!

All other yards, the kids are more professional and want to compete. And as a rule are much politer and more respectful. I just got fed up of the attitude on yards in general, stuuf getting "borrowed", jumps left out etc. One of my horses had to be off work for 18months due to an injury in a paddock where he was galloping round ALL day and wouldn't bring him in.

I think the kids need ground rules befiore they are accpeted onto a yard and if they don't abide by them, BYE!!
 
At the yard where I keep my horse there is a 12 year old, a 15 year old and two 16 year olds. They follow exactly the same rules as the adults on the yard, pay (or their parents pay) the same amount and have exactly the same right to be there and ride in the school as anyone else
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i remember the days when galloping your pony across someone's garden and jumping everything in sight was the norm.

are these ponies coming to any harm?

i think you need to chill out. kids need encouragement, not people constantly moaning. they could be out doing drugs instead.
chill out, if you don't like it, move.
 
Encouragement is a good idea ill give you that.
However your normally met with Abuse and rude remarks.

I do agree with dressagespain it is one way to have a bomb proof horse!

Why should i move from what is otherwise a perfect yard with the execption of some highly annoying dangerous children. YO should set good rules from day one!
 
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Encouragement is a good idea ill give you that.
However your normally met with Abuse and rude remarks.

I do agree with dressagespain it is one way to have a bomb proof horse!

Why should i move from what is otherwise a perfect yard with the execption of some highly annoying dangerous children. YO should set good rules from day one!

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If YO doesnt want to make sure these kids are safe then remind her about her insurance policies and yours.
Every yard needs rules, but not everyone, especially not kids, will abide by them.
 
agree with you here.

my girls are only 7 & 3 years old but are polite & stay out of the way of adults in the school etc as much as possible.

might change as they get older but i would hope that if my girls where ever rude to a adult,the adult would come tell me so i could do something about it.
 
I used to be at a yard like that many years ago, half term was a nightmare, they would leave their ponies wondering around the barn, the ponies would help themselves to my hay. Kids didnt even bother moving them when i walked in. I ended up putting rugs over my hay! Then in the school, if i was ridding 3 or 4 of them would come in and canter round like nutters. The frightening things was, some were 10/11 left at the yard all day, no supervision. A new owner took over the yard, and put in rules, first one was that no youngster should be left unsupervised. They all moved pretty sharpish.
 
I really cant see the fuss about ponies being left tied up, it really isnt the end of the world. Remember that horses/ponies will quite happily snooze standing up if left alone. As for kids being obnoxious, there is no excuse for bad manners and I would have a quiet word with the parents (however novicey) a lot of them dont understand the rules and requiremnets at yards.
Of now to muck out my 2 in peace and quiet and place the droppings on my perfectly tidy muck heap!
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Any yard owner that does not ensure that the under 18's are supervised and under control at all times while on their premises is asking for serious trouble. All it takes is for a child to become injured and the next thing is that the parents/guardians will take the yards owner to court. I am sure you remember the recent case which was reported in Horse and Hounds. The settlement was massive.
 
Our yard has my own 7 year old, my friends 6 and 4 year olds and occasionally we get a few more, thankfully they are not at gobby stage yet and we can usually go and get them hunting for golf balls in a field while we get on with things. None of them are old enough to be left in sole charge of a pony, or on their own, so ponies are always fine.

However, even at their young age, they do NOT run about, they are quiet, they avoid the bigger horses and dont get in the way. Generally they are happy playing together in the school if no-one is using it or helping muck out.

Blame the parents.......only parents can lead by example, kids dont tend to listen to anyone else!! (they hardly listen to their parents!!).

I'd go nuts at a yard like that.
 
I share a pony with my two sisters, and although I love jumping and schooling, we hack him mostly because he so obviously enjoys it.

I'll be getting my own horse soon, so I needn't worry
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But I always tidy the arena after I've used it, and it an adult comes in while I'm riding I leave...
 
As far as I'm concerned children should be allowed to be children: to mess around and generally play with their ponies. They also need to learn for themselves the right way and the wrong way of doing things...

...However, they must also be supervised by their parents in all of this. There seems to be a recent trend for (non-horsey) parents to buy their children ponies after a half dozen lessons, send them off to livery, and then abandon them to their hobby. The children probably imagine that the freedom is wonderful, but when I compare it to my childhood experiences - which were full of support and guidance - it makes me very sad for them.

It sounds very much like the kids the OP is talking about are from this category. Frustrating!!!
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I really cant see the fuss about ponies being left tied up, it really isnt the end of the world

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hmmm, yes, I agree in principle but I've known kids tie their ponies up on concrete yards for hour after hour day after day because they can't be bothered to walk him back to the field and then go and catch him again when they want to ride later. They would rather be sitting in the haybarn giggling and gossiping with their friends.

Now that annoys me.
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However, I do think there is a trend for adults to have a bit of an attitude towards youngsters, suggesting that they somehow have more right to the arena/jumps/yard space just because they are older.

If a youngster wants to take their pony out and jump everyday in half term, well the pony probably gets lots of field time when the owner is at school and won't come to too much harm. And most kids are smart enough to realise that when their pony starts playing up and messing about it is time to concetrate on some flatwork again... and if not, there will be plenty of smug adults to tell them LOL

IMO, I get more annoyed by adults who think they own the arena and lunge every day for ages taking up a whole half of the school or (worse still) loose school so you can't go in at all.
 
Almost my whole yard is kids, everyone comes up rides and sometimes maybe a pony will be on the yard a bit long but it isnt regurlarly and there is normally a reason (Like a field kept pony that wont box that they want to ride twice but are in the furthest field from the yard)

i think rather than blaming kids I think some ground rules of use of the school should be set, like putting jumps away, some kind of scheduling system etc.

I am sure they dont mean to upset you and I doubt they know whats right and wrong about riding horses etc everyone has to start somewhere. Also most kids wouldnt know about ground and when not to ride on it!
 
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