Liveries stealing from liveries!

We also have a thief at our yard, has been going on a while now and we all know who it is...but we need to prove it!? ...said thief has recently bought a second horse that eats the same feed as the feed which has been going missing (along with hay, shavings, and what looks like bed missing from horses stables :eek:)
 
The more I read threads like this the luckier I feel to be at such a lovely yard. Nobody would dream of stealing anything from another livery but at the same time we all know we can borrow (after asking of course!) any feed we've run out of from anybody else and if we were in short term trouble YO would sort out a revised payment scheme and we'd help out. None of us would see another livery's horse go hungry. Everybody knows they can borrow anything of mine (including my horse!) as long as they ask or, if equipment, (I do like to know about the horse in advance!) just send a text to say they are borrowing it and they put it back as it was found.

Stealing hay is bad enough, but to do it as brazenly as removing it from haynets in stables just shows they don't even have enough shame to do it quietly and try to hide it! Even if they're desperate, you'd think they'd at least be ashamed enough to take a slice here and a slice there from different people so as not to make them so suspicious!
 
Gosh I would be concerned that your horses is being left without if the thief is so brazen as to take hay from your haynets in the stable...

I have to say the only DIY yard I was on there were no problems with hay stealing, everyone had their own stack and if hay was put out in the fields the YO would take the same amount from each person so it was done fairly.

There was a teenager who was not feeding her little cob enough in the winter (her net would be empty at 6.30pm when I got down after work, she was giving a slice or 2 to last the whole night) I used to give her another slice of the teenagers hay and a slice or 2 of mine because I didn't want to be accused of stealing but couldn't see the little mare go without or feed her entirely myself :( It was only a small yard with 4 liveries and we all got on well but I don't think the owner had any idea how long the hay she was giving lasted and like many teenagers thought she knew best... Fortunately the cob mare was turned out by the father with my rug on by mistake one day, YO got the horse in to change it and found that the horse was very underweight so after that her hay ration increased :)
 
Can't you put a lock on your feed bins/room? Shame it's necessary, but the cost of feed these days, you can't afford to feed another horse! You could also hide and see who is doing the stealing, but if you discovered who it was, would the YO take any action?
 
We had feed stolen when we were last on a livery yard. Weve had all sorts of things stolen at different yards over the years, thats why we rent a field for just our horses.
We left a not very polite note in the feed bins giving the persons name, it stopped. That particular yard had a real problem with things going missing, part of the reason not many people stayed there for long.
 
I had a lovely painted sign hanging over supermare's feed store, it read:- God helps those who help themselves but God help any that I catch! I suppose it helps that I look a bit like Vinny Jones on a bad day but I never had much trouble.
 
Current yard is wonderful, can leave anything out even expensive supplements and nothing touched at all :D
Previous yard there was a feed tealeaf so me and mates got lockable feed bins, funnily enough someone didn't think we needed them :rolleyes: wonder why! My high protein food was the only feed that didn't get filched as it would have sent her horse loopy :p Yard before that taking feed was common, even had a whole bale of hay go one night :eek: Slabs disappearing was the worst so we used to make lots of haynets from one bale so nothing left open. Left some manky end hay out for thief to take, which they duly did and then heard them moaning about the state of the hay :p
Like the food dye colouring, easy to spot the culprit then.
 
_GG_ said:
And scare the bejesus out of the poor horses! ;-)

I would have to call a yard meeting on this, but then, I cannot tolerate stuff like this. It is totally unacceptable. I would say what I have said before when faced with similar in work and that is along the lines of...

"If you fall on hard times, it is fine, let me know and I will help any way I can....but steal from me and you are digging yourself a bigger hole".

I will help anyone if and when I can and I can forgive anyone pretty much anything, but only if they are honest.

This yard sounds like a nightmare. I could just not go on without having this out in the open. I wouldn't care how much it affected the atmosphere...it is just plain wrong!
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There not that loud...
 
I think its disgraceful to take anything without asking, there seems to be alot with sticky fingers how were they brought up?
At one yard one girl used to keep borrowing my spoon to stir her feed and never used to put it back [i know this sounds petty] she then left the yard and took my spoon with her.
[my spoon was a quite expensive large plastic one]
I had an idea she had it but at the time i couldnt say for sure.
Later i met my spoon again when i moved to the same yard as this girl and this time i locked it away. Its only a spoon i know
How about using your wheelbarrow, i have no problem with that unless of course i want to use it. I asked if i could have my barrow,half an hour later it was still outside her stable full of her muck i expect she wanted me to empty it for her, i did, back into her stable
Very childish on my part i know, i have found while i have been a livery that this sort of person dont stop unless it effects them
My friend is new to horses 2011 at her yard they took advantage of this they stole her feed, hay etc and found her haynets in other peoples stables.they used her riding hat and all her mucking out stuff, one livery took her feed bucket and had the cheek to put her ponies name on it. My poor friend has had a baptism of fire, i doubt she is still that niave
 
I suspect it's not about not being able to afford things some people are just selfish and take what they think they can get.
 
the tealeaf we have appears to be one of the more well off persons, but will quite happily help themselves to rugs, bits, bridles etc when caught it is always your fault and they didn't know whose it was !;) surprisingly they are not trusted that much anymore
 
I had this happen all the time with my old mare when I was on a livery. Little did I know at the time this livery yard doesn't have a good reputation now I know why!

Feed bins were completely emptied! My horse wasn't on any hard feed at the time, had them fully stocked and were empty when I went to use them for the first time! Grooming brushes found scattered round the yard where others had used them, along with headcollar and lead ropes! Also treat bags left in my feed room empty!

When I did decide to leave, my rugs went walkers 2 weeks before my months notice were up. Some places should just not run livery!!!

I am on a lovely private yard now, although no school :( but at least I'm not providing everyone with food and equipment these days
 
Please dont br tblover- not all yards are bad. I have been on my yard nearly 20 years and have not had so much as a hoofpick taken.
 
TbLover said:
I'm now reaaly scared to look for an livery yard.....:)
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If you find a yard which has tack rooms at the back of the stables, go for one of those, and put a massive lock on the door. Those are the best sort, as you know where everything is, and the prospective thief would have to be pretty desperate to break in.
I was on a yard once that had backplaces, that didn't go all the way up to the ceiling, there was enough space on top, to store 3 bales of hay and 3 bales of straw, with 2 hatch doors that would swing down and lock securely against the backplace, another way to prevent thieving, also worked very well.
If your stable is big enough, you could ask if you could build one, if you knew how ;)
 
That is absolutely disgusting! :eek:
Although, I hate to say that it is a regular thing.
You wouldn't notice all that much if they just take a scoopful of feed every month when they run out, and I suppose you wouldnt really mind if they asked for that. But stealing to that proportion is insane! I know a girl that moved from her livery because of other liveries stealing hay and straw bales - and i mean A LOT of it; they used to buy their hay in bulk (so around 50 small bales per person at livery at a time!) and it got to a point where she believed that about 10/12 from every 50 were being stolen! Thing is they had their own little storage areas - so people were blatently walking up and just taking a bale of hay at a time and moving it to theirs.
People like this give liveries a bad name, it really is a shame :(
 
We a very blessed to have our own tackrooms but the yard have a master keys for emergencies. A few winters ago I noticed that one sort of my feed went much quicker than I thought it should. So I counted out the number of scoops in a bag there by knew how many days I should have. I was light by 7 feeds. The person was I believe a member of the yard staff as they were the only people to have master key. I stopped it by locking the feed bins. Others were not so lucky as they had there feed in dustbins. It stopped when she left strange that.

This winter we have had days with no water on the yard. So we bring ours from home. For me this is 6 big water porters daily. Some Very lazy so and so is to lazy to bring hers so she helps her self to mine and others! Was mega hacked off with this as left my youngster with no water over night . Solved the problem though through advice from the forum members and they now have green coloured was added good amount of food colouring! Funny that it has stopped her and she has been heard to ask why have I got green water the only way she can know this is to have been in one of my stables as water buckets are away from the door. Foot prints in the fresh carpet of snow also left me in no doubt that someone was going in my stables.
 
DWTeam said:
. Solved the problem though through advice from the forum members and they now have green coloured was added good amount of food colouring! Funny that it has stopped her and she has been heard to ask why have I got green water the only way she can know this is to have been in one of my stables as water buckets are away from the door. .
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That is the BEST idea for when someone is stealing water! Made me chuckle - good on you for finding a way to catch her out!
 
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