Livery Yard Dilema

Alimac19

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23 February 2007
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OK so the livery yard I'm at has nice people, stables menage, great hacking etc. The down side. The freezing conditions have left the menage out of use for nearly 3 months. The menage is not in the best shape and the rubber has mostly dissappeared from the middle and the owners don't do much maintenance so in the cold the sand froze solid and is only just back in use this week!! Also due to the bad weather the fields are now so sodden that we've not been allowed to use them since the beginning of December (on and off turn out on odd days, 1 hour per day weather permitting). I don't mind my horse living in but not being able to excercise also is driving both him and me mad. He's not the sort of horse you can just pick up and put down and I have to lunge him a couple of times before I can get back on him, by which time everthing is frozen again!!
Anyway, myself and some of the others are getting really p***ed off as the general attitude is bad with everyone getting told off all the time for silly things. Now I said that I wouldn't move yards again unless I found an excellent one with a jumping arena but it appears that after 3 years of searching they just don't exist near us. So I'm looking at another yard with new rubber menage, new stables, year round turn out and excellent hacking. I already know some people on the yard and one of the other liveries from our yard is coming with me.
Sorry this is so long but basically should I move?!?!
 
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YES!

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I would move without hesitation!!
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Hmmm the quck short answers to the excessivle long question speak for themselves!! I know we've had a bad winter this year but the situation is getting worse each year, 1st year no problems, 2nd year menage out of use 1 month, 3rd year menage out of use 3 months.
 
Most of the stuff you mention is mostly weather related, so I wouldnt move for that now weather is improving at least for the summer. But if things also have been going downhill generally then theres really no reason to stay!
 
Move.
I spent 6 years on a yard that was lovely until winter....muddy fields like you have never seen - menage unusable. Time in winter grazing getting longer each year. Horses miserable. Then summer comes and the horror fades.

Do it now before spring /summer comes or you will be feeling exactly the same this time next year.
 
Move.
If the arena is unusable then they should let you turn out otherwise poor horses will go mental!

At our yard if it's too wet we don't turn out but then we can use the arena. If arena is frozen we are allowed to turn out (even if wet underneath frost)
 
I have moved my ned 3 times since buying him 2years ago. I hadn't planned on doing this but I have finally found the best possible place and I will have been there a year in April and ned and I couldn't be happier!

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this winter has been an exceptionally bad one and on going. i would talk to your current YO and find out if they are intending to fix menage, and add more rubber and maintain better. talk through your concerns can they not make a couple of trash fields for regular turnout? might be muddy but at least they can stretch their legs? and a bit of top seeding and rest they will soon come back(and rolling ) grass always seems greener on other side but if basically happy, and horses is happy and well fed and cared for then a move might not be your best option. and if you look at any yards that have nice fields at the moment it is only that they either have hundreds of acres or they dont turnout.
 
I've asked about sorting the fields and I have to do it myself. I've already had to spend £200 on electric fencing myself. If I want the fields sortd I will have to pay for the work. The issue with the menage will also not go away, her answer is that if it continues to get worse she will ban everyone from using it and just keep it for herself as she cannot afford to re-do it.
 
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