Livery yard expectations - Is it me?!?

To address the interesting question of what DIY means to you/me/the YO or YM I think this varies from yard to yard.

An example, I keep my mare with 2 of my friends horses on a farm that will eventually be built on, we don't know whether that's tomorrow or 5 years from now. We pay livery per horse and the farmer used to do the big jobs but doesn't now, so after wondering what to do for a couple of years, we cracked on and organise/ fix stuff ourselves as far as we are able to. The place is very old and falling apart around us, it's a real challenge and it makes me appreciate all the more the work that the YO/YM do on the livery yard where my other 2 horses live.

The livery yard provide really nice haylage and straw all winter, they fix fences, stables, electrics, ensure there's running water in the hottest summer or coldest winter, move the muck heap, have a weed clearing programme, maintain the hacking tracks round the edge of fields for us to ride on, things that people take for granted sometimes but are very hard work.

The YMs horses do have the nicest stables, he's a builder and did them himself. He also has choice of the fields and decides who goes where. I guess if you move to a place where all the horses are living in tin huts with a mud paddock but the YOs horses in blissful acres that might be upsetting but as long as my horse had nice environment that we were happy with it wouldn't bother me
 
Elsbells said:
Basically you need individual turnout for your horse(and i dont mean isolation)then you won't have the problems you've had to deal with so far, or the resulting Frustrations. It might be worth asking.
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This ^^ sounds like what you should be on.

I always tell liveries when I'm moving horses into different fields. I generally move the whole herd so it they remain stable.

I certainly don't inform owners of every little ding or bump and I know my owners wouldn't want me to inform them about this sort of triviality. Any injuries that are more than trivial and I usually email a photo of said injury to owners and then I deal with it.

I'm not sure why all the other liveries know what's going on but you don't? I think you have to look at why the YM is communicating fine with them but not you. Is there a conflict going on between the two of you?

As to YM moving her horses, well that's her prerogative I'm afraid and is fairly common on most yards.
 
i really don't need an individual paddock, or expect a choice about the field my horse is in, just a simple note on the board saying 'field change wednesday' would have been nice. The other liveries have a different YM so were told by them.

As for the minor injuries, point taken, when using additional services i should be clear on what i expect/am paying for.

It has been interesting reading the posts from YM/YO's though who feel you shouldn't expect/ask for too much from your yard because of their small profit margin. Interesting reading and it'll definitely make me check the details of what my livery includes/does not include in future.
 
JadeyB said:
i really don't need an individual paddock, or expect a choice about the field my horse is in, just a simple note on the board saying 'field change wednesday' would have been nice. The other liveries have a different YM so were told by them.

As for the minor injuries, point taken, when using additional services i should be clear on what i expect/am paying for.

It has been interesting reading the posts from YM/YO's though who feel you shouldn't expect/ask for too much from your yard because of their small profit margin. Interesting reading and it'll definitely make me check the details of what my livery includes/does not include in future.
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I agree the communication around field changes is poor, but is it really worth getting upset enough over to really consider moving yards? There are very few perfect yards out there and if it ticks the majority of boxes it may be a case of better the devil you know.

As for insignificant minor injuries, I wouldn't expect a YM to attend to these on a DIY - I would assume the DIY would attend to it when they are up. Obviously and injury of a more significant nature then I would expect them to either deal with it & charge me or telephone to let me know to come up and sort it.
 
wench said:
Personally, as a customer at a livery yard, I don't think it looks very professional when YO's horses get the best feed, the best hay, the best field, and the biggest stables, when I am paying to keep my horse there. I expect YO's horses to be treated exactly the same as mine.
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My horses get exactly what my liveries get because they are usually out in the same paddocks. If they needed something different for any reason then they'd get that too and it would be none of a customers business. I have my own stables that are not available for customers use, and yes they are bigger than the others. I have my own tackroom too. Just because I choose to take advantage of the fact that it is actually my property and I want some privacy doesn't mean that the standard of care is any less.

As for the pick of fields? Well sorry, but why the heck not?

I have ones close to the house reserved exclusively for my horses -

a) because I can do what the heck I like on, and with, my own property
b) because last time I looked I was paying the mortgage, and
c) I live here, I would rather look at my own horses under my own windows :)

I often wonder when I read this complaint (and it comes up over and over again) if the shoe was on the other foot and Horse Owners who feel that Yard Owners should share everything would feel the same if they owned the property and had Horse Owners whinging that it wasn't fair.
 
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I find some of the arguments made her quite skewed and odd. I have no experience of DIY so cannot comment about that, but I do think that this comes down to professionalism and trust. The YO giving best stables fields etc to their own smacks of a lack of professionalism to me, all facilities where I am are allocated on the basis of the horse's needs. In my professional career if I gave myself preferential treatment I would probably get struck off!!! Likewise complaints from customers etc need to be dealt with promptly, part of which is investigating whether they have merit or not and discussing solutions. Perhaps as some yard owners view liveries as an additional or supplementary income, this means that its not seen as a real business or job?

From the other perspective sometimes people expect a five star service for little or no money, equally this is unfair and its a bit like going to poundland, don't expect what you buy to last, it costs to provide a good service.

Lastly trust, I full livery (including exercise) on a very small yard that only has full liveries. I trust my YO to make decisions based on my horse's needs, whether that be a particular field or feed or what his work that day will be. She is doing a professional job, trained for many years, with the best and is quite brilliant. I hand over the equivalent of a small mortgage each month as I know to do this well it costs. Likewise she trusts me to raise concerns and discuss rationally any worries I have rather than winging or moaning.
 
I am so glad not to be on a livery yard now, its the age old, what's ok for one doesnt suit another, and everyone wants what they feel is best for their horse, and theres nothing wrong with that but rightly or wrongly it leads to resentment if its not going your way ! A good ym or yo has a difficult job, some do it well others dont, some let the yard big mouth run the show, i do agree communication is the key, changes made when youre not involved, or around would also bother me.
I moved onto a sole let yard because while i love my horses, i didnt like being on livery
 
1t34 said:
The YO giving best stables fields etc to their own smacks of a lack of professionalism to me, all facilities where I am are allocated on the basis of the horse's needs. In my professional career if I gave myself preferential treatment I would probably get struck off!!! Likewise complaints from customers etc need to be dealt with promptly, part of which is investigating whether they have merit or not and discussing solutions. Perhaps as some yard owners view liveries as an additional or supplementary income, this means that its not seen as a real business or job?


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Is that directed at me? I am in no way unprofessional, I am just not conventional, I am not BHS and I am not in the UK.

Oh, did I forget to elucidate on why my horses get 'preferential' treatment and pasture arrangements? Possibly something to do with also having a stallion, broodmares and youngstock.

Boarders get the best of care, in this area I have a reputation for being 'The' place to go if you are a novice owner, and the place to be if you want a happy, laidback horse.

You do not get that reputation if you are unprofessional, do not look after clients horses or make owners unhappy. My Boarders get every attention, above and beyond. I do not wish to run a yard full of divas and prima donnas, I am qualified to do so, I have the facilities to do so, been there, done that, not playing that game again.

I am selling up, every single one of my owners is begging me not to go.
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Um no? not directed at you just picking up one what has been said on the thread and previous ones on this subject? As I said in my experience, as you and i state, facilities are allocated on the basis of need. Hopefully a prima Donna label also isn't applicable to me although i will admit to some fairly dizzy and random moments. We often try to work out things together like a tricky breaker, schooling issue or even how to unblock the lavvy together.......
 
I do think you need to know where your horse is as if you go to the field and your horse is not there then you won't know if it has ecaped or been stolen or been moved to another field and wastes your time whilst you are trying to find out where it has been moved to.

On a DIY yard I would not expect staff to notice cuts or injuries as it is not part of their job to check the horses. However if they did notice something that looked bad I would expect them to contact me in the same way as if i notice something bad had happened to someone elses horse including YO's I would contact them.

I would expect YO's horses to have the best fields and stables as they are after all just human and like the rest of us want the best for thier horses.

I think you do need to be clear about what is involved in services for example does catch in mean collect from field and put in stable or does it include checking the the horse all over & picking it hooves out as well.

If you are only paying £3.50 a day then really what can you expect as this has to cover not just YO time but mortgage, business rates, electrics and general repairs. YO also has to factor in times when there might be vacancies and having enough to still run the business
 
OP - I think you could probably sort out your problems with a quick chat with the YM if you want to - although it does sound like you've made up your mind.
Why not suggest the use of a white board outside your stable so you know what's going on?

As far as the cuts and scrapes go, as long as they're not serious and either don't need anything doing or have been dealt with, what good would knowing do?

I can understand you feeling that your horse is being put at risk when the YM's aren't but it sounds like the real issue is the other bully horse. Rather than get upset about the other horses moving, maybe directing your energies towards getting him moved would be better? I have to say though unless there's a real issue with a very aggressive problem horse, I'm a big believer in letting horses sort themselves and their own pecking order out. It took a good 6 months for mine to settle into his herd when I bought him and he's still bottom of the pecking order but I had moved him to a different herd (or even yard) to try to find one where he did settle it would have just perpetuate the problem. 8 years on and he's in the happiest, most settled herd I know and he's genuine friends with all 6 of the others who share his field, even though he's still submissive when he needs to be. Toughing it out for a bit sometimes is the best in the long run.
 
All I ask from my YO/YM is to let me know in an emergency. I can generally find my horse, and it doesn't hurt them or me to have to get used to different fields/stables. Perhaps I am too relaxed, lol!
 
I guess everyone has different expectations/requirements from both sides of the coin but my big learning from this yard is having good communication is key... both ways.
I don't panic about every knock/cut but i just felt that if i'd paid extra for him to be 'finished up' for a day or so then it would be nice to be told 'by the way he's got a little cut but it's fine'... but maybe that's because what i would do. I can understand that if you're on part/full though you wouldn't want to know every little thing... you're paying for that to be done as part of the service. That wasn't the deal breaker for me but that along with other little things built up until i was no longer happy.

The field situation is not knowing where my horse is going to be and which group he'll be with, i'm not opposed to changing fields. And it was more to do with being told there is no more individ/night turn out/can't use the resting fields when the grass ran out but then a week later their horses are doing that very thing.

The good news is that my new yard has asked me to arrive at a certain time for turnout with the herd my boy is going to be in so that the owners of the other horses can be there to oversee if they want to! nice touch! :)
 
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