Livery Yard management...and your horror stories.

[Alec Swan]

This is really following on from a previous thread by Kittykatcat, who now seems to have sorted out her problem.

I have run two livery yards. You might think that I'd have learnt from the "goings-on" at the first, but no, I persevered and allowed myself to be talked into another!!

Setting on one side the general bitchiness, squabbling and arguing, and the fact that there were those who didn't just steal food from each, but on occasions, the odd husband went missing ( and what on earth these idiot men thought that they were doing, was beyond me. A change is not always as good as a rest, no matter what we're told!) I did notice that they never seemed to steal each other's children, though!

So often girls turned up with both ponies and children. The girl's OH's being told that the pony was for the children. Rubbish. It was for them. They used to ride out, leaving me in charge of their children. I didn't actually mind that too much, except that it stopped me from working, sorting out arguments about who actually owned the foot ball, and patching up cuts and grazes. Riding bicycles and playing football around a court yard of boxes, isn't really the brightest thing. How we never had a child killed or injured, remains a mystery.

In the end, I decided upon a set of rules. Rules which the children were perfectly happy with (except that they constantly broke them!), but the parents seemed to ignore.

I once had a girl tie hessian sacks around her horses feet, and leave during the night. Presumably the sacks were there to avoid detection! We currently have four empty boxes, and that's how they will stay. Better an empty house..........etc.

There are good livery yards, that we know, but just for fun, I'd be interested to hear of your horror stories........

Alec.

 

[misterjinglejay]

We were told we had to sweep the fields - admittedly they bought us a brush for this very job!

Not too bad in itself, i'll admit, but they were incredably anal about everything on the yard, and this was almost the last straw!

 

[eoe]

I could write a whole book on this subject but I think the worst was we had a man who kept his horse with us, he had some very weird ideas about horse management, his horse was so obese the vets refused to treat it until he put it on a specialised diet to loose around 150kg. He used to walk his horse out on sheets of ice whilst 40ft articulated lorries were driving in and out of the driveway delivering and taking out goods. The final straw was taking his horse into an unsafe metal storage container with an unstable metal floor whilst a mother a child were in there sorting out haynets for their horses. He was subsquently given 2 weeks notice to leave because of his dangerous behaviour and his horse had eaten nearly £300 of new post and rail fencing so we withheld his £100 deposit. Two months later all my plastic showjumps were stolen.................... Draw your own conclusions.

 

[Niraf]

I had two livery clients that were convinced their horses were underweight. They used to feed their horses extra concentrate and complain that the horses were too lively. They also wanted to make their livery cheques out to the feed company to ensure that all their livery money went on feed only. Where the money was coming for the groom's wages and other costs I have no idea. They eventually moved their horses away to another yard and I got a call from the manager asking what was the matter with these people as they were complaining that their horses were thin and had been starved and she was of the opinion that the horses were obese, which was my opinion too. Go figure.

 

[Kokopelli]

Not a management story but at my old yard the manager (not the owner) collected everybodies rent for that month, this was normal for the yard and we thought nothing of it.

Turns out the manager took everyone's money, at £60 a week and 30 horses at the yard she had loads or money and made a runner. No one knew where she went she left her horses and we have heard nothing of her, as we had two horses at the time she took £480 off of use alone!

We are still waiting to be repaid but we have now left that yard and our money goes staright to the yard owner now not that manager.

 

[thinlizzy]

our yo let a unemployed friend who had left as very large bill at prev. yard bring a sick horse to yard, bad cough, thin, and discharge because it was her friend put it in field and stables next to other liveries her friend lied about the vet had seen the horse as well ,we believed her sadly she lied and passed it all on to other liveries and yo defended her
she lost most her liveries over this ones who had been there some time but did get new ones

 

[Flicker]

I used to livery at a yard that also operated as a riding school. The riding school ponies when out in a huge field right at the top of the property, but for some reason the YO and YM never shut the gate to the field (or the three other gates along the various lanes leading from the field into the yard). I think it had something to do with the fact that they used a quad bike to round up the ponies in the morning and drive them down the lane and stopping to open and close gates would waste time.

Anyway, one cold, blustery, wet and dark November evening, I was leading my mare in from the field. She was front lame at the time with a sprain and was feeling quite chipper about life in general. At the same time, the riding school horses must have decided that the yard was a better place to be than their field, because it had shelter.

30 horses (ranging in size from 12.2 to around 16.3hh) descended down the lane in a flat out gallop at exactly the same time I was leading my mare. The lane was wide enough for one car and had trees and hedges on either side. As she grew to 21hh, I was fortunately able to shove her into a small field / school just before they reached us, but I could not hang onto her and had to unclip the headcollar and watch a week's worth of painstaking Stay Sound and stable bandaging being undone in seconds as she ******d off round the field.

The horses rampaged round the yard for about 20 minutes, before being herded back up the lane (setting my horse off in the process again). There were young children wandering around the yard at the time. Fortunately none of the horses went down the lane at the other side of the yard leading to a main road.

YO's reaction when I informed her of the previous night's incident? A shrug of the shoulders. Was any gate closed subsequently to prevent a repeat incident? Nope.

Did I leave within a week? Yes.

 

[Leaf]

i had a client who had a quiet spectacular drinking problem. the final straw came when i found her blind drunk trying to loose school her bemused horse and she had wet herself to boot! class pure class!

 

[rupertsmum]

When i was at a yard, the YO was a bit stressy on occassion shall we say. She expected to be paid on the last day of the month, for the following month, fair enough! However a girl at the yard, turned up on the first of the month (she couldn't drive) and had had her horses done by the manager the day before. The YO marched up to her shouting and screaming that she hadn't paid her livery etc and that it was late! The girl, totally petrified said that she was waiting for her mum to take her to the cash point. The YO promptly forced her into the (YO) car and took her to the cash point, all the way screaming at her that she should pay on time!! Poor girl hasn't been the same since

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

Gosh! This is enough to put anyone off!!

I don't "run" a yard as such, I just offer DIY livery for anyone who wants it: but even so you get your share, for example a "friend of a friend" who basically dumped her sweet itch pony on me for two years and then disappeared on permanent "holiday" so I had the bother of it. She'd left me the tack and said she'd like it ridden, so I took a friend out hacking (she rode my plod, I rode the little b@gg@r), which was fine until she got all precious over it and came up one day and took away the tack, so then because it wasn't being ridden it got really naughty and nearly put my farrier in hospital. In the end some other mug took it on which is where it is now I believe - good luck to 'em.

The other problem was someone who had two youngsters and zilch experience: and she'd done a bit of "natural horsemanship" and thought she knew everything. Anyway, these two wild things just tanked all round the field and chammed up the grass, then galloped up to the gate and knocked the owner over and broke her collarbone, so guess who had to "do" for them. She also thought I was her slave, even though she was on DIY livery, and frequently had to work late and thought I was going to bring hers in and do them. In the end she took them somewhere else thank god, and apparently has moved every six months or so coz no-one will put up with her.

And then there are the really nice, good liveries who are a pleasure to have in the yard, do their horses and care for them well, and become your friends as well as your liveries. I've had two sets like this and they're the salt of the earth, they're never any problem and do more than their share, and you miss their horses as well as them!

 

[kittykatcat]

Well...you might have all heard about my 'little problem' who vacated the yard on Monday leaving a field full of poo.....My sister and I FINALLY cleared it last night, after....wait for it.....FORTY SEVEN barrows (and i'm talking large trailer type that goes on the back of a quad) of s***te!!! NEVER AGAIN!!!! I'm am now officially a cripple and have a phobia of poo picking aghhhhhh!! xx

 

[spotty_pony]

Where to start?

A very petty YO who didn't like it if you dropped a single strand of straw on his yard even when it was really windy and you couldn't help it. Also, he insisted on feeding all of the horses on the yard. We wanted our horses feeds dampened so he said we had to do it the night before to save him time! We tried to explain that this would cause the feed to ferment but he thought we were just being awkward! He was a very controlling kind of man and liked to tell everyone what to do.

At another yard, the YO tried to tell me how to muck out and look after our own horses! Even seemed to be completely obsessed with one of our horses. Mud up to the horse's knees in the fields, dangerous fencing... I could go on!

We are looking at moving house to a place with our own stables and land and I will say I can't wait. I think I've had my fair share of the livery yards from hell!

 

[cbmcts]

From the other side of the fence

The YOs who promise the earth before you move in - say every day TO - then deny that they said it.
Take your money but forget you are a customer who would like to see something in return. One YO actually said that she needed to raise the livery so he could repair the fences, ok but it turned out that she needed the extra livery for 6 months before she could afford to pay for the fencing - anybody else pay that far in advance for something they didn't get?
Same YO owner expected that all the DIY horses were available for her family to ride - as and when THEY wanted.
YO's who cause most of the bitching and have different rules for different people


Bit of a sore subject for me - I have 2 horses on retirement livery in a different county because I couldn't find anywhere suitable locally and have pretty much decided that I won't get another until I can find my own yard/land as there don't appear to be any yards in this area that don't have serious issues one way or another - either they want champagne prices for a lemonade service or they are run by lazy incompetents and inhabited by nutters.

Cynical moi?

 

[baymareb]

The place I'm in is the only one I've boarded at so I have a limited experience but there have been a few... oddities, shall we say.

The place is huge - probably at least 150 liveries and another 40 or 50 RS horses. There are dozens of barns, housing anywhere from 8 to a dozen horses each and each barn or area has its own manure tip. There are also community wheelbarrows for those on DIY (the majority) to use.

There is a constant competition for the wheelbarrows. There are plenty of them and if one is not available at one particular instant, you can probably get the one your neighbor is using within a short time. Nevertheless, people come up with ingenious methods of keeping or reserving one.

I've found wheelbarrows parked in a livery's attached paddock, heaped with poo, when the livery was not even on the premises. I found one chained within someone's stall. One person at the first barn I was in always grabbed two to use for one stall (I have no idea what that was about). Lots of us have bought our own but that creates problems when people run off with THEM.

Then there are the idiots. We are allowed to use some of the arenas for turnout if no one is riding in them. If a rider comes along, they have priority. Well, I've had people ride right into the arena without giving me a moment to catch my horse (once it was a father bringing in his small child on a very bouncy pony - my TB mare took off like a shot to go see the new horse and I literally had to jump in front of her and lasso her with my lead rope. Luckily, she stopped).

One person brings her dog. I love dogs, don't mind them at the barn. Except when they are untrained and obnoxious like this one. When it is loose, it runs at horses and leaps on them - when it is tied, it barks and howls and rushes to the end of it's chain. Management passive-aggressively has addressed this by sending out a mass email asking people to please not bring dogs. Everyone ignores it.

Another woman brings her cockatoo. The bird perches in the window of her stall and squawks and flaps its wings at anyone passing. You see some remarkable spooks when new horses go by her stall. It also rides around on one of her horse's backs. She has two, one for her and the other (presumably) for the bird. The up side of this is that it's a very good barn for desensitizing horses.

 

[R2R]

My horse had to be PTS mid month...he was on full livery and I was paying close to £500 a month.

I arrived a week later obviously devastated, to be hounded for £15 wormer and £5 for washing a numnah, this despite the fact there was a new horse in my stable 2 days after he was PTS (no they didn’t ask, either) I didn’t have any cash so was made to drive to a cash point and get it out...I was horrified and very upset.

I had a massive falling out with them, which is a shame because we had been friends for years but now have my own lovely yard full of great people, so it all worked out quite well really.

 

[Penny Less]

BaymareB. LOL at the cockatoo with its own horse !!

 

[Divasmum]

We had a horse on full livery at a BHS approved yard. He was a gelding and one day one of the grooms turned him out in the mares field because they thought he looked like a girl!

 

[mytwofriends]

No washing feet or tails on one yard because the soap would make a mess. Okie dokie then ........

 

[jhoward]

large stud/yard (think foal cam) i went into hospital for an op, horse on fl.

i came back and found out from a work experiance person that my mare had been put out with another mare alone. YM knew mare couldnt do pairs. they brok out collecting the stallion on route. i was told they ended up in the yard with the stallion trying to mount my mare.

I later found out (she the YM ) had posted on here about people letting horses out of field and them sodding off up the drive with the stallion.

we then have a virus that got spred... my horse was so ill she was tested for strangles, yet i was told to keep putting her out with all the other horses..


my 2nd ever livery yard and never again!

 

[Sugarplum Furry]

My last YO's were deeply religous. I'd find them praying over their horse in the yard 'Oh dear lord bring this horse peace and light'. Um, no, what the horse needed the dear lord to bring was a nice feed and a bale of hay, she was thin as a rake. Sadly they seemed to think that the horse was really the spirit of their dead daughter. All very sad....

 

[niagaraduval]

Wow alot of stories!!
The best has to be sweeping the field though - LOL !!!!!
A lot of strange YO here!!

 

[Rosiefell]

I used to be at a yard where the owner was obsessed with a clean yard - fair enough but she was so anal that if there was ANY hair on the yard she would gather it up and leave it under the windscreen wiper on the car belonging to whichever owner she thought owned the horse responsible!! Absolute nightmare in the spring!!!

 

[DipseyDeb]

Not YO but I remember at one yard I was at, a group of bored housewives with all the gear and no idea (you know the sort) decided they wanted my friend off the yard mainly because it was an army saddle club and she was a civillian so she shouldn't be there (WTF!!) so they hid dry hay in the field(her mare had a chronic, and I mean CHRONIC, dust allergy!!) she'd asked them if they were to put hay in there to soak it for 12 hours, as that is what she'd been advised to do by the equine clinic where she'd taken her horse for investigation!! Luckily I had climbed the fence to take a short cut and seen it, christ knows what would have happened if I hadn't!!! Spiteful bitches!! still makes me cross even now. All this from 40 something women when my friend was 18!!!!!!!

 

[Holly Hocks]

My last YO's were deeply religous. I'd find them praying over their horse in the yard 'Oh dear lord bring this horse peace and light'. Um, no, what the horse needed the dear lord to bring was a nice feed and a bale of hay, she was thin as a rake. Sadly they seemed to think that the horse was really the spirit of their dead daughter. All very sad....

That is absolutely hilarious......
I'm lucky not to have been on any particularly freakish yards. I have just moved my horses from a full livery yard to another one because the hay at the old yard was virtually dust. Absolutely disgusting and to add that that, the YO insisted that my TB mare who had just finished racing, but had lived out over winter needed 4 feeds a day of hard feed when I had just asked for her to be given two very small feeds of non-heating mix and ad lib haylage to put the weight on.. I was told that the only thing that would put weight on was hard feed.....yeah? Well you ride it then! I only found out about the 4 feeds per day when I commented that she was like an unexploded bomb!

 

[MosMum]

Hmm these would be from Montana and I'm not a YO just a lowly stable hand

Had an owner determined to use YO training skills to make a cattle horse... out of her shetland pony... That was interesting.

Closely related to the paint horse mare who was 'saved' from the horse mart and owner wanted a nice bombproof riding horse... She was at the mart because she was insane and had been attacked by a mountain lion.

Over here, the yard down the road from me has a few characters one of which is constantly pouring motor oil over its horses' back... I haven't yet figured out why

 

[BubbleDog]

Wow, now where would I start..........?

 

[kirstyl]

Another woman brings her cockatoo. The bird perches in the window of her stall and squawks and flaps its wings at anyone passing. You see some remarkable spooks when new horses go by her stall. It also rides around on one of her horse's backs. She has two, one for her and the other (presumably) for the bird. The up side of this is that it's a very good barn for desensitizing horses.

This made me laugh out loud!! Love the idea of her cockatoo riding its own horse. As long as its not at my yard!!

 

[Vicki_Krystal]

At an old local yard you had to pick out the mud from your horses feet into a bucket -

Then...

Take the mud back to the field your horse came from and put it back on the ground...

Seriously not kidding...
This is the same person who kicked off a livery because her horse pooed on the yard - and it 'stained' the concrete yard....

 

[brighthair]

I moved off a yard for a few reasons but there was a livery I never got on with who had a massive go at me one day over something ridiculous. Fast forward 3 years and I brought my horse home from Uni and needed a yard. Found a lovely yard, moved on to spot a very familiar looking horse - yes it was the horse that belonged to said livery.
Nobody spoke to me for weeks, until I found out she had told everyone not to speak to me. The day she turned the jet wash on my horse as I was leading it past was the final straw, I gave her a mouthful, and had no problems then! Oh until my horse was PTS, and a few weeks on I went to the field where he was put down, and she told me I had no horse on the yard and no right to be there

 

[Ari's cherry blossom]

i've been on a fair few yards and most of them have been weird, haha!

on one yard, we were only allowed one feed bucket full of water a day, per horse..i used to just take my own down in the end..didnt stay there for very long haha.

Haylege on my current yard lasts 3 days for a herd of 7 horses, three of which stay out 24/7 and two of which have haylege their owners have saved in their sheds! where the heck is it going??!

poo picking has to be done every day without fail otherwise theres a £15 charge each day its not done for each horse so not fair for those of us with 2 horses...one girl there does it atleast once a day then moans that shes doing it all...well maybe if you got there after 7am love we'd do it, instead of turning up at 5am every day..

one yard owner used to stay down the yard late and get drunk..then ride her horse around the field bareback..i saw her come off soo many times but she never seemed to be hurt..ever xD

another yard owner bred dogs, and she let them poo everywhere and would never clean it up! including in the horses fields!! luckily my horses were never turned out there, they were moved there so they could have restfull box rest..which turned out to be a bad idea! the yard owner used to come in and mess with their bandages and try to tell me what meds to give them..she wasnt even a vet! and didnt know anything about horses! she USED to be a nurse (for humans)..told her where to shove it and left

and on ANOTHER yard (told you i've been on a few lol) a livery took it upon her self to become yard manager (not needed at all, she just wanted power) and would move the horses to different fields every two hours! then when i told her to keep her mitts off my horse she got upset and hated me XD my horse then got injured and had to be kept seperate..he had to have stitches after being caught in sheep wire (we didnt even know it was there =/) and what did the yard owner say when he found out? ''that solves the grazing arguements then'' what?! no 'how is he?' or 'can i help?' or 'what happened?' !! pfft..left there the next week

there are many many MANY more tales i could tell you but i dont want to bore you all

xxx