Livery Yard managers - Bite Back ! LOL !!

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abina

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Ok - there are numerous threads on here on how awful and badly managed and rough and disgusting and terrible and horrendous some livery yards are .......... and yes that is true, there are places that should not be trading, But some of us Livery Yard owners and managers do a brilliant job but have to put up with some 'very challenging' owners.

So YO and YM - what is your bug bear at the moment?

mine is owners that let their horse tread all over the new saplings that I have just spent over £900 on - letting them grab at the hanging baskets and rip flowers out (£40 each x 20) I'm lucky don't have too many problems as I am fair, strict and won't stand any messing !

Do you think all YO/ YM should have minimum Equine qualifiacation and should all livery yards be licenced?
 
Save us from any more legislation, I can just see Lantra and the BHS rubbing their hands in glee, more qualifications, more income, more administration, more jobs for the ladies of the leisure industry, and a case for a completely new marketing strategy, it will not be "Racing for Change", it will be "Livery Standards for the 2020's"
Insurance: obviously, a case for two tier standards, increasing the lower levels to reflect perceived risks.
An accident book for livery users [all unseating reports to be accompanied by an explanatory diagram]
Health and Safety: documentation will have to be completely re-written, and a annual visit upgraded to two, one for winter and one for summer.
Then there are notices:
Please lift all poop as it appears
Keep your stable clear of all rugs and drugs
No Smoking, designated area is behind the Gents loo
Please leave the yard in an orderly manner
Keep this area tidy!
Do not lean on railings
I 'm not a YM but even I can see some difficulties!
 
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LMAO. That would be worth doing, then collating the best ones from around the UK and publishing them in a book at Christmas ;)
 
Nothing much at the moment in the past its:

not picking feet out so a trail of bedding coming
out and going to school or out the gate
not putting jumps away
not picking poo up on yard or school
leaving stable lights on when in school or visa versa

HTML: 
Keep your stable clear of all rugs and drugs

this one half applies to us , the liveries have a rug rack in their stables so all the horses rugs hang up inside

liveries here have to have their own insurance for public liability accident etc.


Do you think all YO/ YM should have minimum Equine qualification and should all livery yards be licensed?
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1st
not ness but the very least know a certain amount of knowledge


2. No i dont think so
 
I would ban the phrase 'Could you just ......'

A formal complaints book would also provide useful material for a Xmas publication. Eg, 'I've hardly ridden my horse this month so why do I have a farrier bill?' or 'I can't catch my horse after he has been turned out, so what are you going to do about it?'
 
I see where you're coming from, OP, however, I don't think minimum qualifiactions and compulsory licencing is the way to go. This would push up costs to both YOs and liveries and would force some yards out of business as some horse owners would have to sell up or seek alternatives like renting grazing from farmers.

Just so glad I don't have to keep mine on a livery yard.
 
You'd think a simple "Please leave the place as you found it" would not have to deteriorate into the eternal

"Pick up your horse's droppings otherwise the arena will be unrideable in the winter"
"Pick up your horse's droppings in his designated field otherwise there will be no place left for the grass to grow"
"Put away up your mucking out tools before your horse or someone elses gets kebebed on the fork"
"Don't leave your grooming kit at your a*se and then complain when you see someone else using it"
"Keep your children under control, they are an accident waiting to happen"
"There really isn't room here for 16 rugs, please take the ones you are not using home and put them in your own garage."

Does common sense disappear out the window when they arrive at the yard?

Actually, I think I might print this out and pin it to their stables!!!
 
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I'm not quite the YM, but I've been told I'm pretty much Number 2 (lol)...

So here's my list.

Grazing. You have your fields, everyone else has theirs, stop moving fields just because you have no concept of grazing management!!!
Muck heap. You see those ramps? They're for pushing your wheelbarrow up, not for dumping your wheelbarrow on (the farmer who takes our poo took our last ramp because it was buried :( )
The tie bars. You tie up a haynet, you clear up what your horse drops. You don't leave it for us to clear up (although, it does make for awesome bonfires!)
Fencing. LEAVE IT ALONE! Tying electric tape to wood, metal, the floor, anything that isn't insulated, will kill the fence. Leaving your tape on the floor where your horse has snapped it will not only kill the fence but allow your horse out quicker. Turning the electric generators on in the morning helps somewhat...
My stuff. LEAVE IT ALONE! I'm now on my 3rd broom and yet I've never snapped one of my own!!!

Gah, liveries!
 
My biggest irritants are:

Leaving poo in the school,
Not picking feet out before leaving stable so leaving a trail all the way down the yard and leaving it.
Not sweeping up after the farrier has been (really annoying!!)

Is it so difficult to just take care of things/fields/arenas just because you don't own them???!!!
 
kkjames said:
My biggest irritants are:

Not sweeping up after the farrier has been (really annoying!!)

???!!!
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To me this is really the weirdest one of all [I am old school and was taught to sweep as the farrier worked, our farrier is pretty dishy, [at least he is the only male over twenty around here], so there is always a crowd round him, even adults who should know better, and they just ignore the poop and the mess, he picks up his own clenches, but never asks them to sweep, and they never do, I can't believe it!
 
My biggest issue-people thinking you have all the time in the world and everything should be done straight away/perfectly/all responsibility lies with you. People wanting horses rugged/unrugged/double rugged, moved to another paddock for one reason or the other, their horse is due for farrier but they dont tell you they dont want stud holes this time.

They expect you to run around like a headless chicken for them when they pay a ridiculously small amount (£25pw) and do all your other jobs and teach. And heaven forbid if you are caught sitting down! not allowed as im getting paid such a huge amount...im on an apprenticeship so you can imagine how 'great' my wage is....

Rant over. Haha
 
I must be very undemanding, cos I never ask for anything except horse to be brought in once a day, if required, in summer and out and in, in winter, [this is part of the DIY deal], at a time to suit YO, I can book the farrier in the "book" , and leave a written instruction for him, head-collar out side stable, but I try to be there anyway, i would not expect YO to issue instructions to Farrier, or anyone else except in emergency.
The current YO is extremely helpful, he calls it assisted DIY, previous yards I had to do loads more myself, including sweeping my little yard, left in a mess by Yard staff!
 
Would like to think I used to be a reasonable livery, only talked to yo about things twice in 3 years, so don't think I was too wingey. Very self-sufficient & happy to do as yo asked without fuss. You do have my total sympathy having witnessed what hard work some of the owners were. I also used to hate people taking horses out of (dirty) stables without picking feet & leaving **** all over the yard, usually just after one of us had swept it.
 
Pinching shavings and hay
Pinching feed when you have locked up, this is quite a common one!
Getting a telling off when you have brought the shivering best in that was waiting by the gate and rugging it up...snow suddenly fell that wasn't forecast so no rug on.
Not sweeping mess up
DIY that seems to suddenly turn into part livery with no extra money!
Thinking it amusing when horse jumps fence and kicks hell out of one of yours (in the eye and needed vet).
Thanks for the opportunity to grumble....I don't do livery anymore thank god!!!
 
I am proud to announce that I was once (anonymously) one of the subjects of a H&H article in which livery clients complained about "unreasonable" YOs :D

You wouldn't believe the things I "said", "did", "would/wouldn't allow", and then apparently I kicked her off the yard with no notice at all :eek:

Unfortunately H&H never ran the counterpart article from the YOs perspective :rolleyes: in which I and most of the other YOs in the area would have told them that said livery had been in all our yards, didn't pay, had a horse which repeatedly trashed fencing and stables, had to be on restricted grazing which it didn't like so didn't stay in, that she sometimes turned up and sometimes didn't, frequently had screaming matches with her bf in the middle of the yard, and that by the time I was 8 months pregnant I'd had enough of mending fences every morning, and yes, I did ask her to leave and gave her plenty of notice, but she got the hump and left the next day :rolleyes::D

I've had liveries who have stayed over 10 years, but my shortest record was the one who only lasted 2 days before I asked her to leave :D And that's a whole other story ...
 
This is why i am DIY !!!! your clients only take the piss if you let it happen.
I think its fair to say there are good and bad clients and yard owners/managers.
If youre knowledgable and talk to folks youll avoid both
Yes I do think yards should be legislated, and as for qualifications you wouldnt get a managerial job in any other career without having a qualification in the work youre doing.
That said i also believe horse owning should require a licence and to obtain this, you need to be able to show knowledge of basic horse care, ive seen some absolute bombscares of horse owners and yard owners, put them together and its downright dangerous for everyone
 
Rowreach said:
I've had liveries who have stayed over 10 years, but my shortest record was the one who only lasted 2 days before I asked her to leave :D And that's a whole other story ...
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:eek: She must have been bad...I like stories ;)

I can't think of a reason to bite back, my yard is full board which is not the same as full livery UK style (I don't provide hard feed, groom, exercise or clean tack as part of the deal) no way would I have DIY here. I don't expect my owners to do anything except pay on time and bring their horses in and put them out again when they have finished playing.

Everything else I do, and we all like it that way. I feed (they buy their own grain), hay and water, fix the fences, and move horses as, when, and where I like. Most people sweep the barn after their horses have been in, they'll all turn on a tap and refill water tanks if they need it, but they don't have to.

I have only one rule..No dogs...that's it.

I don't care when people turn up, or who comes with them, they can ride where they like, do what they like, when they like. I respect their privacy and they respect ours, it works just fine - for us.

Licensing barns is like suggesting people take HM courses before getting a horse, it isn't going to affect the really bad ones because they won't bother anyway and will simply 'go underground' as it were.
 
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Our YO has it Soooo easy with us!

There are only two of us and his daughter, we're all tidy, do extras, we even bought and repaired and made improvements to the electric fencing....treat the place like our own and take pride in keeping it nice!
 
Producing, breaking or schooling liveries = lovely as all there for short term only, owners called before coming along :cool:
Nothing against owners at all, unless they act as the ones who were DIY as mentioned below.....

DIY's? Last ones were such a nightmare.....

Left every gate open behind them going up & down fields - and going home having left them open too.
Left stables doors open - whether horse in it or not, so left for horse to escape or just to bang in the wind.
Spilling feed across feed room floor: "who me? no, I didn't do that" - & getting response from me: " Well, yours is the ONLY one on those 2 types of feed on the floor" :rolleyes: she still walked off & left it :mad:
Muck heap - despite requests to put barrow loads on there & leave tidy, am sure they thought the 'fairies' tidied up
Tools, no need for them to get their own - am sure they thought (despite requests once more!) that I was only too happy to lend them mine & have them dumped in all places, usually filthy, sometimes broken - even a new shavings fork got trashed inside 2 weeks! :eek:
Leaving water on at main tap when filling tank in own paddock up one evening after I had left - wondering next day why I was incandescent (once again!) at the wasteage & also the boggy patch in their paddock when I found it.
Feeding my fuzzies treats despite being asked not to, then getting antsy with me because their teenager had been bitten hard - by biggest fuzzy who was not allowed treats in the 1st place, due to biting! :rolleyes:


Lots more..... tho suffice to say, that I'm sooooooooo happy with just my own Fuzzies for the time being. Its going to be a special person or 2 that are ever allowed to stay in the future :D

TFF, retired from liveries for the forseeable (tho I KNOW some of you are lovely really!)
 
I know you all have your own issues with liveries, but if its so bad why do you keep doing it/putting up with it ?
I have a frriend on a DIY yard where the yo is qualified, with very strict rules.
All rules are detailed on a board in the yard, right down to your entry and exit points from the stables to your field.
Anyone on the yard after a certain time has to call first, so they know if, after evening check anything is amiss, who was last on the yard.
That yard has next to no turnover of clients on it because everyone knows where they stand and the owner doesnt take any crap, she runs the place with common sense and knowledge. They have a weekly yard meeting where things are discussed, the only requirement is if you bring a problem try to bring a solution as well if possible, and treat others the way you would want to be treated yourself.
 
I love my yard. It's just me and my beasts. If I screw things up, I sort them out the next day. No one gets wound up by my screw up in the interim ;) I've been on some good yards with reasonable YOs and some horrific yards with YOs who varied between psychotic and just disinterested. Better off by myself :D
 
Interesting reading !

Like anything there are good ones and bad ones ! Common theme seems to be the most basic requests are ignored - poo picking, tidyness, and not borrowing items.

You would assume that these things would be easy !

As for qualifications - I strongly believe that the YO / YM should have a basic equine qualification, and that all yards should be licenced, Yes I appreciate that it will all cost but would it not be for the better of all, to have a basic guidelines that must be adhered to by all yards that are 'renting' out space or services, and that there is a governing body to oversee and sort out complaints and requests.
 
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