Livery yard politics

I don't care what anyone says - every yard has it's politics, and it sucks!

* can't we all just get along? * mmm no
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Actually yard I'm on is lovely, everyone gets on really well....... last yard had a "few" that were intentional on changing the politics to their favour tho!
 
I know it's a very contentious issue! And we'll be taking a fairly lighthearted look at the topic (well, as lighthearted as livery yard politics can be!) before we put riders off livery yards forever more... But if you do have any pet hates or a certain type of person that drives you up the wall, let us know.

Thanks

Victoria
 
i am seriously thinking of leaving my yard due to the politics.

and im one of the more liked liveries!

some of the things people say and do to a couple of new liveries are just plain nasty - including changing rules as and when they feel like it just to get one up on the new people.
 
you try being a yard owner when the liveries just think they can do what they want !!!

Also some people argue for the sake of it sometimes i mean what more do they want my blood ??
 
I have to say even though the 'yard manager' (if you can call her that!
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) is slightly mad and there are a few issues where Frankie is, his yard sounds great compared to some of your stories!

If I was at some of the yards mentioned here my blood would be boiling!
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I have a good one
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Nice horse on livery at a mixed Part/Full/DIY BHS approved livery yard

YM schooled horse for owner every now and again.

Owner hit financial problems, couldn't afford to pay for part livery and schooling at same time and offered horse to YM on loan. YM turned down the offer.

Around the same time my horse was injured and owner offered me the horse on part-loan.

I did all exercise, some stable chores and paid for all lessons/competing plus a small contribution towards keep.

4 months on owner decides she needs to sell horse, apologises to me and says she will refund the money I had put into horse once its been sold (I had doubled the horses value).

Horse sold, YM annoyed and tells stories to unhorsey YO.
YO tells owner that the horse cannot be removed from yard until a 10% commission had been paid to YO as owner had used a 'third party to sell horse' and not sold it through the YM. Now nowhere in any written or verbal agreement/contract was this agreed.

Consequently I was so p*ssed off on owners behalf I made sure everyone in the area knew what had happened
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So I was obviously very please when a year later he had gone from being full to having a number of empty boxes
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I love my yard (smug
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) I've been on some yards with rules even more bonkers than the one above about the door grills! There are too many people who can buy a yard to run as a buisness who are not particularly horsey people and so do not put the horses' best interests first. Many YOs do not make good YMs and if they are not good at horse and people juggling - and they don't employ a good YM - the politics on the place just becomes unbearable.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I love my yard (smug
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) I've been on some yards with rules even more bonkers than the one above about the door grills! There are too many people who can buy a yard to run as a buisness who are not particularly horsey people and so do not put the horses' best interests first. Many YOs do not make good YMs and if they are not good at horse and people juggling - and they don't employ a good YM - the politics on the place just becomes unbearable.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree! Luckily now I am on a wonderful yard that both my horse and I love. The people are lovely and it's a great place. I've had my fair share of God forsaken pits riddled with people who, it seems, only turn up to stir and make trouble
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do you want to feature a good one? when i took my tb mare there in october i was about to sell and her was scared to ride her - now after weekly lessons and a lot of unpaid for support from my yard owner i am now doing showjumping and x countryand loving her - always nice to read something positive as well!!
 
My yard is great, have previously had problems with the YO's as they are not horsey, it has the facilities I need and currently only has one stirrer and everyone else is friends.
 
I would look at the thread from last week where we all commented on bonkers rules from yards we'd been at.
My pet hate is not being allowed to walk on the unpoached side of the walkway - instead you must walk (with your horse) on the side that is 15-18" deep in mud, because "we need to save the ground for Spring" !

As I said before, actually there was no need to sabe the ground for Spring - because everyon had left by then!
 
HORSE-Mag/Victoria

I am lucky enough to be on a super yard, but from reading posts on here, as far as I can gather, the 'politics' problems seem to be much more numerous and acute on DIY/Part-livery yards than on those which are full-livery only.

It usually seems to come down to either poor leadership/management on the part of the YO, or what I would call 'school-playground politics', i.e. people forming 'cliques', snobbery, b*tching, etc.

Many problems seem to arise when the YO is either too lackadaisical/lazy/incompetent to keep control of things, or the complete opposite, too much of a power-freak/control-freak, trying to micro-manage every detail in an authoritarian manner.

Have a look at the recent thread about 'livery yard rules' (can't remember the exact title, but you should find it) for examples of the latter style of bad management!

Many of the squabbles and disputes on livery yards seem to be about crossing boundaries and personal territory - either people using one another's equipment/feed/tack, etc. without permission, or interfering with other people's management/riding of their horses (including giving unwanted 'advice').

The other main cause of disputes seems to be mainly about 'fairness' - particularly in the context of exchanging favours. Someone always seems to feel that they are 'giving' more than they are 'getting', in terms of favours such as feeding/turning out/bringing in other liveries' horses, or lending equipment, or giving lifts, etc, etc. This causes huge resentment and bad feeling.

Also, every livery yard (like every other social group) has its own set of unwritten/unspoken rules. I don't mean the official rules of the yard (although these can be problematic enough!), but the unofficial customs, conventions, tacit understandings and so on that have built up over time, and may be very difficult for a newcomer to discover or understand.

For example it may be 'universally understood' on some yards that while other liveries' wheelbarrows and pitchforks may be 'borrowed', grooming kit must never be touched. Or there may be an unwritten rule that you must never criticize another person's horse, even if they constantly bad-mouth the animal themselves! Or that one does not sing one's own horse's praises as this is regarded as 'bragging'. Or that certain horses/owners have special priorities/privileges because of particular circumstances or needs.

Newcomers have to learn these unwritten rules by observation, and by trial-and-error - which can be a painful process in some cases!

Sorry - didn't mean to try to write your article for you!
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These are just my observations from being on a few yards, and from reading posts on here and other forums.
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I really like being on my yard I get on with everyone really well, theres no major bitchyness there. The only let down is the power mad yard manager who is really getting on my t*ts at the momnt
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My pet hate is Yard Rules not being explained. It doesn't matter what they are, but liveries must be told what they are by the YO and not expected to know them by osmosis.

Also one rule for one, and another for someone else is very frustrating.
 
I agree the one rule for one and other for another is a major bugbear on most yards, had that a lot on previous yards I've been on. Also how many horses you had affected the way you were treated.
My current yard is great, not as many facilities as last one but smaller and less clicky, although I would have no problems moving back to either of last two yards I was on. Only moved from last one cos no stable and one before cos OH wanted to. The ist one is only one I wouldn't go back to if you paid me.
That one had time limits on when you could be there, not before 8:00am in morning and off by 8:00pm in winter and YO would come around at 5 to to make sure you were getting ready to leave, also would be stood at car door when rent was due. They kept making the time horses had to be in in the winter earlier and earlier so that eventually you had to pay to have them brought in. YO wasn't very nice, remember him chucking one girls things out of the tackroom on the day she was leaving as she wasn't moving stuff fast enough.
 
I was once one of two liveries on a DIY yard, with an absentee YO and no YM. That was fine - two people with four horses, loads of space, separate tackrooms/storage should be able to rub along together. After I'd been there for about 18 months the YO asked me if I'd like to be YM. I told him I thought it would be absurd to have one YM and one livery ...

Then the other girl was approached - and agreed! She immediately turned into a little Hitler; everything I'd previously agreed with the YO was turned on its head; she told the YO lies about what was going on and the atmosphere was poisonous. I left. Six months later the 'YM' did too. The yard is now closed.
 
I've never had a major problem at a yard or wanted to leave because of 'politics' yet there are cetrain things that really wind me up!

Know it all, Know Nothings! This is what I call the people who absolutely have no clue how to look after one end of a horse; their horse is bad mannered, un-rideable (in fact they can't even tack it up without help) and yet they insist on telling everyone else what they're doing wrong! Madness!

Then there are those who kind of know what they're doing but are so weak they get influenced by the Know it all, Know Nothings and end up doing stupid things like not picking their horses feet out (because apparently so and so's farrier told her not to). So you end up with constant infections and absesses which are just treated matter of factly. No one even daring to suggest they just start to pick their horses feet out everyday!

YOs and YMs who just don't bother to tell their liveries anythign at all - so you end up going to get your horse from the field to find it's been split in two and you have half the amount of grazing you once had! Cue poor horse living up to knees in mud for the whole winter and no grass..... reduced livery? Hell no!

Ha ha then the other liveries accuse you of blocking the drain because you have to hose all the mud off your horses legs everynight and start saying you shouldn't wash their legs if they get mud fever (one of the Know it all Know Nothings). Urm yes my horse does get mud fever, but he hasn't this year despite all the mud! Hmm think what I am doing is ok then, don't you?

Then the most irritating of all is the Suck-Ups!!! Their horse is one of those up to it's knees in mud yet refuse to moan (when it is perfectly reasonable) and insist 'the field was too big for 3 anyway' when it is infact all of about 3 acres, so now there is 3 on about 1.5 acres! When you point out to them their error i.e. there wasn't too much grass - I had to feed my good-doer hard feed and a balancer all summer for the first time ever, they look at you blankly as if you are mad!!

Just read it back and sounds as if I have major problems - I really don't and get on with everyone (I think).... this is a collection from the last 15 years!
 
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