Livery yards being closed, banned from seeing our horses

We are on 1 hour only visit per horse per day all at different times. Its a real struggle as I'm trying to still rehab my horse and ultrasound takes 10 mins of my valuable time, icing isn't so bad as I just leave the ice vibe boot on, and then I have to walk her after ultrasound, only down the yard and back but its still time, something about aligning tendon fibres. I have her on assisted DIy and they are still doing my stable for me, so I am very lucky for that - it is skip out, so when I get there I am doing a full muck out down to the floor as I always have, plus icing leg, bandaging, changing rugs, preparing and feeding, water, picking out feet and applying iodeine solution.

I am grateful we are still allowed up as I want to get my horse as well as I can with her injury whilst I have the chance so that I am actually able to ride her again. And also trying to get her paddock as big as I feasibly can as she is strip grazed every day. I need to do that as quick as I can without her getting colic from the additional grazing space.

I'm grateful to the YO for letting us still go up, but when I've been at work all day, I practically have to drive like a mad woman to get to the yard to make my hour slot as even though there is hardly any traffic all I seem to be stuck behind is buses going at 20mph or tractors and other vechicles mooching along the lanes. When I get there I get changed and zoom in and do all my jobs, I feel I don't even have time for a cuddle anymore and its affecting my mental health big time, I keep bursting into tears, it has really upset me as I feel so frazzled, my stomach is in turmoil, I get home and have an upset stomach with the stress of it all and just cry and cry. I'm not sure where the 'hour' regulation has come from, an hour and a half would be more reasonable for everyone. Feel sorry for those that are buddying up and doing two although they get an extra hour. We have a really good staff team of about four plus YO and they are not allowed to ride even though they are there all day.

But I would do anything to keep seeing my horse so I will keep perservering as long as my mental health will let me and as long as we are allowed.
 
I feel like banning my liveries today!!

Yesterday I gave everyone a sheet of new hygiene rules asking people to come at different times where poss, stay apart as much as piss and avoid staying at the yard longer than they have to etc. I’m doing extra to regularly sanitise the bits of the yard we all touch. Yet today they’ve come at the same time (despite being off work), mucked out together, had a coffee and gone out for a hack together. Not the slightest effort made whatsoever. I’m really upset.

Total idiots and unfair on you, mine are now on full care, not an issue as they are now out so just a feed, rug change and water check, I am allowing them to come and ride in the school as long as I know when they are coming/leaving and they follow hygiene rules, if they showed such a lack of respect they would not be coming at all.
 
I feel like banning my liveries today!!

Yesterday I gave everyone a sheet of new hygiene rules asking people to come at different times where poss, stay apart as much as piss and avoid staying at the yard longer than they have to etc. I’m doing extra to regularly sanitise the bits of the yard we all touch. Yet today they’ve come at the same time (despite being off work), mucked out together, had a coffee and gone out for a hack together. Not the slightest effort made whatsoever. I’m really upset.
They should be asked to leave. I try and stay well back from everyone, and I cover my hands with sanitiser that I keep in my car. We have been asked not to all sit in the tea room together although I need to pop in to go to the loo and get my ice pack from the freezer. I wipe the key pad after I've used it too on the way in and out.
 
I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels lost and upset. My yard is full DIY with 6 horses. YO has tried to implement AM and PM people visiting once, but this isn't really working as 2 people work shifts which are changing daily. I am back at work and so need to go up PM (if only once a day) due to J's hay etc. so I am going up around 6pm to avoid everyone (as I am a risk as I am still going to work).

I was heartbroken last night. I know it sounds pathetic in the grand scheme of things but routine is massive for me, and looking after J myself is a big thing. He will only be turned out and brought in by different people and I will be doing everything in the evening but its still so hard.

That said I completely get why it is being done, and I really feel for YO's whose liveries are carrying on as normal. We wont have this freedom soon and at some point they will end up having to do a complete lock down which will be even more stressful and for longer. Our YO has said if we cant stick to these rules she will lock the yard down for 3 weeks minimum and she will do full livery. I cant afford it but it is what it is.

:(
 
There are only three of us on the yard and two of them are so joined at the hip they can’t function singularly. No social distancing whatsoever, one picks the other up which is just ridiculous as she lives within a three minute walk from the yard and as there’s a two on the yard rule at any one time I am trying to keep my distance. I have purposely put my two on opposite turnout to theirs so I am going up earlier to get them in and later in the evening to muck out and am trying to avoid them at all cost. My Farrier was down this morning so I kept my distance and he didn’t get a coffee. (He understood why) Their Farrier is down at lunchtime so there will be 4 of them on the yard and given they were discussing who was bringing the milk tea and biscuits will be handed out.

I just despair of some people they just don’t fecking get it.
 
I feel like banning my liveries today!!

Yesterday I gave everyone a sheet of new hygiene rules asking people to come at different times where poss, stay apart as much as piss and avoid staying at the yard longer than they have to etc. I’m doing extra to regularly sanitise the bits of the yard we all touch. Yet today they’ve come at the same time (despite being off work), mucked out together, had a coffee and gone out for a hack together. Not the slightest effort made whatsoever. I’m really upset.

You are the YO and they must abide by your rules. Take the kettle away and lock the tack/feedroom up. Put a BIG notice on the door saying that only one person is to be on the yard at any one time and they can either sort times between them or you will allocate time slots to them.

Failure to comply will mean that the yard is closed and they will NOT be able to visit.
 
You are the YO and they must abide by your rules. Take the kettle away and lock the tack/feedroom up. Put a BIG notice on the door saying that only one person is to be on the yard at any one time and they can either sort times between them or you will allocate time slots to them.

Failure to comply will mean that the yard is closed and they will NOT be able to visit.

There never was a kettle. People bring flasks. We are now doing allocated slots.
 
I am so glad I have my lot at home!

I do feel for those of you who can't go and see to your horses but it is a short term problem in the grand scheme of life. Hopefully.

Well yes, hopefully. However it's easy to think positively if you are lucky enough to still be able to see your horses.

For those that can't, and without any sort of confirmed end date, it is causing great anguish and that shouldn't be diminished, particularly where there are existing mental health issues. For many, their horses are a source of great help and comfort, from which they are now blocked.
 
I feel like banning my liveries today!!

Yesterday I gave everyone a sheet of new hygiene rules asking people to come at different times where poss, stay apart as much as piss and avoid staying at the yard longer than they have to etc. I’m doing extra to regularly sanitise the bits of the yard we all touch. Yet today they’ve come at the same time (despite being off work), mucked out together, had a coffee and gone out for a hack together. Not the slightest effort made whatsoever. I’m really upset.

Why?

How does any of the above affect you in the slightest?

I agree it puts the people concerned at a higher risk and probably isn't in the spirit of the government guidelines but if they stay 2m apart then so what?

How adults conduct themselves when they are renting a space from you/buying a service is really beyond the limits of what you can reasonably influence
 
It is incredibly difficult I am not banned from the yard but I have to travel on public transport which is still running but with being asked to only do essential journey's on public transport I don't think I can really justify going to the yard.

Three weeks will be struggle not to see my pony but there is now some mention of the lockdown being for 6 months which would be incredibly difficult for those of us who could not see our horses until the lockdown is lifted. I live on my own so not only will I not be able to see my horse until the lockdown is lifted I won't be able to interact socially with anyone until it lifted I will only be able to talk on the phone. 6 months without any proper interaction with a living being either animal or human is going to be mentally very challenging.
 
I have never ever been so grateful felt so privileged that I have mine at home .
Its the only thing in life that ever I really really wanted I am so so lucky .
I had mine at livery - for my convenience tbh - and snatched them home when I knew this was coming... I’m so glad I did... and recognise how lucky I am that I could - they are my sanity atm... stuck at home with 2 kids one of which is on the autistic spectrum, I actually look forward to mucking out... its such a previlege and I know I will never take it for granted again.
 
Why?

How does any of the above affect you in the slightest?

I agree it puts the people concerned at a higher risk and probably isn't in the spirit of the government guidelines but if they stay 2m apart then so what?

How adults conduct themselves when they are renting a space from you/buying a service is really beyond the limits of what you can reasonably influence

If yard becomes a covid hotbed because of ridiculous practices by the liveries, of course it affects the YO - the YO could get it! and then pass it on to who knows who. FFS it's precisely this attitude that has resulted in this situation.
 
Why?

How does any of the above affect you in the slightest?

I agree it puts the people concerned at a higher risk and probably isn't in the spirit of the government guidelines but if they stay 2m apart then so what?

How adults conduct themselves when they are renting a space from you/buying a service is really beyond the limits of what you can reasonably influence

Ffs really?! Because OP doesn't want to potentially catch the virus by touching things that haven't been properly sanitised.

Plus they have to abide by the yard rules - regardless of if they like it or not.
 
It is incredibly difficult I am not banned from the yard but I have to travel on public transport which is still running but with being asked to only do essential journey's on public transport I don't think I can really justify going to the yard.

Three weeks will be struggle not to see my pony but there is now some mention of the lockdown being for 6 months which would be incredibly difficult for those of us who could not see our horses until the lockdown is lifted. I live on my own so not only will I not be able to see my horse until the lockdown is lifted I won't be able to interact socially with anyone until it lifted I will only be able to talk on the phone. 6 months without any proper interaction with a living being either animal or human is going to be mentally very challenging.

It’s not just their horses that some people will be cut off from. My long-term boyfriend has gone home to Glasgow to isolate (he usually lives 20 minutes away from me in West Yorkshire), but as we don’t live together, we thought it would be better for him to go to his family home rather than isolating with housemates who he doesn’t have an overly close relationship with. If this carries on for six months, that’s six months until I’ll see him again, and I’m sure I’m not the only one in this position. Thank God I can at least continue to see my horses, or I don’t know what I’d do! I really do feel sorry for anyone cut off from their loved ones right now, horse or human.
 
Ehm, as a YO myself (just a DIY one with only one livery, but still a YO), I personally would feel that is a little heavyhanded???

Yes I know this is an unprecedented issue - but I fail to see why the YO's concerned cannot issue "guidance" i.e. keeping safe space which might include "doing" your horses outside e.g. grooming etc rather than inside either a barn or stable, etc rather than issuing dictats that people should stay away??

But that's just me........
Me too, Yard Owner small ish yard
5 part livery 4 diy and 3 + .2 horses of my owner, One owner living in common room to help me out, daughter coming 1 a week, diy carry letter from em and we have the 2 m rule. Still coming up for their horses
 
Last edited:
I'm lucky that my yard is still open and all the liveries are adults (not always chronologically - I mean in behaviour terms...) who can behave decently. I can reach the yard on foot or by bike if I have to so no problem with getting to / from. But I do wonder how many yards who have banned their liveries and are now doing the horses themsleves will start to think twice when this is extended to 6 weeks, or 9 or 12?
 
I have never ever been so grateful felt so privileged that I have mine at home .
Its the only thing in life that ever I really really wanted I am so so lucky .


Ditto. I'm never going to complain about how difficult it is to get cover if I want to go away, ever again.

Huge sympathies for everyone locked away from loved ones, too.

.
 
I am thanks yeah

The worlds leading virologists don't know precisely how this virus is being transmitted but if you have privileged info you should probably share it with them

They may not know precisely, but they have a fair idea based on past studies. Non-essential interaction needs to stop. It's not essential for people to have coffee together when rotas can be sorted. It's sticking two fingers up to those who are properly isolating, and to those on the frontline in healthcare.
 
I am thanks yeah

The worlds leading virologists don't know precisely how this virus is being transmitted but if you have privileged info you should probably share it with them

The point is it's her yard and if she wishes to put stringent measures in place to prevent the spread of the virus then she is is entitled to do so.

For the liveries to dismiss the rules she has put in place and do as they please, is blatantly rude and dismissive towards the yard owner who is trying to keep them all safe.

I wouldn't want liveries like that TBH.
 
Top