Most ridiculous things you've seen on livery contracts....

[Esmae]

I get the stallion thing I kept Arabi entire until he was nearly 5 and we were on a few yards and honestly some liveries did the most stupid things around him, he was such a good boy never did anything horrible or dangerous was stabled near mares without any issue.

Someone tied there mare right outside his stable once then complained he was being noisy and trying to bite her

True to say that you can't mend stupid!!

 

[Auslander]

Some of these are defo weird....a newer YM has tried implementing making supplements into weekly "packets" or "baggies" for them (and to bring down weekly). I had already bought tubs/containers and said I won't comply. It's messier and a waste of money to constantly be buying baggies for them ... especially after having bought several containers to mix my supplements in 1 or 2 months at a time!!

I can understand this rule! It seems really silly when you're thinking of your own horse, but when a YO is making up multiple feeds, and every horse has different supplements, it's a ballache!
For instance, I have 12 horses here, on 2 feeds a day, so that 24 feeds to make up. I have 2 horses who have 3 supplements, 2 who have 2, and 2 who have 1, so thats 12 supplement tubs to take down, measure out and put in the feeds - some of them have 2 scoops of their supplements, so I'm dishing out 17 scoops per session. It's actually quite time consuming!

 

[Jojo2go]

I can understand this rule! It seems really silly when you're thinking of your own horse, but when a YO is making up multiple feeds, and every horse has different supplements, it's a ballache!
For instance, I have 12 horses here, on 2 feeds a day, so that 24 feeds to make up. I have 2 horses who have 3 supplements, 2 who have 2, and 2 who have 1, so thats 12 supplement tubs to take down, measure out and put in the feeds - some of them have 2 scoops of their supplements, so I'm dishing out 17 scoops per session. It's actually quite time consuming!

Not to mention all those containers can take up a lot of space if you have a small feed room. Baggies just need a smaller container to put a bunch in. A farm I had my boy at just stuffed the empty baggies in the back of the little tray and I took them home to reuse. Another boarder had containers for her three horses and they took up a lot of shelf space in comparison.

 

[Apercrumbie]

I can understand this rule! It seems really silly when you're thinking of your own horse, but when a YO is making up multiple feeds, and every horse has different supplements, it's a ballache!
For instance, I have 12 horses here, on 2 feeds a day, so that 24 feeds to make up. I have 2 horses who have 3 supplements, 2 who have 2, and 2 who have 1, so thats 12 supplement tubs to take down, measure out and put in the feeds - some of them have 2 scoops of their supplements, so I'm dishing out 17 scoops per session. It's actually quite time consuming!

I do too. When I've done shared care with other owners, we would make up multiple days worth of feed and put them in ziplock bags (then inside a container to keep it rodent safe). It made feeding so easy - each owner was confident that their horse was getting precisely the right food because they had made it themselves, and all the person doing the feeds that day had to do was add e.g. a bit of chaff and/or water. Everybody's happy!

 

[Tinsel]

Have you thought about why that rule may be there?

The hay would start a fire and everything on the muck heap and around it would cause damage to every object in it's pathway

 

[Caol Ila]

I can understand this rule! It seems really silly when you're thinking of your own horse, but when a YO is making up multiple feeds, and every horse has different supplements, it's a ballache!
For instance, I have 12 horses here, on 2 feeds a day, so that 24 feeds to make up. I have 2 horses who have 3 supplements, 2 who have 2, and 2 who have 1, so thats 12 supplement tubs to take down, measure out and put in the feeds - some of them have 2 scoops of their supplements, so I'm dishing out 17 scoops per session. It's actually quite time consuming!

Baggies you can reuse. Smartpaks, not so much. Once they're open, that's it. Like opening ibuprofen. You can't reuse the packaging.

I do hear you, though. My horses are on DIY these days, but when we go out of town and put them on full livery, I make up wee baggies for yard staff to dump into their feedpans. Easy. For them, not me.

When my horse was on full livery, I totally appreciated that yard staff don't want to faff with lots of supplements, but I like monkeying about with herbs and things like that, depending on time of year, or if horse is having issues that could be helped by different herbs, or whatever. I know that sort of faff can drive grooms nuts, so I always kept my own bag of chaff or pony nuts and would give my horse my own wee feed where I could chop and change supplements as I pleased, and only annoy myself. I left the staff with a basic feed, and only one or two things to stick in it.

That doesn't work at every yard. I did once spend four days at a yard where the YO told me, "We will decide what your horse needs, and we don't believe in commercial feeds so we make up our own feeds, and we will work out what your horse needs." Right. I think a lot of the owners at the place were pretty novicey and the hand holding was useful, but I'm thinking, wait, shouldn't I decide what my horse gets? Clearly not when the YO thinks all owners are idiots and she knows more than all of them. But I was there 'cause I was desperate.

My horse got us kicked out for other reasons. LOL. That story is buried in the bowels of this forum and COTH.

 

[teapot]

I've seen rug colours stipulated before now...

 

[Nonjumper]

I went to see a yard once where the hours were 8 am to 7 pm. Appreciate it was her home, but it simply wasn't workable for anybody with a job.

Yes, I was on a DIY yard that had that rule too.

 

[Sussexbythesea]

I moved to at the time expensive 7-day part-livery but when I read the contract it stated I had to poo-pick my individual paddock daily. Apart from the fact that this is not really something you’d expect to do under that sort of arrangement I pointed out that one of the reasons I was on part-livery was that I couldn’t come up daily. I was their first non-diy.

The yard was so well situated with superb hacking that I was desperate to move there and so negotiated that I could do my poo-picking at the weekends. After a few months they decided they couldn’t do part-livery anymore so I had to go DIY or leave. Fortunately there was a free-lancer on the yard I was able to pay to do my horse when I couldn’t. I ended up there 14yrs until it recently closed down.

 

[Peglo]

I sometimes get annoyed at my own supplements for 2 horses so I can understand a yard wanting it made up for them.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this thread. Some of you have had some……. Interesting encounters

 

[BronsonNutter]

Not so much a 'rule' but I did get a three page hate letter sent to my workplace from my (then ex-) yard owner's mother. It was disguised as a christmas card.

 

[CobsaGooden]

Not so much a rule, but a yard I went to look at recently had the menage about half a mile from the stables/fields. You then had to walk your horse through the next livery yards fields (with horses and 3 gates total) to get into the gate to use the manage. Madness! It did have a very strict rule about having the tack room locked at all times (fair) but even if you're on the yard and can see the door, it had to be locked. it was also the feed room and general storage area and had a key in a key safe on the wall. It would have be a massive ball ache and more than one livery told me its strictly monitored and loud verbal warnings are given!

 

[SOS]

I was on one where the yard had to be immaculate at all times. Granted it was their home and a beautiful, old but very well presented yard. This included picking feet out before coming onto yard and once in stable, sweeping walkway from field to stable immediately, any sponging down must be done in the wash box, when mucking out if any hay or straw spilt it must be picked up immediately, must always use a grooming box - no brushes everywhere. In general this was fine and I do like a tidy yard. Since moving to other yards, I actually think some places should be stricter on keeping the place clean

However winter became a problem when I kept being told off for my horse dropping hay over the door during the night. I swapped my haynet to the back of the stable but he would still drag some over to eat looking out. The yard owner then decided that she wanted me to do my horse before she got outside so the mess was dealt with but that she didn’t want me waking her up by arriving.

This lead to her texting me every morning when she woke up, I would rush around and try clean up before she got outside. I lived only across the road but it was a nightmare as she didn’t work so got up anywhere between 6-10am! I left shortly after as I couldn’t do it anymore, I have a job and needed to plan my days.

 

[exracehorse]

Ysrd in Sudbury. We had a rota to fill the field water trough. By bucket only. Even though the hosepipe easily reached. It was a horrible task. 15 horses drank a lot of water! You had to lug the bucket. Then lift it over the fence to tip into the trough. Most went down your trousers. Not nice in the winter.

 

[Tinsel]

Not so much a 'rule' but I did get a three page hate letter sent to my workplace from my (then ex-) yard owner's mother. It was disguised as a christmas card.

That doesn't sound really nice to get in the post

 

[Tinsel]

Ysrd in Sudbury. We had a rota to fill the field water trough. By bucket only. Even though the hosepipe easily reached. It was a horrible task. 15 horses drank a lot of water! You had to lug the bucket. Then lift it over the fence to tip into the trough. Most went down your trousers. Not nice in the winter.

Not nice at all to have cold water on your trousers if you were not strong enough could a friend or a different horse rider friend help you out with the bucket job to be done more easily

 

[little_critter]

Not nice at all to have cold water on your trousers if you were not strong enough could a friend or a different horse rider friend help you out with the bucket job to be done more easily

Or alternatively a reasonable YO could permit use of the hose that easily reached.

 

[Ceifer]

A yard I worked on years ago had a rule that in icy weather or snow we had to muck out chucking all the dirty muck and bedding onto the yard because the yard owner didn’t want to buy salt to spread. It did work but clearing it up was horrendous.

 

[Gloi]

Ysrd in Sudbury. We had a rota to fill the field water trough. By bucket only. Even though the hosepipe easily reached. It was a horrible task. 15 horses drank a lot of water! You had to lug the bucket. Then lift it over the fence to tip into the trough. Most went down your trousers. Not nice in the winter.

I'll bet this is from people leaving the tap on and flooding the place.

 

[champagne_charolais]

Ysrd in Sudbury. We had a rota to fill the field water trough. By bucket only. Even though the hosepipe easily reached. It was a horrible task. 15 horses drank a lot of water! You had to lug the bucket. Then lift it over the fence to tip into the trough. Most went down your trousers. Not nice in the winter.

My god that is barbaric.

 

[RHM]

These are so entertaining I’ve had a few unhinged ones over the years but these are my top ones:

• No training aids such as Pessoa or side reins
• Steroids were banned after a horse developed COPD, the YO refused to let this horse be treated
• Only certain vets were allowed on the yard same with farriers. Luckily mine were one of the chosen few but one of the liveries had to box up down the road to get her horse shod
• Couldn’t go to the yard without letting YO know when you were coming
• Had turnout heavily restricted by a YO that would text first thing to say she had shut the fields all while her horses went out every day
• Not being able to ride in arenas unless someone was on the ground
• Having to sweep up all hay outside windows - perfectly acceptable but I can’t do this outside of the opening hours. Those stroppy 5am messages were fun. She was generally a bit unhinged with sweeping though in general and would regularly read people the riot act for other people’s mess.
• My current yards opening hours are 8-8 which is profoundly annoying but telling myself it’s worth it because of the winter turnout!

One day I will have my own yard - just keep buying lottery tickets!

 

[FieldOrnaments]

I'll bet this is from people leaving the tap on and flooding the place.

then it freezing and becoming a lethal ice skating rink.

 

[Titchy Pony]

Some of these rules are crazy! I'm particularly shocked at the ones restricting uses of vets / veterinary treatment.
I've never been on a yard with restricted times and honestly don't think I'd be able to cope with it. When my pony was on full livery, I just knew if I got there at stupid o'clock on a non-competition day (a very rare occurrence), she wouldn't have been fed, so I'd chuck her her hay first and then give hay to at least one of the barns while I was waiting for her to eat before riding. Then I'd drop a text to the YO to let him know which horses had been fed and head off on my ride. I now have mine at home and make my own rules which are flouted by just about everyone: the horses, the chickens, the dogs...

 

[94lunagem]

I totally agree that some of these rules that people have come across are bizarre! But I've both been a livery and had liveries since I've had my own place and having been on both sides of the fence, some I can understand.

Re droppings in the arena, this does seem like a non-issue until you have paid for an arena surface yourself! And when somewhere is also your home (and it's a small yard) I can understand wanting to keep things clean and tidy. I asked that people cart hay about in a barrow, rather than lugging nets over your shoulder dropping bits everywhere, and I did expect stables to be at least skipped out daily or left clean/beds up if horses are out. My liveries could turn out 24 hours if they liked and because my own had each other for company, I didn't care if it was all the time or if they chopped and changed. But I then didn't like to see stables left dirty for 3 days until the horse was brought in again!

Edited to add, my last livery left 10 years ago and I’ve not had any since.

 

[exracehorse]

then it freezing and becoming a lethal ice skating rink.

Actually .. in the winter there was a trail of frozen water on concrete from lugging buckets of water from tap to fence then lifting over to tip in.

 

[exracehorse]

Or alternatively a reasonable YO could permit use of the hose that easily reached.

Exactly. And you can use the attachment on the hosepipe that I have in the garden that only works if you press it down. It was buckets and buckets at a time. So glad I’m not there anymore. She was a witch in every way.

 

[spacefaer]

As an exYO I think closing time on yards are sensible but flexibility and communicated are key. We had a separate section of 5 boxes at the end of the yard, which were DIY, away from the competition or full liveries. We didn't have a closing time as such but I'd do a late night check and feed at around 9 so I expected thatvhre uardwould be quiet and done by then. We had one DIY who would still be there, complete with 4 yr old child, at 11 at night. She was an absolute nightmare and wasn't with us long. One time, we found she'd left the child locked in the tackroom with the electric heater on full blast, while she went for a hack.

 

[criso]

It can be annoying when your getting really good work and you have to stop, alot of the time if other liveries were around we picked it up for each other but were occasionally times no one was around.

Also it assumes your horse is happy to be dragged back and forth with a skip bucket. A fresh spooky horse in winter would not necessarily make this easy.

Re the premixed supplements, I've been doing that for years. It means nothing is forgotten, it's the right amount, not everyone fills scoops the same and I have supplements that specify a heaped or level scoops and it's easier for the ym or staff who have dozens of feeds to make. First I used little plastic bags but moved onto pots as less wasteful.

 

[Crazy_cat_lady]

Liveries were responsible for poo picking even though YOs RS ponies (which produced loads of s**t) also shared the paddocks and they had helpers at the weekend

Water butt's were used for filling up buckets which did make it easier as less of a walk, but you were responsible for filling it up even though different people used it, some liveries were also exempt from filling it up as they used more services so paid more (fair enough full liveries but not all were) but it didn't stop them filling their massive water tubs using over half the butt and leaving it because of course, it wasn't their problem. The tap wasn't the quickest either so you'd spend half your time waiting for the blasted thing to fill, and of course couldn't know exactly how long it would take, so didn't dare do jobs that weren't near the butt, for fear of flooding the yard

Rules also seemed to change and you'd find out when you got it in the neck for not doing something you didn't know you were supposed to

I do not miss horse ownership, the only way I'd ever want to again would be my own yard, following a lottery win, with enough money to have staff

 

[ester]

I do find the opening times interesting, both yards have been attached to houses but previous yard was usual for people to be down till 9pm, current larger yard empty by 7/7.30 which I find really weird in summer!