My nightmare livery - the concluding part

oofadoofa

oofadoofa

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Joined
10 April 2008
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Somerset
www.mearecourtequestrian.co.uk
I apologise in advance, this may be long!

I have posted on here a few times about a girl who kept her horse at my yard on DIY livery. To cut a long story short, she wasn't looking after her horse at all, probably lucky to come down once a week. If I rang her, she wouldn't answer her phone, the only way she would communicate was through texting which was hopeless!

About 10 days ago now I really had had enough, and managed to speak to her boyfriend's mother (she lives with her boyfriend and his mother). The mother said that as far as she was aware the girl was going down every morning to see to her horse as that's what she'd been told. So she said she would confront her about it. I had also told her (by text of course!) that she would have to bring her horse in at night now, as per the contract she had signed when she first came, as the fields were getting quite wet. I asked her if she would like me to bring her horse in at night or put it out in the morning if she couldn't come down twice a day. I just got a text back saying "no, I'll manage myself".

So last week, she brought her horse in one night, clipped him right out the next day and I thought great, she's finally looking after him. The next night I wasn't sure if she had brought him in because I wasn't around much, but gave her the benefit of the doubt. Friday night I went down to the yard at about 8.30 and her horse was still out in the field, so I text to ask if she was coming down. I just got a reply saying "no, he's staying out". Afraid I lost it a bit at this point because it was like she was sticking two fingers up at me. So I told her she had better pick the horse up tomorrow (Saturday).

Saturday morning I text and asked her if she was going to pick the horse up or if she wanted me to drop him back. I got a load of abuse back saying I couldn't do that. I told her I wasn't arguing by text, if she had something to say she'd better ring me. I didn't hear a thing so at 1 o'clock I rang and left a message on her answerphone (she doesn't pick up calls) saying if she rang me back we could sort this out, if I didn't hear anything by 3 o'clock I was taking the horse back to the house.

3 o'clock came and i didn't hear a thing. So I loaded up the horse and took it to her house. Now I know you are going to tell me this was an irresponsible thing to do, but I do know that the person she works for (with horses) lives about a mile away, has land and is also a good friend of the boyfriend's mother. I knew that there would be somewhere for the horse to go, otherwise I wouldn't have done it.

So I have since had a whole heap of abuse (by text of course!) and none of which I have responded to, but what else could I do? Some people just don't deserve horses!!


Grrrrr, rant over. Sorry it was so long.
 
blimey what a nightmare!
do you know why the girl suddenly couldnt look after it anymore?
sounds like you offered to help as much as you could tho - must be have been v surprised when it appeared at their house!
 
Oh dear - it's all been a bit of a disaster by the sounds of it - and who suffers, the poor old horse of course.

I couldn't possibly have dumped the horse - but that's just me, and I do appreciate you have a business to run.

Happy days eh?
 
I think you did the right thing. Up to her to make sure the horse has somewhere to go, not you. You're running a business, not an animal welfare sanctuary. Well done for confronting it and may her little hissy fit calm down soon.
 
I' m with you on this one - you knew she had an alternative and so its not like you dump her with a homeless horse - from reading your other posts you gave her every chance.
 
Oh my God.
shocked.gif
Well you can only offer to help people, and it is really hard if they aren't open enough to saying that they have problems, or whatever. As an owner, although my horse is on full livery and I expect them to do the contracted jobs, I believe that the buck still stops with me with regard to my horse's welfare. If I were a DIY client I hope that I would be rigid about enforcing this principle.
It is really difficult to work out why she was acting in the way she did?
confused.gif

Not sure I would have removed the horse, but I do understand you were at your witt's end, and I am not sure legally if there are alternatives.
 
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I couldn't possibly have dumped the horse - but that's just me, and I do appreciate you have a business to run.

[/ QUOTE ]

I know Amymay, it wouldn't have been my choice to do that, but as I had threatened to I really felt I had to follow it through! And I had given her the opportunity to ring me and sort things out.
 
Well done. I have a small yard and have had similar probs with the occassional person in the past. Sounds like you gave her every chance in the book. At least you can sleep well now knowing you're rid of her and she's someone elses problem. Feel sorry for her horse though!
 
I think you did the right thing, because you knew she had somewhere to take the horse (so the horse would be ok) secondly, ok it may of sounded a bit extreme but...perhaps this will buck her ideas up.

There is no excuses at the end of the day, even if the young lady had been going through a rough time or had issues as to why she couldnt come down and tend to her horse, she could of at least had the decency to let you know, talk to you in person to arrange something or arrange for someone else to see to her duties whilst she couldnt get down.

If it was a case of couldnt be ar*ed to look after it...well she doesnt deserve a horse in the first place...and why on earth clilp the horse if she's not coming down to ride it, let alone look after it.
crazy.gif
 
what a horrible girl and awful position she put you in. you did the right thing as it wouldnt be long before she completely abandoned the horse anyway. hopefully this will prompt her to sell him.
 
Well done you!!

I HATE people like this!! I would give my back teeth to have a horse of my own and then someone like this has their own horse and wont look after it! It makes me sick.
 
As a livery client I think you did the right thing.Maybe if more YO took a stricter approach folk wouldn't so readily 'abandon' their horses as really think they rely on the people who won't see horse suffer ,which btw I totally understand as been there done that.Sometime tho you have to harden yourself to let things get worse so they hopefully can get better if you know what I mean.
 
So what grounds did you have for dumping the horse then.......

(not trying to pick an argument, just trying to get my head around leaving the horse in the garden....)
 
Good for you, too many people allow themselves to get walked over, they say nothing and just whinge about it to others, and nothing ever changes. People have to learn that there are consequences. It is your yard, your rules, and if she refused help thats her problem.

It will also show your other liveries that you mean what you say, which is the only way to be when running a business, imo.
 
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So what grounds did you have for dumping the horse then.......

(not trying to pick an argument, just trying to get my head around leaving the horse in the garden....)

[/ QUOTE ]

I would say that the fact that the girl neglected her horse, refused help, didnt pay and refused to follow the rules set out by the YO are pretty good grounds.
 
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I would say that the fact that the girl neglected her horse, refused help, didnt pay and refused to follow the rules set out by the YO are pretty good grounds.

[/ QUOTE ]
No, OP has said that the girl paid up until the end of September - and we are yet to reach the end of October.

However, I absolutely take the point about yard rules. But I think I would have done the horse myself and charged her for it - and then given her a month's notice to leave.

As I said earlier - I do sympathise. This is a bussiness after all.

It just seems such a callous thing to do (to the horse...)
 
I assure you that I'm not a callous person, and I did everything I could to help the horse whilst he was with me.

Livery money was due on 1st October, so I have lost out on October's livery. I offered to help with the horse (and charge accordingly) and was told in no uncertain terms that I wasn't to do the horse as she would "manage" herself and wasn't going to pay money for anything I did.
 
No I know you're not callous. I'm just not sure I could have taken the same action in our shoes.

Any way there's an end to it. And you are obviously better off without that sort of person around.
 
Wow, you are lucky to be rid of the girl! I just can't see why people have horses and cannot or will not look after them. And you said she works with horses as well!!!!!!!
 
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