Other livery’s saying you should do your horse Christmas Day , Boxing Day and Christmas Eve ?

[Gingerwitch]

If all the others are doing there’s over Christmas then she should to, us staff deserve a break and entitled owners should be prepared to do there own horses!

Some entitled horse owners work incredibly hard all year too.... It's how full livery is financed.... We don't have a cellar full of money. I have to work most holidays, and Christmas is no exception. Do you think the cows go.... Oh it's Christmas so best stop producing milk,that will teach the entitled tea drinkers a lesson.

 

[Gingerwitch]

4.00am??

Really..... It's late round my way ?

 

[Gingerwitch]

I've known of yards where owners are asked to muck out over the festive period if they would like, but there's no expectation that they will and certainly only for their own horses, not others!
If it is a competition yard I can't see that the majority of owners would be suited to mucking out? And the YO should have a professional set up and imagine it will be yards as usual, maybe with no frills/extras.
If your friend wants to do her horses and YO doesn't mind I'm sure the gesture will be appreciated. But I'm equally sure that it probably isn't expected. Certainly wouldn't be expecting to do more than your own horses in this scenario though!

I shudder, horses out at 4am and out til 10pm, being fetched in by half cut people or being left out as it will be fine. A yard owners worst nightmare. Fit horses in the wrong rugs, highly strung getting board - and then going it on Christmas day and boxing day. I would be worried sick if I was at this yard especially if I was taken ill and this year with vivid about why would you want do many more folk mixing if you did not need to.

 

[Griffin]

Now I could not cope with that unless the horses were out 24/7 all year or only come to stables if the weather turns really bad. I hate the turn to overnight grazing and much prefer it when it's back to the day time turn out. I know what the ponies prefer..... but I worry to much about overnight pony raves and the boys foing raids on the girls - to be fair it's usually the girls raiding the boys lol !

My YO tries to turn out as much as possible (weather permitting) but they would always take into account individual horses and circumstances. I agree that you need to take account of raiding parties!

My mare is fine out 24/7 if it's dry but would rather be in if the weather is wet.

 

[AUB]

If all the others are doing there’s over Christmas then she should to, us staff deserve a break and entitled owners should be prepared to do there own horses!

entitled to... get what they’re paying for?

 

[Mary3050]

Frankly, if I had a horse on full livery I would find it unacceptable for it not to be mucked out on Christmas Day. If the YO wasn’t going to do it I would do it myself. Animals, like children, are a 365 day a year responsibility.

Well tbh I don’t quite agree with you there. I agree it’s but not good that YO doesn’t do her jobs on Christmas. But the horse is hardly gonna die for not being mucked for day is it ? And what about the people deep litter . I also think when you pay £190 a week for full schooling livery you expect the horse to be cared for 365 days a year. Also my friend took him up there due to her health so before she decided it was the best option for the horse she spend 3 months in hospital. Whilst she is okay now it could flare up again . So that why she has him there for his best welfare

 

[Auslander]

If all the others are doing there’s over Christmas then she should to, us staff deserve a break and entitled owners should be prepared to do there own horses!

No. Owners should get what they pay for, and staff should do the job they're paid to do. If you want a break, take some annual leave

 

[WandaMare]

No. Owners should get what they pay for, and staff should do the job they're paid to do. If you want a break, take some annual leave

True to a degree but there's nothing wrong with a bit of give and take especially at Christmas. If owners horses are ill, YO's and staff are often the ones who check them through the night and spend a lot of extra time with them, which doesn't get added to the bill, so if they need a bit of help at xmas I wouldn't begrudge it for someone who looked after my horse for the rest of the year.

 

[Arzada]

Well tbh I don’t quite agree with you there. I agree it’s but not good that YO doesn’t do her jobs on Christmas. But the horse is hardly gonna die for not being mucked for day is it ?

IME humans don't die from mucking out on Christmas Day or any other Bank Holiday. Anyone who thinks it is OK not to muck out should locate to a small room eg a cupboard and stand, eat, drink and lie in pee and poop for at least 36 hours. It is not in a horse's nature to stand, eat, drink and lie in pee and poop and is not something which they choose to do, given choice. I can't think of any living being which makes such a choice.

 

[shamrock2021]

In previous yard I have been I had to muck out and take care of my horse on Christmas Day . My current yard I don’t have to do Christmas Day. Strange story do you think the yard owner is complaining about having to do Christmas by themselves? So the livery took matters into there own hands . Also do the other livery’s help the yard owner on Christmas Day? I feel like there is more to this story than meets the eye.

 

[sunnyone]

Every time I read about full livery on here I get more and more confused as to what the modern concept is.

In 1971 i used to "work for rides" in a local yard. After I had ridden out with them on Sunday mornings I would stay on to muck out, groom, clean tack and prepare teas, particulalry when the owner's wife was pregnant. One of the horses there belonged to a VERY eminent judge, His horse was fully groomed and tacked up ready for him to ride out about 3p.m; When he returned he left the horse tied up ready for untacking. In winter he would hunt said horse for a few occasions. Other than that we would never see him. He lived in London and his horse was approximately 100 miles away. No way was he going to do his own horse any day of the year, but he paid full livery precisely for such a privilege. Is that not how it works now?

 

[Unhappy Hacker]

Every time I read about full livery on here I get more and more confused as to what the modern concept is.

In 1971 i used to "work for rides" in a local yard. After I had ridden out with them on Sunday mornings I would stay on to muck out, groom, clean tack and prepare teas, particulalry when the owner's wife was pregnant. One of the horses there belonged to a VERY eminent judge, His horse was fully groomed and tacked up ready for him to ride out about 3p.m; When he returned he left the horse tied up ready for untacking. In winter he would hunt said horse for a few occasions. Other than that we would never see him. He lived in London and his horse was approximately 100 miles away. No way was he going to do his own horse any day of the year, but he paid full livery precisely for such a privilege. Is that not how it works now?

Looks like such a service does sometimes exist -

http://www.rugbypoloclub.com/livery/

I suppose it depends on whether the yard is a proper professional yard or an amatuer-commercial yard type arrangement.

 

[Auslander]

True to a degree but there's nothing wrong with a bit of give and take especially at Christmas. If owners horses are ill, YO's and staff are often the ones who check them through the night and spend a lot of extra time with them, which doesn't get added to the bill, so if they need a bit of help at xmas I wouldn't begrudge it for someone who looked after my horse for the rest of the year.

Im not arguing that - I have a yard of 12 horses, which I do on my own, so I'm always very grateful for help from owners. I don't expect it though, and I certainly wouldn't call my owners entitled, or think any less of them for not shovelling shit on Christmas morning!

 

[ihatework]

Every time I read about full livery on here I get more and more confused as to what the modern concept is.

In 1971 i used to "work for rides" in a local yard. After I had ridden out with them on Sunday mornings I would stay on to muck out, groom, clean tack and prepare teas, particulalry when the owner's wife was pregnant. One of the horses there belonged to a VERY eminent judge, His horse was fully groomed and tacked up ready for him to ride out about 3p.m; When he returned he left the horse tied up ready for untacking. In winter he would hunt said horse for a few occasions. Other than that we would never see him. He lived in London and his horse was approximately 100 miles away. No way was he going to do his own horse any day of the year, but he paid full livery precisely for such a privilege. Is that not how it works now?

In general no.
The terminology is used interchangeably these days, is quite regional and can vary hugely.

For some, full livery means basic daily care - so a quick feed/muck out/ turn in/out. Personally I class that as part livery. Then even within full/part there are different services/quality of service offered.

There still are people who want the kind of livery you describe, but it’s not that common. It’s a more bespoke form of full livery and very typical of old fashioned hunt yards IME.

My last horse was on competition livery at a quite traditional / old school yard. I remember the first time I turned up to ride and my horse was squeaky clean, tacked up, tied up and rugged, hoof oiled & the works. It was a bit embarrassing!! I asked to be allowed to do him in future, but rarely did I arrive to find he hadn’t been skipped out, bed set, feet picked out and any straw out of his tail.

 

[Teaboy]

I run a small schooling yard (10 horses no staff) and I would hate it if owners wanted to come in and sort their horse out on Xmas day, because in all honestly they would slow things down and get in the way. Sounds harsh but it’s true. Thankfully I’ve never had any owner want to.
Everything carries on as normal, full muck outs and turn outs etc. Nothing is worked though, unless I fancy hacking my own just for fun.

 

[Muddywellies]

Good grief. I sincerely hope none of my staff feel this way!!

I want my liveries to enjoy their horses and their lives. They pay to have their horses looked after, my staff are compensated generously for working at Christmas, and we have a lovely time listening to Christmas music, eating chocolate and mince pies, and drinking Buck’s Fizz from 4am. Liveries are always welcome to come and see their horses but I wouldn’t dream of asking them to muck out, and if my staff were rude enough to imply that the owners who pay their wages are ‘entitled’ they would be sacked on the spot!

My yard owner I'm sure won't actually let us do our horses on Xmas day. She runs a pretty slick operation and whilst she encourages people spend time with their horses, she doesn't really like people mucking out etc. She has a routine that works well and to have owners turning up at random times or day doing half hearted muck outs would really upset the routine. And I know my contract doesn't exclude bank holidays. I will certainly offer to help but I know it won't be accepted. Many industries carry on as normal over Xmas (my husband usually works over xmas).

 

[Winters100]

I was riding with our YO today and mentioned this discussion to him. He almost fell off his horse laughing and then told me that he did not think the grooms would like to spend Christmas afternoon extracting horses from the wrong paddocks and changing rugs which had been put inside out on the wrong horses, and that he did not want to spend the afternoon calling people to explain that their expensive competition horse had been kicked because it was turned out in a pack that it did not belong to. He also pointed out that they do the boxes very early, and that leaving some to be done by whichever owners wanted to do them would not really work as they would have to go back and do them if the owner failed to turn up.

Where I am is what I would call part livery, everything except for riding and owners prepare their horses themselves. There at least half a dozen horses there who are ridden by a pro and whose owners I have never seen, I can hardly imagine these owners making one of their infrequent visits to muck out on Christmas day, and YO would not welcome it if it was suggested. The yard runs to a schedule, and numerous owners wanting to use the wheelbarrows etc at the same time would be chaos!

While I am all for helping out a bit if you are there over the holidays I think that our groom appreciates more a few words of thanks given with an envelope and a bottle at Christmas.

 

[paddi22]

yeah the last Yo I was with said it more hassle than it was worth to have liveries doing the horses. said they organised it one year and it was just a disaster with people ringing her to ask her where stuff was, who should go where etc. said she came out to a really messy yard with equipment all over the place. said it ended up costing her more time and stress than just doing it herself.

 

[little_critter]

Also what happens if you have 3 pitchforks for the 3 members of staff and 8 liveries turn up to muck out. There won't be enough forks / barrows / brooms etc

 

[stormox]

None of any other liveries business!! If concerned check with YO

 

[Flicker]

If all the others are doing there’s over Christmas then she should to, us staff deserve a break and entitled owners should be prepared to do there own horses!

Perhaps my OH’s patients should stitch their own wounds and pull the Lego man’s heads out of their own kids’ noses on Christmas Day too? Because, you know, entitled...

 

[Flicker]

The yard I had my last horse on trialled giving the staff Christmas Day off and it didn’t go down well with anyone. The staff only got paid on days they worked = cross staff. The liveries were hopeless and made a mess of everything = cross staff on Boxing Day. Plus the YO nearly fainted when one of the liveries’ kids managed to open the door of the horse walker and get inside WITH horses in! Mum was too busy gossiping in the feed room to notice what her child was up to...

 

[stormox]

Most of the yards Ive been on the owners and yard staff organise a big yard hack out on xmas morning with a few mince pies and glass of wine or a cuppa. Otherwise the horses are done by whoever usually does them, and the yard operates as normal.

 

[AmyMay]

Any update op?

 

[Goldenstar]

All your friend needs to say is 'sorry, I have already made my arrangements with YO'. I certainly wouldn't be giving the bossy livery my personal info, or discussing family matters with her.

Exactly it’s nothing to with the other livery .

 

[Arzada]

Also what happens if you have 3 pitchforks for the 3 members of staff and 8 liveries turn up to muck out. There won't be enough forks / barrows / brooms etc

This is just too difficult! It would be easier to work out if the yard had 9 liveries pitching up to use the 3 forks. Perhaps the YO could buy a fourth pitchfork for his/her 8 liveries and they could work in pairs.

 

[Cloball]

I have worked every christmas for the last 16 years looking after other people's horses! It is what I get PAID to do! If I wanted the day off I could take it off (we work a bit of a rota at xmas - you work xmas you get new year off and vice versa)

If you don't want to work xmas then take it as a day off - unpaid or as holiday! No one is forcing you to work it and to be honest owners are paying for their horses to be looked after. Not have some spoilt little brat whinge and complain about the job they chose to do because it doesn't suit them that day!

Some jobs you just expect to work Christmas, I actually find it quite festive. What I did not enjoy was working boxing day night switching from long days to nights over the festive period was NOT fun. What about those people who have their animals on full livery because they work Christmas etc. Are they entitled or should they just not have horses? I'm not sure if I was on full livery I would be too impressed at a single livery being press ganged into doing all the horses over Christmas.
[QUOTE="Mary3050, post: 14460290, member: 138345] If you worked in a hospital would it be acceptable to ask relatives to come care for patients on Christmas Day because you deserve a break . Entitled owners pay a premium rate shouldn’t be expected to do all the other livery’s horse to ![/QUOTE]
? Might help them complain less.

 

[Evie91]

When I had horse on part livery (full care bar riding) all holidays including Christmas were included- which I very much appreciated as usually have a house full at Christmas so wouldn‘t have time to drive/do horse twice a day and neither was it asked of me. Only change was horses didn’t go out on Christmas Day, fully done in the morning and then Owner and staff finished work. Traditionally the same liveries and their family came up every year, skipped out, night nets and fed tea. Worked well for years.

Last yard (before horse was sold), five day livery and £25 supplement per day for Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day which I found reasonable and would have paid despite living five minutes away. As it was horse was in horsepital and charge was £25 a day livery anyway.

I think full livery it should be expected as part of the package.

 

[Mary3050]

IME humans don't die from mucking out on Christmas Day or any other Bank Holiday. Anyone who thinks it is OK not to muck out should locate to a small room eg a cupboard and stand, eat, drink and lie in pee and poop for at least 36 hours. It is not in a horse's nature to stand, eat, drink and lie in pee and poop and is not something which they choose to do, given choice. I can't think of any living being which makes such a choice.

They still get turned out so hardly 36 hours. People deep litter so I don’t see the harm in one day. My retired pony has a massive field and field shelter is the size of 4 big stables rubber mattered and big straw beds shared with a Shetland . But he still lays in his shit when he has a massive amount of other space to lay in ? x

 

[Mary3050]

In previous yard I have been I had to muck out and take care of my horse on Christmas Day . My current yard I don’t have to do Christmas Day. Strange story do you think the yard owner is complaining about having to do Christmas by themselves? So the livery took matters into there own hands . Also do the other livery’s help the yard owner on Christmas Day? I feel like there is more to this story than meets the eye.

I wondered to If yard owner had been moaning tbh. Nope they all live to far away or don’t actually know what there doing. Just be the owner that message my friend