Rant - there are days I hate my yard

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fatpiggy

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I keep my old girl who is fully retired on a farm. She is 28, partially sighted (and I suspect can't see well in the dark any more), has bad arthritis and although able to tootle about quite happily, isn't interested in going faster than a walk very often and often stumbles badly. Through the summer she has been living out with a neurotic 26 year old arab mare, a 17 year old gelding who is pretty good and two little ponies who don't cause her any hassle. The other liveries were in the adjoining field and they have all now moved to the winter field. They will live out 24/7 there. I have my old girl in at night come the end of October each year and she has been so happy to come in and have a good rest, even though she is often in on her own. The owner of the gelding and ponies is a waste of oxygen and skin (long story) but at the end of the day as long as the neds are good that is what is more important. With the others moving fields I was told these 3 would be staying put which I was relieved about as the neurotic mare was going to move too. Well she did but was harrassed and chased by the most recent arrival, a 5 year old recently gelded ex-racehorse and when her owner went to get her in for riding, she ran out of the field and straight back to the old one so it was decided to leave her there. Fine by me. So imagine my stress levels last night (already off the scale due to the awful period of fireworks - horse has refused to even approach her stable since) when neurotic horse's owner was waiting to tell me she had come down to find the gelding and ponies removed and the ex-racehorse in there instead. Needless to say there had been a fair bit of running about according to the YO who couldn't be BOTHERED (yet again) to even tell us about the changes. Neurotic mare had turned uber protective with mine and was keeping the racehorse away (he has met mine before over the gate and liked her because she was friendly to him) so I had the devil of a job getting mine out to feed her in the pitch black. Of course having got her out, neurotic mare then got distressed and had to come in too. But then ex-racehorse loses the plot and gallops around screaming and cutting the grazing to ribbons. I wanted to have another go at keeping mine in again (which we managed but she was cross with me this morning!) and neurotic mare who isn't good at staying in kicked up a fuss too so her owner "chose" to put her back out. Don't forget it was the racehorse that chased her previously. All was calm this morning but of course as soon as I turned mine out neurotic mare turned possessive again and was keeping her moving constantly. All she wants is a nice quiet life of grazing and dozing. Now we have the added problem that we cannot have the oldies in when we want to necessarily without leaving racehorse on his own. Oh and the reason the racehorse was put in there? Apparently he got kicked while in the winter field. The fact that he is very aggressive to other geldings might just have something to do with that. When mine was absolutely battered last autumn by a young mare (came with history we weren't told about) I just had to put up with it and YO didn't even bother to come and see how bad the damage was. While mine was in the hastily comandeered lami paddock she put an 18 month TB filly in the field and that caused total chaos when I reintroduced mine . She has been told and told that it isn't good practice to put anything other than oldies in with oldies but takes no notice. I know horses will be horses but there are risks and patently obvious risks. If only I could move but I just can't.

Seriously fed up today (sorry for the LONG moan)
 
I feel your pain, I had a very similar situation at my old yard.
I had a 22yr old TB who was retired from riding in April of 2010 and around that time a purchased another 81/2 yr old WB so that I could continue to ride and let my old boy have a nice relaxing retirement.
I introduced the 2 slowly and they got on like a house on fire, my younger boy is very laid back and is in no way a hooligan and really looked after my oldster, they were both very happy to potter about together.
Anyway a couple of fields down there were 2 mares, another livery and a DIY. The livery ended up leaving so the DIY mare was left in a field on her own.
There was 3 seperate paddocks next to each other: my 2 boys, in the middle 5 ponies and at the end the mare, so they all had company just over the fence.
Now I knew form previous experience that both of mine liked to think they were ladies men so when the DIY asked my YO if she could put her mare in with mine I said NO!!!! YO was great and said that was fine and toatlly understood.
So next morning I get up the yard and guess what!!!!! Yup DIY has ignored myself and YO and put her mare in with my two boys. The mare is loving it and my youngster is now spending the whole time chasing my old boy away from her as they are both love struck. I go mental, remove mare then get moaned at by DIYer.
This went on for weeks where every day I would go up to find them all in together again, DIYer wasn't sure how that happened!!!!!???? My poor old boy was getting very stressed out and dropping condition which as an old OTTB he really couldn't afford. Plus if i needed to bring 1 of my boys in I ended up having to bring all 3 in as mare loved oldster, oldster and youngster loved mare....bloddy nightmare lol!
Thankfully in the end the DIYer for many reasons was kicked off the yard and my boys went back to being happy together and my old boy saw his last days out till August this year all happy and chilled.
Phew rants are catching lol!
 
That was SO hard to read all bumped into one paragraph. I nearly gave up several times!

From what I could work out, YO is a waste of space, other owners are a waste of oxygen and skin, other horses are all neurotic or nasty. Just find somewhere else. It obviously doesn't suit you or your horse, who sounds like she is not really fit to be on a general DIY yard and could do with more specialised grazing/stabling. Could you advertise to see if anyone has another oldie that needs a companion - my friend has just taken on one of those for someone..?
 
what a nightmare, i know exactly how you feel. my horse is just coming back into work after 5 months box rest, he hasnt been near other horses the whole time except the horse in the stable next to him.
I had said to every if they saw my guy tied up not to put their horses next to him incase he acted up and cause himself or another horse injury, and they were all happy to oblige. so imagine how infuriated i was when new people moved up with their big cobs (my guys a wee thoroughbred) and ignored me when i told them 3 times not to put their horse next to mine! then their horse proceeded to swing its arse round and lift a leg to my horse.
it took my saying to the YO 3 times before anything was said, and i still havent had an apology from these morons! it doesnt help that their horses are the most ill mannered i have ever came across in my life.

i dont hate my yard, i just hate some of the people on it!
 
fatpiggy said:
I keep my old girl who is fully retired on a farm. She is 28, partially sighted (and I suspect can't see well in the dark any more), has bad arthritis and although able to tootle about quite happily, isn't interested in going faster than a walk very often and often stumbles badly. Through the summer she has been living out with a neurotic 26 year old arab mare, a 17 year old gelding who is pretty good and two little ponies who don't cause her any hassle. The other liveries were in the adjoining field and they have all now moved to the winter field. They will live out 24/7 there. I have my old girl in at night come the end of October each year and she has been so happy to come in and have a good rest, even though she is often in on her own. The owner of the gelding and ponies is a waste of oxygen and skin (long story) but at the end of the day as long as the neds are good that is what is more important. With the others moving fields I was told these 3 would be staying put which I was relieved about as the neurotic mare was going to move too. Well she did but was harrassed and chased by the most recent arrival, a 5 year old recently gelded ex-racehorse and when her owner went to get her in for riding, she ran out of the field and straight back to the old one so it was decided to leave her there. Fine by me. So imagine my stress levels last night (already off the scale due to the awful period of fireworks - horse has refused to even approach her stable since) when neurotic horse's owner was waiting to tell me she had come down to find the gelding and ponies removed and the ex-racehorse in there instead. Needless to say there had been a fair bit of running about according to the YO who couldn't be BOTHERED (yet again) to even tell us about the changes. Neurotic mare had turned uber protective with mine and was keeping the racehorse away (he has met mine before over the gate and liked her because she was friendly to him) so I had the devil of a job getting mine out to feed her in the pitch black. Of course having got her out, neurotic mare then got distressed and had to come in too. But then ex-racehorse loses the plot and gallops around screaming and cutting the grazing to ribbons. I wanted to have another go at keeping mine in again (which we managed but she was cross with me this morning!) and neurotic mare who isn't good at staying in kicked up a fuss too so her owner "chose" to put her back out. Don't forget it was the racehorse that chased her previously. All was calm this morning but of course as soon as I turned mine out neurotic mare turned possessive again and was keeping her moving constantly. All she wants is a nice quiet life of grazing and dozing. Now we have the added problem that we cannot have the oldies in when we want to necessarily without leaving racehorse on his own. Oh and the reason the racehorse was put in there? Apparently he got kicked while in the winter field. The fact that he is very aggressive to other geldings might just have something to do with that. When mine was absolutely battered last autumn by a young mare (came with history we weren't told about) I just had to put up with it and YO didn't even bother to come and see how bad the damage was. While mine was in the hastily comandeered lami paddock she put an 18 month TB filly in the field and that caused total chaos when I reintroduced mine . She has been told and told that it isn't good practice to put anything other than oldies in with oldies but takes no notice. I know horses will be horses but there are risks and patently obvious risks. If only I could move but I just can't.

Seriously fed up today (sorry for the LONG moan)
Click to expand...

Where are you? My YO is seriously considering running a retirement livery a couple of fields away from our yard. She has one old mare who lives out and has just lost her companion and doesn't really want to upset the balance with the other (younger) mares by putting her in with them. We are in Dorking.
 
Seriously folks, it is impossible for me to move. We are on the edge of a major city and most yards are infinitely worse in terms of turnout and location. I don't want to pay for maneges etc that I will never use - she just needs a stable and decent turnout to see out her days. As I mentioned before, fireworks are a major problem - she is so paranoid she was reacting to those going off a mile away (its as flat as a pancake and you can see for miles). I originally moved her partly because of this - she used to only be the width of a motorway from a big housing estate and the noise was indescribable. I used to have to sit with her from 4pm to after midnight for at least a week. This year some new tenants in the cottages 200 yards away had fireworks - never had a single bang from there before so she was hysterical by the morning. All the other local yards have houses right next door. I had been seriously considering having her PTS at the end of the summer, partly because another hard winter (we had a foot of snow and not water last year for weeks) would be tough for us both, but she seemed well enough and content. The good days still outweigh the bad ones but I can't tell you how many times I've cursed myself since Friday night :( .

When I first moved everything was fine and I was told we only want a few liveries but now they've realised it is easy money (easy if you don't do much maintenance for a start) and have more than double the numbers now. There is no management, we just get left to sort things out amongst ourselves so several people do precisely what suits them and don't give a stuff about anyone else. New liveries just rock up and go straight in the field and we've had some right muppet owners but no-one ever makes background checks before letting them on so the ones who have been chucked off other yards make a bee-line. YO has horses of her own but is a complete novice and as long as her horses aren't affected she doesn't seem to care. The stupid thing is, it could be a very nice yard with some effort and thought.
 
Honey08 said:
That was SO hard to read all bumped into one paragraph. I nearly gave up several times!

From what I could work out, YO is a waste of space, other owners are a waste of oxygen and skin, other horses are all neurotic or nasty. Just find somewhere else. It obviously doesn't suit you or your horse, who sounds like she is not really fit to be on a general DIY yard and could do with more specialised grazing/stabling. Could you advertise to see if anyone has another oldie that needs a companion - my friend has just taken on one of those for someone..?
Click to expand...

Hi Honey08,
I'm sorry my pen ran off, its just a reflection of how I feel right now. Some of the liveries are very nice and the newer ones are realising what they've come to! Most of the horses are pretty good natured (apart from one serious bully which chases, bites with venom and likes to mount the mares). At one point, there were more retired horses there than those in any form of work and everything was fine. When new liveries came we were able to keep the old ones up together but then YO just started putting more in with them as the other field was full. We don't even get told when new horses are arriving so we rarely have the chance to even watch for an hour to see that there is no serious trouble. It is one of the only yards in the area that has full winter turnout so that attracts people despite the total lack of facilities.
 
my oldie lives with 3 aged 11 to 16, a 5 year old and an 18 m/o filly. The 16 y/o keeps them all in order and she removes herself from any bother. She's 32 in the spring, loves a good gallop round, doesn't see too well but manages following one of the others. BUT she has been with 2 of them for more than 4 years and used to be the boss.

If she was put in a situation where she was not happy, I would move her to a different field. My YO is fab and would let me use the starvation paddock with hay in it for her, though the plan is to split our big field and have just my lot, (oldie and 11 - 16 y/o) in one half when the others come across to the big field.

If YO wasn't fab I would seriously consider moving, though it would mean moving all mine as I want her to see out her days with the herd she has been mother to for the last 4 - 9 years.
 
I really feel for you having an old mare myself.
The place i moved to initially they couldnt do enough for you, they'll be no more that 7 boxes, we're not wanting alot. And tbh they were great at first.
20 stables later, stubble field instead of grass in the winter, electric fenced last year which the horses just walked through, with no sign of proper fencing this year.
Then we had the loose horses every other day, winding up the others cue the charging around the field then the injuries happen.
If its daylight dont put the light on in the stables, they were dark !!
If your pouring water out their bucket in he morning youre giving them to much.
But my all time favourite, if you want to soak hay, use the same water for a week !! Asolutely clueless
I couldnt stand the crap any longer and moved on, thankfully not to a yard but a sole let with grazing, arena, lovely indoor stables, horse shower and solarium.
My horses and i feel much happier and so settled, my landlord is great ( has had horses in the past ) and is happy for us to be there.
IMO the other place wanted your money and at the end, the safety and welfare of the horses wasnt paramount which was my cue to boost asap.
In the end you get what you settle for.
 
marydoll said:
I really feel for you having an old mare myself.
The place i moved to initially they couldnt do enough for you, they'll be no more that 7 boxes, we're not wanting alot. And tbh they were great at first.
20 stables later, stubble field instead of grass in the winter, electric fenced last year which the horses just walked through, with no sign of proper fencing this year.
Then we had the loose horses every other day, winding up the others cue the charging around the field then the injuries happen.
If its daylight dont put the light on in the stables, they were dark !!
If your pouring water out their bucket in he morning youre giving them to much.
But my all time favourite, if you want to soak hay, use the same water for a week !! Asolutely clueless
I couldnt stand the crap any longer and moved on, thankfully not to a yard but a sole let with grazing, arena, lovely indoor stables, horse shower and solarium.
My horses and i feel much happier and so settled, my landlord is great ( has had horses in the past ) and is happy for us to be there.
IMO the other place wanted your money and at the end, the safety and welfare of the horses wasnt paramount which was my cue to boost asap.
In the end you get what you settle for.
Click to expand...


Yep, alot of that sounds very familiar.
As you say, great to start with. Now only the newest liveries get the nice treatment and the rest of us have to shove up and shut up.
 
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