scary Yard Owners

[Hippona]

way.

I hear what people are saying, as I said, from both sides. However, I think before any DIY/Full or Part Livery customer whines, they should run their own yard of at least 3 stables and the land associated with it. It's expensive and hard work, and yes whilst it is YO choice, try and respect the fact they have a lot to do!

Absolutely....it is hard work maintaining paddocks, managing grazing etc ...I never realised how much went into it until I got my own place....I made me realise why my YO did the things she did....

 

[noodle_]

if anyones scared of your YO you need to move!!

our yard owner is lovely, i respect him but not scared of him in the slightest ... really nice person and will always fix anything if needed on the yard (including things in my stable etc)

 

[suzyqet]

.......... There are endless threads on here where people are scared of telling their YO that they want to leave etc, and everyone eggs them on to leave without saying anything - yet quite often the thread ends with the person speaking to the YO and having no problems. If everyone (on both sides!) was polite, and respectful of each other, there wouldn't be half the problems. Nowadays most people only think about themselves, and thats the trouble.

Another point to add here Honey08, might be, how would the liveries, as the horse owners feel, if the YO suddenly evicted a horse without notice. It seems to be 'accepted' and 'encouraged' for liveries to do a 'bunk' owing money with no notice, but not even thought of for the YO though to tie the horse up outside the premises without notice, or change the locks for example without notice. Again, it all boils down to respect!

 

[immoralorchid]

Another point to add here Honey08, might be, how would the liveries, as the horse owners feel, if the YO suddenly evicted a horse without notice. It seems to be 'accepted' and 'encouraged' for liveries to do a 'bunk' owing money with no notice, but not even thought of for the YO though to tie the horse up outside the premises without notice, or change the locks for example without notice. Again, it all boils down to respect!

OMG flash back
i had a dissagrement with one of the staffs daughters at a livery yard (she was riding my pony when i wasnt there in the morning. i used to come up in the afternoon and find her numnah dripping and huge sweat marks on her (not to mention whip marks on her bum poor thing) finally had enough so went to talk to the mum. she said i was selfish not to share bronte as her daughter didnt have anything to ride and stormed off to the YO's house.

i pooped it and rang my mum straight away (i was only 16 at the time) as i had seen her tie other peoples horses to the gate and they oftern wernt found till the morning. mum came up and tried to talk to the YO but she wasnt having any of it saying i had sworn and threatened the staff (which if any of you met me would know that is defo not in my nature i quite pathetic and tend to get bullied although i am starting to grow some balls).

we rang some friends who had also left said yard in simillar cercumstances they said they would come and get bronte asap. mum and i waited in bronte's stable for a couple hours and we could see YO come out of her house and head down towards the stables about three times but turned back when she could see that the light in bronte's stable was still on.

we had to leave in the pitch black to a the yard they were staying at over night then oved to a fab yard in banstead would seriously reccomend it but moved a year or so ago due to wanting compleate DIY

that was one of the scaries nights ever i knew what was going to happen poor bronte was going to be tied to the gate on a road for the night i sudder when i think about it

 

[The Xmas Furry]

Another point to add here Honey08, might be, how would the liveries, as the horse owners feel, if the YO suddenly evicted a horse without notice. It seems to be 'accepted' and 'encouraged' for liveries to do a 'bunk' owing money with no notice, but not even thought of for the YO though to tie the horse up outside the premises without notice, or change the locks for example without notice. Again, it all boils down to respect!

you just brought back a memory for me!

I had a DIY'er of 23 that kept 'forgetting' her payment to me (about 15 yrs ago now, before the age of proper internet banking etc)

After a fortnight overdue (so now owing 6 weeks as everyone paid 4 weeks at a time then in my yard) I told her if she didn't bring the money plus another 2 weeks in advance, in cash, within the next 24 hours that she was in breach of her agreement with me & therefore she & pony would be evicted OR the pony impounded - my choice.

I popped an extra set of locks on the gate,,,

Her mother came up to the yard early the next morning with the full payment & was amazed when I gave her & daughter 2 weeks notice to move the pony elsewhere......

 

[cbmcts]

I too am a YO and actually take offense to what you have written here! You are slating ALL YO's with the same brush.

Please don't take offence - in my post I did say not all YOs are the same.
But while I'm sure you are professional, there are many, many YO's who aren't! As for not making any money after all that work.....well I wish I was that altrustic

In my defence, I did have my own grazing for years that was totally self managed until it was sold to as a site for a petrol station (Thanks Tescos ) and I fully understand the problems involved in managing pasture, muck heaps, water etc. I also used to have summer liveries, some of whom had me tearing my hair out. In fact, a few years ago I seriously considered buying a yard but decided that it couldn't support a morgage and pay me a living - not lavish - wage and as I wasn't prepared to work without pay decided against it. As it happens, recession hit very soon afterwards so I look upon it as a lucky escape as it could easily have bankrupted me. Thinking about it, the lucky escape could also include not having to deal with SOME liveries.

I have NO problem paying for a fair price for a service provided.As anybody who is self employed or in a customer facing job can tell , the people are the hardest to deal with but it is a part of the job.The most important part of any successful business IMHO, is providing your customer with the service you have promised, either directly or implicitly. It's not rocket science nor is it easy to do and it doesn't mean that your customers can walk all over you.
I often wonder how many of us would tolerate the level of service from our banks, electricity companies or supermarkets that is often the norm in the horse world? Is it because people go into horse style business because they love horses but aren't really thinking of it as a business as an IT contractor would for example? But when you are charging fees you will be expected to provide a service in return and that seems to come as a shock to some YO's in particular....
When I go to look at a yard, turnout is my priority after basic health and safety......personally I'm not interested in fancy indoor schools, tearooms, showers, wash boxes,hanging baskets or the like. All I need is electricity, water, safe fencing and a stable available if required. Secure storage is a bonus as is good hacking but not the number one priority. Ideally that turnout would be on well drained loamy soil but lets be realistic I'm in Essex so unlikely. However as my arthritic pony needs to go out EVERY day or get stiff I will have discussed this before moving as clearly as I'm writing it now......but 8/10 times this will be a problem Why?

Another point, if you choose to live where you work you have to accept that, at times there will be blurring between your home life and work life. How you manage that is up to you...or you could commute 2 hours each way as many do and not have to deal with your customers after your shift. Pros and cons to everything I'm afraid.

This may sound very anti YO but it's not meant to.....I'm very pro good service and good communication as I really believe that causes less problems in the long term. Surely that has to make life easier for everyone?


PS. Back to the OP I've never met a scary YO....or should I say they've never scared me!

 

[cbmcts]

Sooooo, I'm again throwing caution to the winds (sorry if I'm highjacking this thread, no offence intended if so .....), BUT what do people think about "regulation" of Livery yards, coz I think problems with YO's -v- liveries are the single most posted thread on here.

Sorry, am a computer numpty so don't know how to organise a "poll", but here are some thoughts I've had both for and against -

For:

uniform standard across the board, where liveries knowing exactly what service they'll get for their money, i.e. same service for same money you'd get in say Exeter, or Edinburgh, it would matter not

No, because not all horses and their owners are the same with uniform requirements

better regulation of standards within the livery business? So better horse welfare?
Yes, there really does need to be higher minimum standards than there are now!

would provide a reporting system for yards/YO's which fell short of the required standard & provide owners with some redress/grievance scheme to address failings
Yes

would provide training and certification for all yards, based on perhaps service offered, so different criteria for say DIY yards -v- professional/full livery yards
Already available through the BHS, isn't it? I don't know the requirements though.

Against:

small yard owners would not be able to offer livery services due to fear of litigation/costs involved
I think they could - I'm thinking of something like the AA stars/rosettes available for everything from little B&Bs to 5* London hotels. There would be costs involved but necessarily crippling ones Also it might actually be a level playing field unlike now where good YOs pay for proper insurance, H&S etc and are under cut by the numpties who don't bother with "minor" details like that.

less choice for owners, particularly those who prefer small yards or want to rent pasture/stables independently
I imagine that could be managed but without the safe guards that a registered yard would give,

probably mean smaller YO's would go out of business
I don't think that would happen to many - thinking of the analogy with the system of rating places for humans to stay - there is room for all sizes and levels

there will always be owners who simply don't want to go to a big yard
True, I'm one of them

due to certification costs etc, much more costly for horse owners to keep their horses at livery, even DIY would become very expensive and would put horse-ownership out of the reach of many who now enjoy it
It's not a cheap hobby now and there is a chance that a lot of the insurance costs(for example) would be reduced if a yard could prove that they had minimised risks so while might rise a bit IMHO it wouldn't be crippling

who would be the governing body? BHS? DEFRA? Do we want more government interference in our leisure?
Hmmm, that the difficult one!

I'm sure there will be many other pro's and con's, but I'm just throwing out a few thoughts .......

I can see this thread being labelled as a "sticky"!!!!!!

Just my thoughts, for what they're worth!