somebody riding your horse without permission

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eva

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What would you do if you found out that somebody was riding your horse without your consent? It just happened to me at my yard where one of senior instructors did it. I pay full price for livery and have specifically asked that nobody rides him. Yard manager said she was unaware of that happening. I am currently away but plan to have a serious conversation when I'm back. Should I move yards?
 
i'm not sure how a yard manager - who presumibly is there quite a bit - could not see your horse being ridden....unless its a HUGE yard
tbh i'd be moving
 
Another livery saw her and told me, and apparently it was YM's day off when it happened. I am just shocked. It's a big competition yard - how did she think she'd get away with it?! Can I push for any penalties do you think?
 
eva said:
Another livery saw her and told me, and apparently it was YM's day off when it happened. I am just shocked. It's a big competition yard - how did she think she'd get away with it?! Can I push for any penalties do you think?
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just to check it was definitely your horse and not a ''lookalikey''...?

Though if someone rode my horse without my prior consent, I would be absolutely mad.

Do you have any relationship with this instructor? I mean, are the two of you friends or something and she thought this might be OK? Is your horse supposed to be ridden at all by someone whilst your away?


xx
 
eva said:
Another livery saw her and told me, and apparently it was YM's day off when it happened. I am just shocked. It's a big competition yard - how did she think she'd get away with it?! Can I push for any penalties do you think?
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Presumably you've spoken to the person that was on your horse - what did they have to say??
 
There was a really similar post about this recently, by a user called Ben's Pony I think, it was called Am I Over Reacting? Some of the replies on there might help you.

Its totally unacceptable if they've been riding your horse without permission.
 
I would go absolutely off my head, there are insurance issues and all sorts that can arise from that (I know my policy only covers someone else riding Dylan if they do so with my knowledge and permission).

Tell your YM that you'd like this person to be spoken to, it's totally unacceptable IMO. If the YM refuses to do anything about it, I'd consider moving.
 
I would be careful and make sure it did actually happen before going mental - the amount of arguments that have been started on my yard because some one got the wrong end of the stick or just didn't see what they thought they saw are too numerous to mention. But yes, I would go mental and move if the response from the YO was not satisfactory.
 
I would be contacting the person who has ridden your horse, politely ask if they have (just in case the info your were given was incorrect) also this way they are more likely to admit to you if they have, then if so, I would be having serious words with them and reporting it to your yard manager/owner.

Due to insurance purposes, possible old injury that could of been hampered and of course the down and out god dam cheek of it, action should be taken by the YO (what ever they may be) but it should not be ingnored by those in authority, then depending on what they do, if you get an apology etc then decide if you wish to keep your horse there before making any rash decisions.
 
JVB, that is exactly what I am itching to do :) I've paid until September for this livery tho (I'm nice like that), not sure if they'd give me my money back :/

I have the only Spanish horse on the yard, pretty sure he would not have been a lookalikey... I am not a friend of hers, just when I said I'm going away for 2 weeks she jumped to say she can lunge him twice a week so that's he's not too fresh when I'm back (he's a youngster), and I thought that could be a good option but I said that nobody is allowed to ride him. I asked the yard owner if she is a good person to trust my horse with and she said absolutely.

Should I have gone away without letting them know? Do you do that? Maybe that could have kept them on their toes? He's on full livery (everything done but excercise), so would have been fine with daily turnout. Should I be less open with them?

I think I'll ask other liveries when I'm back if they have seen her riding and will make a decision on that. I feel sick.
 
I think I'll ask other liveries when I'm back if they have seen her riding and will make a decision on that. I feel sick.
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You need to speak to the person to whom you gave permission to to work your horse firstly and foremost.

I suspect there has been a miscomunication somewhere. And before you over react you need to establish exactly what has happened.

The person working your horse was given responsibility and permission to handle the horse - and may genuinly have thought that you had given permission or even requested it be ridden.

No good telling the YM that no one is to ride it, but not tell the person working it.

And if they were responsible and experienced enough to lunge it - why not ride it?

Think you need to establish what has happened with those involved, before flying off the handle.....
 
I have a tale to tell of someone who rode a horse without permission... owners were away and this man, Jimmy, was allowed to hunt their cob whilst they were away. He decided the cob wasn't grand enough for him and so he took the man's hunter hunting. And broke it spectacularily. I can't remember what it did but it had to be operated on and was out for at least a season AND Jimmy was broke so owners had to pay for operation. You can imagine the fireworks that went on there.

This was the people I used to work for. I never ever rode anything I wasn't told to ride!!
 
eva said:
, I have the only Spanish horse on the yard, pretty sure he would not have been a lookalikey... I am not a friend of hers, just when I said I'm going away for 2 weeks she jumped to say she can lunge him twice a week so that's he's not too fresh when I'm back (he's a youngster), and I thought that could be a good option but I said that nobody is allowed to ride him. I asked the yard owner if she is a good person to trust my horse with and she said absolutely.

Should I have gone away without letting them know? Do you do that? Maybe that could have kept them on their toes? He's on full livery (everything done but excercise), so would have been fine with daily turnout. Should I be less open with them?

I think I'll ask other liveries when I'm back if they have seen her riding and will make a decision on that. I feel sick.
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To be honest if you are having thoughts about not letting them know to keep them on their toes then there is not a lot of trust there anyhow is there?

If you said absolutly no riding and he has been ridden then that is clearly a total breach of your instructions, so yes I would be angry and bring up my concerns with the YO.

Depending on how happy apart from this incident you are with the yard you need to decide if this is a"deal breaker" or if a strong word in the YM's ear with the warning of "if it ever happens again I will leave no notice" (and put this in writing!) will suffice.
 
I would be absolutely utterly fuming - however I think everyone else has given you good advice - get the facts 100% straight before taking any action.

Grrrr.... the bloody cheek of it!!
 
amymay said:
You need to speak to the person to whom you gave permission to to work your horse firstly and foremost.

I suspect there has been a miscomunication somewhere. And before you over react you need to establish exactly what has happened.

The person working your horse was given responsibility and permission to handle the horse - and may genuinly have thought that you had given permission or even requested it be ridden.

No good telling the YM that no one is to ride it, but not tell the person working it.

And if they were responsible and experienced enough to lunge it - why not ride it?

Think you need to establish what has happened with those involved, before flying off the handle.....
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Agree with Amy May.....Sit down person who you gave permission to calmly and find out what happened then take it from there. And next time put your instructions in writing with a copy to the YM so everyone is in the loop.
 
That's the thing, I have taken my tack away from the yard for when I'm away to try and deter people from "having a go". I am still away so haven't spoken to the lady who rode him, but apparently the YM told me she said she didn't do it. I have a feeling that this lady is quite a fishy one. I have agreed for her to lunge him 2 a week and nothing more than that. Does "lunge him 2 a week for 20 mins each time" sound like "you can ride him to your heart's content"? :(
 
So heresay and rumour then.

You can progress no further until you've spoken to the person who was working him.

Let us know how you get on.
 
Yep Amymay you are right so is everyone else, thank you so much for advice and fuming along with me, I will come back and look them in the eye and ask questions and establish what has really happened. Meanwhile I have called the YM and told her that nobody is to do any exercise with him. I'm pretty sure he'll be fine without it, plain turnout will suffice for 1 week.
 
eva said:
JVB, that is exactly what I am itching to do :) I've paid until September for this livery tho (I'm nice like that), not sure if they'd give me my money back :/

I have the only Spanish horse on the yard, pretty sure he would not have been a lookalikey... I am not a friend of hers, just when I said I'm going away for 2 weeks she jumped to say she can lunge him twice a week so that's he's not too fresh when I'm back (he's a youngster), and I thought that could be a good option but I said that nobody is allowed to ride him. I asked the yard owner if she is a good person to trust my horse with and she said absolutely.

Should I have gone away without letting them know? Do you do that? Maybe that could have kept them on their toes? He's on full livery (everything done but excercise), so would have been fine with daily turnout. Should I be less open with them?

I think I'll ask other liveries when I'm back if they have seen her riding and will make a decision on that. I feel sick.
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i feel sick just thinking about it
 
Sounds like you probably won't get an honest answer out of her when you get back anyway. I'f be tempted to ask others at the yard if they think their horses have been ridden...

I'd go mental by the way : ) Its a bit of a space violation when they haven't got permission to ride your neddy.
 
I feel so too, she does not seem like the kind of person who would tell it to my face or anybody's for that matter. I feel she would not admit it unless I have proof from several people, which is exactly what I will be looking for.
 
Don't cut your nose off to spite your face if the yard suits you and him. Find out the facts, check what the girl thought she was supposed to be doing then consider what to say/do. If it was a genuine mistake and she thought she was doing you a favour, you'll only strain relations if you go off at the deep end. Deep breath, sort it out then react.


If it turns out she rode him knowing full well that you said no riding, then I would speak very seriously to the YM and insist on at least a verbal warning.
 
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