Stopping Diy...any yard owners out there?

[Translationsneeded]

I have a small yard been running for a few years.
Maybe I’ve been unlucky but my last couple of diys have been a nightmare. I’m thinking of stopping it and wonder if anyone else has done the same.
If so, do you just offer full or part and is it any better?
If you don’t offer any sort of livery, do you do anything else with you land? I have way too much grass for my fatties!
Tia

 

[ForeverBroke_]

Could you rent it as a 'semi' sole-use type of set-up?

 

[CanteringCarrot]

I'm not a yard owner, but if you are not satisfied with your DIY liveries then you need to ask them to leave, or not offer DIY.

It's also fine not to have liveries. Or be very selective when bringing some in.

How much land do you have? Is any of it worth making hay on? Well, of course you'd have to find someone to make it for you, but just an option.

You could also consider a full livery retirement set-up. If you're willing to put forth the effort and the oldies can just hang around, and typically the owners are less involved as they don't ride and only check up on them. I'm not sure how much demand there is for this.

You could also rent your remaining space to one person. Perhaps one person that has multiple horses that is looking for grazing.

Each option has drawbacks, just have to figure out what you can live with.

 

[Translationsneeded]

Thanks both. I’ve asked the problem people to leave.
I have detailed contracts but I can’t account for every scenario. I shouldn’t have to add ... turn your horse out, no parties (yup not kidding!), no bullying. Even stuff that’s in there people ignore which is basic stuff... close gates, muck out your horse. It really isn’t worth the agro for a few quid. These are grown ups!
It’s a shame coz I love having people here (I have a couple of good ones) but mostly they just cause me stress and I feel like their bl00dy mother telling them to do stuff. Ugh!

 

[ForeverBroke_]

Its people like that which make me resent the thought of even being ON a DIY yard, let alone run one!

I should imagine there is loads of potential to make use of the land in a way that suits you and gives you less jip!

 

[SEL]

Thanks both. I’ve asked the problem people to leave.
I have detailed contracts but I can’t account for every scenario. I shouldn’t have to add ... turn your horse out, no parties (yup not kidding!), no bullying. Even stuff that’s in there people ignore which is basic stuff... close gates, muck out your horse. It really isn’t worth the agro for a few quid. These are grown ups!
It’s a shame coz I love having people here (I have a couple of good ones) but mostly they just cause me stress and I feel like their bl00dy mother telling them to do stuff. Ugh!

My YO will only take on new liveries by word of mouth (& the mouth needs to be one she trusts!) because the yard is at her home and she's had some of these issues.

You could rent as one yard to one person for their own horses.

 

[dorsetladette]

A place up the road from me has fenced off a field for dog walking. She rents it out for £10 an hour. It has a combination lock on it which she changes the code on frequently. Its completely secure so perfect for training your dog to be off the lead or gun dog training etc.

You could get some sheep to graze your extra grass down or rent to a local farmer or like you say offer full or part livery.

 

[Translationsneeded]

I can’t blame her SEL. I’m pretty chilled out but am very clear about the rules. I just can’t believe how some people act.
I’m not even talking about the rules but who as an adult thinks it’s acceptable to bully others! Mind boggling!
I like the dog walking idea dorsetladette, thanks.
Such a shame really. I would just like to offer livery to normal people!

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

I can’t blame her SEL. I’m pretty chilled out but am very clear about the rules. I just can’t believe how some people act.
I’m not even talking about the rules but who as an adult thinks it’s acceptable to bully others! Mind boggling!
I like the dog walking idea dorsetladette, thanks.
Such a shame really. I would just like to offer livery to normal people!

Could you continue with DIY but just let to normal people? Having said that, we have had one livery, who was a friend but *never* again! She ended up with FL for discounted DIY price, just because we couldn't leave the poor pony.

 

[ForeverBroke_]

I can’t blame her SEL. I’m pretty chilled out but am very clear about the rules. I just can’t believe how some people act.
I’m not even talking about the rules but who as an adult thinks it’s acceptable to bully others! Mind boggling!
I like the dog walking idea dorsetladette, thanks.
Such a shame really. I would just like to offer livery to normal people!

Don't suppose you're in Kent are you?!

 

[Translationsneeded]

How do you work out if they’re normal though?! I have turned down some obviously odd ones with my interrogation techniques but some seem so normal to start with and then they turn bonkers!
For balance I do have a couple of nice normal ones!
Soz foreverbroke...no where near

 

[rabatsa]

Keep some sheep.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

I have a small yard been running for a few years.
Maybe I’ve been unlucky but my last couple of diys have been a nightmare. I’m thinking of stopping it and wonder if anyone else has done the same.
If so, do you just offer full or part and is it any better?
If you don’t offer any sort of livery, do you do anything else with you land? I have way too much grass for my fatties!
Tia

we have 4 diy much prefer part, as more financially viable, I have 4 as I said no more, sometimes it is nice to mix

 

[WandaMare]

I'm not sure doing full livery would make much difference tbh, you could still have problems. I agree part livery would be easier because you could do morning turnout which at least means you can turn out / feed all the horses together which does work better than people coming at different times. I think its possible to find good liveries, but not easy and I think you need to be very strict from the start. That was my mistake, I was too soft early on and people started messing me about, then when I stood up to them they got nasty, I just didn't have the experience or confidence to manage them well enough so I gave up livery all together.

I found the best liveries were people with good horse experience, not beginners who take up a lot more of your time
People who work in teams or environments where they have learnt how to get on with all different types of people
People who are not overly competitive with others

If I ever do livery again I would definitely get proper references and ask for a deposit up front. I'm not sure what else you could do with your land, we cut hay now with the excess grazing but I would prefer to see horses out there enjoying the fields.

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

Feeling your pain OP.

I live on-site so its especially important to me to get the right person. I have had a super livery for the past 10 yrs, who's just left, so am feeling a bit bereft right now!

Have only ever had one really bad livery since started in 1992 and she only stayed a month thank goodness; she left her poor pony in the stable and went off for the weekend, and I hadn't a clue where she was! Had to go in and sort out a fractious cooped-up pony, it wasn't funny!

I am now looking for another livery to fill the place. I've only ever had one livery which I find has worked well up till now.

Already have had the first time-waster...........

It would be nice, yes, to have the yard to myself for once without other people having the right to go into it, but I actually think I'd miss having someone around, in a funny sort of way!

In any event, I actually NEED the income that the yard can provide; previous livery left yesterday, and already there's someone wanting to come in till the end of the summer as a "grass livery" so they won't actually be coming in the yard.

Then, come end of October, and after having done the few improvements necessary, shall be hitting the "winter livery with all-year turnout" market!!! Hopefully at that time there will be plenty of takers.

I do let my other bigger field to a local sheep farmer; they pay £500 a year, which hardly covers the insurance for my place.........

Having cattle in isn't viable as the livery paddock is only 4 acres and cows would soon trash that!

 

[Shilasdair]

If you like people, DIY livery might work for you.

If you like horses, but hate humanity , perhaps part/full livery is a better option - although you really have to know what you're doing (I presume you have qualifications).

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

If you like people, DIY livery might work for you.

If you like horses, but hate humanity , perhaps part/full livery is a better option - although you really have to know what you're doing (I presume you have qualifications).

^^^ This is precisely why I offer ONLY DIY. I'm neither confident nor qualified (or insured) to handle other people's horses. I offer "supervision available by YO who lives on-site" and let them get on with the rest of it themselves. Also stipulate "experienced owners only". Don't want any first-time owners or novices to have to breastfeed!

 

[TPO]

If you like some of your liveries could you just continue with them and evict the troublesome ones?

Then going forward any new liveries are part/full?

 

[EventingMum]

Personally I have never done DIY livery, whilst I happy to acknowledge there are undoubtedly many great DIYers the horror stories I hear of some has put me off. I really like the fact that all the horses are in a routine, all get fed at the same time etc and find it makes for happy, content horses. New arrivals all seem to settle quickly as they pick up on the others all being in a routine and follow suit. Obviously we cater for individual requirements but owners all know my rules and happily abide by them. I've been very lucky that I've never encountered bullying as everyone is treated equally whether they have a hairy pony or high powered dressage horse and I encourage open lines of communication at all times which so far has worked well for the past 32 years!

 

[Tarragon]

These sort of posts do make me feel sad. There are good DIY people out there (and I hope that I am one of them) but this seems to be a very common problem for YOs.
The trouble is, I think that the liveries have to be a good match for the YO in both the personalities and also in horse management, for it to work. And if you have multiple owners, they also all have to match with each other in both personalities and in horse management, which all makes for a very difficult selection process!
I think that word of mouth is possibly the best way to go. And, a VERY clear idea of the sort of yard you want to run e.g. competition, showing, bitless and barefoot, hacking etc (Note, I am not saying that bitless and barefoot cannot also compete! huge generalisations I know, but you get the gist ).

 

[Shilasdair]

Questions I have been asked when I used to manage yards (oddly, I no longer do that).

'Excuse me, is this hay or straw?'

'I think my horse has lost a shoe - how can I tell?'

'Hi, I wonder if you can tell me which one of the four horses in the front field is my one?'



ETA: And I've also had a yard owner (years ago) who couldn't bear to look at a bleeding horse, and had to leave me to stem the flow/clean it up/get the vet (was a livery, not mine).

 

[milliepops]

I'm not sure it's necessary to decide what kind of yard you want to run down to the discipline, unless you're running a very specialist operation.
Happy hackers can rub along with competition riders quite happily - in fact it probably reduces pinch points for facilities if not everyone is trying to do the same thing at the same time. it also cuts down the potential market a lot if you are wanting to be picky about the clientelle.

 

[FestiveG]

What is it about people thinking that renting stabling and grazing entities them to invite everyone they've ever met to come and traips through the place? The idea of throwing parties at the yard is taking that a step further!

 

[Mucking out - still]

I am a DIY-er and have always had my horses on DIY yards. I can feel for yard owners at times for all the annoyances mentioned previously - all of those annoy me and I don't own the place!
The yard I'm at now is the best I've ever had and we all get on really well - yes,it can happen!! I put it down to the yard owners being really picky about who they bring in. They said when we first looked, that it's like a big family - I was sceptical, but it really is. They don't hesitate to turn someone down if they don't think they'll fit. And have asked someone to leave as her horse caused headaches when he wouldn't settle - a shame as she and her horse are lovely, but he didn't like the yard. She's moved elsewhere, the horse is happy and we have stayed in touch. And rules are there to be kept to - if people don't like them, then they either accept them and make it work, or they don't come!
When it hasn't worked so well is on an old yard, people were brought in because they were 'nice', with little enquiry as to their background or expectations. We had yard rules that weren't enforced. Any issues were never really discussed. Mostly we all muddled through, but sometimes it casused hard feelings or even angry words. All could have been avoided.
Not sure this might be of any use, but thought I'd share experiences

 

[Translationsneeded]

I actually really like people and like having people around. I’m also lucky to have my facilities and happy to share them. Even if I kept my good ones, I still have lots of grass.
I’m very clear about the rules and have specified the bleeding obvious in the contract ie horses must be led by a headcollar or bridle round the yard. This type of ‘rule’ is in there coz I’ve had to enforce it in the past!

 

[Gingerwitch]

What is it about people thinking that renting stabling and grazing entities them to invite everyone they've ever met to come and traips through the place? The idea of throwing parties at the yard is taking that a step further!

I just think it's people in general these days, some of the full liveries I have met in my past treat the stable staff like something they have walked in, only on Friday one was berating the youngest stable hand as Neddy had lost her fly mask and although it was next to water trough about 23 steps away she wanted the her to go and fetch it. Poor kid had two rather techy horses to deal with who wanted out of the fly's it was in the high 20`s low 30's. I just could not believe the attitude it was crap and owner declared but my horse IS a full livery horse do you need to fetch the mask. The conversation took longer than the fetching of the mask.

 

[The Xmas Furry]

OP, I stopped taking permanent liveries quite a long while ago.
What I do these days is have 'temporary' liveries, anything from a couple of nights to up to a month or so. Means I can work (usually!) round grass levels and weather.
Much of the time I don't have anyone, but I do have folk about 3 times a year. Either I offer, or they phone via friends.

 

[Translationsneeded]

Sadly shilasdair that doesn’t surprise me!

 

[WandaMare]

Personally I have never done DIY livery, whilst I happy to acknowledge there are undoubtedly many great DIYers the horror stories I hear of some has put me off. I really like the fact that all the horses are in a routine, all get fed at the same time etc and find it makes for happy, content horses. New arrivals all seem to settle quickly as they pick up on the others all being in a routine and follow suit. Obviously we cater for individual requirements but owners all know my rules and happily abide by them. I've been very lucky that I've never encountered bullying as everyone is treated equally whether they have a hairy pony or high powered dressage horse and I encourage open lines of communication at all times which so far has worked well for the past 32 years!

That's impressive, you need to write a book, I would buy it!

 

[Tarragon]

MP - i think perhaps I was just trying to say that like minded people with similar outlooks will probably get along better. One of the problems I have had as a DIYer with 2 native ponies, was trying to fit in to yards which were geared up to manage competition type horses; horses that could eat anything and never get fat, that didn't like to be out in bad weather, that needed layers of rugs etc. Everyone looking after their horses and ponies correctly, but in their own ways and with very different needs and requirements. I think it is quite hard to either allow for the two different management styles on the same yard, or to come up with a compromise that works for both parties.