Theft at livery yards - is it common?

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St.Sibert

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In a nutshell, after years of having my own yard I moved my one remaining horse to livery 3 months ago. Since then a black hole has consumed: 1 pair of Passier rubber reins, a Stubben body brush, 2 x Fly masks, expensive bug rug and weirdest of all, my smelly old :(Ariat boots...

Fortunately I am able to move to a private yard but this has rather shocked me tbh.

I am pondering whether to say something to the owner, but part of me thinks it would be pointless.
 
when I was at my last yard this was a common occurrence. We used to write it up on the board in the tackroom and most times things did come back but not always.
 
At my last yard it was wonderful, until 5 new people moved in at once. Within weeks I had 'lost' a hi viz exercise sheet, hay net, water container, feed, hay, shavings, and an x-full running martingale (which confused me as no other horse on the yard could possibly fit into it) Sad that some people will borrow and not return :(
 
I used to permanent marker label EVERYTHING! especially grooming kit, as everyone has similar stuff and many 'borrow' and forget to return. although sadly there may be some people who take stuff on purpose. the first yard I was at was terrible, and very impractical when your lead rope disappears and you don't have a spare one! second yard wasn't as bad but still labelled all brushes more because I would leave them out by accident!
now at a place I rent with 2 others, no problems with things going missing at all. I'm more worried about break-ins.
 
Yes but on my last yard it was mostly people borrowing things and forgetting to return them - irritating but there was no major theft as such :cool:

Although my mum's lock box was broken into once but nothing was taken which was odd :confused:
 
YES!! never had any problems until moved to my old yard, a big competition yard, items used to go missing all the time, put a padlock on cuboard left the keys in my draw while i went on holiday( in case of emergency) when i came back the padlock had gone, i knew exactly who was taking my stuff and using my horsey sprays- her response " i do bigger shows with my pony so he needs them more than you do!"
but since moving to new yard no problems at all, everyone leaves things everywhere, just depends on the people :)
 
Yes - on a previous yard some ******** stole the premier equine magnetic boots that my veteran used to wear over night :-(
 
Yes. We have had feed, rugs, brushes, suppliments, a bridle and a pair of rubber riding boots. Its sad that this happens to anybody, but worse if the person who takes the stuff lies about everything :(
 
At my old yard I had hay go missing!! But instead of taking a whole bail or taking a few wedges from an open one, they opened a fresh bail and nicked about 4 wedges out of it??

Hay and feed went missing all the time until a particular person moved off the yard and then it stopped.

Apart from that I've been quite lucky
 
This drives me crazy so I know how you feel. I've had a bottle of show sheen, a lightweight rug (in a very distinctive pink and grey colour and patterned, who would steal something so unusual?) endless numbers of buckets, feed scoops and whips all taken. Plus an expensive riser pad for my saddle. It's so annoying especially seeing as if someone asks to borrow something chances are I'll say yes, no problem. It's not like I leave stuff lying around either, everything is shut away in my trunk!

All I can suggest is that you write your horses name on everything. I do now and it has helped somewhat although the odd thing still goes walk-about .....
 
I have had taken:

-Half a tub of Global Vite
-My feed seemed to be going down very quickly
-whips which were later found broken
-my flash strap was once found on the bridle of one of the rs ponies
-my full bottle of detangler magically became only 1/4 full overnight
-my very good trimming scissors became very blunt and I'm sure i saw them being "borrowed" without permission!!

Probably lots of other things- I had 2 suspects" but could never prove it :mad::mad::mad:

Following the global vite theft I went and bought a lockable box

Fortunately with new YO and different liveries its a lot better!
 
Last edited:
Forest Fox said:
Heavens above !
You must be the only person on earth that has never had anything taken or "borrowed" from a yard !
Lucky you !
Click to expand...

Nope! I've been on my current yard for 6 years and never lost a thing. Stuff is kept in an unlocked cupboard or a communal tack room. People have asked if they could borrow various things and I've always had them returned. There are around 30 horses on the yard of which 24 are liveries so not a small yard.

It's just about having people who respect each other's stuff I guess.
 
Been on my yard since I bought my youngster 4 years ago and the only thing that has really gone missing has been hoof picks :confused: There are only 6 of us and we all get on really well so whoever is at the tack shop grabs a few for everyone to use.
 
I've related this little tale before but it's so insane it deserves repeating.

While I was pregnant and not riding, someone swapped my good rubber reins from my bridle and replaced them with their own damaged and unsafe ones. I lost my horse a few weeks before having my baby. Took stuff home, too upset to sort it, put in in the loft. Fast forward a couple of years and someone is interested in buying the bridle, I got it out to clean it and noticed the damage but assumed it was because I had stored it carelessly. The following morning I took a good look at them in daylight to discover they were not my reins, mine were black, these were very dark havanah and thinner than mine. Too late to do anything but boy, was I mad!
 
Yes, but only at one yard, a posh dressage one. One of the "grooms" there was notorious for "finding" things and "just keeping them safe for you" if they were discovered in her wagon, as happened on a couple of occasions . . . I "lost" a very expensive set of white sportbac dressage wraps: all four went, before I had a chance to even use them! :(
Some years have since passed. Last week, this person had her new horsebox burnt out, full of all her possessions, human and horse. She was preparing to move house, apparently.
Karma.
 
Yes. Feed, purple spray, hibi, fly spray, bute etc. Just irritating small stuff but it was persistent, it wasn't only my things either. I'm no longer there I'm happy to say.
 
I have a padlock on my tack room door. Very effective. Would never keep my stuff in communal areas, except wheelbarrow and some tools .... Which do get used unfortunately ... Luckily the person who broke my snow shovel admitted straight away and bought me a new one!
 
Yes, in the past I've had loads of stuff nicked. It's really annoying to have to keep everything locked away. We had a couple at my old yard who claimed that their hay and feed was going missing and they rigged up elaborate traps to catch the perpetrator. Turns out that they were doing the nicking and the traps were a ruse to put us off the scent, lol!
Now I share land with a friend and its great to be able to leave my stuff unlocked.
 
For the first 4 years I was at my old yard I didn't have a problem. People did occasionally borrow stuff but without taking the p & it was put back/replaced as appropriate & I could borrow other people stuff if needed to.
Then at the beginning of March a different member of the family took over running the yard. Overnight it changed & it wasn't the liveries that were the problem! Small examples but I rode after work one evening & had to go looking for my poop scoop which was in a field used for YO horses in someone else's barrow - not fun at gone 8 in the evening. The night before I left YO grooming kit was in a bucket left outside one of her stables - not only was it my bucket but it had been in a big bag of straw pellets - nearly empty so the sides were all folded in & you had to rummage to get in & find the bucket. Others had first aid kits, hay etc raided. Never did get back the gloves I lent her in April.
Because of that & emerging serious welfare/safety issues we all left en masse at the beginning of June.
 
Apart from yard tools, which we all have as a communal lot now, we never have anything go missing on our yard. However, it is small yard and hay is provided as part of livery.
 
I've never had anything go missing minus the off flap of hay or scoop of feed. Mind you I have been known to borrow a few mugs of fast fibre having run out and thought I had a stored bag in the shed. I always counted the mugs full that I used and put them back!
 
Sadly yes, I really do like my yard but so far I've had the following stolen:

-lungie bungie
-pair of reins
-lunge whip
-headcollar
-pair of stirrups and leathers

When I eventually get another riding horse, I'm going to invest in a tack locker and keep it all under lock and key. I've stopped offering my stuff to help folk out now, they can get it themselves!
 
nope :)
well not where i am now ! :)

even on a big 45 + box yard i was on before i used to lock everything away so it was safe hence being ok

:)
 
Only on one occasion. Well it was "one occasion" spread over time.

I had a mare who used to wear magnetic boots in the stable. They really helped her and some nasty person stole them off her legs :( not all atmonce but gradually and as thry helped her so much we kept replacing them and they ended up with a full set, despite marking them with our name.
 
I've never really had anything major go missing... But things like brushes have vanished...

The thing I hate, which seems like a regular occurrence, is feed. I was at a yard once with 3 others, so very small. My pony had a hifi and a quarter scoop of nuts. I started noticing my pony nuts were going down veeeery quickly... I knew how much I should get out of a bag, and I knew who it was stealing (the only other that had pony nuts) so I kept a sneaky watch on her feed... Funnily enough they never went down!! :rolleyes: She then started to say she had stopped feeding nuts.... But I fed one morning and the feed had nuts in it, so I told her I hadn't been able to feed the horse as I was worried that it had pony nuts in and shouldn't have :D (I had actually fed the horse though!)

Amazingly, my feed stopped going missing after that :D
 
I once was at a show where we had a stable for the week. While I plaited I had a very small cheap radio on and when I finished I turned it off and tucked behind the water bucket in the corner of the stable and somebody took it but left the water bucket thankfully.
The strangest thing I have had stolen is a wheel off a wheel barrow, which was in a field that I rent, but they left the electric fence energiser and battery which was worth £200. I thought it was a practical joke and kept expecting it to reappear as they had to unscrew the fitting to get the wheel off then take it up a track of half a mile.
The most annoying thing is hay, have had whole bales disappear mostly on livery but also bales by fields so you can just couple of slices in when you go past.
 
Not had a problem with either yard I've been on since moving from my own place. People on last yard did seem to use stuff like brooms buckets for hoof picking, sometimes wheelbarrow, but nobody was precious about it. On current yard it's even more communal. Had trouble knowing which horse was which, as people borrow stables all the time and ride each others horses!
 
Not really. Things will get misplaced, like nets, gloves and hoof picks. Usually telling the YO in case someone finds them.

But more of a mistake than anything else. Nothing major ever went missing.

And that is with no tack room to lock.
 
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