Things going missing on yard...just about fed up of it..

[Irishlassie]

About mid May, I had "words" with Lady who was doing the horses that evening, I had left then I came back to the yard as I forgot my phone, only to find Said lady removing one of my two hay nets from my horses stable, she said horse did not need two nets, but I had left at 5 to go to a family dinner, so put two in to keep him going, he is a big cob and one would have run out by midnight... We had few words, nothing nasty, I just explained its a one off and she said ok and left me to it.. Then.....
Ever since that night, 8 things of mine have gone missing, never to be seen again.
A new pot of sudocrem, a new multicolour head collar , and a net the same colour, two new lead ropes, a water bucket, bucket brush, yellow over reach boots and this weekend my new Headcolar.
Nothing of anyone else's is missing just my stuff. I don't like to think it is someone being vindictive to me but that's all I can think it is... And who it is ! She has hardly said more than few curt words to me in last 6 months or so, and I can honestly say I've looked everywhere for the missing stuff. Ok they are only small things, but they are my things...I get on with all at yard except this one person and her best mate...I've been there 5 years, my horse is happy and so was I.. I can not think of how to sort this.. You can't lock everything away especially buckets and nets ect.. I also seem to have been buying more feed than I used to..
Any tips on what I can do folk....mince pie for getting this far!!!

 

[Tern]

Spray paint everything you can with a mark or put a notice up near you feed saying you have noticed things are going missing and you will be installing wireless cctv cameras (check with Y/O first) .. you could in fact just put dummy cameras up and see if that puts a stop to things going missing.. Have you spoken to Y/O?

 

[WelshD]

Are you sure its her that is doing this? In the absence of proof I think i would be inclined to keep everything in boxes when you arent around and stick a note inside the lid that says 'please do not take my items without permission' to be replaced by a note that says 'smile you are on camera' if the thefts persist

 

[Firefly9410]

I have been on yards where you really do have to lock everything up. Have a dejunk of everything at the yard and keep things at home that are not in daily use. Keep tack in your car. Chain up your feed bins. Have old chest freezers or lockable cupboards for everything like spare rugs, grooming kit and headcollar. Put tie rings in your stable low down and use buckets with handles which you can padlock to the tie ring. Padlock your haynets too. Some yards are a joke and if you tie the horse for tacking up then go for a hack you can expect to never see your headcollar or rope again unless you first locked it away! Use permanent marker and name everything then lock it up. No need to have arguments with people then.

 

[YorksG]

Try a blob of anti-vandal paint on the bottom of tubs etc.I'm pretty sure that will put the thieves off!

 

[Sukistokes2]

I am horrified that there are places where you head collar could go missing that quickly!!!!! I am so glad to be in my own place. I could not stay in a place where I had to padlock my haynet!? Why was it this ladies business how much you feed your horse. I often give an extra net if I am bringing in early and it's bloody Christmas of course people are going for family meals.!?

 

[Antw23uk]

Lock everything away and then rummage through her stuff when you know you wont be caught to see if she has it! If you find your things then I would take them back. If she ever says anything then crack her over the head with a bucket and tell her to back off before you tell everyone she is a thief!

 

[chocolategirl]

This is something hour YO should be dealing with and I'm sorry but if I caught someone coming out of my stable with haynet in hand I would probably be writing this from my prison cell!!

 

[Nudibranch]

Sadly it's not unusual on yards and it may not be who you think it is. When I was last on*one, I lost a whole grooming kit, haynets, feed, a good leather bridle. And also a hat which I'd fallen off and landed head first in...I'd just not got round to throwing it away. Serves them right. Anyway lock up your stuff, or mark it.

I hate livery yards!

 

[Mrs G]

Whoa that's a lot of stuff gone! Def need to do something - maybe a note or even a 'missing' poster in a communal area on the yard detailing what's gone 'astray' and asking everyone to look out for said things (this might act as a deterrent and also they might actually see your things). Also I would mention it to YO or YM if you can and then as others have said, secure as much of your stuff as you can.

 

[Irishlassie]

My brother has this evening given me a large wood chest with a lock on it!!! So in morning everything I don't use is going in it.. I don't know if it is this lady I had words with, but it seems so strange that years on yard, with mostly same others liveries , nothing had gone lost permenantly.. I mean , not turned up in wrong place..
Buckets are being marked with marker pen with horses name , and new headcolar ordered with horses name on it!!! yO knows all about it, just says things can be mislaid!!!

 

[flirtygerty]

I am so glad to have my horses at home, only ever been on two yards, the first was a joke, stuff kept going missing and it was YO removing hay from my three stables, I've large horses, so they are going to eat more than YO's 12hh pony, given the fact hay and straw was included and I was the only one to have horses, not ponies, I paid extra for the extra hay I used, the second yard was a gem, I actually regretted being offered a house and stables next door to the yard, now if something goes missing, it's the grandkids not putting things back, easily dealt with

 

[sarahann1]

Sorry to hear you're having bother OP, hopefully the lockable chest you've now got will help.

I'd also recommend one of these http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/7204373.htm they fit perfectly under a rug rack, they are the same width and depth, might be useful for outside your stable.

 

[AmyMay]

This is something hour YO should be dealing with and I'm sorry but if I caught someone coming out of my stable with haynet in hand I would probably be writing this from my prison cell!!

I agree, completely.

 

[Firefly9410]

I often read on here people saying the YO should be dealing with this or that. Where are all these lovely yard owners who care about bitching and petty theft? I have never met one!

 

[PStarfish]

Sorry no help but posts like this make me so glad to be at my yard. 20 owners but you can leave anything out and it will still be where you left it. Occasionally things get borrowed but are always returned.
Difficult for you as these sound like things easily identified so not being pinched to use. The outdoor garden chests are good and have holes for a padlock if needed.

 

[Enfys]

Firefly, I may not be lovely but I NEVER, EVER put up with bitching, theft/borrowing on my yard.
I encouraged owners to mark their belongings, and if they didn't, I did.

The culprits found themselves at the short end of a "As of the 1st of month there will no longer be livery facilities available to you" letter, one strike and they were out on their ear, I always made that crystal clear from the beginning.
Zero tolerance.
My Ranch, My Rules

In 7 years I only ever booted three people off my yard and none of them turned around and asked "Why?"
They knew that I knew, it was just never mentioned.

I would advise anyone, on any yard, to mark their belongings - with the best will in the world, when you are dealing with a lot of horses, one blue rug looks much like another on a cold winters day. Even better, buy something revoltingly, stonkingly individual, in the most garish colour/ design you can stomach. Paint your barrows and your tools, write on your buckets, blankets and brushes, then lock it all away

 

[Red-1]

This is something hour YO should be dealing with and I'm sorry but if I caught someone coming out of my stable with haynet in hand I would probably be writing this from my prison cell!!

I would go ballistic just at someone having the audacity to go into my stable unless there was a real and imminent danger to the horse.

As for removing my hay.... words fail me now, but I bet in the same situation there would be no shortage of "words".

OP, I have a little head cam from Amazon, about £30. It would be very discreet in the stable, and you could pop it in before you leave when nasty lady is there.After an hour and a half it just turns itself off, and if anything were missing you would just take home, download to your computer and see who was doing what.

 

[Goldenstar]

I would write a list of everything missing and give it too the yard owner and explain calmly this level of stuff going walk about is not something you can really ignore .
And then mark everything absolutely everything with preferably your name .
When I had my horses on a shared yard I had to mark every single thing .

 

[cremedemonthe]

Perhaps these problem yards ought to be re classed as "thievery" yards instead of livery yards!
I have even been accused of stealing something whilst on site with my tools repairing saddles, bridles and rugs. I'd repaired an Atherstone girth and had hung it over the woman's saddle in the tack room as requested then went on to start replacing broken running loops on a bridle, finished that and went home for tea.
I was a regular at this stable (riding school and livery yard) so I was back the next day to do some more, irate woman appeared as soon as my vehicle came to a stop and accused me of stealing her (old and dirty) girth as she couldn't find it.
I protested my innocence asking her what the hell does she think I'm going to do with it!
I could have made a new one of I wanted one, she thought I had sold it!
I walked away before I threw her in a water trough, turns out a friend of hers had borrowed it as it appeared later that day, did I get an apology?
What do you think.
So OP I hope you find out who it is, I'd be inclined to use a discreet camera to make sure I had the right person, then wipe the floor with them.

 

[Moya_999]

About mid May, I had "words" with Lady who was doing the horses that evening, I had left then I came back to the yard as I forgot my phone, only to find Said lady removing one of my two hay nets from my horses stable, she said horse did not need two nets, but I had left at 5 to go to a family dinner, so put two in to keep him going, he is a big cob and one would have run out by midnight... We had few words, nothing nasty, I just explained its a one off and she said ok and left me to it.. Then.....
Ever since that night, 8 things of mine have gone missing, never to be seen again.
A new pot of sudocrem, a new multicolour head collar , and a net the same colour, two new lead ropes, a water bucket, bucket brush, yellow over reach boots and this weekend my new Headcolar.
Nothing of anyone else's is missing just my stuff. I don't like to think it is someone being vindictive to me but that's all I can think it is... And who it is ! She has hardly said more than few curt words to me in last 6 months or so, and I can honestly say I've looked everywhere for the missing stuff. Ok they are only small things, but they are my things...I get on with all at yard except this one person and her best mate...I've been there 5 years, my horse is happy and so was I.. I can not think of how to sort this.. You can't lock everything away especially buckets and nets ect.. I also seem to have been buying more feed than I used to..
Any tips on what I can do folk....mince pie for getting this far!!!

How horrid for you

Firstly I would get a lockable trunk to put your stuff in so non goes missing, if the hay net is pulled down of taken off use a small paddlock on it I know extreme but hey so iss her actions.

I woul certainly think about moving if all else fails, I mean you have a right to leave your stuff without people taking it upon themselves to remove it.


Also put some stensile marks on it or get wood calving tools and chisel out your horses name in them. You can also you perminant marker too.

With hay as you take a section or so off your bale tie the remainder back up with string or put the loose in a hay bag like this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SHIRES-EQ...oods_StableAccessories_SM&hash=item541020bffe

Luckily there is no thieving on this yard as Y/O would not put up with it.

Something like this would engrave metal objects http://grathio.com/2012/01/mark-your-tools/

 

[DragonSlayer]

Firefly, I may not be lovely but I NEVER, EVER put up with bitching, theft/borrowing on my yard.
I encouraged owners to mark their belongings, and if they didn't, I did.

The culprits found themselves at the short end of a "As of the 1st of month there will no longer be livery facilities available to you" letter, one strike and they were out on their ear, I always made that crystal clear from the beginning.
Zero tolerance.
My Ranch, My Rules

In 7 years I only ever booted three people off my yard and none of them turned around and asked "Why?"
They knew that I knew, it was just never mentioned.

I would advise anyone, on any yard, to mark their belongings - with the best will in the world, when you are dealing with a lot of horses, one blue rug looks much like another on a cold winters day. Even better, buy something revoltingly, stonkingly individual, in the most garish colour/ design you can stomach. Paint your barrows and your tools, write on your buckets, blankets and brushes, then lock it all away

This is a yard I would want to be at if ever I was on livery again!

 

[Moya_999]

I often read on here people saying the YO should be dealing with this or that. Where are all these lovely yard owners who care about bitching and petty theft? I have never met one!

You have not met mine then

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

yO knows all about it, just says things can be mislaid!!!

YO is taking the easy way out........mislaid? Occasionally something may get mislaiod but not at the quantity that you've listed. Nothing has turned up so the items have been removed permanently from the yard. That's plain stealing. The YO needs to properly address this, make everyone aware of what has happened & state his/her intentions should the offenders be identified. Hopefully this will stop it.

A YO ideally would like proof of someone doing something but thay can tell someone to leave anytime, they don't have to offer any explanation.

 

[dizzyneddy]

I hope you get it sorted it reminds me of when l was on a big livery yard (which was also a riding centre) l had little trival but important things go missing. In the end l used a uv pen to mark my things that l needed to use but couldn't lock away & l was at a lose to who & why someone would want to nick anything.

In the end l found two of my missing things a martingale & stirrup leathers they were being used on one of the riding school horses & had been taken by the livery owner who had a go at me for using dangerous stirrup leathers but l was at the time 5st wet & l was going to have them replaced later that month once l'd been paid so l kindly explained that she had no right to take my things without my permission & that l couldn't understand why she didn't take the items she needed from their tackshop which was on site. She took it my cooments well & everyone was shocked as she was a battle axe but we never had a cross word after that & l had to voice my opinion.

 

[Cowpony]

It's really hard where the livery yard is also a riding school. My stuff occasionally goes missing but it's generally not because people are taking things. If a riding school horse needs some boots and the lesson is about to start, whoever is tacking up may grab the nearest boots that fit. Then somebody else untacks, doesn't realise that the boots aren't riding school property and chucks them in the main box. I just mark everything and usually buy stuff in colours I know the riding school doesn't use. I've lost count of the number of new flash straps I've had to buy though!

I did lose a very distinctive broom once and couldn't find it anywhere. My usual practice of waiting 3 weeks for it to turn up didn't work, so I bought a new one. Months later some liveries moved off the yard and my broom appeared, totally worn down on one side. I now lock up my tools.

 

[Dry Rot]

Have some fun! Nothing like embarrassing the guilty! Or just the rumour that the substance is used might be enough of a deterrent.

http://www.blacklightworld.com/Anti_Theft_Powder.htm

Like Enfyns, I had a clause in the agreement, "This contract may be terminated by the YO at any time without stating a reason". I never had to use it.

 

[honetpot]

I was once on a yard where we had the opposite, mainly teenage girls that left everything every where. We had a sin bin box, when we swept up anything left lying a round was put in the box, it never ceased to amaze me the amount of good quality stuff that was left in there. When cleaning out the hay store I once found two Rhino rugs under 18inches of hay, they were never claimed.
The things that seemed to go missing were shampoo, hoof oil and the odd hay net. I have a box in may car that I have everything small I need and do not want nicked.

 

[sasquatch]

It's really hard where the livery yard is also a riding school. My stuff occasionally goes missing but it's generally not because people are taking things. If a riding school horse needs some boots and the lesson is about to start, whoever is tacking up may grab the nearest boots that fit. Then somebody else untacks, doesn't realise that the boots aren't riding school property and chucks them in the main box. I just mark everything and usually buy stuff in colours I know the riding school doesn't use. I've lost count of the number of new flash straps I've had to buy though!

I did lose a very distinctive broom once and couldn't find it anywhere. My usual practice of waiting 3 weeks for it to turn up didn't work, so I bought a new one. Months later some liveries moved off the yard and my broom appeared, totally worn down on one side. I now lock up my tools.

I had a similar problem - over reach boots and numnahs used to go and would be found on riding school horses.

I kitted my horse out in hot pink boots, and found pink overreach boots. Riding school used a lot of brown/black boots and my horse was on working livery (yet only did the occasional lesson) and so if he had a new rider than his normal one, his dark boots were mistaken for RS ones. As soon as they were pink, they were never misplaced again because no one else had pink boots and even if they were put with RS stuff, the staff knew who they belonged to and that there was no chance they were RS boots. I also had a John Whittaker headcollar that disappeared, along with 4 leadropes. Headcollar was found one day being used on one of the cobs that they were grooming as part of pony camp, I wasn't impressed at all especially as I'd been running round the RS trying to find one that fitted my horse as mine had gone. I'm not sure if I ever got it back, but it was an expensive headcollar. Even my one with a nameplate went at one point and YO recovered it and was very apologetic - to be fair there were a lot of kids/helpers who didn't always realise that not everything outside stables was RS stuff even if the horses were in lessons.

I did have a whole bridle go missing, after I bought my horse I got him a new bridle and the old one disappeared off his peg - same happened with a martingale I had bought and taken off (not even the one that came with him, but one I had bought with his new bridle and was barely used) and I even turned up to ride to find my girth was on a horse in a lesson. After that YO did make it clear not to use liveries tack on other horses, however I can remember finding 3 of my flashes on the bridle of the young horse I was riding in lessons on different occasions. I knew they were mine as well as I'd punched the extra holes in and he was the only horse with a cob sized flash. Wasn't impressed at all, especially with the vanishing bridle and martingale as we bought the horse with tack, and the martingale had never been property of the RS even when they owned the horse. I did have a friend who also had her horse on working livery who got a great deal out of it as an old gent rode her horse and would buy him new things. I think she ended up with a pair of Sprenger stirrups as the man bought some for her horse to spoil him, and a few lovely sheepskin bits and pieces.

The yard I'm on now is a lot, lot better for borrowing now - everyone asks and the only time I've ever noticed something missing is a pair of overreach boots, however the girl across the way had asked if she could borrow a pair as her pony had ripped his and I'd forgotten I'd told her there was no problem with her borrowing a pair as long as I had some I could use and they went back in the same place. Sure enough when she'd come in from riding they were back in their place

Gone a bit off track, whoops. But you just reminded me of how hard it can be especially on yards that are riding schools as well. I did get laughed at for my gelding always being hot pink, but none of his pink things ever disappeared and were always given back so it did work.

OP I think you're in a delicate position, as there could be a genuine reason someone has 'borrowed' things and forgot to put them back and to accuse someone of theft could make your life a misery. I would definitely keep an eye out and see what people leave lying around without prying.

Things like nets and leadropes have a habit of going missing especially if you have similar colours to someone else, I also invested in fabric name tags that could be sewn onto leadropes and nets and it at least helped with identifying what definitely was mine.

I also wouldn't accuse, but maybe send a note round the yard asking if they've seen your stuff as you can't find it and it has gone from where you last put it, if anyone has taken it by accident can they return it with no consequences etc. and ask people to keep an eye out - if everyone is aware it's gone and stuff is going missing you might find less stuff vanishes

 

[Cinnamontoast]

Kids at my yard were awful for just taking stuff until I had a rant at them individually and put name takes on my headcollar/leadrope. Everyone has a cubby for their grooming box/feed etc. Woe betide anyone who goes into a cubby not their own unless they're doing someone else's horse! It's just not done.