Unreasonable liveries?

[Breezesbenefactor]

My YM is lovely she'll do anything to help and always considers the welfare of the horses first. In return I obviously pay her but I also look to help her (as do other memebers of the yard) wherever we can, it's all about give & take

 

[eventing_chick]

I'm just starting to get liveries in after 8 years without.....you're all scaring me!!
I've only had a couple of people of questionable personality and tempament

I always find it a good guide if they enjoy good wine though

 

[smartfoxes]

Well i'm very glad to hear that on the whole i'm not the only YM to be on the recieving end of unreasonable liveries. As someone said its the ones you do most for that seem to gripe most & in my case this is certainly true. This particular livery is the most demanding i have ever met & i bend over backwards to help. She is sooo nice to my face but the complete fabrications that she has come up with are unbelievable. I know that in all walks of life there are good & bad but i also know that i run a very good yard, the horses welfare is priority & they are all very happy & extremely well cared for. I know its cliched but I really do treat them all as my own. I'm very approachable, very flexible & my phone is always on ( & believe me for the amount of texts i get, last minute asking can you do him in the morn, eve, feed, put this rug on, take rug off now! etc sometimes i wish it wasnt!) I do appreciate that liveries pay for this service, I just wish that sometimes they didnt think they were the only person on earth.
Maybe i will go back to just having my own horses, the xtra hassle really isnt worth it!

 

[BeckyD]

I think I've been really lucky, I've always had lovely YMs (well, except one but I think he has been banned from keeping horses and even he wasn't that bad, just very gruff and with a rather unpleasant wife but then other people got on ok with her!). I had a YM for a few years who got her husband to alter his hours slightly so that he could help her turn my horse out (horse bit of a nutter to t/o and tended to need two people). She was brilliant, typical mad horsey lady but she couldn't do enough to help, loved her to bits and was gutted when she moved away.

Am now at a super yard, my OH was only saying last night that he reckons I'll be there for years (fingers crossed) as I'm so happy there! The YM is great, she really understands horses and has been so helpful. Ronnie keeps losing his shoes and she's always got the farrier to come out super-quickly, and it must be so annoying for her (and the farrier!). All the other liveries seem lovely, which is a rarity, and they're really supportive.

I really wouldn't fancy the YM job myself, too many horsey people are crazy. I think people do like to complain, and no yard is perfect in every respect. I would love 24/7 turnout with field shelters, but there's no chance of getting that round our way, land is at too much of a premium (and I'm not moving to Scotland!

)

I think a good YM is worth their weight in gold, and if someone is causing a problem unfairly then they should be asked to leave. There's no point one trouble-maker ruining it for everyone.

 

[htobago]

I think YOs/YMs often get slagged off rather unfairly. I'm sure there are some bad, greedy, unpleasant, incompetent ones, but I do tend to wonder if sometimes there may be another side to the stories one hears.

I suggested a while ago that we should have a permanent thread on here dedicated to 'Naming and Praising' the good YOs!

I would start with mine, Tessa Spencer who runs Cliveden Stud - she is great and so are all her staff. They've just spent 3 months teaching my hyper-active young stallion to graze!

Yes, I know, eating grass is something that most horses do naturally and should not require lessons, but my boy seemed to think that grass was only for galloping on and churning up, and had to be painstakingly trained to try eating it occasionally instead. 20-minute in-hand grazing lessons, every day, often twice a day, for three months!

How many yards would go to that much trouble to teach a daft Arab colt to eat grass? This is a busy eventing/training yard as well as a stud - it's not like they have time on their hands! And yet they took the time to do this, bless them.

 

[Laafet]

cheers kk, you were one of the few that actually stuck by me and you and mother were so nice when others turned their backs despite what I'd done for them and the hours I put in to making their horses happy. And all that with no cow nuts and haylage

 

[zlooker]

Ive been to a yard which was FAB, it had indoor and outdoor schools, great hacking and bridleways, lots of acres and was quite central. Pity the YO was a complete idiot who bullied everyone, could only see the £ signs and with no previous experience of horses at all. Needless to say we arn't there any more!!!!

 

[TGM]

I think the livery/YM relationship is often very complex and has to be handled sensitively. One of the biggest problems is when the two don't communicate openly and the whole thing breaks down into a mess of "he said, she said" allegations.

Best approach would be to sit down with the said livery and have a calm, civilised chat and get to the bottom of the matter.