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Tia

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I thought it might be time for all of us livery yard owners to have our say since we so often bear the brunt of rants. Now I realise that not all YO's are good and nice people, however some of us are!

I've owned yards for something like 15 years or so. I like to think that I look after my boarders as well as I can. I like to keep them happy so I give them as many facilities as I can afford. They must be quite happy as I tend to have my boarders for years and years.

I care for boarders horses in no lesser a fashion than I do for my own horses.

I keep well maintained fields and this takes up a lot of my time and money.

I hold all the horses for the farrier and do not get paid over and above for my time. I am generally the person who is here to meet the vet and hold the horses for him. I am also the person who pays the WHOLE bill for the yard for both vet and farrier. The farrier bill every 6 weeks is in excess of 500 and I do not get reimbursed for this until the end of that month. Any vet bills which I pay are rarely paid back to me by the boarders until the end of the month also. Now I am not complaining and please don't see this as a rant.......but in many months I can be down 1,000 but I ride it. Worming at this yard costs me almost 300 which again I pay out of my own pocket and have to wait for payment from everyone till the beginning of the next month.

I never interfere with anything my liveries do, unless there is negligence going on. I will help if I am asked but do not if I am not.

I will take daily care of any horse who may be unwell, regardless of ownership, and I do not charge for this.

I will trailer anyone anywhere and I do many many favours for my liveries. I loan equipment and even blankets if I feel a horse needs extra.

Now there are many more other things which I do; I do them because I really like my boarders and the horses. I may be very lucky with all the ones I have had; only ever had 2 in all the years that I helped find more suitable yards for.
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So.....what about the rest of you yard owners? Time for you to have your say.
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Hats off to you Tia wish we could clone you!

However, to date I have not had a bad YO, the last place he maintained the fields to the highest level and was always on hand, he stills beats himself up that he did not notice anything wrong with Stinker that night. My current YO I have only seen once, yet the haylage arrives as needed and our fields are maintained so we are just left to get on with it.
 
The farm out in the desert where Stella and Clarita spent some time - the lady cleaned a cut on Stella's leg for 2 months, fly sprayed them, did all of Stellas after surgery care, got the vet out for their coggins/ health cert, etc!!

Price $150 per horse per month!! That is like 75 pounds!!!
 
When I did have liveries, you describe me in a nutshell except with having fewer liveries, I wasn't owed so much!
You did forget all the tea and coffee and biscuits though for them all - and the blacksmith and vets! If we were having some, then they got some too, only fair!
I've only ever had to ask two to leave; that was a Highland whose aim in life was to be elsewhere and blow the fences in between and a riggy Welsh B which I couldn't trust after it was the cause of me losing a filly with a broken neck!
I'm still friends with them all and they still drop in for tea!
 
When my horse was on full livery the YO (or rather the YO's staff) held the horses for vet / farrier, took care of all vet treatments / dressings etc, changed rugs whenever needed (only from the one's you provided but i have like 50
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) etc etc. I assumed it was because i paid £120 per week so it was there job to do everything but soon after I left they changed it and the livery didn't include any extra's anymore, holding for vet/farrier/dentist/physio etc all started to be charged extra.
Everything was always imaculate and maintaned though!!
 
Only 2 of my boarders are on Full livery, the rest are on Grass livery......I rarely see the owners - the majority of them come up for 20 minutes once a month, on the day the rent needs paying. And I don't charge anything like 120 per week, not even for Full board, LOL!!
 
My Yo is truly brilliant

The horses are looked after so well, they phone us to tell us when the indoor school is free. Phone us if they feel our horses shoes need doing and the farrier is coming now.
They advise us on everything helped me teach pickle to stand still when you get on. Yo spent 30 minutes just getting on and off pickle (i am not as good as getting on) as YO is ex jouster!
They always have coffee, tea, hot chocolate and milk for our use. They bought a microwave so we could eat hot food in the winter other than pot noodle.

When I came up the yard to find pickle was being clipped so I had to wait they just gave me one of the RS horses to ride instead free of charge. When pickle was off work for a week I got a ride almost every day free of charge!

They lunge henry (sisters horse) before she rides him just so he doesnt buck or behave awfully, because we come up after school so dont have much time to lunge and school.

They would do anything for us, they even helped me when a very bad saddler tried to sell me a dodgy saddle. They even found a old spare saddle to use for a few days when mine was being reflocked!

Also if we have problems hacking all we have to do is phone the yard and YO will be out very quickly coming up the path on the quad bike to rescue us however far whatever the problem.!

Basically Love my yard and the kindness of my YO
I dont know what I would do without it
 
Our YO is not like that at all but to be fair to him he lives in Wales as his daughter is ill so only comes back once a month to collect rent.

He is quite good at getting jobs done that are required like when Senza smashed her stable down and the roof needed doing or when all the electrics went but we have been waiting for the sand school to be done for ages. It got started and never finished and we currently only have one light working at the mo. He said he is going to do it the next time he is here but he said that last time too
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He is getting on a bit though but doesn't trust anyone enough to come in and help out.

He is generally good though and just lets us get on with it which is much better than a YO that nags continuoulsy which i had before. We let him get on with it and he lets us do the same so everyone is happy.
 
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Your YO sounds superb Jess!

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certainly is, and that post also sticks up for Riding Schools. My horse is on working livery and I love my yard! its a brilliant place
 
Most YO's are fab and do what it says on the tin, but there are those who are complete ar$es.
On one yard I was at we paid a month in advance for everything. Always paid on time, arranged our own worming etc etc. Yet the YO was a cow, we had to put up with barbed wire, she mostly never spoke to anyone except to grunt, and used to turn goats out with the horses. Goats would headbutt and chase us daily. She whinged about everyone behind their backs and thought she knew it all.
Personally I prefer to keep myself to myself when doing stable chores riding etc, don't like a busy yard, so I'm happy on a private yard.
But if I could find a quiet yard with all the facilities I wanted and a nice YO who helped out when she could and did everything you do I would be there in a flash! (Oh, and very nearby to enable me to go three times a day).
 
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this is a post about good YO's if you havent noticed!!! there are plenty of posts like yours around!

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was there any call for that little outburst? simply stating what difference a good YO can make.
 
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