What are the worst yards you've ever been on???

charlimouse

charlimouse

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As posted really. The post below about stable sizes reminded me of a horrific yard I was at when I was a student. I was doing my NVQ II with a local college, so was placed at a BHS and ABRS approved riding school, plus it was a pony club centre. The pony stables were 6x8ft, they couldnt even lay down, and they lived in. The students were there 2 days a week, and this was the only day the horses (all 45 of them) were mucked out!!! Non of the tack fitted, and most was broken. There was ragwort everywhere, rubbish in the fields, broken fencing, all the horses and ponies had lice, and mud fever which went untreated. This list goes on. The ultimate was when I was riding a pony I often rode. It was normally really forward going, it was the only one that was nice to ride. I got on her and could feel she wasn't right, she wouldnt go forwards at all. I spoke to the instructor who said to smack and hit her, she still wouldnt go forwards, and by this point was completly lathered. I told the instructor again she wasnt right,and fel tlike she was tying up, but he said she was just playing up. At this point I got off her, and with my instrustor shouting abuse at me about how I couldnt ride, took the pony back to the stable.I washed her off and put a cooler on her and left her. I spoke to the YM who didn't seem to care and said to leave her, and told me off for making her too sweaty. After 30mins the pony was still sweating, so I took her for a walk, but she was refusing to move at all. Told my instructor who went and got a lunge whip and hit her until she moved. After walking she was still sweating, so i put her away and put a dry cooler on her. Had a bit of lunch, when I returned the pony was laying down, still lathered. I got another student to come with me to back me up to tell the instructor and YM that the pony was ill (tied up), and I thought she really needed a vet, to which I was told she was absolutly fine, and there was no way they were going to get a vet out. So I went home having done my best for the pony, but had abuse hurled at me about it. I wasn't at the yard for 2 days, but when I went back I couldnt see the pony in her stable. I asked one of the girls what had happened to her, and was told she had died during the night the day I had ridden her, apparently she had tied up and as it had been left she had died. The YM then denied this to me when I asked her where the pony was, and said she had been sold?????? I finished the course at the yard, but swapped to an outside instructor who only came to the yard when students were there. This yard no longer takes students, but is still BHS and ABRS approved, and is still a Pony Club centre, after this experiance I have realised BHS and ABRS approval count for nothing. Has anyone else had similar experiances????
 
That sounds hideous - is it really legal? That RI and YM need to be shot quite frankly. I dont think I have ever heard anything so grotesque on a yard - I think you win!
 
Poor pony :-( I would report them too.
Re: your topic, in 21 years I have only been on 3 yards, my first two were private - just me and a friend, now I am at a friend's private farm - all 3 have been fab :-)
 
Sounds like the "riding school" near here, ragwort infested mud bath is being polite!! At one time we were forever putting the horses back in, my mother in law lived opposite so we were there quite alot. When she needs new tack she claims its been stolen, and the hard done by kiddies cant ride, its been replaced by a well known synthetic saddle maker!! No qualified staff. Lets kids lead the hacks.
 
goodness, that sounds just horrible, those poor horses.

the worst i have been on was a supposed friend. very small, just me, her and 2 others. She set everyone against each other. I did so much for her, eg holding horses for vet, farrier, mucking out, releasing her horses from her dangerous fencing, looking after the place and animals when she was on holiday.
It was a fair distance from my house and she said that when the winter came, not to worry about coming twice a day, she would bring mine in for me. When the time came, she wouldn't do it so I paid her daughter to do it, but she stopped her. so i had to go twice a day.
My horse was the biggest one there and she gave her the smallest stable. She also cribs so she put up a grill so that she felt totally claustrophobic. My wee elderly pony was supposed to have a stable for winter but then she wouldn't let me have one, even though there was one not being used.
badmouthed me to everyone. 'bimbo who has no f..ing clue' was one quote that came back to me. Told people that my horse was the horse from hell and would kill me, also that i was going to take a foal from her then send her for meat!
Not surprisingly, i left and love the place i am at. great hacking, big stables, decent people. Nowhere is totally perfect, but some places are just horrible.
 
What a vile place. Reminds me a bit of our old yard. Not quite as awful at that, well perhaps the owners were, but that is another story. It was BHS approved as well, good knows how. We left after YO told me that I was never to call my instructor for help again with a problem with my daughters pony. Said pony was quite unwell and YO did not have a clue as did not really like horses (yes, true). We left the week after to go to our current yard, which we love. That last week was the worst of my life and it ended with my lovely husband telling YO what for, especially as they were under investigation by customs and excise. I left this yard in tears - not fun when towing two horses.

They went bankrupt earlier on this year - who says there is no justice in this world. The only good things to come from there are some good friends and my lovely cob, who I bought from them when they were a riding school. I would love to name them, but they are under new management and I dont want to upset them as its nothing to do with them. But you know who you are, you ........!
 
Why do some of the people who run livery yards have to be so horrible? We have used livery yards for 22 years and have only had trouble with 2. Unfortunately, the one we currently use is one of those. My daughter rents a stable and grazing at a local yard, capable of housing 5 horses. The person owning the lease owns 2 horses there, the other two stables are empty (the other 2 people moved out a couple of months ago due to problems with the 'camp controller.' My daughter rented 2 fields to use for grazing. However, after a week she was told that she could only use the large one during winter, due to the other being poached. On inspection, the larger field is the poached one, full of weeds and is a quagmire, the horse gets mud fever and in this field is up to her knees in it. We were told before we moved in that a part of the field got a bit muddy, but the whole thing is just mud! Three weeks after the livery began, the lessee, removed the electric fencing and told my daughter she had to provide her own. As she had some from when she rented just fields before, she did so. However, the lessee keeps moving the fencing without telling my daughter. This has resulted in several posts being broken and the tape being damaged. The other problem is, my daughter has to provide her own straw and hay, which is fine. However, if she isn't at the stables when the lessee is there, and the horse is in for any reason, the lessee throws loads of haylage over the stable door, of which most gets wasted as the horse tramples on it and then won't eat it! My daughter has asked her not to do this as her horse is prone to colic and the vet has told her to restrict the horse's intake, and often the horse has only ten minutes or so to wait before my daughter arrives to turn her out. Both my daughter and I have asked the lessee not to feed her without asking, but she totally ignores us. This has meant that we now have to keep the hay and haylage at home and take it twice daily to the stables in the car. DIY livery is really hard to find south of York, but we have managed to find somewhere else, at last. The problem is the lessee insists on a months notice from the 18th of the month, i.e my daughter couldn't leave until 18 February, and she can't afford two lots of livery. The new yard obviously can't keep the new space for free until then. Under the circumstances, does anyone think the lessee is being unfair?
 


I made the mistake of going too a riding hoilday/riding school when I was a kid.
All the horses where headshy due to being beaten, can recall one of the main owners kicking the crap out of a horse in the yard one day was horrible.
Just owned by complete pikies to be blunt, I remember being sworn at/ reduced to tears often by the same owner ( cant' say thats professional when your only like 12 years old expecting a fun hoilday)
 
shetlandfudge, poor old you. I think you need to look at the terms of your contract with the lessee, if you have one in writing. If not, then I would ignore it - it is highly unlikely that this individual would bother coming after you. If, however, you have a written contract then there is very little you can do about this. Maybe try negotiating yourself out of it.

The yard to which I refer in my post above yourse insisted on 4 weeks notice. I am fortunately lucky enough to have a job which pays well and I would afford two lots of livery for a little while. It was a small price to pay to get away from the pigs that run that yard. However, two other liveries left straight away without giving notice and the pig took them to the small claims court. As there was proper written contract, he won it.

Why are some livery yards so awful? Its a recurring theme on this forum. I do wish you daughter loads of luck - its vile when you are unhappy on a yard. I have been on our new yard 3 years and love it. We have our ups and downs, but its great. Good luck with the new yard.
 
Iv'e been on two yards, the first being fine, the second yard whilst the yard itself was fantastic, great facilities in every aspect, The YO was seriously unhinged, lost six liveries in 3 months- such a shame!
 
Shetlandfudge I don't know what contract you have with the lessee but I think in all honesty I would just move. Ensure you are paid up fully until you leave and then see if you can get a solitcitors letter or even just write a formal letter of your own stating that.

1) You have followed the lessee's instructions with regard to the field arrangements however the field you are being forced to use is innappropriate for horse grazing.
2) As requested you have supplied your own electric fencing but this has been moved repeatedly without discussion with yourselves and is now damaged
3) Despite asking repeatedly for your horse not to be fed without your permission the lessee has ignored your requests. This is putting your horse's welfare at risk as you are acting on a vets advice.
As the lessee isn't providing the goods you are paying for (i.e grazing), has damaged your property (the fencing) and most importantly is putting your horse's health at risk with the additional feeding then you feel it makes any contract you had null and void and thence you have removed the horse.

She isn't being fair and I'm sorry but a months notice from the 18th of the month that is just ridiculous.
As long as you don't leave any debt then in all honesty given the above statements she is very, very unlikely to come after you for anything.
 
Oh and the worst yard I've been on was the one with the best facilities. The YO was absolutely mental and her horrible mind tricks left me at the point where I never wanted to ride my horse. I'm still struggling now with the battering my confidence took 5 years later!!
 
I liveried on one for about a year till a new good yard opened up in Aberystwyth. This yard had sooooo many problems I left as soon as I could. Barbed wire fences- to the point that my OH had to cut another livery off the fence and one of the other horses sliced its neck and another its leg (all seperate occasions). Poor grazing- no joke there would be mud so deep it would go over your welly. Oh and no rules about vaccination or isolation or worming so one girl brought ringworm onto the yard- was anything done? No- it spread to 90% of the horses there- on and YO and his daughter still took horses to competition! The last straw was when I was mucking out one winter morning thankfully my horse was turned out- a wall near my stable started creaking (a wall I had complained about before as it looked so unstable) then all of a sudden the whole wall collaped and a large rock/pebble flew out and hit a little 12hh pony on the hock who was tied up nearby who then ran off and bolted. Did they do anything about it? No. 2 weeks later I was gone before they had even finished building the other yard. When I left 4 others moved after me- I got branded by YO for 'stealing' other liveries.
 
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Shetlandfudge, if you are just south of york, you're probably quite close to me!!!!!

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Me too
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One of the worst yards I was at was bad :/ It was fine until it was taken over by one of my friends step-dad. He didnt have a clue about horses and only cared about the money. He told one of my other friends that she wasnt allowed to ride her loan pony in the gymkhanas because he always won, I booked my old loan pony one afternoon after school so I could ride him and when I turned up YO had sent my boy out on a 2 hour hack
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so I had to go home. One pony had been turned out in a fleece when it was raining and when I brought her in she was soaked through and shivering like mad, but didnt have another rug so had to take it off and when I told YO she was cold he ignored me at first so I repeated myself and he answered with "i dont care if shes cold i have better things to worry about!"
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so had to leave poor pony dripping wet
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I felt awful. He recently had one horse PTS because he went lame (was lame alot as he kept being put back on the school despite the fact he wasnt sound) and YO was fed up of it. Someone on the yard offered to buy him but YO refused :/
 
Bloody hell some horror stories on here! Good grief I had no idea such places existed?

As for mine...yard I was on as a kid was pretty bad. Instructor was good riding wise but would charge my poor old dad £200-£300 a month for working livery, horse lived out and his "deep littered" stable used to squelch, but she'd only let me have about half a bale of shavings a month. This was in the late 1980s!!! I still feel guilty.
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Other one that was bad was a small yard I was on where an older messed up woman was the resident bully (of me). She had some sort of op and would make out to other liveries I didn't help her, when in fact I was her 24/7 slave. I'd go up to ride and she'd have a list of backbreaking jobs for me as long as her arm. Nasty piece of work. She was petrified of her horse, and mine (the kindest thing you've ever come across) and would bitch about me being a "hard rider" because I would take my horse out and *gasp* come back splattered in mud.

Gosh makes me so thankful for what I have now!
 
Poor Pony :/
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.. The instructor should've realised there was something wrong with the pony and something should've been done about her. I cant believe that they just left her ! and giving you the blame that she was sweaty ! ...
 
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