What does DIY mean ?????

if you can't come up twice a day you need to pay someone else, simple!
unless you have a friend who can help you out, with you helping them out in return, rather than just being rude and expecting someone else can do it. i rent with 2 other ladies, and monday to friday i bring 2 horses in for one lady, but she has an arrangement with me, so it's fine (she also offered to pay me but i refused). in return she does do occasional mornings or afternoons for me at weekends, and her husband does lots of maintenance jobs around the farm. although i am also one of those control freaks who doesn't like not seeing them twice a day.
i'm up at 6am with a head torch mucking out at the moment!
 
Blurr said:
If DIY liveries chose to do shifts for each other, as long as both parties feel it's a fair exchange I don't see a problem. But really, if you're moving to a DIY yard on your own, you can't possibly go with the expectation that you'll only need to go once a day. If you can't make the journey twice, you can't do DIY, you need some other form of livery package that suits your lifestyle.

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Well I have been on four yards now, and on DIY on each one. Each time the yard have turned out in the morning and brought in around either lunch time or 3pm depending on the horses requirements at the time.

I disagree with what you say about 'you can't possibly go with the expectation that you'll only need to go once a day'. Some of us have full time jobs in far off destinations with very early starts that make it very difficult or impossible to go in the morning before work. So we pay the yard to turn out for us. This makes sense. I can confidently say my horse has never suffered due to me only going up once a day! And on Sundays I am usually at the yard for 6.30am latest, same on a show day. But its impossible for me to get to the yard and then have a hour commute to work and get to the office, hair washed and showered and horse done for 8am!

The horses on our yard get fed breakfast and then rugs are changed and horses are turned out. Most of the time I've had really good friends that have done this for me when their horse has shared a paddock with mine and I will help them when I can at the weekends. Otherwise you pay extra for this service.

But I think most people who go to DIY yards (especially in our area) expect to have assisted DIY and to pay for this service on top of their normal DIY charge. Certainly the four yards that I've been on have done this.
 
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I agree with AppleCart14, sometimes it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to go twice a day - I work full time shifts and it's a 66 mile round trip from the yard. I'm on DIY and I make sure I do my horse myself at least once a day every day. By this I mean: I will come up either in the morning to ride, muck out and turn out OR come in the evening to muck out, bring in and ride. Depends what shift I'm on. I have clubbed together with another lady who also works shifts so when I come to turn my horse out/bring in, I do hers too. Then she does the same for me. That way we only have to come down once each per day instead of twice, which is great if you're working (or even just want a morning off!) :) When one of us is really stuck, the other will do a full muck out for them too as well as the turn out/bring in. If neither of us can get up for whatever reason then our YO does services at a very reasonable rate. No excuses for laziness though, if you don't want to do the work - either pay through your nose for full livery or don't have a horse. Simple ;)
 
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applecart14 said:
Well I have been on four yards now, and on DIY on each one. Each time the yard have turned out in the morning and brought in around either lunch time or 3pm depending on the horses requirements at the time.

I disagree with what you say about 'you can't possibly go with the expectation that you'll only need to go once a day'. Some of us have full time jobs in far off destinations with very early starts that make it very difficult or impossible to go in the morning before work. So we pay the yard to turn out for us. This makes sense. I can confidently say my horse has never suffered due to me only going up once a day! And on Sundays I am usually at the yard for 6.30am latest, same on a show day. But its impossible for me to get to the yard and then have a hour commute to work and get to the office, hair washed and showered and horse.
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But then surely the point is its not DIY, its 'part' or 'assisted' livery, if its pre agreed the yard will do certain things for a livery client, and I'm not saying its wrong, I've done it and its fine. I think the point is where people do not have a pre agreed 'part' or 'assisted' livery agreement, but are on basic 'proper' DIY, but expect the part/assisted services. One offs here and there are understandable, but anything 'regular' is not DIY.
 
applecart14 said:
Well I have been on four yards now, and on DIY on each one. Each time the yard have turned out in the morning and brought in around either lunch time or 3pm depending on the horses requirements at the time.

I disagree with what you say about 'you can't possibly go with the expectation that you'll only need to go once a day'. Some of us have full time jobs in far off destinations with very early starts that make it very difficult or impossible to go in the morning before work. So we pay the yard to turn out for us. This makes sense. I can confidently say my horse has never suffered due to me only going up once a day! And on Sundays I am usually at the yard for 6.30am latest, same on a show day. But its impossible for me to get to the yard and then have a hour commute to work and get to the office, hair washed and showered and horse done for 8am!

The horses on our yard get fed breakfast and then rugs are changed and horses are turned out. Most of the time I've had really good friends that have done this for me when their horse has shared a paddock with mine and I will help them when I can at the weekends. Otherwise you pay extra for this service.

But I think most people who go to DIY yards (especially in our area) expect to have assisted DIY and to pay for this service on top of their normal DIY charge. Certainly the four yards that I've been on have done this.
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You're not on DIY then are you? That's called assisted. If you had your horse stabled on a DIY yard, you'd have to expect to go twice. My point is that you can't take a place on a DIY yard expecting that someone will help you to look after him. If you need help, as you do, you need assisted livery, as you have. It may not be your experience, but is certainly mine, that there are plenty of yards out there that do not have anyone on site nor any livery willing to do chores for cash or exchange. If you're on that type of yard, which I have been, you necessarily must go twice a day yourself, job or no job. As for "I work full time" ... so do I, in fact I'd say so do most horse owners because they're too expensive to keep without a job! If it is IMPOSSIBLE for a horse owner to attend to their stabled horse twice a day, they cannot be on DIY livery, they need assisted or full.
 
Oh, applecart14, one additional thing re work. I start work between 7.30am and 8am. It's an hour and a half to two hour commute depending on traffic and trains. I get up at 4.30 5 days a week to see to my horses first. I have no doubt that I'm not the only mad bint who does this type of early start in order to see their horses twice a day. There're lots of us out there, you just have to get up early enough to see us.
 
Blurr said:
Oh, applecart14, one additional thing re work. I start work between 7.30am and 8am. It's an hour and a half to two hour commute depending on traffic and trains. I get up at 4.30 5 days a week to see to my horses first. I have no doubt that I'm not the only mad bint who does this type of early start in order to see their horses twice a day. There're lots of us out there, you just have to get up early enough to see us.
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I to work full time so am an early bird usually up at 5.15 at yard for 6.00am, feed, turn out, muck out, do haynets waters etc, back home for 7.30 to get to work for 8.30. i finish work at 5pm back to yard for six to fetch in, feed , change rugs, usually home around 7.00pm.

There is nobody on site at my yard and noone to share with.

i have always visited my horses twice daily. i do everthing myself which is what i class as diy :)
 
splashnutti1 said:
I to work full time so am an early bird usually up at 5.15 at yard for 6.00am, feed, turn out, muck out, do haynets waters etc, back home for 7.30 to get to work for 8.30. i finish work at 5pm back to yard for six to fetch in, feed , change rugs, usually home around 7.00pm.

There is nobody on site at my yard and noone to share with.

i have always visited my horses twice daily. i do everthing myself which is what i class as diy :)
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When do you ride?? :(
 
applecart14 said:
But I think most people who go to DIY yards (especially in our area) expect to have assisted DIY and to pay for this service on top of their normal DIY charge. Certainly the four yards that I've been on have done this.
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Sorry, but as a YO who until a couple of years ago provided DIY livery this is, sadly, not the case.
With a very few exceptions, my DIYers expected their horses to be fed, turned out/brought in, me to clean up the mess they left in the yard/feed store/barn, poo pick their fields, repair all damage their horses caused to fences, walls etc. For the basic £15 a week livery charge. Last livery was also under the impression that she was entitled to 'borrow' any of my possessions/feed that she wanted.

Blurr was talking about proper DIY and I agree, if an owner can't commit to seeing to their horse at least twice a day then they need to consider something other than standard DIY eg assisted. And pay the extra £ without complaint. So many owners move to a DIY yard and then start whining that they can't possibly feed in the morning because they work (big whoop, don't we all?), have a sick granny etc etc and just expect another livery or the YO to take pity on the horse.
 
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Cheshire Chestnut said:
When do you ride?? :(
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I can't speak for splashnuti1 but during the week, not at all in winter. I don't have a school, just a fenced area of the field and don't have lights. I keep promising myself I will ride in the dark :) Riding in the winter is done at weekends, not unlike lots of people I know on full or assisted/part livery. Once it starts being light at gone 6.30-7pm I start riding again.

Is the difference between assisted diy and part that in assisted you chose what services you need and when you need them on an adhoc basis and part is when you they're more regular? On that basis, some of the assisted diy liveries sound more like part. Or is part everything 5 days a week and diy on weekends? I'll be honest, there're so many types of livery with so many variations that it gets rather confusing.

Buddy'sMum - your diy'ers sound a bit special!
 
Trouble is I only want DIY ers simply because of my arthritis, I find it hard doing a lot of rugging on/off and turning out etc, its bad enough doing my two; Both liveries knew this when they came, they were told I don't want to do any jobs unless emergency or holiday cover ( that's another story, said livery has had three abroad this year ! ) I'd rather not have an extra £20 a month tbh.

What made me laugh the other day is she said I looked shattered and I was doing too much!
 
Sometimes DIYers do unspeakable amounts of work in terms of help, looking after horses due to illness, holidays etc, give countless lessons and support to people that don't seem to remember any of that on the one occasion you need some help back.

It's people. Some are genuine, want to help and will get taken advantage of if they allow and some will always look for what they can take and get away with.

Personally, I would rather be one that gets taken advantage of than one that only ever takes. I have changed recently though. I think it will be a while before I help to the level I have before because it hurts like hell when you come to the realisation that you're a complete mug!
 
_GG_ said:
Sometimes DIYers do unspeakable amounts of work in terms of help, looking after horses due to illness, holidays etc, give countless lessons and support to people that don't seem to remember any of that on the one occasion you need some help back.

It's people. Some are genuine, want to help and will get taken advantage of if they allow and some will always look for what they can take and get away with.

Personally, I would rather be one that gets taken advantage of than one that only ever takes. I have changed recently though. I think it will be a while before I help to the level I have before because it hurts like hell when you come to the realisation that you're a complete mug!
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I agree with what you are saying it is people & I dont mind helping anyone out but I dont see why they take have to take the mickey - you can tell immediately with some people whilst you can completely misjudge others that you thought were ok - its just not nice having being so sceptical all the time - but I guess thats just life
:(
 
I have an arrangement with another yard that if anything happens to me, or I go on hols, whatever, Shy will go back there on Full Livery. No question. All arranged, and now agreed with both current lovely YO, who has offered to do it herself (in her 70's) !! and the other YO. And i will not help anyone out unless it is a total emergency , or they pay me the going rate.

This sounds like something the BHS as a campaign could take up, as it seems to happen on every livery yard - the moral of the story is that if you don't have the TIME to DIY, or the MONEY pay for assisted, then simply do not have a horse. A horse is a gift, not a right. And other liveries are NOT there to look after your horse.
 
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I think a lot of people now, in the 'I want and I want it now culture' really can't afford either time or money for a horse but they get one anyway. THen it becomes everyone elses problem.
I had a friend had a horse here on DIY, although I fed and did ins/outs as it was easier for me. When I rang her one night to say the horse was colicking she said 'Oh let me know in an hour how she looks, will you?' WTF!?
 
Well injecting a horse in the bum for a week for the owner, and helping tub a severely infected foot on Christmas Day and beyond should have really been the turning point for me - but nope, I still didn't get it.
 
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