What is it about livery yards....

Cinnamontoast

Cinnamontoast

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...that makes members of the public treat them like petting centres? A random guy was walking round today in the private section (big signs saying no entry etc). I asked if I could help 'No, no, I'm just looking round' I very politely told him this sections private. He looked most put out.

Yesterday, another guy with his very small kid (not a client) came up to me, the child was on a scooter heading for Beau's legs!! 'What horses can I feed?' Erm, none without the owner's permission! He was really peed off! We're not on a public road, it's down a tiny private road with only three houses at the top, so God knows where he came from.

It's better than my old yard that was on a main road and people were always wandering in to ask if they could have a ride, if they could feed or stroke the ponies. Get your own! Grrr!
 
get a big dog that lets you know that visitors are about and greets strangers with a loud volley of barks :D

not always practical i know but i have a small pack that do this and although more likely to lick you to death can be quite intimidating to ambling parents and kids helping themsleves to the Yard and at least they alert me new people are there.

OR, put up a PRIVATE sign on the main gate? Then you can tersely point it out to any stray interlopers that manage to ignore it.

bloomin annoying :(
 
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I nearly had heart failure once somewhere similar. Had my 14.2 tied outside her stable, on a yard that had a large gate & huge private, keep out sign. Asked her to move over & she wouldn't budge, which is just not her. Gave her a push & still wouldn't move. I then found a toddler stood near her far hind, patting her hock. Thank god she looks after kids or it could have ended badly. Parents strolled from round the corner where they'd been patting over doors. And still didn't see the danger without much explaining.
 
Perhaps people in England and Wales think they have the right to roam like in Scotland!

I've had mums walking into my yard with little kids wanting to see the ponies even though I have Private and My Dog Bites signs! I now let my JR Alfie wander round the yard, they soon stopped coming round :)
 
My Boarders treat my place as a petting farm, hardly surprising with cats, pupies, ducks, goats, calves etc all over the place.

I am just finalising plans to actually open the place for "Pony parties/meet the animals" next summer. I already have bookings.
 
We have a riding school as well as the livery yard and the amount of people who's kids are riding go for a wander round the yard always annoys me.
Firstly they should be watching their kids in the gallery and secondly most of them haven't got a clue and go and stroke the horses...some of them with ears back or round the back of horses tied up.
They often have other small children with them that pick handfuls of grass to feed over the doors.

I don't know why it annoys me so much?
 
The Cotswold Way runs right past my yard, and we regularly get people looking like they're going to come in.... I solve the problem by letting my Great Dane and Great Dane x Doberman play on the yard!

We've had no end of trouble with people feeding the horses in the field which the footpath crosses, so I've put the stallion in there. He scares people so much with his in your face, "I'd really love to sit on your lap" games that nobody stays in the field long enough to cause problems.
 
We had people this week walk through our 12 electric tape fields with a lose dog!! They just couldn't be bothered to use the foot path, such a shame they didn't get zapped!!
 
Its not just livery yards, my horses are at home with me and a man came into my stable area with his granddaughter and asked if she could have a ride on the pony I was brushing, I said no as the pony in question was not suitable for a novice let alone a child who had never sat on a pony before. The man then went on to lecture me how snooty horse owners were and how it was no wonder we had a bad reputation as he had yet to find a horse owner who would allow his grandchild to ride on their ponies! I have had many children just walk into my stables and ask to brush the horses and many people walk passed and bring treats (usually bread!) to feed them. Luckily although my stables are easily accessed from the lane my fields are behind the house and so far no one has had the cheek to walk through my garden to get to the horses.:)
 
We have effectively a pack in the yard so while we often get people gazing in, no one dares walk in with them around! Even Mr laid back working cocker will yell at a stranger! For the person who has a problem with wanderers between the livery and riding stables, I would suggest a gate or physical barrier and a warning that the horses are unpredictable and will bite. You should have this sign up anyway as our law rather stupidly is on the side of trespassers and if they do hurt themselves, the land owner is liable UNLESS there is a sign warning against possible danger...
 
I've been known to be a bit scary to intruders (after trying and failing to politely make my point) but I must say that I begin to think people really *do* think it's a petting zoo on a farm, especially people who don't have any connection to rural life, like the people who live on the new estate that is now very close to our farm.

I have come to the conclusion that people mean no harm but they just don't know or understand why they should stay on established rights of way (most we've met recently don't even know where they are-particularly the younger ones)

They don't know that they should always shut gates, that cows are not always friendly like on the adverts, that a herd of sheep is an inexorable force if one gets out of the open gate... that horses and ponies, and all animals, can be unpredictable and not all are child and dog proof and its not the law that they should be. I think there is also a sense of entitlement about people these days, particularly where their little kiddies are concerned, so when you are explaining things I find it is best to couch it in why it's dangerous for Little Precious to wander into a field with livestock in it, or for them not to shut the gate behind them, or why they should stay on the rights of way, otherwise they just don't get it.

Most recently we had a nice middle aged couple get really upset because our horses were wearing fly masks, we actually had to take the mask off and hand it to them so they could see for themselves that we weren't really turning our horses out in blindfolds.
 
If there is no right of way,electric fences should always be ON !They give them a hell of a fright but no lasting damage.Back in the day, when I was a farmer, a dog that everyone knew to bite was also a good deterrent though probably not such a good idea now.
 
DotesonCluny said:
If there is no right of way,electric fences should always be ON !They give them a hell of a fright but no lasting damage.Back in the day, when I was a farmer, a dog that everyone knew to bite was also a good deterrent though probably not such a good idea now.
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No, sadly nowadays the poor dog would find itself in hot water just for doing its job. The electric fences are a good idea though, better than what could happen.
 
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