What would it take for you to leave your yard?

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FinkleyAlex

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As in the title really, after a few months of considering moving I have decided to take the plunge and go. Its been so hard to come to a decision, as I love the yard, it has amazing facilities, he has a nice stable, a cafe and tackshop, a lovely YO who simply runs the cafe and tackshop and not the yard (sadly!) and above all a girl I have grown up with and her mother, who is like my stable-mum and does my pony when I'm on holidays and really goes out of her way to help me.

However, since YO stopped running the yard and just did the cafe/tackshop the management has been terrible, the YM seems to hate everyone and theres only 1 fulltime member of staff and 3 part timers for a yard of about 70 horses. They no longer get everyday turnout, mine has been out once this week. The liverys get a terrible deal, 80 quid a week and beds aren't done properly, they have three types of feed to chose from, feet arent picked out properly etc and then are made to feel bad for complaining in the book. The final straw was riding today and a kid on an out of control pony crashed into me, when I first came to the yard it was 8 adults to one child, now there are only about 10 adults left, and 5 are moving to the yard I'm going to.

Hopefully I'm doing the right thing, the new yard is 30 mins drive away as opposed to my 7 minute journey now, but has all year turnout with actual grass in the fields, hacking is amazing and the livery is perfect. I can go to uni during the week and trust that he's being looked after properly, all the horses seemed content and it was so peaceful and quiet on a saturday morning. However I'm not looking forward to parting with £100 a week!

How bad would your yard have to get for you to leave, would it be something big like no turnout, or something smaller like too many kids etc
 
Its sounds like you have had a bad experience and I would move Minnie asap if that happened to us as I need to know that I can leave my horse in capable and trustworthy hands.

I recently had to move Minnie myself from a yard which took about 15 mins to get to to another one which is about half an hour away. the new yard is fab as is the YO and other people on it. Yes there are some strange people who keep their horses there however I am happy in the knowledge I can go to work and leave Minnie in safe hands. They even have constant hot water to bath the horses!! However I pay £60 per week and buy her hard food as I am particular about what she is fed.
 
the only way id leave if i was to sell it !!
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Sounds like you've made the right decision! Loads of kids would make me leave but fortunately that will never happen as the yard does not accept children, only other thing that would make me leave would be it closing down, yard is brilliant!
 
I need to be able to care for Daisy in the way that is in her best interests, not because of a yard rule. For her that means 24hr turnout all year round and an ability to restrict her grazing as I see fit with electric fencing.

I have also left a yard because it had no school and no hacking but I don't think that's at all unreasonable. I should have asked more carefully before I went there
 
Well considering I've been on about 13 yards in the past 20 years not a lot lol!! I've yet to find one that's good enough, they always loose their sparkle after a while or the YO turns out to be nuts or the other liveries steal your stuff.....you name it I've had it happen. In fact one of the worst things to happen on one yard was that YO was letting the staff ride my horse!! I was on DIY she shouldn't even have been touching the horse, let alone letting all and sundry ride her. When I confronted her she went nuts at ME!! Sorry....getting slightly off topic there!
 
Sounds like you are making the right decision. You never know, if enough of you leave, YO might realise something is amiss and take steps to make things right. I take it you have discussed why you are leaving with your YO?
Re: me leaving, I made the decision to leave my old yard after my horse and I nearly got trampled by 20 stampeding school ponies who came down from the top fields one wild and stormy November night, because someone left the gate open. The YO shrugged her shoulders and said 'nothing I can do, kid, if people leave the gate open' and that was the end of it.
That yard was also crawling with screaming, annoying children, whose parents would dump them off in the morning and then fetch them again in the evening. There are 3 children under the age of 15 on our yard now and 2 of them are permanently accompanied by mum. Much better!
 
No/limited turnout would make me leave straight away. In at nights is fine, any less then that and I'd be gone.

I'm at a DIY yard though, so I don't have to worry about things like that so much. The facilities on our yard are okay, but we have one small outdoor arena and that's it, and that's shared between 30+ people, so you never get time to school alone. If a lot more people came, and you could barely use the arena, then we'd be tempted to leave. I have a rescue and my sister's a dressage freak, so having an arena is pretty important. We do have good hacking though.
 
No or little turnout would definietly make me leave a yard. persistant probs with using the arena would as well.
 
I'd move if what was happening at yours happened anywhere i kepy mine
I suppose im classed as a 'kid' at 15, but i dont crash into people or run around screaming
I wouldnt mind moving yards as you can;'t book the school, and though its nice to use it whenever, i always feel really bad going in there if someones already in there, or with the carriage as theres only room for the carriage and I.
Also, the YO has decided to charge us for 'storage' of the carriage, (keeping it behind the tractor or outside), and though the YM agrees this is rediculous theres not muc i can do
I prefer having them at home anyway, i like eveything to be odnt as i like it, and i cant risk my driving pony getting laminitus, tohugh at the moment hes losing wieght...


Regarnding what someone said avbout their old yard- What exaclty is a yard where you cant school OR hack? What are you meant to do, sit in the stable block on your horse?
 
The YO going out of business, or some other catastrophe....
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Unlikely, as he has so many fingers in other pies, most of which revolve around horses being on the place eg: cattle and buffalo herding, dealing in horses, competitions, courses, riding holidays,etc., etc. YO is a real character, and a really nice bloke - we don't have a trailer, so when we decided to move yards he offered to collect horse and cart for us, for the price of a homemade strawberry cream cake!!
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He dosen't charge for storage of the cart (undercover) either.
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I probably should have mentioned I'm only 19 myself! Although our yard tends to group between the 10 remaining adults and the kids (this group includes the under 13s that have sword fights with yard brooms behind my pony whilst he's tied up eating and the 13-17 yo junior showjumpers who all dress the same and look down at you if you don't jump) so I tend to be accepted into the adult group! Thankfully 4 of them are moving to the yard with me so I have some friendly faces around. I think YO is starting to realise how much the yard is going downhill in regards to the care the horses are getting, she's had 8 people leave in a month, last year only 2 people left in the whole year! Apparently she is trying to sort the problem out but I can't stick around and wait for her to find someone crazy enough to take on a yard of 70 odd horses, at least two thirds of those being on livery! We wont be going for another month yet as I'm going on holiday and want to be there when he moves in so I'll wait till I'm back. Will let you all know how the move goes! I'm stressing already, I have so many things to move and no lorry of my own!!
 
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I love my yard, the only way I would leave is if I gave up horses altogther!

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Ditto!

I've left two yards. One becauseof the bitchiness and the fact that it was shared with a RS, who always had priority over the use of school. The second because it was only short term until I could find a better one, it was a horrible yard and my stable was about 10 mins walk away from the rest of the yard, and looked as if it would fall down in bad wind. The grazing was managed by the liveries, and I ended up with a tiny mud bath for a field in winter.
 
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