What's the longest time you have stayed on a yard

What is the longest length of time you have stayed at a livery yard?

  • Total voters
    0
Been on my yard about 12 years or so now. Love it and love everyone there, we have our moments but I wouldnt change it for the world!
 
hmmmm, my first yard I was at for about 6 years, it was a small yard no school. I got a new horse and after 11 months decided that I needed a school, so I moved to a large competition yard. Stayed there 5 years and moved because me and my horse were starting to slow down and the grazing there was getting over populated. So I moved to small livery yard with a school :)
 
Interesting post, and interesting answers, I always kind of assumed people moved yards every 1-2 years due to yard politics!!!

Have had my horse 15 years, first home was a field, was there just over a year, moved as fencing rubbish and lady I sub-letted from not bothered about fixing it.

Then moved to bigger field, was there for 2 years, appart from one month stint when I and horse moved to local riding school to be a working pupil, didn't work out so back we went!

Next moved to lovely one acre paddock with its own stable and shed was pretty much on own there, was little yard down road and another 1 acre paddock that was let by same farmer. Only there 6 months as then moved horse to a yard I worked at.

The yard I worked on worked quite well for me, had a lovely school & boss was a BHSI so got plenty of help with my nutty unschooled horse, only left because of some nastiness between boss & yard owner. Ended up packing up pony at 8 am one morning and legging it to bosses mums house, pretty scary stuff!

Stay at then ex-bosses mums house for a month, then moved to a lovely yard and was there for nearly 4 years I think. Didn't have a school when we first moved there, and no winter turnout but was such a great bunch of people and horses I really loved it there!! Only moved because in meantime I got a 6 mnth old foal and she really needed all year turnout.

Was at next yard for about 6 mnths again, this was quite a big yard, v hard to keep away from yard politics! Ended up leaving because move to a farm where could keep horses as well, had lovely big school, full showjumps, good hacking was there 2 1/2 years till I moved to a house with 1 1/2 acres , was there 1 1/2 years, no school & not good hacking, then OH job changed and moved to current house which has 3 acres, great hacking, and although no school, i have fenced a little padock to ride in. Been here nearly 3 years.

Looking back at this does makie me feel a bit bad, my poor first horse has moved to 11 different homes, my second has moved 5 times and even my little shetland has moved twice since I have had her!:eek:

Also it seems that I have either stayed for 6 mnths of for years!!!
 
11 years (I've only had horses for about 12.5 yrs) .
We only left because they closed the yard. My mum used to be at the yard when she had horses (before us kids!), she must have spent many years there altogether.
 
Last edited:
i've been on the same yard as long as i've had horses (a meer 3 years, which is not a patch on lots of you). i agree, i had the impression that people move around quite a lot. mind you, even in a horsey county, it seems difficult to find yards which tick all the boxes so maybe it's because people are willing to make a certain number of sacrafices to make sure there horses are happy and that the yard is convenient.
 
ElleSkywalker said:
Interesting post, and interesting answers, I always kind of assumed people moved yards every 1-2 years due to yard politics!!!

Have had my horse 15 years, first home was a field, was there just over a year, moved as fencing rubbish and lady I sub-letted from not bothered about fixing it.

Then moved to bigger field, was there for 2 years, appart from one month stint when I and horse moved to local riding school to be a working pupil, didn't work out so back we went!

Next moved to lovely one acre paddock with its own stable and shed was pretty much on own there, was little yard down road and another 1 acre paddock that was let by same farmer. Only there 6 months as then moved horse to a yard I worked at.

The yard I worked on worked quite well for me, had a lovely school & boss was a BHSI so got plenty of help with my nutty unschooled horse, only left because of some nastiness between boss & yard owner. Ended up packing up pony at 8 am one morning and legging it to bosses mums house, pretty scary stuff!

Stay at then ex-bosses mums house for a month, then moved to a lovely yard and was there for nearly 4 years I think. Didn't have a school when we first moved there, and no winter turnout but was such a great bunch of people and horses I really loved it there!! Only moved because in meantime I got a 6 mnth old foal and she really needed all year turnout.

Was at next yard for about 6 mnths again, this was quite a big yard, v hard to keep away from yard politics! Ended up leaving because move to a farm where could keep horses as well, had lovely big school, full showjumps, good hacking was there 2 1/2 years till I moved to a house with 1 1/2 acres , was there 1 1/2 years, no school & not good hacking, then OH job changed and moved to current house which has 3 acres, great hacking, and although no school, i have fenced a little padock to ride in. Been here nearly 3 years.

Looking back at this does makie me feel a bit bad, my poor first horse has moved to 11 different homes, my second has moved 5 times and even my little shetland has moved twice since I have had her!:eek:

Also it seems that I have either stayed for 6 mnths of for years!!!
Click to expand...

That is really interesting. I have to say that I too am surprised by how long people stay at yards. It must be quite hard on some horses moving around a lot, though I expect others take it in their stride. The least stressful move I had was when I moved two horses together to my current yard as they settled immdiately. You would never think they had moved two hours away.
 
My longest stay was a year and a half. It was my first yard and we were very happy there, but I moved because there wasnt an arena, and I was at a stage where I wanted to compete so needed to practice properly, not just on grass.
I then stayed at a different yard for 10 months and then moved again
My shortest stay was the one I moved from last month, I was there 4 months.

I've done too much moving over the last year and hope to be happy at current yard for a long long time
 
Longest was about 5 years, only left because we bought a house with land for the horses :)

Shortest was about 4 months last winter. Left because the YO took on far too many horses without having the turnout for them and took a big section of my (individual) field for new clients. I'd been resting it for my horses to have for the spring so it annoyed me a bit, especially as I wasnt told about it happening and as the new horse got out of his field, in with my fairly elderly gelding then kicked him and made him lame!! Moved back to rented fields where we have been for about 3 years now, except for the 4 months at the livery yard. The only reason we moved them there was because the fencing needed repairing as it was not good and someone tried to steal my horse!
 
1st yard 3 years,but found out they were using my cob for riding lessons.
2nd yard 6 years, was very happy to begin with as treated as family as I was their ist livery, then things went downhill badly, when they started getting more liveries.
3rd yard 3 years, but couldn't take the backbiting and YO daughter, who thought she could dictate what you did and I don't brown nose to anyone.
4th yard 27 years, but as someone else I also own it:D:D Have tried to help out friends when they have been stuck and have been disillusioned by the fact they have taken me for granted helping them out.:(:(
 
Wow. Unbelievable about them using your horse for lessons. Mind you, this also happened to one of my current liveries at their last yard. In fact, when they went to fetch hom to bring him to my yard they found him actually being used in a lesson and had to go in and get the poor unsuspecting customer off their horse!
 
first was a private diy yard stayed just over a year, it was a mess with no grazing or facilities. there was glass everywhere & barbed wire & tractors kept in the field with the horses YO promised to sort things out but never did, been on current diy ever since
 
I was at my first livery yard for 5 1/2 years. Decided to move because it wasn't what it used to be. The 'good' people had left either because they had relocated or their horse's had died. Then came in the pyschos and the pony club mums that went out pothunting every weekend and complained about everything! Pyscho was also making up stories and I confronted her and she was then about an inch away from my face when I asked her what she was playing at. I didn't trust her at all with her history and what she could do to my horse, and swiftly uprooted myself 1 week later to my friend's lovely little yard.
 
Longest I have been at a yard was 3 years, left as I was fed up of crap facilities and moody YO. Took them to work with me then 3 months later was made redundant. After that I was working on an event yard so my welshie came with me and my cob went on grass livery with my friends ponies, when I left the eventers my welsh went to join my cob and then both were moved onto my current yard nearly a year ago :eek: - feels like I've been there 5 minutes!
 
1st yard - Stayed there just short of 2 years. Would have continued to stay but rumour had it they were closing down (yard was up for sale) so I left before everyone else did. Its now all torn down and turned into houses..

2nd Yard - 7 months.. 7 months too bl**dy long. YO was a bully, the indoor was small and tiny. She used to water it and the hose would become detached from the sprinkler thingy so the arena was flooded, nowhere to ride on a winters night!! >;( It was a very small livery yard (4 / 5 livery horses) and I just found it made it very bitchy..

3rd yard - 2 years. Had worked there since I was 14 so I knew the people well. Big ex riding school yard, suited me perfectly. 2 outdoors 1 indoor 1 covered lunging pen, fantastic hacking, friendly liveries. All year turnout (although it was restricted to 4 days a week in the winter and unlimited in the summer). However my parents relocated to Cumbria..

4th yard - 9 months, with no intention of moving. Good facilities, massive indoor and outdoor arena's, lean to for turn out and fantastic hacking. YO's keep out of your hair and are very flexible if you need your horse turning out or putting to bed etc. Only thing that lets it down is lack of winter turnout :( Also a shame its up for sale as there is nothing around me with as good facilities. Hopefully whoever eventually buys it will keep it as a livery yard!
 
Echo Bravo said:
1st yard 3 years,but found out they were using my cob for riding lessons.

Wow. Unbelievable about them using your horse for lessons. Mind you, this also happened to one of my current liveries at their last yard. In fact, when they went to fetch hom to bring him to my yard they found him actually being used in a lesson and had to go in and get the poor unsuspecting customer off their horse!
Click to expand...

That is unbelieveable! :O I think I would have gone beserk!
For starters they are not covered by your insurance as they have not asked your permission to use the horse... Good job you got out of there eh!
 
I had my old horse at my current yard now for just over 2 years, he unfortunately got ill and had to be PTS.
I got my new horse about 5 months later and there wasn't a box for me at the yard I wanted, I wasn't looking for a horse and the sale went through very quickly, so had to find a stable in about 3 days!
I went to an awful yard, which looked ok when I went to see it, I only intended it to be a stop gap anyway.
The school surface was so bad it used to make her trip over, so slippery and rutted, so I couldn't work her at all really. She was an unbroken 3yr old and apart from in hand work I couldn't do a lot, I didn't want her to hurt herself or lose confidence in an arena.
The YO was horrible. I was advised to get her sedated to be shod for the first time or so until she was used to having her legs and feet handled (she put the vet on the floor on her vetting when he attempted hind flexions)
I did this, she jumped on top of the vet, the needle he thinks went into the artery instead of the vein :eek:
She collapsed, taking a bit of a wall and railings with her and lay unconscious for about an hour. The vet was very worried she was going to have a heart attack. I'd only had her two weeks, was gutted and a bit panicky. YO marches on yard and starts demanding insurance details from me and the vet for the damage to the wall!
I understand she didn't want to be out of pocket but surely she could have waited until we knew if the horse was going to get up again or not!!
There was also issues with turn out, other liverys 'borrowing' things and not returning them, bitchiness and I generally felt uncomfortable there.

As soon as a box came up at my yard I left. Think I was there for 6 weeks. Have been at current yard over 5 years if you include my old horse. I love the yard I am at now, has great turn out, nice people, good job service. I just wish more people or even 1 competed BD, so I could share transport, would love a horsewalker and indoor school too.
I think I may end up moving to a more competition type yard in the future but just not yet.
 
3 years actual livery, though was part of the yard for much, much longer. I was blind to half the issues going on (ragwort, really bad grazing, buildings falling down, fencing not maintained, silly cliques, dominating YO, lack of worming) had a 'moment' at the start of last year where it all became crystal clear it wasn't going to get better but took me until Oct to be able to buy and move my horses.

Been at me new yard since end of Oct, love it, well maintained, stress free, great arena and facilities, YO is brilliant, have no intentions of going anywhere else :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top