What's your worst yard experience?

Had an odd falling out with one of my (then) best horsey friends my final year of uni. We all had our horses boarded at the university's barn. Said friend decided, for reasons known only to herself, that my horse was lame. I didn't think the horse was lame. My trainer at the time (who was very good and knows far more than my then-20 year old pal) didn't think the horse was lame. No one else at the yard thought the horse was lame. Friend got this idea stuck in her head, never let it go, would find quite random moments to be narky about it. I remember watching Badminton (or maybe it was Rolex) on tele with my group of horsey friends and this girl, out of the blue, announces, "Gypsum is too unsound to ever be an eventer." Um, okay. Given that I was -- and am -- too chicken to be an eventer, this was entirely academic. I mean, I guess it would have made vague sense (even if untrue) if I had said something along the lines of, "I would really like to start eventing," but most of my commentary when I watch people run 3* or 4* courses is more along the lines of "Yipes! He almost fell over that fence!" Friend seemed to get really upset I never took her views on this seriously.

Horse people can be bonkers.
 
I had a huge falling out with someone who was supposed to be a friend. we organise an event and I had text everyone at the yard to see if anyone could help, just for an hour, and no one answered, Not one persn, which really hurt me, but I got screamed and shouted at, and basically never really spoken to again by a few people, all because I had said it had upset me, not that anyone hadnt helped, but because no one had responded to my text.. Even if it was to tell me to ******* off, as they didnt want to help. At least then I would have known where I stood. It was a shame as it destoyed a good friendship that I had had for a while.
 
Don't want to give details but some of these stories are familiar as they happened on several yards I have been on. Fortunately I am at a very good yard now. My sister and I often say we would like to own a yard and it would be a place where the owners were honest and conscientious, and people could rely on getting what they paid for. Then we would always have a full yard. Wouldn't we?.
 
Luckily I have my own land and stables but a few years back I summered at a livery for use of the school.. They called me a lazy slob and threatened to call RSPCA on me.. Reason being, my boyfriend at the time, a soldier was doing a parade around Cardiff, so I got up at 430am and mucked out, fed etc to make sure horses would be ok for the day, I also made sure other liveries could check hay and water through out the day. Yard owners got up to their horses at 10am and assumed I hadn't been up there at all. Instead of ringing and asking she started mouthing of to people and text my sister to accuse me of abuse! Beyond!!
 
A YO who said lots of things and then a month later was saying the opposite, essentially forcing me off the yard - good riddance to them, the silver lining to that cloud was bloody brilliant! And interfering between what would have been a total non-issue between me/my parents and another livery massively compounding the issue - I have since spoken to the girl involved and she apologised for how it had turned out and said once I left the YO turned on her instead! Height of unprofessionalism

Reading some of these I feel I got off very lightly though!
 
My old yard was like an episode of Eastenders! Very dramatic! The YO liked to scream at everyone for no reason, everything was the fault of every person, regardless of whether you'd been on the yard or not. The arena surface was so thin you could hear the concrete underneath and was not replaced/added to for over 20 years!! There were some very dodgy people there, one was jailed for paedophile offences and was back and forth after release then finally kicked off (after making sure me and my police officer OH were got rid of first).

There was a livery who went round and told different lies to everyone and was invariably caught out but is still doing this, some liveries don't talk to each other over ridiculous issues like turning out a particular horse, it's all just so dramatic! The place was very draining.

I'm delighted to be on a quiet, non dramatic yard now where I know I can turn up and the isn't some huge trauma going on constantly, although I do miss seeing my friends from the old place. We have to go out now to see each other instead!
 
Have had a few 'moments' on yards, but one sticks out.
Several years ago I had my 3 year old mare on this yard. The yo was a bit bonkers, but generally ok, the hacking was amazing, the stables were huge and hay and straw were free - you can put up with a fair bit of crazy for that!
One horse there was an elderly TB loaned by a girl who had just gone to college, not leaving anyone in charge of the horse. The YO promptly stripped it's rugs and chucked it out in a far paddock on it's own. One livery called the rspca after a month as this horse was not looking too great. The rspca guy turned up and asked me some questions as I was on the yard at the time. The YO then decided I had called them and banned me from the yard, right there and then. I wasn't allowed to get my horse or any of my stuff, she was keeping them she said! I was distraught! I was quite young, and rather go along the legal route, I had a few drinks and horsenapped my horse that night from the field :-D
My mare is now 12 and been with me since.
 
I've been very fortunate to never have experience any real unpleasantness but I have a few eyebrow raising moments my favourite of which is the very odd YO who fervent member of the organic food taliban and insisted that I only bought my horse organic carrots and apples. I had to eat Tesco value myself to subsidise the horse's snacks.
 
pansymouse said:
I've been very fortunate to never have experience any real unpleasantness but I have a few eyebrow raising moments my favourite of which is the very odd YO who fervent member of the organic food taliban and insisted that I only bought my horse organic carrots and apples. I had to eat Tesco value myself to subsidise the horse's snacks.
Click to expand...

This one did make me smile!

Shysmum so glad you are on a good yard now.
I am beginning to think YO and YM should be compelled to do a course on customer service and people management!
But to be fair we all know there are nightmare owners as well.
Life is never straight forward!
 
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Reading these makes me want to suck up big time to my YO, in case she ever kicks me off!! Never had anything like as bad as these on a yard. I did have a bad experience with a field neighbour, who rented over the road and despite no horse experience, bought a shetland foal and loaned a pony from a charity. Before I knew what they were like, I'd put them in touch with the charity, but things turned sour quite quickly, due to a mix up, where a pony was assigned to the wrong person with the same name (the person responsible stopped working for the charity not long after)! It was the summer of 2003, one of the hottest on record, and for reasons known only to them, they locked the ponies in a stable with no bedding or water. No evidence of hay, either. I took to lowering a bucket on a lead rope, to give them a drink morning and night. I called the charity and told them what was happening and they sent someone out. A couple of days later I was met with a torrent of abuse (the said charity had told them who called!!) and threatened with violence and harm to my ponies. All very worrying. We ignored each other for a while, but as I noticed a paddling pool (!) appear as a water trough, I did nothing further - the charity had said they would monitor more carefully and the ponies were no longer padlocked into the stable.

One day I arrived to be met with another torrent of abuse - this time they had a couple of 'friends' with them. The family were feral enough, but there were about 6 of them, all ready to 'punch my head in'. In between the torrents, I managed to get out of them that the charity pony had been removed without notice, due to further concerns (he was ribby by now, full of lice and had sweet itch that went untreated). It was so bad I rang up a person who I'd enquired to about a field and asked if I could move later that evening (it was already after 6 pm!). We went back about 9:30 pm with a cattle trailer - all we could get at short notice - to find my water trough tipped over and my belongings strewn around my field. Bizzarely this including things which had gone missing, such as my water containers, which the cheeky sods had obviously nicked to fill their paddling pool.

The owner of my land told me later that the little shetland died a horrible death. He was a retired vet, so called out to check the body by the other neighbours, who'd found him. He thought it was tetanus, so it wouldn't have been quick. Bar Stewards.
 
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