When does a yard become too big? How many at a livery yard?

C

cp1980

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Just wondered what people think would be the most number of horses that should be accomodated at a single site?

Yards with 50 or 60 horses are not uncommon, but then you can get yards with close to 100!

At what point does it become unsafe/stressful/disease ridden?
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Purely theoretical question.
 
my side has 3 other stables and and extra 3 horses, the other side probably have 15 stables and everyone if lovely i couldn't be happier never been on a big yard it just doesn't appeal to me
 
We have 18 horses on the yard I'm at, two of which belong to the YO... It's nice and friendly and everyone's happy. Have been on a yard with 40 horses as well, although some of those belonged to the Riding School. Depends on the yard I guess.
 
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Wow! 95!?

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yupyup. it was all managed to perfection!

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Does this yard have a website? I must see this.

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nooo it doesnt
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it probs sounds loads and loads. but there were 95 stables in a huge american barn style, with a horse walker in one corner, and wash box, solarium, feed room etc. then nice fenced paddocks. and an absolutely MASSIVE school. i used to bomb round it in full pelt gallop!

everything is done on time each day etc etc.
 
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Dont think there is a limit provided it is correctly managed

[/ QUOTE ] I couldn't agree more, we have 43 and its a fantastic yard, the horses love it. It never seems busy and have only lost 1 day turnout this year due to field management, and its down to the staff/management.
 
I am on a riding school/livery yard. We have 40 horses in total, 13 are liveries, only 7 liveries have horses that are still ridden. Its well managed and e have lots of turnout.

only 5/6 horses come in at night, rest have 24/7 turnout
 
Big yards are fine as long as they have the turnout to go with it! The stats can be scary tho... got chatting to the yard manager at hartpury (200+ horses) once and she told me how many at any one time were lame, off with bad backs, on restricted turnout, box rest etc, was very scary! lol
 
we have around 37 at my yard and it works very well. I`ve been there 3 years and we`ve never lost a days turnout and apart from the school being a little crowded occasionally it works really well
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At home we have 17, 5 of those are YO's, ones mine, and 2 24/7 shetties. Its a nice yard where about 4 horses are in "work"- well ridden and 1/2 competing. Its a nice yard
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At Roo's yard- it is much bigger, very well organised I love it its a nice yard
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It dosnt providing management and staff levels are appropriate for the numbers!!Also acreage...the biggest issue on yards!!
also disease ridden??if there is a qurantine box on yard for incoming liveries,problem can be overcome...however the risk obviously increases on a yard were there are alot of horses out competeing
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..most will pick up the likes of strangles up at a competition!!
I wouldnt class a large yard as unsafe...horses are susceptible whatever the yard size
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..it is the comings and goings that cause problems
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...and you cannot stop that!!
 
we have 15 and i HATE it!!! because its so small everyone gets involved in what everyone else is doing so it gets really bitchy (as some of you on here will know after my post at the weekend!)
we argue like anything over use of the school too.... perhaps bigger and more anonymous is better after reading the posts here?!
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and how many is too many in one field at one time? i loved the comraderie at an old yard and loved the girls but found 17 horses to one field too stressful - kicks/bites etc - well managed as it was ie strict rotation etc but.....in your opinion?
 
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and how many is too many in one field at one time? i loved the comraderie at an old yard and loved the girls but found 17 horses to one field too stressful - kicks/bites etc - well managed as it was ie strict rotation etc but.....in your opinion?

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don't get me started on our turnout!! in summer its not too bad- in theory its split into boys and girls but as there is only 1 mare (?!!) its split 50/50. normally grass is good but this year farmer didn't bother to fertilise so it was rubbish! not helped by all the rain! in winter we only have 1 hour 2x a week in the wettest part of the field- my 2 both go out together on their own so i don't have a problem with kicks but the field is so deep, crappy and small that they stay in for most of the winter...
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Theres about 30 on my yard. It has its moments for bitchiness which the YO handles very well
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Turnout is in small single sex herds. Theres 6 in Ellie's field but there also some on individual turnout. In summer its 24/7 turnout but in winter they are all in at night (I think)
 
theres over a 100 at my yard, been there 12 years and never (touch wood) any illnesses/ diseases! Yard does get bitchy and stressful but most of the time nice place to be and always someone to help or ride out with!
 
Our yard has 35 and its mostly okay , when i moved onto it we had 22 and it was great there were no issues at all, the horses were split into small single sex herds with good field rotation, now we have a fair bit of bitchiness and problems using and booking arena time to ride and some turnout issues, but this is down to a yard management problem to be honest. There are enough split barns to keep yourself to yourself if you want to.
 
i would say the only probs with yards with lots of horses is:

1. turnout- lots of horses need lots of fields plus spare fields so they can be rotated. my current yard has stabling for 20 but it was great when we only had 10 in the summer as the fields were so well rested and everything was so much better organised.

2. schools- we only have one and during the busy times when people get home from work etc the schools always being used!!!
 
I've been on both large and smaller yards.

The first yard i was on had about 70 liveries and was also a riding school although most of the DIY liveries had their own area so around my stable block wasn't too busy but the yard in general was way too busy for me.

I then moved to a yard with Y/O's 4 horses and 7 other liveries - its much quieter but I do find that at the time's I'm up it's still busy - i.e. 6 of us there at the one time which I don't always like.

Moving to a new yard this weekend which only has 8 stables and at the moment it is just me an the Y/O so will be bliss at least for the first couple of months until it fills up!

My ideal yard would be my own but that's not going to happen anytime soon!
 
The school issue can be a problem on smaller yards - provided a large yard has a big enough school, or more than one, or some sort of booking system, it shouldn't be an issue. My yard had 12 horses (only 6 in work), a school and a field to ride in, and I still managed to cause an enormous fight by daring to lunge in the school for twenty mins when the yard b!tch turned up and expected it to be free! (I should add that by the time she had caught her horse, groomed, fetched her tack and thrown a paddy, I was done anyway!)
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Size isn't neccessarily the issue, its the management of the yard and mix of liveries thats the problem!
 
I preferred my time on a bigger yard. Must have had about 25 riding school and around 40 liveries, but it had about 60 acres grazing so no overcrowding.

Pros
even though there are a lot of people, you still tend to get really make friends with the few that are the same sort of age/interests as you, so you don't feel 'lost'.
Even when those friends aren't around, there's always someone to go hacking with
The YO used to organise a lot of fun competitions and activities
Every yard had its resident stirrer/troublemaker/b**ch but in a big yard you can just ignore them and keep clear
No creeping round a pitch black deserted yard on your own on winter evenings getting the willies - there's always other people about.
You get a good variety of people/horses to mix with. It would be awful to be the only happy hacker on a yard full of dressage divas...

Cons
ringworm went round the whole place once. The only good thing was that people learned a lot about it. My pony got it quite late on and I must admit that if I hadn't had the experience of seeing it in others, I probably would have left it till it got a lot worse, as a couple of little baldy bits didn't look that bad. Also, didn't need a vet as someone had plenty of treatment powder left and just gave it to me.

Cons
 
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