VioletStripe
Well-Known Member
As title really... apologies if done before.
I recently posted looking for yards in a particular area as I am probably moving in around a year. And the number that have been ruled out seems monumentally high!
I'm very lucky where I am now. But I have had previous experience of a truly dreadful yard - to the point where even now, years later, if I drive anywhere near it I get a horrible sick feeling in my stomach and begin to feel anxious, which I felt so much of the time when my horse was stabled there!
So, genuine question, why are there so many terrible yards around? Some of which are BHS approved (my old yard included)? Is it the pressures of making money as a business owner, causing lapses/short-cuts in care along the way? Every few days on here there are advice threads started by people in clearly very difficult situations with livery - and while I also appreciate a lot of clients are not the easiest to have on a yard, and there are two sides to every story... some of what I read makes me
I guess another question I have is... is this mostly a UK issue? What is livery like internationally? I know the UK average standard of riding doesn't tend to be as good as countries such as Germany, but what about the livery services and general standard of horse care too?
I don't mean to start any arguments on here, and I would really love to hear from some yard owners and managers! But I find it so shocking - a lot of the yards I have been warned about isn't due to personal preference/different attitudes, it is just strict 'barge pole' criteria, where it seems as if basic care is totally non-existent. Personal experiences if happy to be shared are also encouraged. Some of mine were, and not limited to -
- Huge herd turnout (around 40 horses, for which there was not enough space or grass) in awful fields and turnout was once in a blue moon, often they wouldn't tell you if they had or hadn't. Sometimes used to refrain from telling you unless you were literally there on the yard during the (tiny) turnout hours that they could go out, but only if you put the horse out and brought in yourself. Despite paying for full livery. If there was a drop of rain, horses would not go out.
- Strict hay measures, ie your horse didn't get enough ever and used to have finished their net by 8pm in the evening and wouldn't get any until they were mucked out - which would often be very late in the morning. If like my horse your horse didn't get their hard feed this was bizarre, and they wouldn't give extra hay to compensate. Only hard feed you were allowed to give was their awful off-brand stuff, and if you wanted to order in your own they would ask you to make your feeds up for the week yourself.
- Mucking out. If you were on straw this was every other day and they never took out wet. Shavings were done daily but you paid more (fair) and they weren't mucked out well - and lord were they stingey with the bed.
- Bitchiness, and favouritism. You couldn't complain at all, and if you asked for an extra wedge of hay or if your hay was mouldy (it often was) and you voiced this, you were deemed a perpetual complainer and a trouble maker.
- Strangles outbreak not reported, and not handled properly. Cross contamination of horses, and the grooms would muck out an infected horse in trainers and not change equipment or wash hands and boots to move onto healthy horses. It was not strangles, you see. Strangles would **never** appear at this yard.
I'm sure there's more which I am forgetting but this is what springs to mind... There are some wonderful yards and wonderful staff and YOs and YMs around, I would like to add! But regardless, any thoughts and experiences on the original question? Does this appear in other industries to the same extent?
I recently posted looking for yards in a particular area as I am probably moving in around a year. And the number that have been ruled out seems monumentally high!
I'm very lucky where I am now. But I have had previous experience of a truly dreadful yard - to the point where even now, years later, if I drive anywhere near it I get a horrible sick feeling in my stomach and begin to feel anxious, which I felt so much of the time when my horse was stabled there!
So, genuine question, why are there so many terrible yards around? Some of which are BHS approved (my old yard included)? Is it the pressures of making money as a business owner, causing lapses/short-cuts in care along the way? Every few days on here there are advice threads started by people in clearly very difficult situations with livery - and while I also appreciate a lot of clients are not the easiest to have on a yard, and there are two sides to every story... some of what I read makes me
I guess another question I have is... is this mostly a UK issue? What is livery like internationally? I know the UK average standard of riding doesn't tend to be as good as countries such as Germany, but what about the livery services and general standard of horse care too?
I don't mean to start any arguments on here, and I would really love to hear from some yard owners and managers! But I find it so shocking - a lot of the yards I have been warned about isn't due to personal preference/different attitudes, it is just strict 'barge pole' criteria, where it seems as if basic care is totally non-existent. Personal experiences if happy to be shared are also encouraged. Some of mine were, and not limited to -
- Huge herd turnout (around 40 horses, for which there was not enough space or grass) in awful fields and turnout was once in a blue moon, often they wouldn't tell you if they had or hadn't. Sometimes used to refrain from telling you unless you were literally there on the yard during the (tiny) turnout hours that they could go out, but only if you put the horse out and brought in yourself. Despite paying for full livery. If there was a drop of rain, horses would not go out.
- Strict hay measures, ie your horse didn't get enough ever and used to have finished their net by 8pm in the evening and wouldn't get any until they were mucked out - which would often be very late in the morning. If like my horse your horse didn't get their hard feed this was bizarre, and they wouldn't give extra hay to compensate. Only hard feed you were allowed to give was their awful off-brand stuff, and if you wanted to order in your own they would ask you to make your feeds up for the week yourself.
- Mucking out. If you were on straw this was every other day and they never took out wet. Shavings were done daily but you paid more (fair) and they weren't mucked out well - and lord were they stingey with the bed.
- Bitchiness, and favouritism. You couldn't complain at all, and if you asked for an extra wedge of hay or if your hay was mouldy (it often was) and you voiced this, you were deemed a perpetual complainer and a trouble maker.
- Strangles outbreak not reported, and not handled properly. Cross contamination of horses, and the grooms would muck out an infected horse in trainers and not change equipment or wash hands and boots to move onto healthy horses. It was not strangles, you see. Strangles would **never** appear at this yard.
I'm sure there's more which I am forgetting but this is what springs to mind... There are some wonderful yards and wonderful staff and YOs and YMs around, I would like to add! But regardless, any thoughts and experiences on the original question? Does this appear in other industries to the same extent?