Why did you decide to leave your yard and any regrets?

I'm in a similar situation, the yard I'm on used to be perfect, wouldn't have ever considered moving, I'm now in a horrible pickle where I'm bitterly unhappy, not because of YO, she has, in the past, been a rock, but she now has different priorities and the yard is just DIY, she's not to be seen often which leaves a couple of older and bitter women who have set themselves up as yard matriarchs. One in particular is renowned for being sparing with the truth, has caused untold problems for people in the past and has driven off other liveries and made people cry. After nearly 2 years of feeling unhappy and waiting for things to go back to how they were, I'm giving up and looking at other yards!! :(
 
Nativelover said:
This thread is amazing me at how many bonkers and unreasonable YO there are! And how do they get away with being like that!!
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When I was looking for another yard for my horse, I visited 3, including the one I ended up at. One I was pretty sure would be snobby due to it having once held an international 3 day event (it did so for years then it cancelled because no one could be bothered with the trip). Facilities weren't all that amazing to be honest, and the fact that while you paid for full livery, you didnt get full livery was the final straw (you had to pay an extra £7 a day for mucking out, turn out, bring in and feeding, so er what exactly are you getting in full livery?). I didn't even bother looking at the arenas, just left. I had a feeling that other liveries might be a problem there too considering the 'status' of the place, perhaps likely to be those who dont ride, but have opinions. Plus their fields were only fenced off by electric fencing which I'm fairly sure wasnt switched on, my escape artist of a horse would be found wandering anywhere at any time in those kind of fields which I doubt they would appreciate or find remotely funny as my last and current yard find.

Another one was a no no as well. The place was ok, nothing glamorous but it would do. My main issue was with the YO. She said many things that made me not like her (hiking up the price from what I was told via email was one of them), and I had the feeling she wouldnt actually look after my horse even if I paid full livery. But when she started ranting about one of the few decent horse vets in the area being too expensive and she much prefers the closer and less decent (I would never take my horse to them from what I've heard) vets, I nearly walked out then, but I stayed to look around more to be polite. But it was an instant no.

I think you just know with some people that you wont click at all. I had my doubts about my current yard when I first joined, but I think that was just missing the comfort of the previous yard. I like it now a lot, no issues with the liveries or YO. Other people get annoyed at the YO and other liveries, but frankly as long as my horse is happy and healthy, I am happy.
 
Yard 1: loaned a horse whilst also loaning a mare elsewhere. Yard 1 was very sociable, clueless 'YM'. We amalgamated to Yard 2, very BSJA, good facilities, zero hacking. My gelding was kicked and broke his leg within 6 weeks, was PTS.

I got the cob, other liveries called him the p word, I moved back to Yard 1. Loved it (loved my friends!) but YO seriously nutty, mud up to the eyeballs in winter, no hacking, then recently released paedophile returned and the YO decided I was going to call the authorities about him, so kicked me off. At the time, I was devastated, particularly as he'd just laid a new surface in the indoor school!

Yard 3: reasonable hacking, outdoor school. Location is just up the road from work, although there are issues, including the amount of clueless kids/people who wander round/pointless rules. I am, however, very comfortable there, as is the horse, but I'm moving jobs in September and it will be a serious pain to stay there: totally the wrong direction, half an hour from work, then half an hour home.

A friend, my sharer and I have looked elsewhere and I think it's the right yard. I'm just not sure the friend will go. If not, I may have to make a hard decision and go it alone, which will mean a lot more money and losing my sharer (best pal of friend).
 
We were both happy with Frankie living out in a huge field of horse friendly grazing for ages. Then I moved 300 miles away and its all been a bit tramatic since!

Yard 1: Parks Trust paddock shared with someone. She turned the shelter into a stable and stabled her horse 16hours a day. Frankie just bimbled about on the outside. Still might have worked if her horse hadnt been kept alone for ages so completely flipped everytime he couldnt see mine

Yard 2: Assisted DIY. I knew it wasnt the best yard but they promised me turnout and had facilities. He was turned out once into a mudpit and ran through the electric fence, that wasnt turned on, so that was the end of that! He did get turnout for an hour a day in a sand paddock but I wasnt happy with that for him as a youngster. So he went onto grass livery at the same place, but a 20min walk away up a massive hill. He loved it and it was ok while he was turned away

Yard 3: I'd bought anther horse in the meantime and found a yard a few miles from home, lots of turnout, reasonable hacking. Run down and run by crazy people but I thought it would be ok. In the mean time the other horse went on loan so I only had Frankie again. YOs turned out to be way more crazy than I ever could have anticipated! And all sorts of problems with the turnout.

Yard 4: Moved him to a yard a mile down the road, would have worked just fine if they hadnt been given notice 2 weeks before christmas, so that left 12 horses looking for new homes at very short notice!

Yard 5: Went onto full grass livery and wintered out on 30 acres. Horse very happy and as he was only a rising 5yr old there werent any issues with working him etc

Yard 6: We were buying a house 25 miles away so knew he would be moving soon, but once we got into Spring he piled weight on, so went to the friend who ran Yard 4. He was there a month for weight loss and general education. Loved the yard but it was nearly 20 miles away from the new house so wasnt going to be sustainable

Yard 7: Loved it! Small school but good hacking, lots of assistance. Minor gripes about lack of storage space etc but he was happy and so was I. Fast forward to winter. YM lost interest completely, standards of care dropped dramatically. I got a text on Boxing day at 8pm to say she was giving the yard up but her groom would be taking over. Tried to give it a go, but standards of care dropped even further and I started having to go up at random times to make sure he was ok. 30th December I turned up unexpectedly and found he had been stood in since 3pm the day before, in his turnout rug and headcollar and had been given 4kgs of hay to last more than 24 hours. So another move!

Yard 8: I had serious misgivings about this one! YO seems like a complete nutter, but thought it was better than where he was. YO turned out to be so much worse than I could ever imagine! We lasted 3 weeks and off we went to a new yard

Yard 9: Started off brilliantly, they were very kind to me and seemed to look after him very well which was important as he was on full livery. They didnt listen to anything I said about managing him though and fed him lots of lovely haylage and buckets of pony nuts. I hoped it would all settle down as I was paying them to ride him 4 times a week, so I assumed lots of work would mean he was ok with more food. They almost never got turned out though, and while that was ok in the depths of winter, when its glorious sunshine and he was stood in it started to niggle. It then all broke down very badly. He was gaining 10 to 15kgs a week on a weigh tape. I wasnt allowed my saddle fitter to come and recheck his saddle even though it clearly didnt fit and was due to be rechecked. There were a few incident of screaming and shouting at me, then storming off before I could say anything.I stopped riding and in fact almost stopped going up as it was so awful

It all came to a head when my trimmer did his feet and said either he had to go on an immediate diet as his feet were inflamed and he was showing signs of LGL as by this point he was massive!

Yo screamed at me the next day and made me empty his haynet. Because obviously the way to deal with a fat horse is to starve it?! So we did yet another emergency yard move!

I still am sorry that I couldnt make it work at that yard, but there was literally no way to make it work out and I've been left with a horse who went there a good weight, sound and happy and he is now immensely fat, saddle not fitting, back knackered and coming out the other side of LGL :'(

Yard 10: DIY yard but hes got a stable/shelter in a pen with no real grass and has slip rails which allow him into a paddock, which is the old winter grazing. YO opens his slip rails every morning so he can go into his pen. He lives a life most people wouldnt want for their horse, but for him its perfect! He has straw and low calorie haylage to eat overnight, alongside chopped straw, and in the day he gets access to a small section of rough grazing. Hes lost a little bit of weight and is sound again. Sadly his back is sore as he had massively outgrown his saddle and it had knackered his back

If this yard doesnt work out, I'm selling up and giving up! I cant handle the stress and worry any more! Not sure if all yards are like this or its just the yards in this area. I know when I was in he NE there were loads of places that would have been suitable, some not, but maybe knowing the area meant I could avoid them!

But I refuse to keep him somewhere where he doesnt have decent turnout and where I cant manage his weight. But fingers crossed it seems good so far!
 
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I have only ever moved once which was around 4 months ago. When I bought my horse she was an unbroken 3 year old, we looked around about 10 different yards and in the end chose the only one which had 'proper' turnout, it wasn't my favourite yard but we thought it would be best for my mare to be having daily turnout as a baby. The yard had daily turnout (summer + winter) in the summer they could live out if you wanted to and in winter they must be in at night but there weren't any restricted hours as to what time you bring in. The yard had an outdoor school which was rarely harrowed and always flooded (there were some show jumps available), hacking is great once in the forest but you had to go on the roads to get there, there was also a wash bay and that was about it.

The reason I decided to move was mainly due to facilities, the school was really awful and was a nightmare in winter. If I wanted to ride after school I would come down to the yard and it's too dark to hack so my only option would be to school, I could school though because the surface was not ok to ride on. So I really wasn't doing much with my horse, I also wanted to take her to shows, do dressage/jumping which this yard didn't offer. We went to look around a yard which I was familiar with but we hadn't even looked there originally because it was too expensive but it had the best facilities so we decided to move there in a month. When I found out we were actually moving (my mum arranged it) I was extremely happy but also nervous and like you scared of the unknown. I actually didn't sleep well for the whole month leading up to moving and felt sick constantly, this carried on even after I had moved for a short while. I was so nervous because my horse isn't a laid back horse and we had been at the old yard for 3 years so she was settled.

The new yard does have turnout but it's restricted, in the summer it's out during the day or overnight and in winter it's restricted. There are two schools, one indoor and one outdoor, both maintained very well with a large selection of show jumps. It has a horse walker, wash bay and regular clinics and competitions. The hacking is the same but off road. The actual moving process was the most stressful thing I have ever done, but I have zero regrets, it is the best thing I have ever done. My horse has come on so much in the four months since I have moved I cannot believe her progress!! (Sorry for the essay) good luck :)
 
Am I the only one thinking that there clearly needs to be more regulation and accountability for livery yards? Particularly as it so often involves the welfare of horses.

Out of interest- how many of these yards were BHS approved? And does BHS approved mean anything in terms of the day to day running of the yard?
 
Ive been on quite a few yards and I'm yet to find the perfect one, so here goes -

First yards - Lovely yard, cheap and chearful, lovley liveries, all year turnout, indoor school, excellent hacking - Great I hear you say! however YO turned out in the morn - by turn out i mean open up every stable door a herd to the fields, wasnt too bad with my old horse but no way could i have kept my silly section d there, also crazy YO and next door neighbours would be constantly trying to set you up or upset you. Unfortunatly I had to have my old horse PTS there so bad memories so good reason not to go back!

2nd yard - was a tempory yard as bought my horse but actually didnt have a yard to go to! So went to my friends, was ok, cheap, great hacking, but school tiny and too far away from home.

3rd yard - little alotment type place of my friends, didnt mind too much with a yearling as didnt want to pay alot for livery whilst he was growing up, cheap cheerful, good grazing and good haylage. Great for him growing up but once grown up no facilities so struggled to start his education. Oh plus it didnt have mains electric so was a nightmare at night after work trying to muck out with iphone light and cr*ppy solar light ha ha!

4th yard - mums friends. Was great to start off with, but soon went downhill. YO was only interested in £££££ and not bothered about horses. Good facilties, walker, decent school, decentish hacking, even had swimming pool and spa for horses (not that I needed it) £45 a week including bedding. No turnout, unless you were on full livery, well actually there was turnout, in a small pens no bigger than 60x40m and each pen had about 4/5 horses in, so cant call that turnout at all as was mud by the 2nd week of turnout. Also, had to walk through 2 feet of cow ***** to get the the straw for your bedding (that was if there actually was any) and you were lucky if your horse didnt go down with colic on a regular basis - due to the rotting and mouldy haylage they fed it in the morning. I once got out of the car outside my barn and I could smell it - looked into my horses feeder and it was white mould, ergh! Sent photo to YO with caption 'who is paying my colic bill! all I got back was 'sorry' obviusly didnt mean it as it happened time and time again - time to gooooooo!

5th yard - was ok, down the road from yard 4, so walked down to move. Decentish facilites, school, walker, gallops, turnout pen and winter turnout! brilliant again i hear you say - why would you move from there??? Well if you wanted your horses turning out onto a cliff face then go ahead be my guest, also no turnout in the pen if the YO girlfriend was riding, no lunging in the school (how your meant to bring a youngster on without lunging i dont know) loads of stupid rules.

yard - current yard - okay again, has an indoor school (your allowed to lunge, yipee the joy!) small stables, abit mucky in some places. Not allowed straw beds have to have shavings or pellets, which isnt too bad as they sell them at £3.50 for a bag of shavings. Winter turnout in feilds with 2 horses on a rota so get 2 days a week at the mo unti the summer feilds are ready. Decent ish hacking, cheap and cheerful. Would be a fab place if the stables were nicer but apart from that I cant grumble. Oh and not many other liveries i think theres only about 12 horses on the yard alltogether so always quiet! so far so good
 
I left my first one as my horse had been falsely accused of mounting the other horses and causing horrific injuries, it transpired he hadn't but during this awful time where he had to be confined to his stable my so called friends all decided to blame him and were proper nasty. it was horrible.

We exonerated ourselves but I felt I had no choice to leave as I had lost trust and loyalty in those I thought were my mates. There was also a lot of barbed wire for fencing, and he got many injuries due to this and that was the other major reason in leaving. I was there five years. I had also lost my second horse - a youngster there and I suspect it was a hairline fracture caused by a kick by the horse THAT WAS mounting the others, which caused him to break his leg in the field - compound fracture of the tibia, horrific.

The second yard was lovely with smashing hacking (always very important to me) but they decided to turn the yard into full livery instead of assisted DIY and I couldn't afford to stable there anymore. I was there about a year. I loved it there the YO was brilliant and everything was happy, sunny, fun and exciting if you know what I mean. I used to do a lot at the riding club during this period so it was very convenient to get there from that yard too.

The third yard I was at for four years. It started off lovely but I lost a horse due to an accident that I allegedly suspected had been caused by someone else and I then had my fourth horse drop down dead of a heart attack in the field whilst I wasn't there and felt it was all very hooky and decided to leave - too many memories and heartbreak.

The fourth yard I was at was for ten years. I only left there because my current horse was being chased by the YO's dogs - foreign street dogs that she was fostering with a view to rehoming. Allegedly people/horses bitten and I was told that my horse was continually chased on a daily basis. So I left.

The fifth yard was meant to be permanent, it was a famous SJ yard with indoor and outdoor school, and hot wash/solarium included in only a fiver more than I had been paying previously and it was GREAT! But he never went out if it rained or there was a 'T' in the day and I got very frustrated about it. He was also put on the walker for hours on end and he had a leg injury at the time! I decided to leave anyway, but then the YO said she wanted by box for a full livery 'eventually' but could give me no time scale so I ended up moving to my current yard next door as I was concerned I wouldn't find livery and there were people I knew on the yard (most of whom have all since left).

I like it where I am, its okay, the sandpit has been a saving grace for my horses injury and the ménage surface and the hacking is wonderful.
 
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Thanks so much for sharing your experiences everyone. It's fair to say I am pretty much terrified of moving but I now think I have no choice. Found out today that things will not improve grazing wise and I've started looking in earnest. I just want safe turnout year round, a school that is usable, non psycho yard owners and non obnoxious liveries, how hard can that be...? :(
 
redredruby said:
Am I the only one thinking that there clearly needs to be more regulation and accountability for livery yards? Particularly as it so often involves the welfare of horses.

Out of interest- how many of these yards were BHS approved? And does BHS approved mean anything in terms of the day to day running of the yard?
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Agree
 
redredruby said:
Am I the only one thinking that there clearly needs to be more regulation and accountability for livery yards? Particularly as it so often involves the welfare of horses.

Out of interest- how many of these yards were BHS approved? And does BHS approved mean anything in terms of the day to day running of the yard?
Click to expand...

I don't want more regulation of livery yards. We live in enough of a nanny state as it is. I actually prefer the yards with few rules where everyone does their own thing and YO is fine with it. It means you get some who won't look after their horse properly but it also means I can look after my horse as I choose. Whatever the circumstances of a yard and it's rules we as horse owners can choose to look after our horses adequately without somebody legislating for it. On some yards it may be more difficult than on others to give our horses proper care but as owners we will find a way to make it work, if only short term until we move elsewhere. As owners we can "vote with our feet" if a place isn't up to scratch, but one persons hell is another persons heaven.

I'm not totally sure of the requirements to become a BHS approved livery yard but I've seen some fairly awful yards with that title. Also where a yard is a riding school too, it's often the riding school that is BHS approved and not the livery yard. BHS approval of riding schools really only covers the standard of teaching and TBH I've seen some dreadful teaching on approved yards so I don't think the approval system means much.
 
I agree with a lot of your points Sugar and Spice but I find it hard to understand how on livery yards we pay for a service and when that service isn't provided there is nothing we can do but leave, often at personal expense and cost to the welfare of the horse.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but judging by the number of times people have moved yard on this thread, voting with your feet isn't always a solution.
 
redredruby said:
I'm not sure what the answer is, but judging by the number of times people have moved yard on this thread, voting with your feet isn't always a solution.
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No because judging by previous yards I've been at, if you have a problem and you try and talk to the YO about it you just get told "if you don't like it you know what you can do". Hardly fair or just.
 
I do think that some yard owners can get away with being quite simply awful because demand exceeds supply in a lot of places... whatever you throw at people some will take it as it's better than nothing. That's the sad thing. I have to say I am very lucky as said in that I've not had any loopy yard owners- but I guess it can work both ways! I'm quite low maintenance and high tolerance, my horse is easy to cater for, I don't mind less than perfect fields or fencing as long as it's safe, I clean up after myself always outside stable, in school, walkways, I find out the rules and operate within them etc. I'm so sorry to be looking to leave my current place but I have health issues and I have been so exhausted this winter- I'm not young anymore and I couldn't do it again.
 
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Oh I dunno, S&S. If there were proper legislation of livery yards, horses wouldn't be cooped up for 6 months of the year. All owners would think twice before buying on a whim so most if not all horses would be properly cared for. Sure, it'll cost more but it's the low cost of DIY that attracts lazy numpties.
 
Absolutely applecart14 - I don't know of many other industries where the needs of a customer (which are often what was agreed before the customer moved on) are so routinely meet with the response "if you don't like it you can leave".
Perhaps it is because demand outstrips supply in which case voting with your feet will never work.
It just surprises me that we have so little rights as consumers - for example, all landlords now are required to put deposits in the official deposit scheme. Why can something similar not be set up for when you are renting a stable or grazing?
 
9tails said:
Oh I dunno, S&S. If there were proper legislation of livery yards, horses wouldn't be cooped up for 6 months of the year. All owners would think twice before buying on a whim so most if not all horses would be properly cared for. Sure, it'll cost more but it's the low cost of DIY that attracts lazy numpties.
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That is not a fair comment to make 9tails and it stinks of ignorance. Just because you are on full livery doesn't make you a better person or more knowledgeable person than someone on DIY and you shouldn't look down on people that are on DIY. I think if you did a poll on here (maybe I will do one) you will find that there are more people on DIY than full livery due to the massive costs involved in owning a horse these days. And the bit about numpties is just plain nasty.

I guess the bit about being cooped up for six months of the year is a reflection on a previous post of mine. Sometimes you have to take what you have and get on with it, we don't all have the luxury of being able to afford impeccable stabling (full livery) and at least my horse does go out in the winter EVERY day.
 
applecart14 said:
That is not a fair comment to make 9tails and it stinks of ignorance. Just because you are on full livery doesn't make you a better person or more knowledgeable person than someone on DIY and you shouldn't look down on people that are on DIY. I think if you did a poll on here (maybe I will do one) you will find that there are more people on DIY than full livery due to the massive costs involved in owning a horse these days. And the bit about numpties is just plain nasty.

I guess the bit about being cooped up for six months of the year is a reflection on a previous post of mine. Sometimes you have to take what you have and get on with it, we don't all have the luxury of being able to afford impeccable stabling (full livery) and at least my horse does go out in the winter EVERY day.
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Actually I am not on full livery, I am on completely DIY livery! So it doesn't stink of ignorance, but you have a chip on your shoulder for sure.

Wind your neck in, I couldn't care a jot what you do with your own horse but my YO does close the fields in winter because they don't like hoofprints let alone mud.
 
9tails said:
Actually I am not on full livery, I am on completely DIY livery! So it doesn't stink of ignorance, but you have a chip on your shoulder for sure.

Wind your neck in, I couldn't care a jot what you do with your own horse but my YO does close the fields in winter because they don't like hoofprints let alone mud.
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So by your own 'classification' you are numpty on DIY too??! No chip I can assure you - I just don't like people tarring everyone with the same brush.
 
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redredruby said:
Am I the only one thinking that there clearly needs to be more regulation and accountability for livery yards? Particularly as it so often involves the welfare of horses.

Out of interest- how many of these yards were BHS approved? And does BHS approved mean anything in terms of the day to day running of the yard?
Click to expand...


I chose a BHS approved yard.. it was the worst decision I have ever made. I lasted 3 months in that place before awful control of strangles led to me having an accident and since then the YO has been trying to pick on me and bully me, just because I'm young. I was in the process of writing a formal complaint to BHS when my (horsey) auntie found out that yards pay a bit of money to BHS and that is basically it.
 
Never left a yard on bad terms.

First move 3 years ago, I left my job and moved back home.

Year on from that, I moved because he was 4, I wanted a school to start him and it was my new work yard so just convenience and facilities.

Current yard I only moved this year due to change of job to an office job, and wanted full livery mon-Fri. So moved him to a yard where my friend is groom and I trust them implicitly and know his standard of care is excellent (ironically another yard currently being posted about). I ride him most evenings still and do him diy weekends. Yard owner happily takes us out competing too if she's not busy for no charge which is amazing. He's out wheneveri want him to during the day, as the filly goes out over night. He's fit happy and healthy and he's coming home with awesome results, so can't ask for more! �� Don't plan on moving anytime soon. ��
 
applecart14 said:
So by your own 'classification' you are numpty on DIY too??! No chip I can assure you - I just don't like people tarring everyone with the same brush.
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I don't think 9tails was tarring everyone on DIY with the same brush - I think the point that was being made was that a lot of inexperienced/uneducated people (those who "buy on a whim") think they can afford to keep a horse because DIY is so cheap, pushing up demand.
 
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