Bedlam
Well-Known Member
Has anybody had any experience, good or bad, of having a competition horse on working livery?
Working livery
- Thread starter Bedlam
- Start date
diggerbez
Well-Known Member
no personal experience but its not something that i would do... you totally lose control over who will be riding your horse...even at a good riding school this could cause problems surely?
TheoryX1
Well-Known Member
No experience with a competition horse, but I have had it with my own horse. I bought my first horse, a 14.3hh mw cob from a riding school where I had been having lessons. As I was a first time owner they recommended I keep him on working livery. I had to allow them to use him 3 hours a day, six days a week, and had to book in the diary when I wanted to ride him, for that he was on full livery as well. Because he is a fairly stoic boy, he was used with all the very heavy, novice riders, and I found out he was being used to give a 22 stone woman lessons. He lasted 6 weeks on working livery before I took him off of it. By the way, this was a BHS registered school, based on his build, bone etc, he should be carrying no more than about 16 stone.
I had no control over who rode him, and I saw some pretty awful riders on him. I also saw some very kind, nice riders on him. I am sorry to say I was and still am very possessive over him, and couldnt take it.
I had no control over who rode him, and I saw some pretty awful riders on him. I also saw some very kind, nice riders on him. I am sorry to say I was and still am very possessive over him, and couldnt take it.
LBertie Wooster
Well-Known Member
I am the same as TheoryX1. He wasnt a compertiton horse but a 14.2 m/w CobX. They where aloud to use him upto 8 hourse a week and we where ment to be able to come down and ride hime 'whenever' we wanted to but that soon changed quite quickly after he became a 'non problem horse' He was a plod yes but there was something in him but he only ever hard begginers/ novices on him and some rather 'large' people on him which ment little work i did with him was useable when i came to get on him. when it came to taking him places we asked several times and it was basically a 'no, we need him' and we hardly ever asked to take him places ..... It got to the stage where as it felt like i had no pony anymore just ahd to come along and 'see' him and not be able to ride him when i was able to. Not to mention the hours he did (and still does) I would NEVER go back to working livery again and would never suggest it if you wanted to do things with them. Currently have a compertion horse whos ment to be on working livery but has opnly been used once... Novice rider .... got of after 5mins!! 
and we also got told 'a novice would NOT go near him ...' so much for that
and we also got told 'a novice would NOT go near him ...' so much for that 
littlemisslauren
Well-Known Member
I think it very much depends on where you want to send your horse.
I work on a small college yard, we take working liveries.
The horses are barely used if I'm honest - absolute maximum of 4 hours a week and they do sod all in all 'school' holidays. We have no 'big' riders, I am probably amongst the biggest of the riders at 12 and a half stone and I am very sensible with what I ride in regards to my weight. Several of the riders are however very novicey, but again we are sensible with what horses we use for these lessons.
I refer to my yard as a 'holiday camp' because the horses do bot all.
We do have afew ex competition / show horses there and the main problem with them is the owners find it hard to hand over all control to yard staff.
I would never send a horse of my own to a busy riding school on working livery, but would happily send one to my place of work.
For those of you that have used working livery in the past, how much did you pay per month if you dont mind me asking?
I work on a small college yard, we take working liveries.
The horses are barely used if I'm honest - absolute maximum of 4 hours a week and they do sod all in all 'school' holidays. We have no 'big' riders, I am probably amongst the biggest of the riders at 12 and a half stone and I am very sensible with what I ride in regards to my weight. Several of the riders are however very novicey, but again we are sensible with what horses we use for these lessons.
I refer to my yard as a 'holiday camp' because the horses do bot all.
We do have afew ex competition / show horses there and the main problem with them is the owners find it hard to hand over all control to yard staff.
I would never send a horse of my own to a busy riding school on working livery, but would happily send one to my place of work.
For those of you that have used working livery in the past, how much did you pay per month if you dont mind me asking?
LBertie Wooster
Well-Known Member
have PM'ed you Littlemisslauren!!
outandabout
Well-Known Member
My horse was on working livery when I bought him and I kept him on it for little while afterwards for financial reasons. He was miserable as sin and is a completely changed for the better animal since he is not being messed around all the time. He is ex-BSJA and was jumped at least once a day nearly every day of the week and because he is a convenient size for teenagers loads of kids rode him. He started refusing jumps and bucking afterwards and started to get grumpy and sour. Now, I would rather keep him in a field with no facilities than put him back on working livery. Maybe some other places are different, but you will have little to no control over who rides your horse and what they do with him. And it is very very hard to watch someone else riding your horse badly