Worst livery yards/worst livery experience

H

horses13

Well-Known Member
Joined
21 March 2010
Messages
341
Visit site
Without naming what was the worst livery yard you have been on and why.

What was your worst livery experience?

I have to be on the worst ever livery yard. The only good thing is the other horse owners which makes a change.
It is so bad it has a a realy bad reputation known for miles around. It is so bad i no longer tell people i am there.

What are your experiences?
 
In what way is it bad?

I used to share a horse kept on a horrible yard. The hacking was lovely, and they had a really nice big indoor school, but the stables were falling down and the owner knew nothing about horses. The paddocks were also full of ragwort, and bits of barbed wire (no matter how much you picked up, there always seemed to be more around for him to scratch himself on!)

But for me, the very worst aspect of it was the other owners. Everyone had to keep all their tack and kit under lock and key or it'd be nicked, and everyone seemed to be more interested in commenting bitchily about the other horses / riders than simply getting on and enjoying their own horse. We moved ours as soon as a space came up in another nearby yard.
 
I originally kept my horse at the riding school/livery yard where I learned to ride. It was awful - lots of unsupervised kids with their own ponies and no idea whatsoever. So many things happened there, from stupid things like 'trimming' their pony's manes with scissors - i.e. straight across the forelock, to deciding to harness up one of the ponies to a carriage as they had been told when they bought said pony it had been broken to drive. Said pony freaked out and kicked itself free. Tack didn't fit, feeding was haphazard to say the least and no-one ever warmed up or cooled down. Farriers and vets were rather underused.

I didn't stay long but shortly after I left one of the kids decided to hack their pony to the nearby village. They stopped at a friend's house and tied the pony up to a fence as they wanted to play on the friend's trampoline. Pony broke free and tried to gallop home, unfortunately galloped in front of a car.
d030.gif
 
I was on a yard where there was lots of jelousy and bitching from both YO YM and other liveries(standard for most liveries !!), after I left we then bought some land and have gone on to start our own livery yard which is quite sucessfull, I think so because we have been there and done that and treat our liveries in the way in which we wish we had been treated :)

xx
 
A yard I was at for over 10 years changed hands - within a year

The livery went up 50%
The YO forgot to close a field gate and 20 horses got out onto the main road - they didn't even notice until the police knocked on their door which was 50 yards from said main road! No apology btw.
They turned out a 6 yo stallion with the geldings - they didn't notice the b*lls like melons on him :eek: and just thought he was a bit noisy - until he went straight through the fence to the mares. Took 2 days to catch him and they thought that the mare owners were unreasonable to expect them to pay for the vet call out and jab, after all "it was an innocent mistake"
Shut 26 grass livery horses onto 10 acres to save the grass (winter hay was included in the livery;) )
Their grandchildren expected to be allowed ride any horse on the place, in fact they didn't even ask, would just go and get them in and the YO would tack them up for them. I told them that the hire rate for mine was £50 ph and that I would just deduct it from the livery......

If I told you the rest, you wouldn't believe me:p it was a parallel existence for the 6 months it took me to leave...:o
 
I've been on so many yards, they can be pretty grim. I've never had awful facilities or unsafe stabling (I wouldn't go there in the first place). What I have had is terrible, terrible people.

Horrible bullies who ganged up to sit in their "private" tackroom and gossip loudly and nastily about everyone who wasn't "in their gang" (aged 30+ I should add). Hate campaigns including washing up liquid being poured into someone's competition boots, money being stolen, stuff going "missing", that sort of thing. Just horrible to be around and made me not want to be on the yard. People with anger issues, throwing things and screaming. People treating their horses cruelly (one horse who was never, ever, ever turned out and only ever ridden after sundown, and was beaten when ridden - poor creature died of colic in the end).

Best yard I've ever been on was amazing. It was a private yard of original Edwardian stables attached to a country house overlooking the sea, just outside Cork in Ireland. The owner was simply lovely and loved horses. It was full livery and I have never ever seen beds done so well. The stables were huge (those old fashioned loose boxes that seem to go on for ever and ever), and he would do full shavings beds, with double sized bank, right up to the door. The hay was immaculate and the horses never seemed to run out (he used to do late check/extra hay at 11pm every night). There was a lovely school in what used to be a walled garden, harrowed every day without fail. The owner's wife used to regularly bring us home made scones and tea, and home made treats for all the horses! I paid for muck out, turn out, bring in and feed, but often I used to turn up and find my horse had been strapped and was gleaming, and my tack cleaned, just because he "had some time". One St. Stephen's day (Boxing day), I was going hunting - I turned up to find the horse plaited up and immaculate, and the lorry loaded. As a "Christmas treat". He was the most incredible person and it killed me when I had to leave that place.
 
Best yard I've ever been on was amazing. It was a private yard of original Edwardian stables attached to a country house overlooking the sea, just outside Cork in Ireland. The owner was simply lovely and loved horses. It was full livery and I have never ever seen beds done so well. The stables were huge (those old fashioned loose boxes that seem to go on for ever and ever), and he would do full shavings beds, with double sized bank, right up to the door. The hay was immaculate and the horses never seemed to run out (he used to do late check/extra hay at 11pm every night). There was a lovely school in what used to be a walled garden, harrowed every day without fail. The owner's wife used to regularly bring us home made scones and tea, and home made treats for all the horses! I paid for muck out, turn out, bring in and feed, but often I used to turn up and find my horse had been strapped and was gleaming, and my tack cleaned, just because he "had some time". One St. Stephen's day (Boxing day), I was going hunting - I turned up to find the horse plaited up and immaculate, and the lorry loaded. As a "Christmas treat". He was the most incredible person and it killed me when I had to leave that place.[/QUOTE]

Oh wow. Are you sure it was not a dream? It sounds so perfect. I hate the place i am in even more now.
 
I never understand why people move to these yards in the first place? Fair enough if it's more about the people there - you won't know until you're integrated. But stuff like barbed wire, poor stables, ragwort... Surely you check the yard before you choose it for your horse?
 
Halfstep said:
Best yard I've ever been on was amazing. It was a private yard of original Edwardian stables attached to a country house overlooking the sea, just outside Cork in Ireland. The owner was simply lovely and loved horses. It was full livery and I have never ever seen beds done so well. The stables were huge (those old fashioned loose boxes that seem to go on for ever and ever), and he would do full shavings beds, with double sized bank, right up to the door. The hay was immaculate and the horses never seemed to run out (he used to do late check/extra hay at 11pm every night). There was a lovely school in what used to be a walled garden, harrowed every day without fail. The owner's wife used to regularly bring us home made scones and tea, and home made treats for all the horses! I paid for muck out, turn out, bring in and feed, but often I used to turn up and find my horse had been strapped and was gleaming, and my tack cleaned, just because he "had some time". One St. Stephen's day (Boxing day), I was going hunting - I turned up to find the horse plaited up and immaculate, and the lorry loaded. As a "Christmas treat". He was the most incredible person and it killed me when I had to leave that place.
Click to expand...

Why can't they all be like this ??

xx
 
I worked on a 'Full Livery' yard where the YM word wass LAW, and the YO's had no idea about horses, so kept out of the way and left everything to the YM.
The haylage was so bad that you wouldnt feed it to sheep/cattle...I would regularly find dead animals/rocks/bricks/golf clubs(????!!!!) in it. More often than not it was mouldy - was told to hose it off and it'd be ok.
The stables were beautiful, newly built and of high quality, shame they were deep littered on cushion bed - one bale a week allowed in the livery. Absolutely vile!
The horses were ridden by the YM as part of the livery fee, I would often spend a couple of extra hours (unpaid) over time treating welts caused by lunge/schooling whips, cut mouths due to bits being dragged and yanked. It was horrible, I saw the YM beat a horse - at an event no less - no one stopped herr as they were too frightened.
One horse was 'too dirty to have bedding', so he was kept on bare mats, he was washed with industrial strength washing up liquid every day, and had chronic mud fever due to his wee splattering him all the time and the constant washing.
Another horse was termed 'naughty' because he wouldnt/couldnt work properly and had a wierd gait, they eventually got a back person to him when he went out from under the owner (que beating for being bad by the way) the back lady advised the owners that something was very wrong, and to get the vet...vet advised strict box rest as his hocks were wrong - I went one day to find him fetlock deep in stinking awful rotting bedding, and a note saying not to bother mucking him out as he was 'dangerous' in his box and to take a stick with me when I took his hay in...poor pony couldnt move to his net, god knows what they had done to him.
Final straw was when I collapsed there one day, I was coming round when I heard voices - YM and one of her cronies were stood in the doorway laughing and taking pictures of "the stupid fat cow"......I got up, got in my car and left, never been back. Heard on the grape vine that the poorly lad had to be put down, there was something badly wrong with his back end (cant remember what it was called) and that making him work even when the vet advised BR has made it un - repairable, the 'dirty' gelding was swapped for a saddle at a dealers yard! I still think of those poor horses. What makes it worse is that once the YO's realised what was going on, and sacked the YM, she took on another yard and took all the liveries with her! I dont understand why they would follow someone like that??!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top