Would you say this is fair of my YO?

Demolition_Derby

Demolition_Derby

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I will try not to let this this get too long
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I keep my 2 horses at a farm which has a few liveries just as extra income for the wife's shoe fetish
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(they are not at all dependant on the money from liveries). Both of mine have always lived out which meant they were on Grass Livery which included as much hay as I needed but this year the farmer decided he wanted all horses in at night
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. This meant my livery obviously increased (doubled
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) as I now needed a stable but straw was included in the new price.

My elderly pony has very very mild COPD but is easily manageable and having her on shavings and haylage obviously helps so I buy this in myself. I asked for a discount on the livery of my pony and they said 'No, it's not our problem you are choosing to put her on different bedding', fair enough I guess. This did pee me off but they weren't going to do it so not point dwelling
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Then the hay arrived in our barn at the weekend as thats when the horses started coming in and it is honestly the crappest hay I have ever seen/touched/smelt
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. Its awful, it feels like straw, smells disgusting and I would need a face mask even going near it let alone filling a haynet with it due to the amount of dust! I refused to feed this to my horse and pointed out that they had perfectly good bales in the barn they could give us. Their answer 'we are keeping that to sell to people outside of the yard', surely their priorites should lie with the people who are already paying them
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??!!

I then said that I had no choice but to buy my own hay in and asked where I could store it. They showed me an area of a barn that I could use but it is a 5min walk from the yard, that adds about 10min extra a day, but at least I would have somewhere to store it so I said 'fine, thank you' I was then told that it would cost me £15 a month storage
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So I pointed out that I was paying livery for TWO horses worth of hay and straw and would only be using ONE horses worth of straw and yet they still charge me for storage????

I think this is really unfair but maybe I am overreacting?
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And I can't move as there are no yards around me that have space for 2 horses and that have AYTO which I need.
 
I would be fuming. I can sort of see the straw thing but no way on the hay - that is dreadful. My yo sends any hay that is slightly substandard back let alone awful hay.

Can't give you any useful ideas though - sorry!
 
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I would be fuming. I can sort of see the straw thing but no way on the hay - that is dreadful. My yo sends any hay that is slightly substandard back let alone awful hay.

Can't give you any useful ideas though - sorry!

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Thank you, I was told by the other liveries (who are happy to feed the hay) that I was overreacting and if my horse is hungry enough she will eat it! Not the point at all which I tried to explain but my efforts failed
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I'd be fuming too, but if you can't move you are at their mercy.

I was at a yrad a while ago where you had to use their hay, but it was awful stuff
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Some people soaked theirs but I couldn't because of my back being bad (couldn't lift it etc). I ended up moving yards (that wasn't the main reason).

All you can really do is express your unhappiness to them.
 
I would leave if you have the option. They are being totally unreasonable, especially charging you £15pcm storage for hay because they are providing rubbish hay.

My warmblood will not, I have worked out, eat last year's hay (the older stuff from the bottom of our pile in the barn), because it's been around so long that it has started to smell musty. Our new hay that we made in July, smells sweet and when I was hungry on Sunday, I actually could have tucked in myself!!! No surprises then that I've had trouble getting him to finish hay for the last few days (mainly teeth probs), but the minute I start on the new hay, he finishes a bale a night.

It is not fair on your horses, particularly one with a dust allergy/COPD, to expect them to eat old or poor quality hay.

You are paying them so you must lay down the facts as you see them or tell them you are serving notice and 'ta-ra'.
 
can you not buy a bale at a time of the nice stuff of them so saving the need for hay storage?

I know this does not solve your gripe, but does save the hay issue in the short term
 
Find yourself another suitable yard & put your name down on the waiting list & keep quiet about it. When vacancies come up just move.

Many farmers seem to think that horses can eat any old crappy hay, they haven't got a clue about horse husbandry.
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Farmers really dont have clue about horses!!


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Tell me about it. I'm fighting a long hard battle to re-educate my OH!!! Mind you, I think I might be winning as he is now insisting on getting rubber mats fitted in our walkways to stop the horses slipping on the conrete - I was speechless!
 
Get yourself a large round bale of haylage - even with the storage it should work out cheaper.....I wouldnt feed the crappy hay either.....last year, our YO had to buy in some hay cos all hers had been used ( farmer too!) - its was appalling, so we all bought haylage in and she had to get rid of the hay at a loss....never happened since!

I would be more miffed that the decent hay is classed as being too good for your the likes of you and your horses....move if you can, but i know its easier said than done when you have more than one horse
 
i would be peed off that they think the rubbish hay is good enough for your horses and keeping the good stuff for others. 15 quid is a bit of a cheek for storage because you won't feed their rubbishy hay
 
Ridiculous.

My YO won't give discount for alternative bedding or own hay either and they have no space to store hay.

Fortunately the straw and hay are both of good quality at the moment.

Sorry not much help but I think your only option is to move.
 
Thank you for all your replies.

HelsB, the one that has hay is a big horse and would need about a bale a night and I just can't afford to buy that many small bales, especially with my livery going up. I have to buy the big round bales to be economical as inconvienient as it is
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It doesn't help that the other liveries are happy to feed it, maybe if we all refused to feed it the farmer may realise and give us the decent hay but at the moment he thinks I am just being fussy
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Could you buy the good hay from him? would that work out cheaper than having to store other stuff you have to buy in anyway? He sounds like a mean old sod to me.
 
TBH it sounds awful and I would move. You need to put ads in tack shops, local PO etc etc. With the recession and things getting tough you may find a private yard that also could do with a bit more cash and offers you livery. I am in such a yard - just me, YO and 1 livery - its bliss.
 
Sounds like maybe his wife has now developed a handbag fetish.

If you definitely cannot move, then maybe you could buy the new hay from them and just take what you need from their barn - that way you dont have to pay for storage? or try soaking it?

Also, if you are still paying for 2 horses' worth I would be ensuring that the other horse had the biggest fluffiest bed ever with unlimited crappy hay.
 
I'd be livid too. Especially as the crappy hay could lead to COPD or similar for your horses which is then a lifelong problem.

Would your YO like to pay your vets bills if your horses health suffers as a result of their money grabbing scheme? Cannot believe that liveries have to have second rate hay whilst they sell the good stuff elsewhere.

I'd be doing my damndest to find another yard. There MUST be somewhere, hope so anyway for you and your horses sakes. What a horrible situation to find yourself in, they sound like utter sh*ts quite honestly.
 
No you are not over-reacting at all! Sorry but they are out of order and unless something can be sorted out, then yes I would be looking at moving.
 
It does sound a bit unreasonable

BUT.... as a farmer I'd like to make the point that the credit crunch has affected us too, good hay has been near impossible to make this year with the weather - if they do have some good stuff then fair enough it should be their liveries who get it - even if that has to mean a premium on the top. An awful lot of people with horses keep theirs with farmers, without us you wouldn't have hay,feed or straw and contrary to popular horse folk belief we rarely make much profit for a lot of hassle. We definatel don't!

Not a personal rant at OP! Just get a wee bit touchy about it all!

My liveries have two year old hay which is brilliant stuff, they do have to pay a little over previous years prices for it - but that is how things are this year. I wouldn't consider giving them the crap but if they aren't willing to pay the extra then they can look at the poorer stuff - it's their choice. I've toughened up after taking over the livery side! I wouldn't charge for bale storage unless you were inflicting on mine!
 
Our horses are kept on a farm and no way would our YO expect us to feed our horses inferior hay or haylage! We've had a small increase of £5 per month per horse for ad lib haylage. Real quality stuff which despite the awful weather this year is wonderful again. The same as the straw.

Everyone is under pressure financially, I understand that. But for OP's YO to expect the liveries to have to have the cheap poor quality rubbish which could possibly permanently damage her horses health to my mind at least is not on.

And don't forget that just as YO's costs have gone up, so has the cost of living for all liveries as well. So it works both ways.
 
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