Yard expectations and rug changes

Two of mine are easy re rug choices, but I'm very glad that the PSSM mare is at home.

Her current turnout is a no fill Rambo with a choice of no liner, airmax liner, 100g, 200g, 250g varilayer, 300g or 400g liners, plus choice of no fill, 150g and 250g hoods o_O.

Madam has to be rugged 'just so' for the prevailing weather.
 
When I worked with full liveries most decisions were left for us to decide unless owners requested a certain rug, but everyone is different I would like to think I got to know the horses I was caring for and understood there needs as individuals surely that is part of the job to make sure you get it right.

Understanding the owners is also part of it and knowing how they like things done.
 
If tour friend doesn't like the decisions made by the grooms then she can vote with her feet & leave. No one can look after your horse exactly as you would like. If she wants a particular rug to be worn then put it somewhee the groom can find it & not moan about the wrong rug being used. Yes she's paying money for the horse to be looked after but assisting with the decisions made is not unheard of. She appears to want to moan about the service.
 
When my horse was on part livery I was up one end of the day and kept close eye on rugs. I was normally up morning. Stable had 3 internal rug rails. I left night rug I wanted on an agreed rail.

But at times of weather really swinging about I did expect them to adjust.

Was yard of 38 part liveries. Generally all the horses had 2-3 weights of field and stable rugs snd staff would verbally agree an expected temperature and weather and rugging plan at beginning and end of every day (amongst staff). With tweaks for individuals that were non standard.

That’s actually easier than 38 daily messages from owners.
 
I’d gently suggest to your friend that she quits whining and if she really can’t find the staff that have mind reading skills, she buy her own yard and train up staff to deliver service the way she wants it delivered.

It’s livery - not rocket science. Horses are remarkably resilient and a few hours in the almost but not quite right rug won’t do too much harm.

Is the issue the fact that she thinks the horse is not being cared for or that she perceives she has paid for something she ought to be receiving?
 
I know people with laminated rug charts put up in their stable on big yards.

E.g.

STABLED
Below zero - blue fleece and green stable rug
Zero to 5 - green stable rug
above 5 and below 10 - pink stable rug
Above 10 and below 15 - blue fleece
Above 15 - naked

Separate list for field..
 
Having worked on a full livery yard we would not be making those decisions from a pile of rugs. The owners told us what rugs they wanted on and we put them on.

I wouldn’t expect yard staff to know a rug weight just from looking at it, I also wouldn’t take kindly to a YO/YM or YS changing my rug weights without discussing it with me, mind you I only have one rug hanging on the rack outside the stable other than the one he has on.
 
If I was expecting staff on a large yard to make rugging decisions then I'd probably want to provide a chart to help them. (Somewhere I used to be a few horses on full had a degrees C & raining/ not raining sort of chart on their door to help with rugging decisions)

Saying that I was on a yard a while ago where YO used to turn horse back out for me & generally he'd just be left in whatever rug ready to go to make her life as easy as possible but that place had it's own microclimate & sometimes it was warm enough for rug off during day but not at night so I did trust her to make her own decisions if it was warmer/ colder than predicted. But this was a small yard & it was normally just him she had to sort.

Equally where I am atm I'm not up every day so if mine was rugged & weather was changeable I'd be happy with current YO using common sense if she thought things needed changing probably with a bit of prior discussion. (pony isn't rugged atm as he's only got a small clip so not really an issue)
 
I wouldn’t expect a day to day thought of which rug to change into. But if the weather dramatically changed then I’d expect them to change appropriately or check the forecast. As you know in our part of the country we can be -2 with sleet then the next day be back up at 8/9c!
 
A friend is on full livery , and all the stables have a white board outside stable, it’s up to owner to write on board if different rug needed, and they are only allowed two turnouts and a stable rug on the rug rail outside stable and the rugs need to be either labeled or different colour.
 
Caol Ila said:
I had a conversation with one of my friends while hacking yesterday. Her horse is on full livery, which includes rug changes. She was irritated that the staff could not always make the 'correct' decision about which rug to put on the horse (out of a pile on the rug racks), and she had to make sure that the one she wanted was very obvious. Her argument was that the yard is expensive, and the 'service' should therefore be good enough to include decision-making on rugs for full livery horses.

I pointed out that waffling over rugs actually takes quite a lot of mental effort, and if you have about 30 horses to deal with, the last thing you want to do is decide which rug to put on each one. Plus, you'll probably get it wrong anyway because the owner's idea of appropriate rugging might be different from yours. When I was on full livery, I either left the horse in whatever rug I wanted her to wear the next day, or left specific instructions in the book where liveries write notes to staff. "Change Gypsum to green rug please." Easy.

Friend insisted that for the price, the staff should still be able to make those decisions. The yard is at the upper end of average for the area. It is not the most expensive around, but there are cheaper ones. I said we're paying for facilities and proximity to a big city. It's very close to the West End, and the facilities are rather nice.

I have also never boarded at a stable where staff wanted to make those decisions for you. She has (in a different country). Even at much smaller yards, you had to leave out whichever rug you wanted on your rug rack. And you were only allowed a turnout rug and a stable rug on neatly folded on aforesaid rug rack.

Unlike this disaster zone. This is what happens when I have freedom to be me. Not all of these even belong to this horse! The Newmarket fleece is Gypsum's and the fly rug is Fin's. But she is DIY, so who cares.View attachment 106793

Anyway, the YO at one place I stayed at would snark about you to other liveries because he thought everything should be in a 400g rug, but it was still up to you.

I imagine that at elite yards, like Carl Hester's, the grooms do make more day-to-day decisions, but they are probably better paid.

What would you expect from full livery? Just musing, really, as my horses are DIY so I do everything.
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I think it is the owners responsibility to make sure the rugs left out are for that season and that limits the decision's. My liveries do this as I request it, I am part livery but still with so many makes and weights how is it possible for staff to remember every single horses wardrobe.

Maybe the owner can get a small chalk board or black boards and write down what she wants on depending on weather???

I have this in my contract
  • Part Liveries must ensure the correct rugs are in the stables for the time of the
year. Yard owners are not responsible for searching through storage for the right rug.
 
We have a system, which is the bemusing part. There is a book where owners can write requests to staff. It is not difficult to write “Change Fluffball to blue rug.” If you’re not at the yard, you can use the livery What’s App group to ask someone to write it in for you.

I think it works but I’ve never had any expectations that staff at a yard of this size would and could make that decision for me.
 
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