Yard have been negligent.

Miss L Toe

Miss L Toe

Well-Known Member
Joined
6 July 2009
Messages
6,174
Location
On the dark side, Scotland
Visit site
What do I do: last week, I discovered that the yard staff were advised on second of January that a horse had strangles, they did not believe the horse owners, and the rest is history, I have a bill for a lot of money, and me and my horse have gone though hell. about half of the horses had some exposure and the total vet bill must be well over £10K. I do not know who made the decision to ignore the horse owner, but what do I do now?
I am unable to move my horse, indeed I would not ask anyone to take him.
I can't sell him.
I can't loan him.
I have not told the farm owner of this new information
I have not told the farm manager of this new information
I have not told the yard manager..... of this new information.
I have told the vet who has been working for the farm and for me.
There is no reason for me to believe that I will be treated fairly, it has not happened to date and will not happen in the future.
I am willing to accept an ex-gratia payment, and go away. quietly, but I also feel that the others should also have their outgoings covered.
 
Last edited:
You've posted about this before haven't you?
Edited to say, yes you did post about this before and got lots of advice about insurance companies, CAB etc. Your horse isn't insured, so that limits your options. It's all been said on your other thread really.
 
MrsD123 said:
OK, the yard allowed infective horses to mix with all the other horses in the yard, is that clearer?
Click to expand...

Chances are the horses were infected prior to the YO's being told of the infection. And if they weren't then it would have been nigh on impossible to keep it from spreading.

Such is life I suppose, and it's very upsetting. But I know of a very large yard near me that had a terrible outbreak a few years ago, and despite doing everything correctly could not prevent the spread.

It's the danger of keeping animals together I suppose - viruses will spread.....

Once the virus has run its course you will be able to get out and about and even sell your horse should you wish.
 
Last edited:
I don't know how to find my previous posts, but it must have been before I had the information that they had been told about the disease in a particular horse.
These people allowed my horse to get this disease, they think they can shrug their shoulders and move on, but I am not going to capitulate. They have two weaknesses, cash and publicity, I know this sounds like I want to make money out of it, I wanted my horse to have a lovely natural life, and that has not happened, and the problem is ongoing.he is in a small yard without friends to play with indefinely.

Why should I pay for negligence by the yard, why should they not pay for the result of their action (in this case lack of action)
 
Last edited:
I'm a YO and IMO it's not on if they knew what was going on - but... are you sure the YO knew the horse had strangles and its not the owner of the horse which brought it onto the yard who has failed to tell people, paniced when other horses contracted it and then said that the YO knew??

TBH, if your horse isnt insured, i imagine it could cost you quite a bit to prove that the yard owners knowingly let the infected horse mix with the others and to take it to court.

I am not familiar with exactly what happened in your situation - but what did you do when you found out about the horse having strangles? Did you go to the YO and insit the infected horse was put in isolation? If not, then i hate to say but it could maybe be argued that you accepted the fact your horse could contract it etc?

When i was a teenager a horse came to the riding school i was a livery at which had strangles, she was put into isolation straight away (well, her stable had jumps all around it but they didnt have an isolation box). My horses could easily have contracted it as the yard staff fed in the morning etc (i wasnt convinced that they were changing clothing inbetween doing the infect mare etc) anyway, if my horse had contracted it, TBH i would have just accepted it as this do get spread around. I dare it could have been argued that the yard i was at didnt do enough to prevent others getting it but no-where is perfect.

I really feel for you as it sounds as if you have had a rough ride but i doubt there is much you can do easily - i am making a load of assumptions here btw as i dont know the full facts of what happened in your case!
 
The advice still stands Op, if you want to pursue this you will need to get some sort of legal advice. Most would do that through their insurance company. You could check in case your household insurance policy covers you.
 
No, the yard were aware that a new horse came in to the yard from a dealer, this horse was ill within 24 hours, complaints were made, nothing was done. The isolation procedures were disregarded. There is no way that the yard is anything other than negligent, it is not an act of God
 
at a yard near to me thare was a strangles outbreak a few years ago. the yard is a large yard incorporating a riding school and they host Pony club and also have fortnightly shows all open to the general public so lots of people coming and going. The vets never shut the place down,although one of the vets told me that if one more horse went down with stranges they would close the place until the outbreak was over. The point being that the vets felt that dispite a lot of visiting horses there were not enough infected animals to put the whole county at risk. Horses on yards will get disease from time to time,they only way to avoid this is to keep yourown horse isolated on your own plac and never hack out or go anywhere,ever. Thats no life. Vets bills and horses are facts of life,get over it,move on,today is a new day.
 
MrsD123 said:
No, the yard were aware that a new horse came in to the yard from a dealer, this horse was ill within 24 hours, complaints were made, nothing was done. The isolation procedures were disregarded. There is no way that the yard is anything other than negligent, it is not an act of God
Click to expand...

There we are then, legal advice and court.

Good luck, and let us know how you get on.
 
What end would it come to? Fighting this? Except you being more out of pocket.
What is done is done and instead of wallowing you have to deal with it.
Can you guarentee that you horse would not have gotten strangles if the strangles case had been isolated?
If it were me I would be more concerned about my horse getting through it then the yards actions. Yes I would be annoyed but I cannot see it being worth your while to dwell on it.
 
Streptococcus Equi is a bacterial infection and is spread by contact ie contagious,,,,,,,.... water buckets, haynets, touch of horse or clothing, if the yard had told me the truth I would not have let my horse anywhere near another horse or person and I would not have handled any horses.
 
I have done the nursing thing, did all the biosecurity and now my horse is stuck in a bog, but he could be in a nice little field which would allow my to hack him down to the beach and we could resume our life together.
 
Not very nice, but infections happen & are very hard to contain.
 
Last edited:
Does he still have strangles then?why is he in a boggy field? Where on earth in the world are you as we have not had rain for weeks so not mud!
 
MrsD123 said:
No, the yard were aware that a new horse came in to the yard from a dealer, this horse was ill within 24 hours, complaints were made, nothing was done. The isolation procedures were disregarded.
Click to expand...

Right, but regardless of where the horse came from - were they told 'this horse has come from a yard that has/has just had strangles' or 'this horse has strangles'.
The fact it came from a dealers yard and was ill shortly after means nothing TBH.

At what point did it become apparent that it was infact strangles rather than just a bit of a bug?

How was the horse transported to the yard? Could it have picked it up via there hence the transporters either hadnt maintained a clean trailer/box or passed on info that they had moved a ill horse?

Did they isolate the horse in any way? if so how?

I must admit there was another yard local to me who had a strangles outbreak years ago, they were also a competition centre and i know it was over Christmas/New Year and they still continued to hold big shows - it wasnt until a few of the big named jumpers backed out of a BSJA event that it became public knowledge - the yard was in a small area hence it always amazed us all locally that they still held the events.

I think you need to cover all aspects of it, so that if/when you do seek legal advice you have everything there with you as it will help to reduce legal fees if you go fully armed! Are you a member of the BHS? maybe you can call their legal helpline?

how many horses contratced it in the end? if there are a few of you, maybe if you took legal action together you would have a better case?
 
charlie76 said:
Does he still have strangles then?why is he in a boggy field? Where on earth in the world are you as we have not had rain for weeks so not mud!
Click to expand...

Yes, I was wondering this.

But clearly OP - if you were this concerned then surely you would have taken some legal advice by now??

Hopefully you've resumed paying your livery?
 
there are three or maybe four levels of management, I do not know who decided to cover up, was it the Farm owner , a peer of the realm, was it his manager, a man who has something of the night about him, or the yard manager, or the person in charge of operations on the day they were advised of the problem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top