Yard owners - how do you feel about people turning up unannounced?

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pixie

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Especially when you are not there, have said that no-one would be around and requested that they didn't go up to the stables for that reason. Note - These people are NOT currently liveries, and no livery agreements have been made at all.
Our stables are part of the farm, so we don't want random people walking around there.
 
No, we had arranged this morning to meet up and chat about livery tomorrow. She asked afterwards if she could come up to look this afternoon as well, but I said no as no-one would be about.
 
I think I'd be tempted to say to her that you can understand her wanting to see the yard when it's not been made to look extra pretty but that from a security point of view you aren't happy with her just turning up. I tend to arrive on yards early to look around but I wouldn't turn up when told not to. I think that's a bit naughty to be honest and I wouldn't be happy about it.
 
Its rather rude. I am not a YO, but on the odd occason I have had to have somebody other than farrier, back lady, saddler etc go onto the yard I always let our YO know so that she she can give the OK on it. Bad manners otherwise.
 
Pretty much the same happened to me. Visitors called at the house but (they say) could not get an answer, so they helped themselves to a tour of my farm and livestock. I was livid -- but said nothing.

People with those sorts of manners are remembered and born in mind for the future.;) Pointless commenting as they would not understand why it was wrong.
 
If she was told specifically no, then yes, I think you have a right to be peed off. Are you certain it was the same girl? I know I turned up unannounced to a yard last year, as I didn't have a number for them. Is it possible it was another potential livery or did your MIL speak to her?
 
People come to my yard unannounced on a fairly regular basis. My place is quite well known in the area so I suppose it's seen by people as being okay to just turn up. It's very rare that there isn't someone here to show people about though so I don't really mind. It is what it is.
 
Playing devils advocate - as a stranger she mightn't have thought there was anything wrong turning up. Some people assume a business is a business, always open during working hours and don't consider that it has a private aspect.

When i was looking for a livery yard I regularly drove into strange yards unannounced to see if they had space.

I have to admit I also did sneaky drive pasts n yards i was interested in. mainly to see what the setup was like when on a day to day basis when they thought no-one was looking, to see if stables were clean and had hay, to see if tack was locked up securely, to see how many people were around using arena etc. I wouldn't be snooping around in depth, but i would like to have a private look. But saying that, I would usually just arrive much earlier than i was supposed to meet owner!
 
I know it's slightly different but when I go to view horses for sale I ALWAYS turn up at the selling yard much earlier than the agreed time ... perhaps people who livery do the same, and maybe I would too if I had to put my horses on livery
 
I can understand OP being annoyed in her circumstances, but in general considering that many livery yards don't advertise, how is anyone new to the area supposed to find livery without wandering onto random yards and asking if they offer that? I wouldn't be wandering about checking the place out though, only to find someone to ask if they did livery. I also wouldn't walk into somewhere with a gate shut and a private property sign on it. But if there's an open gate or no sign and I can see a field of horses then I'd walk in and ask.
 
As a YO myself; if I'd specifically said to a potential livery (which I understand this woman is???) that I wouldn't be in the yard at a specific day/time, then TBH I wouldn't expect her to go there!!! UNLESS she'd asked perhaps if she could just pop in and look around to get the feel of the place - personally I would have been OK with that, IF she'd asked, which she patently hasn't on this occasion!

So yes, I'm with OP on this one; I'd be miffed, very much so. And basically, if she can't respect YO's wishes/requests BEFORE she gets on the yard, then she ain't gonna do so when she's actually ON the yard is she.

Personally I'd send her up the road; she'll be nothing but trouble if she comes on the yard.
 
I thought I'd found a great yard once, the owner was jazzing it up as you can imagine. I decided to go up after hours to see what I thought without him rabbiting on at me. No gates and access to a main road - ie if a horse got loose at any time of the day or night it could run down on to the main road, no one there after 5pm - what if something were to happen, if a horse colicked at 5pm it wouldn't be found until the next morning. No security, no one living on site and no gates meant it would be easy for anyone to steal a horse.

That's just a few of the reasons I can remember, I wouldn't make it a habit to snoop around on property but I had a strange feeling about that yard so just went up after hours to see what it was like.
 
I'd be annoyed too!

Have you thought about putting up signs like 'appointments only' 'admittance hours' 'no unauthorised access' that sort of thing? Might seem a little hard but what if she had hurt herself? There's a health and safety issue here too, AND if there is now a problem and she was the last one seen on the yard....does she really want the stigma of 'did you steal my wheelbarrow!' type questions??
 
does it depend on the yard though?

If its a small private diy yard, then that's very different to a larger competition or equitation yard. If I was going to fork out larger money for full livery i would have no problem going up to have a chat with existing liveries and check out what the yard is like on an average day. It's the only way to get a feel for whether arena is free,harrowed properly, correct drainage after rain etc. I also like to see if there are many people around yard to get a feel if it was social yard or really quiet.

As far as i was concerned unless a yard had a private property sign or a closed gate i would consider it open during business hours.

It's a huge move to switch yard and i would have no qualms trying to suss out a yard if it's open during business hours.

I've had too many experiences looking at yards and getting a grand tour from owners, and then finding out the yard wasn't as expected.

Some occurences were
• large yard owner mentioning cross country course, and then on a surprise visit finding out horses are turned out in it normally, confirmed by livery as being unusable 90% of time
• walked into another yard to find a loose horse wandering round, luckily it was just eating haybale, but had access to busy road
• yard had open tack room as owner didn't bother to close except at night
• horse standing in filthy beds with no hay, when i had been shown lovely deep beds and loads of hay in a 'show' stable

If I was a yard owner and it was open business hours, i wouldn't have any problem having potential clients looking round at any time. If it was a tiny, tiny private yard or had a closed gate I would consider it differently.
 
She has already had a tour of the place by my FIL when she pitched up the first time. Its only a small yard with just my pony and no other liveries, so nothing else to see and no-one else to talk to. As mentioned, its part of my in-law's farm, so lots of machinery, chemicals and stuff that could be dangerous if someone was nosing about in the wrong places. So yes, potential safety issue, security issue and invasion of privacy.
 
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