Yard Owners - is there such a thing as duty of care?

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honeychop

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My friend keeps her horse at a yard that I left. The yard owner, thinks he is an oracle on all things horsey as he is rich enough to have been able to provide his daughter with ponies until she hit her teens and discovered boys and then lost interest. This was over 20 years ago and the yard has since basically been ticked over with minimum repair with annual price increases but no improvements being made. He sees it as solely as a money making venture as all bedding and forage have to be bought by him at his inflated rates. The one good thing about this yard is that there is all year turnout which in my area is gold dust. most liveries are non riders due to them being youngsters turned away or happy hackers. The ménage is 30 year old builders sand with a recent dump of too much rubber on top of it, never harrowed, and my vet advised that if I wanted to keep my horses live and tends never to ride in it.
Anyway, you get the general picture. The other day my friend was having her saddle refitted. So she had to hop off on and off to test it. Like you do. She was mounted, wearing her hat, walking across the concrete on the way to the school the yard owner and son came round the corner on their quad bikes, they stopped but did not switch off. Unfortunately her horse who is known to be highly strung stood up spun bucked and bolted. Needless to say she came off and was unable to move. The saddler was amazing and said to YO you should have switched off blah blah but YO was more interested in trying to get her to stand up although she was in agony. Saddler stepped in again and told them to leave her and bless him he called her an ambulance and waited with her as she lay on the concrete. YO daughter then starts on about her reins were too short but worse still another livery who is a GP nurse didn't even come over to see her. She is friend of YO.
She has insurance so having had unpaid days off work, plenty of Physio to come and unable to drive having to take taxis everywhere now does the yard owner have a duty of care towards her that she can claim against or something similar. The yard is turning into a building site as not content with owning 2 huge houses and 50 acres he is building a third and has openly stated that the horses and their owners will have to work round him and will need to keep out of the way of all the heavy machinery as he's not getting delayed by having them around.
My friend is leaving next week. But it doesn't seem right that this should be allowed to go on.
 
I think the yard describes a lot of yards throughout the country. The yard is rundown. The client chooses to buy the services and facilities from the YO.
If the owner feels the yard is unsafe or unsatisfactory, she makes the choice then to pay for this or go somewhere else that is safe and suitable for the horse.

Regarding the incident. The friend chooses to ride a horse that is known to be highly strung and potentially dangerous in some situations.
She knew the YO had quad bikes, as soon as the owner saw her, he stopped and waited with engine running. This is not an unreasonable response. Yards often have machinery moving around, it is up to the owner to ensure she rides in a safe area (ménage, bridlepath etc) where engines are not permitted.
 
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Ouch, sounds nasty. Hope your friend is ok and lucky the saddler is a sensible chap. Unfortunately if its his land it's his rules. Having said that it does not make it right or fair. From the description it doesn't sound like its a bhs yard so the only course of action is put up and shut up, or vote with your feet. I would imagine if that's his attitude towards the building work he may not have many liveries left.
 
The owner of the yard can do as they please.
They arnt actually doing anything wrong.
Even with the quad they didn't do wrong. They stopped and waited.
The horse owner could have asked for the engine to be turned off.
Just an accident.
The risks of horses.
 
Potentially, you can make a claim against landowner / occupier any time you have an accident on their property or aginst a driver for being respnsible for an accident. However, the insurers will then argue (for many, many months) about liability and contributory negligence etc. Public liability insurance exists to pay out for third party damage (to property or person).

Would they be insured as drivers of a quad bike on their own property - probably not. As owners of the land - maybe? If he doesn't have insurance, it probably won't be worth pursuing.

Most of what you have said will be irrelevant to the insurers, how easy would it be to prove that the way the quad bikes were being ridden was in some way negligent and that that was solely responsible for the horses behaviour? Or are you saying that there was something defective about the property that caused the accident? It may not be easy to prove.

Whether one should sue or not is another matter. Sometimes accidents happen and people can be too quick to point the finger of blame at others. But, there are some accidents that categorically should not have happened and would not have happened but for the negligent act / ommission of someone where it seems appropriate to take action, e.g. failure to maintain a piece of plant in safe working order resulting in an innocent bystander's death. This sounds a little bit like sour grapes as a result of other irritations.

I assume that making a claim would result in her needing to move yards so she should consider that first. There are plenty of ambulance chasing lawyers around that would look at her case and presumably only take it on for free if they think they will be successful.

Another point to consider is the nature of her injury - there is a table of awards for different types of injury that insurers use, if there is any permanent effect etc. TBH, it might not be worth the hassle.

ETS: Sorry, I didn't answer the question very clearly. If you are insured - your insurers could force you to take certain actions. Duty of care arises as landowner and resulting from breach of a duty of care then there could be consequences but on private land, you can generally do as you wish as long as you don't deliberately or negligently cause damage.
 
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Thanks for the lengthy reply kateo, and no its not a bhs yard, although i heard a while back fhat the bhs were going down the road that all livery yards were to be of a certain standard but i dont think this is compulsory.
She has voted with her feet, as did I and another.
 
Plenty of yards around here are also working farms (they converted to livery after the BSE outbreak put them off cattle - so far too rich dairy grass and home made stables inside a cattle barn), they make it clear it;s a farm first and livery yard second - if you don't like it - leave.
Examples include complaining that the horses were damaging stables byspinning around/ kicking them - while he was arc welding the roof and sparks flying everywhere!! and commenting that one of mine (who was there for a few months over winter before we built stables) should be trained to stand for farrier - he was being daft because farmer was angle grinding something about 15 meters away - he's perfect for farrier!

As you've done - vote with your feet.
 
blucanoo1990 said:
The owner of the yard can do as they please.
They arnt actually doing anything wrong.
Even with the quad they didn't do wrong. They stopped and waited.
The horse owner could have asked for the engine to be turned off.
Just an accident.
The risks of horses.
Click to expand...


Exactly
The owner of the horse chose to ride and own a highly strung horse she accepted the risk.
The BHs has no power to make yards all of one standard .
For a long time livery licensing by the local authority has been being explored but one of the big stumbling blocks is the fact it will raise costs and it will result in homeless horses as its likely to restrict the amount of livery on offer.
 
This may sound harsh but tbh I don't think your friend has a case at all. She has accepted the risk keeping her horse there - I assume it's a DIY yard. The YO stopped his quad, expecting him to switch off the engine too is a bit OTT, if hacking out should all cars stop and switch off their engines? Your friend chose to mount outwith the safety of an arena so she accepted the risk involved in doing so.

As far as the YO trying to make her stand up, obviously it's not correct first aid procedure but as a DIY YO I don't think there is law to say YO's have to be trained unlike, say, staff on a riding school and YO will obviously not be present all the time when liveries are about anyway. As far as the nurse is concerned she was under no obligation to to help, you can argue it was perhaps her moral duty to offer assistance and many would help but she chose not to be involved.

Al in all I think your friend knew the risks in keeping and riding her horse there and in continuing to do so indicated her acceptance of them - assume she knew the YO had quads and could have elected to mount in the arena. A degree of common sense, indentification and acceptance of risk among horse owners is required especially on DIY yards.
 
All landowners have a duty of care under the law as do all business owners/service providers.

In a case like this the YO has opened himself up to a large claim because I bet that even if he has public liability insurance he hasn't complied with the conditions in the policy - things like risk assessments which would mean that he had 'Caution' signs up and a list of rules that included guidance of where it is safe to ride. Yes, it's his land to do what he wishes with but once he allows other people on it and takes money from them there a lot of rules and responsibility that comes with it. TBH I doubt your friend would get much or any payout/compensation as (luckily) it sounds like her injuries are temporary and riders also have a responsibility to do what they can do to avoid injury IYSWIM.

If it's as bad as you say The Health and Safety Executive might be interested in hearing a report - they have the power to visit any workplace ( a yard is a workplace under their definition) where potentially unsafe practices are happening. They can advise, enforce and in the worse cases, prosecute. If YO don't comply with their conditions of insurance and/or HSE recommendations they effectively leave themselves without any defence if a claim is made because they have no way of proving that their yard is safe.
 
I don't think they have any claim, to sit on a stationary quad bike with the engine running is the most you would get from anyone when out on a hack, and should be perfectly ok for a horse to cope with whether on a hack or on the yard.
 
Sadly for your friend i dont think it likely theres a case to answer.
The girls horse is known to be highly strung
Did the horse react to the quad or the change of saddle.
should she have waited and got on in the school, she knew she would have to ride over concrete
The yo is known to run around on a quad
Your friend didnt ask for quad to be turned off
The fact that the yo runs a poor yard is up to them, its up to you to leave it if you think its unsafe
 
why has this world turned into one big claim culture. It was an accident, and as for said farmer building yet another house, sorry but who's business is that other than his, if he wants to build 90 houses on his land it's his business.
 
Yes there is such a thing as a duty of care - To ones self....
If a yards not suitable for a particular horse then you take it some place else. End of problem. If the horse reacted that badly to a quad then I think I'd just be riding it in an arena for a while. To fair the YO does sound like a muppet though.
 
Yard owners do owe a duty of care to their liveries but it doesn't sound as though there was a causative breach in this case.
 
This could be a nightmare, is it a legit livery yard with the proper insurance and contracts and all that or is a more informal set up?

I feel really sorry for your friend that she was injured but I don't think she has, or should bring, a case.
 
I'm sorry that your friend got hurt. I hope she's ok.

I think that the reaction of the people around was a shame, but other than that, there was not really any blame to dish out. It sounds as though the YO acted pretty responsibly by stopping when he saw the horse, it wasn't like he deliberately revved up or whizzed past the horse, causing it to rear... I can't quite understand why she would want to blame him for the fall really.

I hope that she will be happier at her new yard.
 
Sorry to hear about your friend's accident and hope she is healing nicely.

Sadly, I agree with the general consensus that she knew her horse was highly strung. Had she met quad bikers out on the road who stopped to let her past but didn't turn off their engines and the same thing happened, she certainly wouldn't have anything to stand on, legally.

As said in the reply above mine, she might be more successful getting health and safety in, but at the end of the day, she knew it was a poorly maintained yard and decided to stay there. No one forced her to keep her horse there, nor was she asked to visit by work etc.

Glad that three of you at least have got out of there!
 
I hope your friend recovers soon, and is happy at her new yard.

A few years ago, I was riding MJ - known to be flighty and a bit of a spook merchant,in the school, on the buckle for a cool down (I was singing and pretending to be brave lol), when the YO's husband saw us, and waved.
Next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground and couldn't move. Fortunately I was just winded (but still have a numb patch on my lower back from it), but found out that the man had let off a rifle just next to the school!!! He could see I was on the buckle when I waved back to him (he was just the other side of the fence - a couple of yards away).

I was not happy :(
 
If your friend was prepared to spend out on a good sepcialist equine legal team then I am sure that she would suceed in a claim as the owner could be demonstrated to have been completely irresposible in riding a quad bike through a yard which would have horses of different temprements liveried within it.
However I would suggest that shed would need deep pockets as her legal fees alone would probably come to at least £20k.
 
PeterNatt said:
If your friend was prepared to spend out on a good sepcialist equine legal team then I am sure that she would suceed in a claim as the owner could be demonstrated to have been completely irresposible in riding a quad bike through a yard which would have horses of different temprements liveried within it.
However I would suggest that shed would need deep pockets as her legal fees alone would probably come to at least £20k.
Click to expand...

But surely livery yards are not sterile environments where no sudden noise or moving object is permitted for fear of spooking a horse ?
On that premise, it could be argued equally that quads, tractors with trailers bringing in haylage, Kubotas, loose working farm dogs, building work etc could not ever go near the yard.

I think that would be unreasonable because firstly the yard couldn't function and secondly, for many young horses, familiar yard machines are the first introduction to de-spooking.

If someone chooses to ride a horse known to be highly strung, then a level of personal responsibility has to be taken.
 
Hope your friend is ok, but I think its slightly ridiculous to think there is a reason to claim in this situation.

The apperance of the yard and how its ran is totally irrelevant. If you choose to pay to livery there then surely you are accepting this is how it is?

I don't see the difference between this and meeting unusual things out hacking. If a louder than average car came up behind you and your horse spooked causing you to fall, that is not the drivers fault. Your horse, your responsibility.... People are all too quick to point the finger.
 
I also am highly doubtful that anyone could win a positive outcome in court over something so run of the mill as this. I have lots of horses on my farm. It's a working farm and we do not turn off every piece of machinery every time there's a horse in sight. If the horse is out with handler/rider then yes we stop and wait till the rider has gone passed, but to be perfectly honest all the horses here are very used to tractors and large machinery so wouldn't give two hoots about it. Anyway, I'm glad your friend is okay and that you have found a more suitable yard for your horses.
 
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