Yard trying to dictate how many times my horse is ridden

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Honeysrider

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Should a yard have any say in how many times you ride your horse? To clarify my horse in on diy livery and there is nothing in the contract about how many times the horse is to be ridden. I'm being told my horse should only be ridden 3-4 times a week and am being questioned on why I "need" to ride her 6 times....... am I right to find this odd? Surely as long as my horse is sound and treated correctly it should be up to me??
 
That's really odd - my horses can be worked every day of the week sometimes as i know they will get a break for whatever reason - doesnt happen often but possible. If you want your horse fit and it's capable then what's the problem?
 
That is odd, no of course it is not up to them how often you ride your horse. Mine is on DIY livery and I'd be surprised if anyone even notices how often he is ridden. Why are they saying that?
 
I’d rather our YO questioned all our liveries with lovely horses who never seem to ride them, choosing instead to sit in the club house eating crisps, drinking tea and gossiping about everyone.
 
This is very odd!

If it was a working livery sitaution in say a riding school or, like my horse was, on working livery at an equestrian college where the college had use of him, I'd say that was a perfectly reasonable stipulation and obviously in place for the welfare of the horse. But on DIY livery, where (presumably) no-one else uses the horse, I'd find hard to understand.

Is this policy in place for ALL DIY liveries at the yard?

When you signed the livery contract (please tell me you signed a contract....... ), was this there in writing??

Who's bright idea was this, has it come from the YO or YM??

Totally bizarre IMO. Never heard of this happening anywhere else!

I'm a YO with a DIY livery, and I'd never ever expect to tell her how many time she may ride her horses!! FFS that is just anal.
 
That's strange. Although it's none of their business have you asked them why they're saying this? Maybe, just maybe, they've noticed something you haven't.
 
Your horse, your rules. Assuming the horse is fit enough to do the work you want it to do, I'd be questioning whether I wanted to stay on a yard where new little "rules" start appearing. If they think up this one, what else will they start to try to implement?
 
Rowreach said:
or is there any other reason for anyone suggesting that 6 times a week is too much? I have in the past made the occasional suggestion to a livery about their horse - duty of care and all that ... :)
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Coming back from an injury may make someone question how much work a horse is doing, I have no problem with horses being exercised 6 days a week and twice a day if they are fit enough but would say something to a livery if I felt they were doing too much with a horse that had been recently operated on.

16-04-18, 01:18 PM
Thread: How long do horses retain fitness after injury?
by Honeysrider
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614
image: https://forums-secure.horseandhound.co.uk/images/icons/icon1.png

How long do horses retain fitness after injury?
My horse will be having 4 weeks off before being brought back into light work due to an injury of the hock, im wondering how well she will retain her fitness over this time? She was in full work...

Read more at https://forums-secure.horseandhound.co.uk/search.php?searchid=10278823#2pwFeD36a82lcCm7.99
 
I too wondered if it was a duty of care thing- horse not sound/horse being ridden into the ground or with a poor rider on board (no offence meant OP!)/Horse not fit enough/Horse very young or old.
It's pretty poor if they've just said you should ride less and not had a conversation about why, or if none of the above applies then it's not to do with them so pretty poor to have said something imo.
 
Do you always ride in the school?Maybe someone has accused you of 'hogging' it?
Otherwise I dont think a YO has any right to dictate to a DIY livery with their own horse how often they should ride!
 
be positive said:
Coming back from an injury may make someone question how much work a horse is doing, I have no problem with horses being exercised 6 days a week and twice a day if they are fit enough but would say something to a livery if I felt they were doing too much with a horse that had been recently operated on.

16-04-18, 01:18 PM
Thread: How long do horses retain fitness after injury?
by Honeysrider
Replies
3
Views
614
image: https://forums-secure.horseandhound.co.uk/images/icons/icon1.png

How long do horses retain fitness after injury?
My horse will be having 4 weeks off before being brought back into light work due to an injury of the hock, im wondering how well she will retain her fitness over this time? She was in full work...

Read more at https://forums-secure.horseandhound.co.uk/search.php?searchid=10278823#2pwFeD36a82lcCm7.99
Click to expand...

That would explain it then.
 
Rowreach said:
That would explain it then.
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It sure would! If I was ridig my horse 6 times a week currently! However I'm not :) she's obviously only in lightwork right now. As I said in my original post the yard is telling me a horse "should" only be ridden 3-4 times a week and when she's in work she is ridden 6 times a week and they are asking why I would "need" to work her this much. They cant say how many times a horse "should" be ridden as clearly thats circumstantial and they can't comment on how much riding my horse "needs" as this is personal opinion, isn't there a saying that when you assume?.......
 
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little_critter said:
Depends on what you are doing. The only time my horse has been worked every single day is when we have been following a vets rehab plan.
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Indeed - consistent, slow, steady work is generally desirable. But if you had a livery hooning about on a horse 6 days a week, after an injury (or with any other fitness or soundness issue), you might well raise it.

In principle, of course, telling a livery riding 6 days a week is too much, is daft if the horse is fit and capable. One of mine is often ridden twice a day, and every day, in summer - and at training / PC camps etc it's not unheard of for ponies to be in work for most of the day.

As for "needs" well that depends what you want it to do. To hack quietly, 3-4 days a week is fine. To do local showing and dressage, sure. Anything higher intensity, you're going to want to work it more. I can't imagine WFP only works his 4* horses 3 days a week somehow!
 
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be positive said:
No mention of a rehab plan just how fit will she be, it may well be doing far too much if the op was less than 2 months ago.
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I didn't mention a rehab plan as stranger on the Internet will not be any help with that.

If you have a good reason to see the rehab plan my vet and riding instructor made once she was able to start work your welcome too :)
 
Sometimes people are just a little bit strange! At one yard I was at, it was usual for me to ride five or six times a week, and then T would have one or two days off to just relax in the field. YO (an absolutely awful woman) had a girl who helped out and rode her horses, who were both out of work at the time. She told said girl not to worry, as T was a lovely ride so she could take him out on the days I didn't whilst her usual mounts were out of action. Needless to say I made it very obvious that this was not an option. Why she thought I'd be happy with someone else having a whale of a time (for free, I might add) on a horse I'd put so much time and effort into is beyond me to this day.
 
Again you keep saying ‘the yard’ but not specifying who? The yard owner? The staff? Other liveries? Maybe it was a genuine question in response to how you had phrased something and you could have just said because XYZ
 
Honeysrider said:
I'm being told my horse should only be ridden 3-4 times a week and am being questioned on why I "need" to ride her 6 times....... am I right to find this odd? Surely as long as my horse is sound and treated correctly it should be up to me??
Click to expand...

Why are you being questioned on why you need to ride 6 times a week if you are not riding 6 times a week? I can't see how that kind of conversation comes about!

I suspect that your YO/YM or whoever it is feels you are doing too much too soon (however much that is) and feels they have a duty of care to advise you.

If you are following a vet's rehab plan then obviously share that with him/her which should reassure them. If not, well may be worth considering whether they have a point instead of dismissing it as interference.
 
It does sound very odd! Even if the horse is recovering from injury I can't see that the frequency of work is going to be a problem, more the intensity, duration and pace. So if they were worried that the horse was doing too much, surely they would be questioning whether it should be cantering, say, or taken on a long hack or whatever.

The only other thing I can think of is that the horse being ridden impacts on the YO in some way i.e. Having to leave the gate unlocked for the OP to come in and ride, or the OP being on the yard after normal opening hours because they need to ride.
 
If you are following a rehab plan, created by your vet, then I don't think I'd give any comments a second thought. If you're following it, what is there to worry about??

I had the opposite when I brought mine back into work and did a solid month of only walking and had people querying when I was going to do more or when I was going to get back out again. I'm on DIY and so no opinion was of any authority to me and I carried on as I preferred.
 
My horses get exercised (lunged or ridden) at least 6 days a week - its only up to an hour max each time and they need it! Basically they are both very good doers and one is on a weight management plan to reduce the risk of laminitis/breathing issues. I mean what is the issue? When I worked at a riding school the horses were ridden several times a day for 6 days a week. Now THAT'S hard work.
 
As long as the horse is well and not snuggling because it’s eldery this just shows how divorced some people are now from how much a horse needs to do to be in optimal health .
Good job these people can’t see my horses I often work my two twice a day and at time seven days a week .
OP smile vaguely and ignore them .
 
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