Your yard horror stories

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Tizzy

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After reading the thread about the poor lady who was/is being bombarded by some nasty woman and her daughter about not selling her her horse, despite not even being for sale and then sending abussive messages. It got me thinking about yards in general.

Im sure there are a few horror stories about. Anyone have any to start us off?
 
I had my mare on part livery years ago. One afternoon I turned up at the yard to find her in her stable but dribbling blood from her mouth. I opened the stable door to find her covered in small cuts, with deep gashes on her OH.

I asked what had happened and got a very vague 'she hurt herself' - well I could see that. Trying to get what had happened and when it happened was like getting blood from a stone. They hadn't called a Vet, despite having my permission to do so in the event of an injury. Also they had rung me in the morning to ask if I was going to ride that day. No mention was made of any problem.

I later found out from a couple of young children at the yard that the accident had happened first thing (before they rung me). Someone had left the field gate open and the horses escaped, they managed to grab my mare first (lord knows why she let them, as normally they couldn't catch her) and instead of putting her in her stable while they caught the others - they put her back in the field. Of course she tried to get back with the herd and they were apparently galloping about. She crashed through the fence (I later found a mended section by the gate) and flipped herself over onto the hardcore gateway.

The YO and staff would never speak about it and I left as soon as I found a DIY yard.

It's the main reason that I will never have a horse on Full or Part livery ever again.
 
They actually acted miffed when I did call the Vet.

I wouldn't have been cross at all if they had told me straight.

Unfortunately the deep gashes scarred very badly and every time I look at her leg, I think 'bleddy idiots' and it was years ago. I'm still cross.
 
My favourite yard story comes from when I kept my horse at a yard in New York City. The woman who ran the yard was mad as a box of frogs on many levels. Among other things, she had this obsession with EPM (it's a neurological disease that they don't have here in Britain) and was convinced every horse in the country had it, including ones from places like Colorado where they don't even have EPM, and went undiagnosed. During the end of that summer, I went home to visit my parents, who lived in another state, for two weeks. YO had been riding the horse for me, as they didn't have turn-out and I didn't want her sitting on her butt in a stall for two weeks. Halfway through said visit to parents, I phoned YO, just to say hi and ask how my horse was getting on. YO said she had the vet out and asked the vet to draw blood on my horse and test her for EPM. I was like, "What?!!" The signs that everyone knows to look for in potential EPM cases include loss of coordination, standing funny, falling over, unable to make tight turns, lameness. None of which described my horse, at least when I left NY, or ever, to this day. YO explained that the horse was stronger to one side than the other. "You mean," I said, "Like EVERY HORSE on the planet?" The YO replied, "More horses suffer from EPM than are ever diagnosed. I've just saved your horse's life." That's like saying a person has MS because they only ever write with one hand.

One $100 vet bill later, I learned that my horse did not have EPM. Wow, really?
 
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My old DIY yard i was at for 8 years when i was younger was terrible... its only now when i look back i realise how bad it was...

One pony fell through a manhole cover and cut all the top of his leg on the inside... was nasty. At the same yard one of the ponies made a dash for the gate - as all the kids swung the gate to shut it, it hit the pony pushing him on the latch that the gate does up on to and pierced a huge hole in his neck... the scar he was left with was awful....

We had to cross a busy road to get to the bridleway - the amount of ponies that came home riderless straight across the road was unbelieveable...

Oh how glad i am i left!!!!
 
I went to a new yard about 2 years ago. Seemed lovely, loads of facilities, people seemed nice, price was very attractive for Grass livery but being checked on throughout the day.
Straight after I arrived I realised that the owners were interferring old busy bodies who thought that because my horse was on their yard that she now belonged to them. They watched me ride, watched me handle her, always having a comment on how dangerous she was and how I was too inexperienced to handle her (she is as good as gold, has the odd tb day but has no vices AT ALL!!) And I have a good 15 years experience of riding and owning! They threw my instructor off of the yard as they wanted me to use her daughter for lessons (it was discussed before I arrived that I would have my instructor coming weekly, with no issues)
All of this I thought I could put up with until something more suitable came up, if the horse was happy I would lump it for the time being!
couple of days later I got to the yard and went down to my horses field , it was post and rail, no tree's/hedges in it, just fencing and grass. walked into the field and she came running over all shaken, gave her a stroak and had a look round her as this was really unusual behaviour and saw her back legs were covered in blood and the skin had virtually been stripped from the inside of both back legs! Looks almost like barbed wire rips in an almost impossible place even if there was barbed wire in the field!
I ran upto the yard to get a head collar and to tell the owners whilst I was there, she was talking to someone but in my mind this was important and I wasn't going to stand around to wait for her to finish her convo. She had a right go at me for butting in, then felt the need to tell the whole yard I was incapable of looking after my horse and they have no clue how she injured herself.... my I ad, someone was in her field ALL DAY!!!! and no one noticed.

It all came to a head, She flew off the handle (crazy old lady she was) dragged me into her caravan/tea room with her daughter and were screaming at me for being so disrespectful to them, telling me I shouldn't be going down twice a day as it isn't healthy....

Needless to say I moved a few days later. I told them I was leaving and the day I went to collect my horse and my stuff I pulled up in to the car park to find a pile of my belongings in the car park, saddle at the bottom upside down!

Absolute disgrace of a yard, apparently many others have had the same issue's! But they have fantastic facilities so always have people there who just put up with their bad attitude's I guess. Apart from the fact they offer full livery for £40 a week..... I now know why it is so cheap!!! :mad:
 
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