# Worst experiences on livery yards you ever had



## aintgotnohay (22 October 2011)

Share your livery nightmares on here-we all have had them-from bitching,people using your stuff without your permission and escapades of sheer pettiness.
Mine was the pink wheelbarrow episode lol as most peeps may remember pmsl.

Come on nows the time to let it all out!


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## PitPony (22 October 2011)

When I was younger witnessing two women in their 40s chucking water buckets at each other in a fight over something to do with their daughters ponies!


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## fidleyspromise (22 October 2011)

My livery nightmare is the last yard I was on.
There was no YM and YO besically left a clique in charge (there were maybe 5/6 owners).
They moved horses from this field to that field and so I was so fed up, I was given a small paddock by myself.  Then the owner moved her horse without telling me so my highland pony jumped over 4 fences and placed herself in her original field and fought with the pony in there.  I went up a few days later and my pony had jumped out, and was in the yard.

I finally put her in the school so she could see the other horses and when I went to poo pick, she was charging towards me, keeping her distance and then rearing, then she took off around the field.  

I REALLY WISH I HAD CAUGHT HER BY THIS POINT.

I was at the bottom of the paddock when she charged around, building up speed and everyone had always told me how quiet and calm she is, not believing me when I had she had a a total personality change so I took my phone out to show them.

Well, my little pony, went up and over the gate, with me standing there.
I screamed when I realised what was happening, pony faltered, landed on gate and then untangled herself and it took 5 minutes to get near her.  She was shaking!  Please excuse the swearing!!

[youtube]ABQdSwE7T9Q[/youtube]


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## Bettyboo222 (22 October 2011)

On our yard we have no YM or YO anymore just the farmer who doesn't give a ****. So basically we are left to our selves. Last winter me and another girl had a small fall out over something (barely anything) I just left it but said girl chucked a bucket of water over the stable door of my 44 year old when it was -2 and I couldn't get B out of the stable as it was like sheet ice and no one could get in without making the problem worse. (finally got her out when we got some salt) I have never forgiven her for that


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## fidleyspromise (22 October 2011)

Bettyboo222 said:
			
		


			On our yard we have no YM or YO anymore just the farmer who doesn't give a ****. So basically we are left to our selves. Last winter me and another girl had a small fall out over something (barely anything) I just left it but said girl chucked a bucket of water over the stable door of my 44 year old when it was -2 and I couldn't get B out of the stable as it was like sheet ice and no one could get in without making the problem worse. (finally got her out when we got some salt) I have never forgiven her for that
		
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that is awful.  I would never forgive that either - especially to such an old lady


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## phantomhorse (22 October 2011)

Bettyboo222 said:



			On our yard we have no YM or YO anymore just the farmer who doesn't give a ****. So basically we are left to our selves. Last winter me and another girl had a small fall out over something (barely anything) I just left it but said girl chucked a bucket of water over the stable door of my 44 year old when it was -2 and I couldn't get B out of the stable as it was like sheet ice and no one could get in without making the problem worse. (finally got her out when we got some salt) I have never forgiven her for that
		
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Biatch


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## leah_x (22 October 2011)

Mine has to be checking my horses field everyday for water. They never had water in his field, hence why he was drinking bucket loads when he was in. So I then paid to have him checked for whatever problems he could have had. Then I realised they NEVER had water, apparently they could survive eight hours without water. Well when I pay them for that service and my horse especially drinks a lot when its hot I fully expect him to have freedom to water - basic welfare! I was kicked off the yard for telling all the other owners to check their fields....


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## jane123 (22 October 2011)

I was on a yard where YO complained if left bed up as horse had to stand in on concrete for an hour after being brought in and before we got there, so left bed down and they complained stable was not 'drying out' properly. I worked full time and payed them to bring in etc but they became very awkward and left him out alone one day so when I turned up he was a wreck. They also gave him extra short feed without any discussion or knowledge of horse (big warmblood on very strict diet) and gave him dry hay instead of wet. Needless to say left within a few days and did not have to pay notice as they has broken their own contract by leaving horse out alone and effectively stealing our feed (DIY livery). Could not believe supposedly professional business/horse people can be so petty and put horse in danger because they don't like the way they percieve something!


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## hackedoff (22 October 2011)

Oh where to begin! First yard was managed by a real bitch who used to enjoy setting her clients at each others throats! She told me I should sell my pony at henley market and if lucky I would get some of my money bakc off the meat man. That was one of her kinder comments. The week before I moved she told me that she didn't like how my face looked and I ought to see a plastic surgeon. When I left the yard she was really upset and said I was one of her best clients as I always paid! It turned out that her little clique owed her upto a year's arrears in livery fees. Moved from there onto a yard where my. Pony and 5 others were taken out of the field, ran up and down the main road from Bham to Walsall alnight. Farmer said he didn't know horses were missing when I turned up to check Pony who was still missing. Found Pony and later discovered police had visited the farmer about loose horses in the early hours before I got to the yard.

Been on some good yards ruined by bitching and petty theft. Was on one where the yard owners daughter (in her 30's) used to lock the menage and only allow those female liveries she fancied ride in it! Her mum also used to remove the light fuses to try and make people leave once it went dark in winter. She once said to me after I arrived at 6.30 in the evening 'don't you have a home to go to?' She wasn't chuffed when I replied 'yes but unlike you I have a full time job to do before I see my horse' she also told me she hated horse ownersn to which - said ' bit stupid to run a livery yard then'. It was the worst yard ever I was always on full warfooting when up there!

Was on a superb yard one time with indoor school,outdoor etc. Unfortunatly whilst I paid for the use of facilities I often couldn't use them due to a clique dominating everything including booking the school out each week. I got so fed up one time that I changed all the names on the school booking board to things like 'atilla the hun' , ghenegis khan, hitler etc. Pathetic I know but gave me a bit of a laugh, plus they instantly blamed each other for it which was even more funny!

I have been on a number of good yards as well. Current one has its moments but facilities are good, hacking superb and yard owners are normal human beings and kind to humans and animals. Just to put a balanced view!


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## Bettyboo222 (22 October 2011)

It was litrally over something petty like me saying that her pony wasn't as good at jumping as another on the yard or something like that


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## LeannePip (22 October 2011)

omgd! loads!! far too long to post the whole story on here but after a massive falling out over me buying my own horse after having ridden for my YO for 3 years and having a horse on loan from one of her liveries me and the livery left - things turn nasty and we recieved death threats from the YO (y) we also recieved  a card which read 'RIP MILLY - Deepest Sympathy' (milly is the horse i had on loan who hadn't died) they also accused us of killing a horse when acctually the farrier and RSPCA had said to put him down because he had cancer in his foot and could barely walk - but apparently we called the RSPCA so therefore we killed the horse - forgeting the fact he had had cancer for three years and was 27 years old and had had a tough life . . .

i do wonder why some people run livery yards.


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## Lucinda_x (22 October 2011)

Last yard i was on was total nightmare! Thing that finally did it for me was when i went away to PC camp on someone else's horse and left my friend looking after my two horses who were out in same field as YO's 2 horses but all individually paddocked. She moved her horses without saying anything to my friend (who is very timid!) and this caused my mare to gallop around and loose two shoes, cut herself and go lame. The YO didnt do anything about it even though she knew the two horses were very attached. When i got back she screamed at me across the yard listing why i was such a horrible person all with me crying! Not very mature on her behalf as she is 45ish and im 16! Needless to say i left the next day!


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## Hairy Old Cob (22 October 2011)

"HORSEYPEEPS"


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## FanyDuChamp (22 October 2011)

When we left our old yard, we asked for our bill to be made up and told them what day we would be leaving. When we went to collect him they had locked my lad into his stable until we had paid! We had always paid on time and by card, so taken immediately.I shudder to think what may have happened if there had been a fire! They also looked our tack/ grooming stuff/ rugs up.

 This was a well known EC up here! I also found a rug that had been ripped, all because we wanted to leave!
FDC


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## Frumpoon (22 October 2011)

I'd be really interested to know if any of these yards are the same ones and people are having terrible experiences continually with the same YO?

For me - it was the yard I was at last at a little village just south of Meriden, where the YO took my horse to the vet to Xrayed whilst I was at work, then came back with a load of lies about how he was permanently lame and would never be worked again, I should retire him...at the age of 11!!!!!

This was 18 months ago, we got a 2nd opinion and the horse went back to work fit as a fiddle and is now jumping 1m20......

Turns out the first vet said no such thing, she made it up herself [why? jealousy? insanity? who knows] and his original advice was just to rebalance the feet and a short period of rest....

Same YO - beat the cr*p out of me last year 3 weeks before Xmas after I complained she'd left my horses out in the freezing dark when all the others were in. She properly went for it - dragged me to the floor by my hair got on top of me hitting my head off the concrete floor - 2 other liveries had to drag her off!!! She then told us to leave immediately - 2 horses, all our kit...there and then...

Wonderful lady, PM me if you want to avoid this place......


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## muffinmunsh (22 October 2011)

She beat you??? I hope you pressed charges for assault! That is unacceptable behaviour


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## aintgotnohay (22 October 2011)

some of these places and experiences are truelly horrifying.

it makes me wonder whether some of these nutters should be let loose.

perhaps if livery yards were regulated as they should be and all be made to register as business's which alot of them r not.

really scarey


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## Frumpoon (22 October 2011)

muffinmunsh said:



			She beat you??? I hope you pressed charges for assault! That is unacceptable behaviour
		
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Bless you, I did go to the police, left a statement and took some photos of my bashed up face, but the only witnesses [the liveries who pulled her off] were her aunty and the aunty's 15 year old son, neither of whom would commit to stating who was in the wrong....


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## 1Lucie (22 October 2011)

When i was in my teens a group of older girls at the yard used to be quite mean to us. One of them who was much older (17) was the stable hand also. The horses were mucked out during the week but we used to muck out on weekends.

The stable hand used to put other horses dirty bedding  in our stables at the end of the week to make it hard for us to muck out at the weekend!

Also at the same yard, my friends and i would set up at jump course in manage. We'd go to get our horses and other girls would detroy the course by the time we had got back!


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## Pedantic (22 October 2011)

Enshrine of Tools


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## Magnetic Sparrow (22 October 2011)

My most memorable bad experience was arriving unexpectedly early at the livery yard where I was on part livery to discover a tractor and roller rolling the field my two horses were turned out in - while the horses were in it. My poor horses were literally having to run out of the way of the oncoming tractor to avoid being run over. Not impressed.


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## Langley11 (22 October 2011)

All these experiences make me realise how lucky I am. LOVE the yard I'm on - everyone looks out for each other, no bitching, no borrowing other people's things without asking. Just really nice, normal, kind people. ALWAYS ready to help - my horse is happy, I'm happy. Hope u guys are all somewhere as nice now


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## PitPony (22 October 2011)

So many other things...horse not being fed/turned out or brought in (the owner was an old man and would forget he had a horse) - no-one would help so I did otherwise she would break down the gates and fences if on her own and didnt get anything to eat.
Horse being loose schooled over the uprights of showjumps...til it couldnt comprehend what it should or should not jump and jumped over the solid metal door going into the indoor school which was massive and falling on the concrete outside...terrible.
Seeing a girl whipping her horse just cos she didnt win the show jumping she was in...I got the whip and hit her with it...funny enough she didnt like it either.
Sometimes it does begger belief what people do...and yet through horses I have met some very good friends who care and devote all their time and money to their horses.


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## Kenzo (22 October 2011)

Oh my word, can't believe I'm reading some of these, these people want sectioning let alone running yards or owning horses!


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## aintgotnohay (22 October 2011)

PitPony said:



			So many other things...horse not being fed/turned out or brought in (the owner was an old man and would forget he had a horse) - no-one would help so I did otherwise she would break down the gates and fences if on her own and didnt get anything to eat.
Horse being loose schooled over the uprights of showjumps...til it couldnt comprehend what it should or should not jump and jumped over the solid metal door going into the indoor school which was massive and falling on the concrete outside...terrible.
Seeing a girl whipping her horse just cos she didnt win the show jumping she was in...I got the whip and hit her with it...funny enough she didnt like it either.
Sometimes it does begger belief what people do...and yet through horses I have met some very good friends who care and devote all their time and money to their horses.
		
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think i would of hit her aswell.what a pathetic spoilt brat.


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## only_me (22 October 2011)

Don't understand the problem of rolling the field with horses in it - it is normal here anyways to roll the field if horses are still in it, just making sure that person doing it must make sure that gate is closed after them  The fields are big (varies 5-11 acres) though!
In fact, I have been riding in the arena (25x50 approx) with a small digger working away in there! 

Never had a problem, or maybe I just expect horses to get on with it lol 

I'm very lucky to keep my horses on a livery yard beside my house!


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## noodle_ (22 October 2011)

Langley11 said:



			All these experiences make me realise how lucky I am. LOVE the yard I'm on - everyone looks out for each other, no bitching, no borrowing other people's things without asking. Just really nice, normal, kind people. ALWAYS ready to help - my horse is happy, I'm happy. Hope u guys are all somewhere as nice now 

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this ^

i said it before and i will say it again - thank god for my private yard im on - not mine but the owners are LOVELY.  id never want to move!!!

especially reading about all this :/ :/


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## Tilda (22 October 2011)

I have been on a few pretty dodgy yards the one in the village I live in which was perfect location, price and facilities wise but has a horrible atmosphere and thieves everywhere which the YM does nothing about and keeps putting mares into a herd where at least 2 horses have had their legs broken! 

The worst for me however was the first yard I was at that I thought was great until I got down at about 6.30 one night to my horse having his 2nd COPD attack no problem called vet whizzed down and picked up some ventipulmin. My friend and I stayed with him til 10.30pm.  Next morning the YM said 'oh yes I noticed he was coughing and heaving but I didn't see you before I left so I couldn't tell you!!!! Suffice to stay I wasn't there for much longer!


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## BonneMaman (22 October 2011)

only_me said:



			Don't understand the problem of rolling the field with horses in it - it is normal here anyways to roll the field if horses are still in it, just making sure that person doing it must make sure that gate is closed after them  The fields are big (varies 5-11 acres) though!
In fact, I have been riding in the arena (25x50 approx) with a small digger working away in there! 

Never had a problem, or maybe I just expect horses to get on with it lol 

I'm very lucky to keep my horses on a livery yard beside my house! 

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You obviously have the perfect horse then. Some horses object to mythical objects in hedges some get pretty wound up about tractors in their field - some like yours are wonderful, placid, quiet creatures that can do no wrong.


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## horsesatemymoney (22 October 2011)

Being held 'hostage' about 8 years ago...not joking- YO had a row with wife, who stormed off, YO also had shotgun license- cut the electric and locked one gate, blocked us in from the other with 4x4 (after letting his daughter's horse onto a main road) we had to call the police, who turned up with the SWOT team, was in there for about 4 hours in total- moved horse off at 10pm that cold November night, absolute nightmare- next day we were all sat together and the YO was rigning us, one by one, to apologise and offer a free week's rent if we returned!! Surprisingly,some people actually went back...


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## Piglet (22 October 2011)

OMG I can't believe these horrible stories, I am sooooo lucky to be on my present yard, 1st one, have always had horse at parents house until they downsized.  Everyone is lovely, it is friendly, I pay one of the girls to bring my horse in when I am working lates, I trust her completely and also everyone else there I trust.  We all look out for each other, it us not posh, the riding is not brilliant - small price to pay for happy horse and happy me!!


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## Teeni (22 October 2011)

Bloody hell some of these stories!  I don't care what differences/problems people have with each other but to actually act out against an owners horse is not acceptable, mind you neither is being held hostage or being beaten by a YO.
I'm very lucky really in comparison the worst i've had was on my last yard with constant bitching which led to a 40yo women giving me (18 at the time) lip and because i ignored her and carried on sweeping the yard she went for me, hitting, kicking out, pulling hair all in front of her two young children, i did nothing back apart from hold her arms firmly to try and restrain her.  This was all because i was free schooling and another livery had come in whilst my horse was loose with a pony to lunge, so i caught my horse and had a few words which obviously upset the lady who then called this other 40yo livery who came down to 'sort me out'!  Was quite amusing really 
I stayed there for a few more years as i wouldn't go just because someone was trying to scare me, she left not long after.
I'm now on a different yard and it is fantastic, no nastiness at all, everyone looks out for each other, the YO is brilliant, totally love it and been there 4 years


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## Shantara (22 October 2011)

I've never really had my own horse, so I don't have any stories about my horse.

Some of these are horrible! Beyond imaginable! Mine will seen very petty in comparison, but it still got to me.
I went to visit a yard where my friend keeps her horse. It was just before a horsey event so I was going to be meeting the people we were riding with. I politely said hello and saw everyone's horses, the girls seemed really nice!
Then the YO comes over and says "Which one of you is riding the weirdo" I presumed she meant one of the liveries there. Nope. She then said "Ned, or something?" I was shocked!  I said I was riding him and he wasn't weird, just misunderstood! She said "Yea, whatever, just don't let it kick my horses"
How bl***y rude ¬¬ She had never laid eyes on Ned, never even been to the yard where he's kept! How dare she. Makes me wonder who'd been telling her nasty things about him :\


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## Vicki-Finn-Perry (22 October 2011)

My god these stories are horrific!  There really is some truelly awful people in this world, very sad. 

The 2nd yard i was at was pretty bad for terrible YO's & livieres.

The YO's didnt have a clue about horses and didnt even like them.

They were constantly telling me that i was doing things wrong, not feeding my lad enough....apparently he was 'starving'....yeah okay then.

They would go round telling all the other livieres that i was total novice and couldnt ride at all, so got laughed at by every body else.

The one day she screamed at me, effing and blinding because i used the yard kettle. Although she had given us permission?? I mean she followed me for 20mins full on screaming at me.

One of the cow bag liveries scared my pony in the field so much so he wouldnt come in (Yard rules that horses in over night) no matter how much i tried i could not get near him. So they rang me up every night/morning threatening me that i would not be allowed back on the yard unless i caught him in the next few hours. 

I hated them, and i hated that place. The livieres were absolute cows aswell, but YO loved them because they had 5 horses between them.

So glad in a nice place now with nice people.

Makes my blood boil we should do a named & shamed thread so that no-one ever goes to these vile places!


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## ecrozier (22 October 2011)

Can't quote as on phone but BonneMaman, that's a bit uncalled for with the sarcasm isn't it? As it happens we also have out fields poo picked with the machine with horses in the field, they just ignore it. And they certainly aren't perfect!


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## twinkle (22 October 2011)

Think I can top most 

Try getting punched in the face by the yard manager at a decent livery stables just because I told her I was leaving, she told me I had 24hrs and I told her I had payed till end of month and you had to give a months notice. she continued to tell me I had to go which I didn't as my new stable wasn't ready and the owners said I could stay 2 weeks later just came up to me and punched me in the face she was pretty crazy hence the reason I was leaving.


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## only_me (22 October 2011)

BonneMaman said:



			You obviously have the perfect horse then - some like yours are wonderful, placid, quiet creatures that can do no wrong.
		
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Not perfect, just Irish 

Oh, and he was 4 when he was ridden in the arena with the digger!


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## Nollaig Shona (22 October 2011)

I was the only adult on a yard full of teenagers, utter nightmare, every other day of the week they'd start a fight with each other and break off into cliques, and I'd end up having to act as a 'go between' in order to ensure all the ponies were fed, watered, mucked out etc etc (it was part livery). During the school holidays they'd spend all day at the yard messing around playing some strange version of hide & seek which resulted in the one person (usually the youngest child) being "it" all the time.  They tried to make me join in, so I went "it", waited till they'd all hidden themselves, then went home.  Dunno how long it took them to realise I wasn't coming to look for them! 
They also used to play mean tricks on each other, like hiding tack and grooming kits and whatnot.  One afternoon they hid one girl's pony and she spent an hour trying to find it... that sort of nonsense came to an end when they broke my schooling whip (one 'gang' thinking it belonged to a girl in the enemy 'gang').  After that [because I told on them  ] I was public enemy number 1, I had the lights in the indoor school turned off on me when I was riding and people hiding in the undergrowth around the outdoor arena while I was trying to ride my spooky highly strung part-TB
Out on a hack [with the supposedly nicer gang], one girl deliberately barged into me from behind and my horse took off into the distance with me hanging on for dear life (I know it was deliberate as I could hear them arguing over which one of them was going to do it, I turned around to say "I can hear you!" just as one of them charged at me), I banged my head on a low branch and gave myself a whiplash injury - I had a hard hat on so I didn't damage my head.  The rest of them started to laugh themselves sick at me and started mimicking me trying to stop my horse and banging my head.
I rode back to the yard alone at a slow walk, and was met en route by a girl coming to the yard for a lesson, I told her what had happened, and she told the YO who hauled the little darlings responsible into the office (when they finally came home) and tore their backsides off.  I hacked out alone, or with the yard staff after that.

One particularly spiteful young lady mucked out her stable and dumped all the poo into my horse's stable.  
We were all supposed to take a turn sweeping the yard, so on the day that brat thought it was my turn she emptied two wheelbarrows of poo all over the yard (none of the little bleeders would empty their barrows onto the dungheap).  
She also wrote a For Sale ad with my horse's details and put it in the local paper (she didn't know what my phone number was, so no harm done), when challenged about it by the YO she claimed I'd said I wanted to sell the horse so she'd just been helping me out!


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## JessandCharlie (22 October 2011)

BonneMaman said:



			You obviously have the perfect horse then. Some horses object to mythical objects in hedges some get pretty wound up about tractors in their field - some like yours are wonderful, placid, quiet creatures that can do no wrong.
		
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Umm? A little unfair perhaps.

J&C


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## 0ldmare (22 October 2011)

The YO who staged a break-in an stole all the liveries tack was a real darling. Not.


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## Ziggy_ (22 October 2011)

I thought one of my old YO's was just dreadful to me and wondered what I had done wrong, until I left and discovered plenty of other disgruntled ex-liveries. However, I heard a new story about this lady the other day, from a new arrival at my yard from hers, which absolutely takes the biscuit!!

Over the course of nine months on her yard, she changed my horses feed behind my back, giving her something she has an intolerance too, had her shoes removed without my permission (she is a flat-footed TB and this left her lame) and belittled me and my riding so much that I totally lost my confidence and actually gave up horses after leaving.

She also refused to change turnout groups despite constant injuries and bullying, and would have groups of up to ten, mares and geldings, on a small acreage. Unfortunately this is still the case and I have heard of several fatalities over the past few years.

I thought all this was bad enough until I heard the latest story. Now the YO locks the main gates at 6pm every day and no one else has access to a key. A few weeks ago two girls from the yard were a little late back from their hack and arrived back to find the front gate locked and the YO gone. They called the yard owner, who told them she was going out for dinner and if they wanted to put their horses away they'd have to wait until she was finished!!!!!!! So she leaves them, standing around on an unlit country lane as night falls, no way to get into the yard. Absolute madness.

What really riles me now is that she has a fancy website and apparently happy liveries queueing up to post glowing reports on all the search engines, and if you post even a mildly negative report they have it deleted immediately. It makes me wish we could name and shame these people.


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## PitPony (22 October 2011)

Thank goodness I am at the yard I am at now...they are wonderful people and I love it there. Some of the stories are scary and make me especially grateful!


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## SpruceRI (22 October 2011)

Only been on yards briefly for one reason or another, and hated them all except one.

Worst one was because:

The YO was a complete b*tch;
I wasn't allowed to park in the main carpark, nor was my friend but she wasn't a favourite either, but everyone else on the yard (3 other people) could;

I couldn't use the outdoor school because the YO's horse was turned out in it.

Wasn't allowed to lunge in the indoor school because apparently it damaged the surface!! 
(I had a horse on loan with the worse case of rain scald I'd ever seen, I took him on because I felt sorry for him.... obviously couldn't ride, only lunge, except wasn't allowed to lunge!!).... wasn't beaten though, we went for nice walks all round the village in hand!

The YO nicked my feed.... later found out she'd been nicking others' feed too, hilarious that because one lady had a racehorse in training, feeding it racehorse cubes, YO rented out elderly ponies for lessons to small kids and they kept getting bucked off and bolted with, of course she was nicking the racehorse cubes - ha ha!!!

The yard b*tch was in cahoots with the YO, and really stirred - no doubt told all sorts of lies about me and my friend who had a pony at the yard also.

I got the field at the bottom of the hill which involved walking my poor loan horse down a knee high swampy track.

The yard b*tch is someone on here!  

She was on one of the other yards I went to briefly too, and caused such a ruction that I left.

So glad that I rent my own place now and don't have to converse with stirring fat cows like her!


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## NinjaPony (22 October 2011)

Pitch Black said:



			I was the only adult on a yard full of teenagers, utter nightmare, every other day of the week they'd start a fight with each other and break off into cliques, and I'd end up having to act as a 'go between' in order to ensure all the ponies were fed, watered, mucked out etc etc (it was part livery). During the school holidays they'd spend all day at the yard messing around playing some strange version of hide & seek which resulted in the one person (usually the youngest child) being "it" all the time.  They tried to make me join in, so I went "it", waited till they'd all hidden themselves, then went home.  Dunno how long it took them to realise I wasn't coming to look for them! 
They also used to play mean tricks on each other, like hiding tack and grooming kits and whatnot.  One afternoon they hid one girl's pony and she spent an hour trying to find it... that sort of nonsense came to an end when they broke my schooling whip (one 'gang' thinking it belonged to a girl in the enemy 'gang').  After that [because I told on them  ] I was public enemy number 1, I had the lights in the indoor school turned off on me when I was riding and people hiding in the undergrowth around the outdoor arena while I was trying to ride my spooky highly strung part-TB
Out on a hack [with the supposedly nicer gang], one girl deliberately barged into me from behind and my horse took off into the distance with me hanging on for dear life (I know it was deliberate as I could hear them arguing over which one of them was going to do it, I turned around to say "I can hear you!" just as one of them charged at me), I banged my head on a low branch and gave myself a whiplash injury - I had a hard hat on so I didn't damage my head.  The rest of them started to laugh themselves sick at me and started mimicking me trying to stop my horse and banging my head.
I rode back to the yard alone at a slow walk, and was met en route by a girl coming to the yard for a lesson, I told her what had happened, and she told the YO who hauled the little darlings responsible into the office (when they finally came home) and tore their backsides off.  I hacked out alone, or with the yard staff after that.

One particularly spiteful young lady mucked out her stable and dumped all the poo into my horse's stable.  
We were all supposed to take a turn sweeping the yard, so on the day that brat thought it was my turn she emptied two wheelbarrows of poo all over the yard (none of the little bleeders would empty their barrows onto the dungheap).  
She also wrote a For Sale ad with my horse's details and put it in the local paper (she didn't know what my phone number was, so no harm done), when challenged about it by the YO she claimed I'd said I wanted to sell the horse so she'd just been helping me out!



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Bloody hell! I am actually disgusted. Horrific horrific people, don't deserve to be around horses.


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## Nollaig Shona (23 October 2011)

NinjaPony said:



			Bloody hell! I am actually disgusted. Horrific horrific people, don't deserve to be around horses.
		
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I was tempted to look them up on Facebook, but I can't remember their names!

Oh and there was another girl on the yard who had a flashy pony with every gadget known to man loaded onto it, trying to make herself look like she was a pro showjumper.  One weekend her pony refused to load, she went to the show sans pony with someone else, came home, went into the stable and whalloped the hell out of the pony for making her miss a fab show

Oh and reading other posts just now reminded me of another yard, when I was a teenager, where the YO would buy tack and whatnot that she decided you needed for your pony and added the cost of it to your livery bill.  I refused to pay her for a martingale.  In the winter she'd clip your pony without telling you, and you'd get charged for that.  She'd several working pupils and because I was at the yard most days they didn't bother mucking out my stable as I'd do it myself anyways - and I was still being charged for full livery.  The YO didn't know about this and found out when another livery's mother thought I was one of the WPs (when she saw me mucking out), she didn't do anything about it, but the RI found out about it and started giving me free lessons to make up for it


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## TheBayMonkey (23 October 2011)

Previous yard: haylage was more like cowpat and a bit of grass, no grass in winter fields, just a big mud pool, you could only use straw bedding, school was constantly flooded and always booked out for lessons, when you booked it for yourself the more dominant owners would come in and ride anyway, and the yard only had teenage girls as liveries so constant rumour spreading and general bitchines going on. Current yard is amazing, horse and me are the happiest we've ever been


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## Marydoll (23 October 2011)

Yards that just get bigger and bigger, especially when they expand after telling you they wont.
Reduced grazing due to all the new horses
Crap fences that horses just walk through.
Basically yard owners that talk a lot of crap to get you there then dont provide the facilities youre paying for


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## Tnavas (23 October 2011)

I had my 3yr old unbroken horse on full livery on a small yard. She had a wound on her leg that required treating daily. I came up to the yard at the weekend to find her knee deep in filth - her box had not been mucked out, the dressing had not been changed and she had not been turned out for the whole week. 

I was absolutely seething - and the cheek of it the YO wanted to be paid! I walked the horse off the yard that minute and took her to friends who had a yard just over the road. They took her in even though they were really full up.


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## Enfys (23 October 2011)

BonneMaman said:



			You obviously have the perfect horse then. Some horses object to mythical objects in hedges some get pretty wound up about tractors in their field - some like yours are wonderful, placid, quiet creatures that can do no wrong.
		
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  Lucky isn't she? Hysterical horses can be _such_ a pain don't you think? 

All the horses on my place are used to machinery etc in their paddocks too, arabs, tbs, QH's, ponies, mares, stallions, youngsters.

None are perfect, they are just ordinary, well adjusted horses who I expect not to throw a hissy fit just because I am in the field with a quad or tractor (they deliver food too so aren't viewed as monsters) I harrow and roll with them in there too. Perhaps it is because we live way out in the boonies where heavy farm machinery is considered the norm that the horses here take it all in their stride. 












I have no horror stories about livery yards as I have only ever been on two and they did what it said on the can. 

As a YO I haven't any horror stories about Owners either.


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## Daytona (23 October 2011)

My last yard main issues was stuff being stolen - £129 bit, brand new head collar, bottles and bottles of coat shine , bags of treats to the point I'd buy new ones and come next day and they were gone.  Also a full livery  client and horses water not being    
 changed, one time my mare 
never ate haylage for 7 days, 
called vet turns all of few inches down from top of haybar the haylage was rotten and black, looked like it had not been changed for weeks.  Poor horse must of smelt it was rotten. So after that I had to come up every night to do hay and water myself and was paying £385 a month for privilege. Then 3 horses took colic as YO gave them dodgy haylage, that was the final straw for me.  Not putting my horse health at risk.  Along with this lots of bitching and bullying , not involving me but made atmosphere uncomfortable at yard etc.


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## Pedantic (23 October 2011)

I have never met so many mental cases as I have in the horsey game, fortunately now, I am on a lovely yard with lovely people.


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## skint1 (23 October 2011)

Even the worst yard we were on was nothing compared to what some of you have been through, it was mostly just bitchiness from YO. Current yard is 95% perfect and i feel very fortunate indeed!


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## Stacey6897 (23 October 2011)

Wow! Some of these are awful, makes me feel lucky to be at my current yard, suddenly occasional loss of kit doesn't seem like a bad thing!  

I've been at a yard where the owner bullied liveries, proper screaming matches, I moved my horses and kit out before giving a months notice as she was a bit unpredictable


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## Wizzkid (23 October 2011)

I thought i'd had some horrid YO but turns out they were small fry!!


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## Ranyhyn (23 October 2011)

I have only had one bad yard, the last one, culminating in the YO intimidating me when I was on my own (because I dared to express openly my horror at a horse getting killed by another on the yard)  Funny enough he wasn't half so intimidating when my OH was with me.
Since found out he did exactly the same to an old friend of mine, so he's got form and that there was even more unsavouryness to that horse dying than most people know.  As Pedant says, enshrine of tools!!


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## KazzOnAPiano (23 October 2011)

Wow, some of these are shocking, especially two cases of YOs attacking people, and the mad teenagers! I have never had particularly bad YOs, one was a bit OCD about her water being on a meter, another was a bit of a crazy old women, but it is generally the other liveries that make things bad when they go bad.

Oh, just remembered I did have a mad YO at the yard I was at in Cornwall. Her and her husband used to have mad arguments around the yard. She had no idea what she was doing with horses, she told me she was keeping her horses unrugged in winter so they DIDN'T get a winter coat (huh!?). There were foxgloves in the field I had to use, and she gave me no help pulling them up, despite being in early days of pregnancy with awful morning sickness. The field was full of other weeds too, and when it came to spring she sprayed weedkiller and fertilised the field, only she fertilised it FIRST, so essentially she fertilised the weeds! Her 3 year old granddaughter also helpfully told me 'Granny has been using your feed'!

At more recent yards in Devon, we had one mad woman (woman used in the lightest possible way!) who used to to throw stones or bits of wood at horses heads in the field. She borrowed several thousand pounds from my best friend, secured against her horse, only it wasn't her horse, turned out it was on loan! And she never paid her back. She tried to tell me to get my horse out of the field that they were supposed to be in because 'her' horse (that wasn't her horse) was worth £5,000. My mare is the quietest thing ever, this person was just a bully. I have since heard that she was at another yard where she was chucking stones at another livery's horse, stupid cow.


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## Amaranta (23 October 2011)

Magnetic Sparrow said:



			My most memorable bad experience was arriving unexpectedly early at the livery yard where I was on part livery to discover a tractor and roller rolling the field my two horses were turned out in - while the horses were in it. My poor horses were literally having to run out of the way of the oncoming tractor to avoid being run over. Not impressed.
		
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Bloomin eck!  Best tell my horses to run from the tractor next time it goes past them in the fields, the so and so's don't even raise their heads from the grass!


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## Lowen Ki (23 October 2011)

I had my first pony when I was 13 and used to get awfully bullied by the older girls who were on the yard. They were all 17 plus and should have known better. They did irritating things like spoil my feed by soaking it all with buckets of water, and pretty much weekly they used to tip baby oil over my saddle and bridle to stop me riding. But the worst they did was let my pony out of the starvation paddock - the gate was really close to the road and it could have been horrific. Luckily she didn't get far and clearly hadn't encountered any traffic but this was awful behaviour - I know they bullied me but the welfare of the pony should never have come into it. Awful yard, awful people


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## shelbie (23 October 2011)

I havent had a lot of experience with livery yards , always rented land.but 5 or 6years ago I was short of grass and moved my mare to a yard for 6 months to give the land a rest. from the word go it was a nightmare, people would blank you when you spoke to them, actually rode out with a couple of them who seemed to have conspired to go as mad as possible in order to see if I could ride. I would turn up at the yard to find one woman screaming, crying throwing things about , because of something happening in her private life. this particular woman took a dislike to a new arrival and made her life hell.My land has now come to an end after 26 years but would be hard pushed to go in a livery yard.


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## Mearas (23 October 2011)

Won't go into to much detail but suffice to say my daughters pony was being ridden without my knowledge or permission by YM children with agreement from YO!!
However, would say that horses seem to bring out the very best and worst in people. I have met some of the some of the most wonderful people through horses and some of the worst.


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## CarolineJ (23 October 2011)

My last horse was on schooling livery as a 4-y-o at a big yard while I recovered from a dislocated sacro-iliac joint.  They put a novice groom on him one day, in spurs, no-one realised until the end of her lesson that the reason he'd been leaping around the school like a cat was because she'd accidentally made a hole in his left flank.  I ended up selling him because I got divorced and got a really nasty phone call from the yard owner telling me that my horse couldn't leave the yard until I'd paid that month's bill in full in cash - this despite them being paid promptly and in full ever since I'd moved there 10 months previously.  Not a nice place, despite the amazing facilities.  I hear their staff turnover is still horrendous.


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## elliegirl12 (23 October 2011)

Never had anything really really bad, but one lady/yo we were there for 2 months the lady threatened putting 2 colts out with our mares and 2 others!!i also heard her shouting and screaming at one off her liveries, we left doing a runner, as we were to  scared to tell her! and she came looking for us lucky enough she stayed well away after i told her where her rent was! 

Had random bitchiness, but nothing on us thank god! but the yard we are at now and the one before we moved we loved- (only had to leave as we were moving area) and everyone was lovely! i have found the slightly bigger competition yards are generally really nice ones like that do assisted diy, part and full, as the yard is taken charge off  but the ones who just do diy are bloody awful for the bitcheness!


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## Keenjean (23 October 2011)

At the first yard we had the horses at the yard owner was an alcoholic and one of the other liveries paid her in whiskey! She was no problem even tho she was always drunk but my god two of the other women used to get into massive screaming rows, physical fighting the lot and there were more arguments there than you can possibly imagine! Grazing was amazing tho and the horses loved it there but when we went to leave one of the arguing women tried to hide all my jumps on a mezzanine level so I Gould t take them!!! Was ridiculous considering she was 45 and I was 16 at the time! She was a proper scabby woman tho.


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## henryhorn (23 October 2011)

Many years since I was a DIY but some horrendous yards. 
One yard had long narrow stables and the next door family divided theirs up into three by knocking holes in the adjoining brick wall and poking bars of angle iron through into my stable. My horse kept getting scraped and I asked them many times politely to stop. They ignored me and pushed the iron through whenever I went home. I  in return pushed the bars back half way so they didn't stick out etc. 
One day thoroughly fed up I concreted a couple of bricks into the wall so they could only put their bars half way through the adjoining wall. Next morning I found they had pushed the bricks out yet again and the jagged metal was a foot into my stable and I went ballistic. They were known to be a rough family but for once I didn't care, and shouted at the Mother and two daughters if they risked injuring my horse just one more time I'd wallop the lot of them. 
That sorted it and they never did it again!
Another yard the YO used to wait until everyone had gone home then raid their stables for feed and hay, she never bought any for her own horses. 
I've since been a YO for over 35 years and trust me, liveries are far worse than any YO !
We've had ones that stole haylage, ones that stole feed, ones that have fist fights over boyfriends in the yard, ones who put their horses in different fields just because they felt like it, ones who put four polywarm rugs on their horses until they dripped with sweat, one who had a straw bed three feet deep (yes we measured it!) so her horse  was warm (same lady as polywarm rugs) and another who rang her stableneighbour at 12 pm accusing her of beating her horse round the head. When challenged why she would think that, apparently "God told her".
My current liveries are all ok, pay on time etc and sweep up. I think most of themhaving been on some vile yards appreciate we doour utmost tosuit their needs, whether it's a field on their own or arriving at 6 am and waking us all up! It goes with the job. I do however still get mad when someone hasn't got a vet emergency box, expects to use our stuff and then doesn't replace it..  Oh and a recent livery told to make her horse a gym was put out when I refused permission to remove our three grands' worth of stored oak beams to use as the poles..sometimes you have to remember that saying, "You can't please all of the people all of the time"


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## hollyandivy123 (23 October 2011)

henryhorn said:



			Many years since I was a DIY but some horrendous yards. 
One yard had long narrow stables and the next door family divided theirs up into three by knocking holes in the adjoining brick wall and poking bars of angle iron through into my stable. My horse kept getting scraped and I asked them many times politely to stop. They ignored me and pushed the iron through whenever I went home. I  in return pushed the bars back half way so they didn't stick out etc. 
One day thoroughly fed up I concreted a couple of bricks into the wall so they could only put their bars half way through the adjoining wall. Next morning I found they had pushed the bricks out yet again and the jagged metal was a foot into my stable and I went ballistic. They were known to be a rough family but for once I didn't care, and shouted at the Mother and two daughters if they risked injuring my horse just one more time I'd wallop the lot of them. 
That sorted it and they never did it again!
Another yard the YO used to wait until everyone had gone home then raid their stables for feed and hay, she never bought any for her own horses. 
I've since been a YO for over 35 years and trust me, liveries are far worse than any YO !
We've had ones that stole haylage, ones that stole feed, ones that have fist fights over boyfriends in the yard, ones who put their horses in different fields just because they felt like it, ones who put four polywarm rugs on their horses until they dripped with sweat, one who had a straw bed three feet deep (yes we measured it!) so her horse  was warm (same lady as polywarm rugs) and another who rang her stableneighbour at 12 pm accusing her of beating her horse round the head. When challenged why she would think that, apparently "God told her".
My current liveries are all ok, pay on time etc and sweep up. I think most of themhaving been on some vile yards appreciate we doour utmost tosuit their needs, whether it's a field on their own or arriving at 6 am and waking us all up! It goes with the job. I do however still get mad when someone hasn't got a vet emergency box, expects to use our stuff and then doesn't replace it..  Oh and a recent livery told to make her horse a gym was put out when I refused permission to remove our three grands' worth of stored oak beams to use as the poles..sometimes you have to remember that saying, "You can't please all of the people all of the time"
		
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i have always thought tis a sham you are so far away as yard for me, but about a 300 mile trip everyday is a tad far.

 have been on yard which is moslty part livery and you had to move up to full livery for the yo to be polite to you. i have been on yards with the yard bully who would threaten to beat people up to get their own way, or there is the habitual thief, who when they get caught have a go at you as it your fault they have stolen from you, sorry should have written borrowed because they never steal.

all i would like is good grazing, good stables (doesn't leak in the rain) safe fun hacking and a place where it doesn't matter if your horse could go to badminton or just have fun round the riding club level, if you pay the same as the rest of the yard then you can use the same facilties without being the bottom of the list


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## Mince Pie (23 October 2011)

henryhorn said:



			one who had a straw bed three feet deep (yes we measured it!) so her horse  was warm
		
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Nothing wrong with a big deep straw bed to keep horses warm in winter  both of mine have huge beds! I think I used about 1/4 - 1/3 of a round bale per bed when I first put them in


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## Slinkyunicorn (23 October 2011)

After reading some of these it makes the little niggles we have on our yard seem insignificant!

The few nightmare liveries that have been here have moved on pretty quickly as we all stand our ground and won't be pushed around by them - some of the liveries have been on awful yards before so appreciate how good it is here which helps

By and large we all get on - little niggles get sorted out either by us or the YO/farmer, we have good grazing and facilites - the onlyissue we have is the local shoot bu that is nothing to do with the YO.

As for rolling and harrowing fields - our horses stay in theor while that get done as well as hedge cutting any other farm machinery that has to be used. Even the horse who will try and bolt on a hack if he sees a tractor carries on grazing when in his field with a tractor


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## Equilibrium Ireland (23 October 2011)

First off, holy heck! What some of you have been through is amazing! In a horrible way that is!

I think it runs both ways though. Crazy yard owners and crazy liveries. I'm at a place now in which I live and there are a couple of other boarders. I have 5 here and two people each have one. Nobody steals. If you need something ask as it will always be given. Not trying to be rude here, but single horse owners always seem to gave special needs horses. Where as people with multiple horses seem to understand horses can actually deal with situations. But then again a multiple horse owner like myself can make choices to benefit her herd. I do think it part of any livery owner to set up turnout appropriate to groups so horses aren't injured and that people can get their horses when they need. My YO can be a bit of a pain when things need fixing. Mind you it's sorted when you threaten to do it yourself and take money off the rent. 

But it really is about compromise and respect. Horses should never have to pay the price of yard bitchiness. I had never rented with other people before and was terrified I might be obnoxious or the crazy boarder. But amazingly I'm not! I just let it go. All the horses are well looked after and it may not be my way of doing things but who says I'm right? Plus it's much nicer to get along so we can have the occasional hot whiskey night after the chores are done! 

Terri


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## 5horses2dogsandacat (23 October 2011)

I cant believe the stories Im reading!! Its just horrific! 

How can people treat others like this? Im pretty lucky I have my ponies at home, although I lack facilities I dont get stuff stolen (touch wood.. fingers crossed the gypsies wont be round..) the only person I come to heads with is my dad... Little bit of a traditional arable farmer and doesnt always understand the concept of an animals needs...

Ive worked on yards and had my ponies on yards, as a worker I would go out my way to look after peoples ponies, even cleaning their tack!! lol however the YO was a little nuts and wouldnt let me talk to liveries, I think the liveries knew though and were always really nice to me. 

I think the worst I had was someone taking my stable claiming it was her, so I went to the YO and got it back... she never talked to me again. so petty.


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## FairyLights (23 October 2011)

All the above posts are the reason I have my own fields and yard and refuse to have liveries on.


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## americanqh (23 October 2011)

I've met some truly immature people while having my own loan horse and a lot of them where older than me and supposed to be 'adults'. 

I used to get looked down a lot for not competing, a lot of them would be at shows every week and I was quite happy just going for a quiet ride (not really a competition rider) and often because of that it was thought that I couldn't ride because I didn't want to go to shows and they made a lot of fun of me and my loan horse who was a complete star and could have competed if I wanted to.  

But some of these women (in their early forties and thirties) would talk about each other behind their back and would do things to each other if they had a disagreement like hiding each others tack and once I saw someone take a horse's feed away from them in the field and leave it on the other side of the fence!


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## henryhorn (23 October 2011)

ER Broke but happy, she was buying 8 bales of straw a week and her horse wasn't actually able to get on the top of the bed. On the rare occasions it managed it without fail it got stuck as the straw was so deep. Think about how deep three feet is, I don't believe you have beds three feet deep!


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## Mince Pie (23 October 2011)

Actually yes, now you mention it 3ft is massive! Sorry hungover brain this morning LOL  My beds are probably more like 2 feet, but "fluffy" so the horse can walk through it.


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## henryhorn (23 October 2011)

Ours is very much a mixed yard.
We have our own competition horses so have visiting trainers if anyone wants help.
Several Happy Hackers who adore their horses and aren't interested in doing anything else. 
Some who like to compete.
Some people hunt, others are into Natural Horsemanship and all seem to rub alongquite well, we have at least five different farriers, four vets, a barefoot trimmer etc and although some of us shake our heads in disbelief at times, it's always in private! 
The only time I would say no to anyone training here is if they wanted a Parrelli instructor, then I'm afraid I would suggest they use the local riding club arena down the road!
Our stables are all under cover and sound but you do get snowed on in a blizzard as the snow blows under the eaves..
I would like better storage facilities for everyone, our tackroom is secure and alarmed but the storage areas have an assortment of little sheds and boxes, but again, plenty of room under cover for them all. 
We try hard not to interfere, but occasionally like today I have to ask someone not to do something. One lady persists in tying to the most odd places instead of the communal tie rings, today she first tied to a piece of string she had attached above the tap in the washing area, then in the entrance to the building blocking it, then to someone else's stable front.  The third  time I asked her what was wrong with the tie rings provided and she complained about another livery leaving hair there as she was at that minute clipping..  I pointed out it was difficult to clear hair as you clipped and also suggested she try the three tie rings further away, and although I bet she seethed a bit, I was polite and explained the hair would soon be swept up.
Our yard isn't perfect, we get the odd fence problem, we don't have arena lights etc but generally I'd say it was reasonable. The trick as a YO is to try very hard not to interfere unless absolutely necessary, it's a fine line believe me!


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## Hells Bells (23 October 2011)

Years and years ago, (as in 26!) i was not enjoying the yard i was on at all. Constantly being berated for having a cob..apparently not cool.

Always told he wouldnt do well, was lazy etc. Often had my stuff used etc. Then one day, mum took me to ride my boy and someone else already was! riding him!!! I was only about 13 then, but i can remember being heartbroken. 

Not once, did i specify that anyone could ride him, and there they were. Mum swiftly moved us to another, much better yard. 

We never found out if it was a one off or if they did it a lot, but its one thing to borrow someones whip/grooming kit, but a whole other kettle of fish to borrow a horse!!


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## Eriskayowner (23 October 2011)

I think I'm quite lucky really - worst I've had is just back-biting, b1tching and other liveries being two-faced. 

This was probably worst at my last yard and made me actually dread going up to see Jazz but I've now got my own rented field and grazing and it's bliss!!!

Weirdly the crap is still going on and involving me but I don't care! My three are out 24/7 and very happy and that's all that matters!!!


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## Camel (23 October 2011)

We had a livery who shat in a fellow livery's (freshly microwaved) Spaghetti Bolognese!  ... she didn't even get kicked off the yard 

xx


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## Mince Pie (23 October 2011)

That's just grim


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## Eriskayowner (23 October 2011)

Oh that's so gross OC 

On one yard I was at we had someone **** in someone else's freshly laid straw bed in their stable but that is taking things to a whole new level


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## Dancing Queen (23 October 2011)

some of these stories are horrific but totally believable!

I am very lucky not to be on a yard!

Horsey people are the worst - the general horsey world consists of jealous, big headed, arrogant people who think they know everything, yet know absolutely jack.


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## ABC (23 October 2011)

My worst yard;

I went on holiday and paid YO and a friend to feed and check my horse over once a day. He was out in a field with no grass so needed his feed. They put him out, and left him out,  didn't bother checking him at all. I came home to find him biting at his own chest because he had a 7 inch hole in it. It was caused by him trying to get food and water. It was all injected and puss oozed out, if either of them had checked it they would have noticed, it was impossible to miss.

Vet came and said it was at least 5 days old but they both maintained "it wasn't there the night before." *******s.

He wouldn't eat food so vet recommended speedi-beet. For some reason one night I decided to drive up and check him, around 10 o clock at night to find him choking. In his stable I found a bucket full of dried speedi beet, mixed into his chop. Poor lad had obviously eaten some and it swelled up. Vet was called and pumped his stomach. 

At that yard he had the two incidents above as well as a nail in his foot ( fields were littered in them), 3 abscesses (due to nails in feet) etc. It was a horrible atmopshere. Hated it.

I now have a field and am loving it. Some horsey people are lovely, others are just cruel heartless bitches


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## JellyBeanSkittle (23 October 2011)

*stuff getting nicked, as in the entire contents of my tack and grooming kit, headcollars, feed, hay.. 
*being told not to turn out for two weeks due to bad weather/ruining YO fields then being accused of imprisoning my horses!! 
*having a horse padlocked in the stable because I wanted to leave and YO spent 6hrs trying to persuade me to stay - police had to be called and had to load said horse on the road!!
*horse being left in the field for two weeks whilst on competition livery, lame and getting a phonecall from a lovely fellow livery who had desperately tried to get my phone number and told me the YO had buggered off (I was paying £650 PCM for the privilege...) and had told nobody!
*psycho YO who constantly rang and raged about anything and everything. If my horse breathed it was in the wrong!
The list is endless....!

I love my current yard however  there is a light at the end of the tunnel!


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## Alfiem (23 October 2011)

I have been threatened by another livery's partner (over nothing to do with the yard, just other people stirring shite on FB, so I deleted my account, couldn't get at me online so started causing shite on the yard)  I have had various bits of equipment stolen, possibly by said livery - They have nothing else to do in their sad little lives.
If they think they are going to push me off the yard I have been happy at for 5 years they can think again, nasty little bullies.


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## dressagelove (23 October 2011)

These are truly awful tales! I keep my horses on my parents farm, and worry that sometimes im missing out on being on a livery yard! not so much now! its lovely and peaceful!

We did have one livery of our own once, a lady kept our horse at our farm, and when she realised we were stricter on standards for our lovely farm than she was obviously willing to reach, she tacked up one morning, told us she was going for a nice long hack, and never came back! She came back in the dead of night to pick up all her stuff! what a freak! people are so WEIRD!


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## Quadro (23 October 2011)

Im so lucky to be on my own! There is a livery yard over the road though and you could not pay me enough to go there, to many "experts" and bitchy women with nothing better to do- my idea of hell!!
Q


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## brighthair (23 October 2011)

Leaving my horse for 4 days to go to HOYS. He was on box rest as 2/10 lame and I was going to give him that time off. Came back to find he had been galloped and jumped. I opened the stable door and he literally fell out, Mum (not horsey) took one look and rang the vet. I never left him again as I felt I couldn't trust anyone with him

Same horse. Known to jump out the field (every bloody day). I said I was going to eat my lunch, everyone knew not to leave him alone. I heard a noise and went to check to find him stood in a pool of blood, they left him on his own and he jumped and crashed through a metal gate and a wire fence and shredded all 4 legs


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## superted1989 (23 October 2011)

Some horrendous stories!  The worst thing that happened to me was many, many years ago, one livery used to take feed, hay and straw from everybody.  We all turned a blind eye though as she was having a really bad time and genuinely wouldn't have been 'allowed' to buy hay etc.  Looking back, she should have asked................
A few years ago, before I had Ted, my friend bought her mare and asked me to help her when she was at work.  She went to a yard that used to be fabulous, great facilities, good grazing and wonderful hacking.  As we knew the yard, we didn't bother going for a look first, big mistake!  When we got there, there was no other liveries!!  They'd all moved a few weeks previously.  Turns out the farmer owner had split with his partner, who ran the livery, and he'd gone a bit potty, in an agressive way.  We lasted 5 days before leaving when we knew he wasn't there, even though she'd paid for a month, as he was so unpleasent it didn't feel safe.
Current yard is as wonderful now as it was when we arrived there 6 years ago.  It's a working farm and YO will only take on people she either knows, or on another livery's recommendation.  However, back in the summer, YO sold another liveries saddle!  Bless her, she'd got confused and had lent this saddle to one of the liveries, thinking it was her own (horse passed away 2 years ago).  Livery then bought it from her for £100.  Turns out, her saddle had been moved onto another saddle rack and she sold the one she thought was hers!  Other livery was fine about it, as her horse is long retired, enjoyed spending her unexpected money and got chocolates and wine as an apology!  Our YO is lovely, but blonde, lol!


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## L&M (23 October 2011)

On the other side of the coin, as a YO I could also tell you some horror stories about liveries too..............!


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## yeeharider (23 October 2011)

I have always had my own yard or otherwise but spent a short time on a livery yard which is not something i want to repeat. my horses (I have 3) were allowed to graze a 6 acre field for 2 hours a day, no longer regulated by yard manager, then twice a week yard owner would go in with mower and cut the grass ????? why.  needless to say left as soon as i could


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## domane (25 October 2011)

When I still only had two geldings (3 now!) they were in a paddock that had some static XC jumps in that no-one used.  In the middle was a man-made bank and it had a large clump of ragwort.  I knew it was there but it was too big to dig up until it started dying off a bit so I kept an eye on it for flowers and the paddock was large and lush with grass so I knew the boys would keep away.  Got there one day and YO's son (early 20s) was in there with a strimmer cutting it down (and spreading the bits far and wide!).  I stormed up to him and shouted "I HOPE YOU'RE GOING TO PICK ALL THIS UP???!!!" to which he shrugged and looked at me as if I was mad.... he clearly knew nothing about ragwort or pasture management 

I burst into tears and was able to move the boys to a different paddock later that day but that was the final straw in a bit of a catalogue of disasters and we moved to another (better) yard shortly after that.


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## Zarkaz (25 October 2011)

Generator was turned off by 6.00pm in winter even though I didnt get down until 7.00pm due to work (i seemed to be the only one with a job!) so I had to walk down a country road into dark stables and fields alone. In the end I couldnt muck my horses out until the weekends and had to leave them out oh this was a rat infested yard so sticking your hand into a dark feed bin because of the no lights situation wasnt the best experiences yes rats loved to hide in them! I asked for the lights to be turned on between 7-7.30 so I could quickly do my horses and I basically got told 'no you should be down earlier' the cheek!


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## clip_clop (26 October 2011)

Been on two crazy yards, the first one was a DIY yard, lovely hacking, big stables but run by a lunatic, there were always big fights on the yard and me and a friend had already planned to leave to go to our own rented field but on the day we told them my friend had to lock herself in the car as lunatic girl went after her, then her dad blocked the gate so we couldn't get out. After that we finally got away but we had to hide the horses, she eventually found us and kept walking past the yard on the bridlepath and tried to run my friend over and me off the road! Had to report her to police, this happens with most liveries that leave there!!!

Other yard I told them that my cob was a laminitic before I moved there and checked that I'd be ok to make a small paddock for him as grass was v long, said that was ok. As soon as I got there we got snide remarks off the yo who said my cob was scruffy and couldn't see cos of his forelock (he's a traditional hairy cob) and I kept him in that day as his friends were coming the day after. So then I got moaned at for not turning him out even tho he was quite happy being in as he would only run around on his own and get stressed which doesn't do him any good as stress sets his lami off as well. Turned him out when his friends came, got moaned at for having a small paddock. We all left after being there for 2 weeks. Horrid yard run by a horrid woman


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## Miszeemare (26 October 2011)

This happened many moons ago to my old mare (long since departed) before I had her.  I hesitate to call where she was kept a livery yard (it was run by people of "traveller" extraction).  Anyway her owner paid for full livery and had obviously not been up for a few days (holiday etc), when she went up to the yard, the horse had obviously not been fed, turned out and was standing in her own muck.  This was not worst thing though, she had anticast rollers on that had not been removed or checked etc, when her owner removed the rollers, her skin came away with them .

The vet involved with her aftercare wanted these people reported and prosecuted but I think her previous owner was just so mortiified and wanted to put it all behind her.  Her rehabilation took many months and it took her ages to trust anyone again 

I'll never understand how anyone can treat a horse like that.


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## scotsmare (26 October 2011)

Current yard has just closed turnout til April cos the fields are wet, we have a tiny indoor arena (no outdoor) which is basically the size of a 20m circle so you can only work one horse at a time in there - if you can actually get in cos the yard owner is using the arena as turnout for their horses.  Grooming products walk - particularly expensive stuff.  Tack room is frequently left unlocked so you can't leave anything of any value in there.  It's a bit of a nightmare and now they've closed the turnout I'll be yard hunting pronto!


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## Spotsrock (26 October 2011)

The YO who took hay out of my nets after I had fed and gone for the night was annoying, no wonder I couldn't get any weight on them and was spending a fortune! I was lucky I avoided colic though.

The worst has to be the one who bought from sales on the saturday, turned out with ours on the sunday. Everything got strangles and when her vet came she told them mine was new (if 2 months is new) and had symptoms on arrival, her vet came and inspected MY foal without disinfecting hands, no symptoms then but she did shortly after. (I shouted at vet quite a bit I'm afraid as they were in a seperate block and I was being very careful with disinfecting everything) 

YO then threatened to sue me for cost of treating her 10+ horses for strangles. I got in writing that after 2 months with no previous symptoms it could not have been my foal, fortunatly as it turns out one of our others had been receiveing almost daily treatment for an injury so vet was able to witness that foal had no symptoms prior to outbreak.

Moved as soon as outbreak over. Vile about it at the time, now she always says hi everso politely when I see her.


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## luce1 (26 October 2011)

One yard I was on years ago, which was run by a nutter... she had the muck heap directly outside the American Barn and set it alight!!! The bloody thing went up in flames and my sister had to evacuate all the horses... she called the police and was then arrrested.. but then said it was an accident even though my sister saw her light it!!!
We left the next day!!!


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## juliag (26 October 2011)

PitPony said:



			When I was younger witnessing two women in their 40s chucking water buckets at each other in a fight over something to do with their daughters ponies!
		
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Where is the 'like' button...... thats classic pmsl


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## mcrobbiena (26 October 2011)

we put a horse at a very well known scottish livery yard which also has a 5* hotel. We thought it was great, treated like royalty, amazing facilities,  EXCELLENT head lady and the horse was happy and looked great. Unfortunatly head lady had a day off and our horse which was supposed to be in 24/7 over winter was turned out. The groom turned her out (no idea why) saw she wasnt getting on with field companion so brought her in again. Then turned her out with the same horse half an hour later. 

Cue driver passing field-popped in to let them know there was a rug in the field so they went out, the rug actually contained my horse who was lying flat out (bit of a drama queen) with a broken splint bone. They then called their vet-not ours who we insisted when she moved there that they used for her. He came out did his thing told them to bandage leg. Noone had told us any of this we turned up to see her in the evening with one leg bandaged only around the cut. Parents were furiouse horse then had to stay on box rest for months costing us £16 a day!! for their rediculous mistake and bad treatment of the whole situation. It was heartbreaking she was only 6 and was coming along REALLY nicely. Anyway parents spoke to their solicitors who said there was no way we could compete with them as they are owned by a massive corporation and we would never win. Dad managed to get livery money back for while she was on box rest but no compensation and we had to pay while she was there and it took ages for it to be reimbursed. Its only after something like that everyone starts telling you other stories about the place. Wish we knew before but with a name like they have/had and teh facilities and all the talk from managers etc it is easy to be blind folded.


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## Luci07 (26 October 2011)

I have been on a yard where I knew that when I left the YO would be nasty - she wasn't but her pig of an OH was incredibly rude (he had nothing to do with the yard). Result - screaming match on the yard. He was a complete pig and really nasty. Was pretty foul to YO after I had gone as well - went off with the groom so I was not wrong. I did always have run ins over how much food mine should be getting as both were too thin. They were fed pony rations not TB rations. Extra hay was (over 10 years ago) charged at £1 per section for every extra.

But nothing on the scale of you lot. You have however, made me appreciate even more when I am stabled. As an horse owner you spend so much time up there, and pretty much all of your spare time so it does rather have to be a home from home in terms of how comfortable you are up there. Some how the yard I am at has nearly always had pretty nice liveries on it in all the time I have been there - occasional oddball but on the whole, really nice people! and "new" YO (been there a year) is great..


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## Love (26 October 2011)

KazzOnAPiano said:



			Her 3 year old granddaughter also helpfully told me 'Granny has been using your feed'!
		
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^ ^ made me laugh 

luckily the only things to moan about at my yard is being charged extra per week for our "arena" (VERY small grass paddock, full of pot holes and very uneven) and the occasional grooming utensils going walk-abouts.

but absolutely appalled by some of the stories on here! can't believe the stupidity and down right cruel intentions of some people!


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## BollyK01 (17 November 2011)

The last three yards I have been at have been disappointing to say the least.  First yard I had my mare at in Kent was a nice yard, but run by a psycho .  Staff stayed about a week on average as they couldn't deal with her screaming at them.  She also screamed at the liveries and bitched about everyone behind their backs.  Her piece de' resistance was inviting the travelling community to hold a festival in one of her fields, which  which meant getting to the yard involved running the gauntlet of loose dogs, garbage, and scary young shirtless guys driving pick-ups at full-tilt down single track lanes.  However final straw was when one of the grooms informed me that YO had told them to stop turning my mare out because "it was eating all her grass".

Second yard in had beautiful facilities and nice people, however when I asked for my mare to be hacked once a week by them in winter as I was working full time,  they put someone on her who wasn't really competent and she developed a habit of rearing. (Of course they allowed this to go on for a number of weeks before informing me, and then refused to allow any remedial trainers to come onto the yard to help me with her)  Also I turned up one day to find the YO giving two of the staff lunge lessons on my mare, for which I had not given permission.  So off we trundled in our little trailer once more.

Current yard is also a worry - Nice people, but seems to be run on a prayer and a shoe-string  -   So now looking again.  Am starting to wonder if there are any livery yards anywhere which have nice facilities and are run by sane people.


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## riding_high (17 November 2011)

i've had lots of things go wrong on yards probably too many to say but here's a few:
car broke down so couldn't get to yard for 4 days, asked YO to let horses out in the field and leave them out but check on them, got told that's ok. managed to get a lift up on the 4th day to find my horses still in their stables, water buckets bone dry, stable was knee deep in urine and poo, no sign of hay at all and both in rugs. i never felt so guilty in my life as i did that day.
crazy YO who would talk to the muck heap, follow you around when poo picking and if tiniest bit of poo left she would scrape it up with her bare hands then go and eat her dinner before washing her hands........oh and cups always had mice and rat droppings in them.
YO mixing feed up
taking rugs off when they were put on for a reason. or vice versa.
horse not being fed
other liveries tormenting the horses
livery claiming to know everything there is to know and that she worked at the spanish riding school and david broome, a few other people too but she wasn't old enough (at the time was only 19yrs old), she sent us all mad so when she turned up at the yard we would hide until she left.
YO trying to go over my head and talk to the vet about my horse, i was told what needed to be done but because it didn't suit the YO asked the vet if something that did suit her would be better, the vet said the same to the YO as he said to me which peed the YO off.
get told to bandage a wound on the leg but other liveries and YO take it off because it needed airing.
blatant favouritism by the YO to certain liveries, as it turns out it wasn't just me thinking that which made livery yard life VERY difficult.
yard staff being a bit dense with the work, either too scared to handle the horses or leaving a gate open while other horses are in the field so they could catch their horse and not have to worry about opening the gate on way out. 
YO's son shooting rats in the stable next door to my horse, letting their terriers run in the stable with the horse.
YO's dogs using my stable as a toilet.
YO complaining either too much straw is being used or not enough. so long as you don't waste it what's the problem.
liveries thinking they own the feed room/wash room/tack room/land and you can't do anything without them getting moody and complaining.
things going missing, sometimes they turn up in a completely different place, not brushes or tools but things like magnetic boots etc.


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## Zarkaz (17 November 2011)

at my old yard we had a bale of straw (round) a day to share between the liveries. Because me and my friend got down late after college all the straw would be gone, leaving our horses (i had 2 she had 3) in their own filth and their was only one culprit that would be greedy and take most of the bale. She and her daughters stables were filled so high you couldnt even get in them never mind the horses! after a while i got sick of it and decided to take what was rightfully ours, since we all paid the same livery fees. I filled 5 wheelbarrows from her stable and shared it out between mine and my friends horses and it still didnt leave a dent in her bed! Well the next day was hilarious because she actually followed the trail of straw to our stables and had a rant and rave at me calling me a theif. She was a b*tch she used to take my ponies out the field without my permission because my geldings were 'rigs' and kept mounting her mare, bearing in mind one of my ponies was a shetland and her mare was a 16hh TBX  and so decided to put a combo lock on the gate so i couldnt put my ponies in but i found out the password and just to annoy her put them in everytime she took them out. She thought she owned the place!


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## HBrae2 (17 November 2011)

Oh my goodness, I'm scared of your yards!!!!!! Some of these things are horrible! I think I've been really lucky, had never been on a livery yard until I went to Uni and kept my pony at a local yard which was nice and friendly. Just moved to a big yard with great facilities this spring as I was fed up being on my own all the time and not being able to ride much in the winter and it's fab. Everyone has been lovely to me and no complaints about how my horse is managed. YO is a lovely person and completely sane compared to others it seems! Apparantly there was a woman who was really unkind and a bit of a bully but she was asked to leave by the YO before I came so can't really comment. I would have had a nervous breakdown over some of the things posted - pony would have been straight back home with me in tears and needing counselling! : )


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## scarymare (17 November 2011)

Quite apart from all the bitching and stealing worse thing happened to my sister's horse at a REALLY expensive yard in Windsor.  Basically the horses were looked after like kings, fantastic beds etc etc.  BUT what they used to do was as soon as all the liveries had gone home, grooms resurfaced and turned out the whole yard!!! (fantastic post and rail grazing).  Anyway end result was that my sis's horse (16.1 ID x TB) got laminitis and THEN the YM tried to say it was pedalostitis or somesuch.  He never fully recovered.  We were both too young to take it further unfortunately.


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## Sarah1 (17 November 2011)

By far the worst experience was when we had a real novicey family on the yard who ended up selling their little old steady pony (who they'd had a matter of weeks) and buying a TB so that the dad could ride!  Originally the Mum & older Daughter were supposed to be the only ones coming up - they had 3 other children all under the age of 4 and used to let them run riot!
They left bikes & stuff all over the yard, the Mum would ride & leave the kids to their own devices, climbing in the hay store, running about where ever including out near the dairy farm where tractors & other heavy machinery were regularly going in & out.  One day the farmer ended up looking after them after they had been allowed to wander as they pleased. 
The Dad would poo pick & let the kids go into anyone elses paddock as they felt like no matter what the horse was like.
The Dad was even seen running my big lad up & down the fence line after a bit of hay!?!?  WTF?! 
They used to torment the dog who could get a bit nippy as he was only a pup and even when we'd specifically asked the children to stay away from him they used to still wind him up when they thought no one was looking.
We asked them to keep their kids under control & away from our dogs and horses - my big boy is touching 17hh and although he's fab I didn't like the thought of young children being in his paddock unsupervised, call me crazy! 
The worst thing was when the Mum left 2 of the toddlers on the TB's back while it was tied up, no tack, no hats, etc and the the baby in the buggy right along side & she went off to the tack room & just left them there like that!  No sense whatsoever!
It eventually culminated in a bit of a row and they totally flipped out - the Mum was a bit of a nut-job I think.
Needless to say we told the YM that they'd need to be moved up to his other yard or if not could he please move us!
They eventually sold up after they'd tied to TB directly to a wooden gate, it spooked and pulled the gate off its hinges and it frightened them cos 'they didn't realise things like that could happen'!?! 
When they left they dumped droppings in all our feed bins and let the tyres down on the lorry & wheel barrows!!!!!!  Very pathetic but totally worth the cost to replace to see the back of them!


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## Ali16 (17 November 2011)

Oh my God... I can't believe some of these stories! 

These YO are totally bonkers! Do they not realise that the livery business is a SERVICE industry really? Would you go back to a restaurant where you were held hostage/punched/shouted at/generally abused? I think not.

I had some nasty experiences when I was at livery during uni, but nothing like as bad as what's on here!

But from a YO/YM point of view, we've had some completely CRAZY liveries too! We only do part livery, so they don't even spend that much time at the yard, but we have had two that were totally insane (one of which we asked politely to leave after just 12 hours - she was mad.. lovely horse though).


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## annaellie (17 November 2011)

I have luckily been on some amazing yards although had two yards that were nightmares, one yard I moved too cause one of my mares had a accident and the tendon by the hock and moved to the side, so although after months of box rest etc she would always be macanicaly lame but was still rideable. 
Vet advised that any further injury could be a diaster in that area so to reduce risks advised that she had lone TO or with a little quiet pony. Yard I was on I loved but could not faciate this  
I went to look at another yard explained the situation yes thts fine showed me her paddock and the pony she could go with  
Week two I came down to yard she was in feild with the whole herd and horses being horses had there pecking order do da and she received a kick in the same hock  
The YO was very apologic about it but my mare was injured again and lots of vets tests later and could never be ridden again later I was unimpressed  ap new staff had put her out as they felt sorry for her being in


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## Marydoll (17 November 2011)

Bettyboo222 said:



			On our yard we have no YM or YO anymore just the farmer who doesn't give a ****. So basically we are left to our selves. Last winter me and another girl had a small fall out over something (barely anything) I just left it but said girl chucked a bucket of water over the stable door of my 44 year old when it was -2 and I couldn't get B out of the stable as it was like sheet ice and no one could get in without making the problem worse. (finally got her out when we got some salt) I have never forgiven her for that
		
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Thats bloody awful, i dont know how you stopped yourself from punching her lamps out


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## MrsElle (17 November 2011)

I moved house and wanted somewhere closer to home for my ponies.  I went to see a lady who seemed lovely and said how lovely it would be for me to move there, how she was willing to help when she could if I was delayed at work etc, in return for me doing the same.  Sounded fab, so we moved in.

It became immediately apparent that there were going to be problems and I should have moved back to my own rented land 20 odd miles away immediately.  However, I didn't.  My ponies were in a field that was accessed through this ladies field.  On day one she promised to put in a walkway so I didn't have to ask her to text me every morning to tell me when she was putting hers out as I had to put mine out first.  The access route never materialised and she stopped texting me, so I would go up there to find her horses out and I couldn't get mine out so they had to remain stabled.  I kept asking for the access to be put in, offered to do it myself or help her, but it wasn't done.

The final straw was when my two had been in the stable for more or less two weeks.  I turned them out in the yard when I mucked out but had been told off for doing this.  I still did though, as it was unfari to leave them with no chance of pottering about, and it was hard for two ponies who had never been stabled before.  Anyway, I went up one day, slid the bolt of the stable back and as I opened the door I slipped.  Blue saw freedom and out he came, trampling me in the process.  I managed to pull myself up on the door and as I did so Blue flew past me and bucked.  How I got my head out of the way I will never know, but I did and he kicked me on the shoulder as I lifted it and turned my head away.

Through the pain and tears I got him fed and watered and back in the stable and drove home.  OH took me to A&E when he got home.  The doctor looked at my ankle and his exact words were 'well, you've well and truly mashed that!'  I asked him if 'mashed' was a medical term   

I couldn't weight bear at all for 2 weeks and was on crutches for a month.  The lady at the yard refused to help at all, wouldn't even put hay and water in for Blue as she decided he was dangerous.  Erm, no he wasn't, he was just going stir crazy!  Very non-horsey OH would go and feed and water and muck out and also turned out 'dangerous' Blue in the summer paddock on my instruction.  I was paying over the odds, and felt it was her duty to ensure I was able to turn my ponies out when I wanted.

Oddly enough, when I arranged to have the ponies picked up and returned to my old field a week or so after my accident she was properly monked off, couldn't understand why I would want to move.  I told her I would return to muck out and clear the stables as soon as I could (I left a few days into the month, so in theory the stables were mine for three more weeks), but she wouldn't let me on when I let her know I would be coming up.  She said she had had to muck out and poo pick my field and I couldn't have any of my stuff back either!


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## MiJodsR2BlinkinTite (17 November 2011)

Allow me as a YO to brave all and enter this foray!!!! 

The "worst experience" on MY livery yard that I've ever had was a girl who basically dumped an aged (21 y.o.) pony onto me. It was supposed to be a DIY arrangement.

When said pony arrived, she wasn't here to meet or greet the transporter who'd brought it; so they were out in the yard for some 20 minutes before she bothered to turn up. I should have sent her packing then ........ because she was always late. Late for the farrier, THEN would go  out and get pony in all mucky and expect him to shoe it!!! Late for the vet, who was kept waiting for her again to get pony in. Late for the friend I'd got to clip the pony - and again she'd not bothered to groom it or clean it up first just expected my friend to do it!!! She was a liability. We've always mega looked after professionals like farriers and vets here and NEVER keep anyone waiting or present them with a filty, ill-mannered pony to deal with and this girl just took the biscuit.

THEN, one weekend, she left the pony in and it had finished all of its hay & water; I hadn't a clue where she was, but it later transpired that she'd had to "go up to Scotland on urgent family business). But she hadn't told me or asked me to do anything for the pony, which was shut in for nearly twenty four hours. I had to feed it using my own hay and fodder otherwise it would have had nothing. 

THEN she left the yard, suddenly, one day while she knew I'd be working. I came home and the pony wasn't there, so I instigated a local search thinnking it had somehow got out......... only to receive a text much later that evening saying she'd left the yard (thank god) as it was too far to travel out to my place.

The coup de grace was when she left with her set of keys to the tack room; she said she'd posted them back ....... but it was just a brown paper envelope and I'd asked her to use a padded envelope to make sure they got here. The envelope arrived, but the keys never did - which meant I had to change the locks.

Blimmin woman!!! We've always had fantastic liveries and the one we've got now is a super person with lovely ponies, this one was the exception to the rule, but by god she left a bad taste.

Whoever has got her now must be really cursing their luck and wondering that they've done to deserve her!!!

So yes, this is my "worst experience on a livery yard" unfortunately (albeit my own yard!!).


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## juliag (17 November 2011)

Ha this has dragged up a few memories! How about a yo that is very well known in the showing world, I believe she is now in Gloucestershire but at the time was in a village just outside of Bath. She has a small stud breeding show ponies which were produced by Matthew lawrence. she lived in a gorgeous country house and I kept my daughters sec A with her. Whilst there we bought another sec A from her for another daughter. We went on holiday for a fortnight with her looking after the ponies whilst we were away. She was offering summer grazing to a man called len bigley????? for his show cobs and without me knowing whilst I was away put my 2 section A's into the field she was going to use for his cobs before they arrived. My ponies had never had laminitis but this was seriously good grass and on my return one was down and could not get up with both being very very ill. She wouldnt give me a stable to bring them into and when I 'dared' to complain that my ponies had gone down with very serious laminitis whilst in her care she promptly threw us out....... there and then! LOL Luckily my best friend lived next door and we were able to coax the ponies down the road to her house and into her stables. This woman was a nightmare! Still well known today..... Can I name and shame?? pls?? lol Christ she wouldnt get away with it now! This was about 20 years ago and I was only young....I remember sobbing in her kitchen begging her to let me bring my ponies in to get them off the grass and the cow just told me to take them and leave. What I would give now to have just 5 mins with her to give her a piece of my mind!

oh and another thing she did....... 2 weeks before a big show she would invite the judges to come and spent the weekend in her country house!!!


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## Elbie (17 November 2011)

juliag said:



			Ha this has dragged up a few memories! How about a yo that is very well known in the showing world, I believe she is now in Gloucestershire but at the time was in a village just outside of Bath. She has a small stud breeding show ponies which were produced by Matthew lawrence. she lived in a gorgeous country house and I kept my daughters sec A with her. Whilst there we bought another sec A from her for another daughter. We went on holiday for a fortnight with her looking after the ponies whilst we were away. She was offering summer grazing to a man called len bigley????? for his show cobs and without me knowing whilst I was away put my 2 section A's into the field she was going to use for his cobs before they arrived. My ponies had never had laminitis but this was seriously good grass and on my return one was down and could not get up with both being very very ill. She wouldnt give me a stable to bring them into and when I 'dared' to complain that my ponies had gone down with very serious laminitis whilst in her care she promptly threw us out....... there and then! LOL Luckily my best friend lived next door and we were able to coax the ponies down the road to her house and into her stables. This woman was a nightmare! Still well known today..... Can I name and shame?? pls?? lol Christ she wouldnt get away with it now! This was about 20 years ago and I was only young....I remember sobbing in her kitchen begging her to let me bring my ponies in to get them off the grass and the cow just told me to take them and leave. What I would give now to have just 5 mins with her to give her a piece of my mind!

oh and another thing she did....... 2 weeks before a big show she would invite the judges to come and spent the weekend in her country house!!! 

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Does this persons first name begin with an L?


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## Wagtail (17 November 2011)

Years ago when I was a livery I was at a yard where they only received a small 'ball' of haylage a day which they would eat in under half an hour and the water buckets were only refilled if they had less than 4 inches water in them. I soon left.

I run my own yard now and so have had a fair few strange liveries. The oddest one of all was a couple. The woman was lovely but her husband...OMG what a head case. He treated her like a child and did all her talking for her and talked about her as though she was his little girl. They had a beautiful mare. I couldn't fault her and she was never any trouble. However, they insisted she was only ever turned out with one other horse. I could understand that and willingly obliged. But he managed to find fault with every field companion I tried her with (despite me never witnessing any problems). Finally I put her with the gentlest kindest mare on the yard and informed him that this would be the final time I would change her companion. Well after a week he knocked on my door and accused this lovely mare of being a total maniac that had charged at him with the full intent of killing him! He also insisted that his mare had a certain rug on at a certain date in the year, regardless of the ambient temperature. She was on part livery and so when I found her sweating cobs in her stable one day I changed it to a more appropriate one and he really laid into me for it. The final straw was when I caught him throwing stones at his mares companion every time she tried to reach the hay in the field. I asked him to leave!


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## juliag (17 November 2011)

Elbie said:



			Does this persons first name begin with an L?
		
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No, not an L. a C and a T. Just googled the name of the stud and they have a great website and are obviously doing really well with the Grandchildren. She didnt have grandchildren at the time just a slightly off the rails daughter. To be fair her husband also left her during the time we were at livery with her, He now appears to be back with her.  But she was still the worst kind of ......... 
Maybe she has settled down and is not so bad now, but whilst she was here she had such a reputation you wouldnt believe it! Personally I dont think anyone changes that much so even dispite the '' we are a lovely family run showing yard website.... oh yes they even mention special treatments for laminitis  I still think she is a cow!


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## maggiesmum (17 November 2011)

Some of these are horrendous! I think my worst experience was at a yard where I was the only livery, the YO didn't know a thing about horses but he fancied himself as the next Monty Roberts. He both my 2 in one day so he could fertilise the next door field - he was insistent that they'd been galloping around like lunatics although neither of them showed the slightest hint if it and one had lived 3 years under military airspace and the other had been in similar situations before - I think he was just after an excuse to handle them!
He then went on to tell me how he'd had to stop at the tractor and make them stand next to it to show them how it wasnt scary! 

He fertilised the summer field 3 times in 6 months (needless to say I was planning to move before the following summer!) then once october came he told me not to turn out any more because of the ground even though it wasn't wet, I was buying my haulage and straw from him and then discovered he was buying from the farmer next door and making £5 a bale on it, so no turnout meant more £ in his pocket! 

Just after I left a friend moved there temporarily with a mare and foal, the foal wasn't halter broken and wasn't awfully keen on the idea either, after she'd finally gotten a head collar onto the foal he admitted that he'd had a go and failed! Her car broke down and she asked him to feed and water for a couple of days as she couldn't get there - he weaned the foal while she wasn't there as he decided the mare looked poor, she didn't she just looked broodmare shaped! 

The guy was a nightmare and he hasn't made the connection between his horrendous attitude and his empty yard! 

More recently I was at a lovely farm but the YO put silage in the field (for his old mare who loves it) one day at the end of last winter which resulted in my LGL prone TB having a full blown attack, it wash;t done intentionally but it was blimmin frustrating especially when he didn't even offer so much as a bale of straw despite my horse spending 3 months on box rest. :-/


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## SaharaS (17 November 2011)

Bettyboo222 said:



			On our yard we have no YM or YO anymore just the farmer who doesn't give a ****. So basically we are left to our selves. Last winter me and another girl had a small fall out over something (barely anything) I just left it but said girl chucked a bucket of water over the stable door of my 44 year old when it was -2 and I couldn't get B out of the stable as it was like sheet ice and no one could get in without making the problem worse. (finally got her out when we got some salt) I have never forgiven her for that
		
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I would have done a spot of cryogenic diy on the woman for that...disgraceful behaviour, I hope B was ok x


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## Lark (17 November 2011)

henryhorn said:



			The trick as a YO is to try very hard not to interfere unless absolutely necessary, it's a fine line believe me!
		
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Couldn't agree more. Unbelievably difficult you would need a degree in diplomacy. 


On another point someone mentioned that it was a travesty that they were not allowed to lunge in the indoor as the surface could be damaged...absolutely correct.  Some surfaces are not designed for lunging and repair costs can run into the thousands.

Also this thread definitely reinforces why we do not do DIY ever.


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## The Fuzzy Furry (17 November 2011)

Lark said:



			Couldn't agree more. Unbelievably difficult you would need a degree in diplomacy. 


Also this thread definitely reinforces why we do not do DIY ever.
		
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Me too 

In fact, no liveries at all in my yard now - since last December and am still revelling in the peace etc 

Had some lovely ones but the last 2 outweighed any of the past ones.


If I ever mention 'livery space available' on here will someone bash me over the head & then point me in the direction of this thread?

Cheers


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## FairyLights (17 November 2011)

I had a leather headcollar stolen when I was 12 at one yard. We all knew who did it as she regularly helped herself to stuff but nothing was done as she  denighed all knowledge. At another yard the owner put my arab at grass livery for 2 months I was paying for a stable and paddock! the paddock was 3 ft deep in thick clay in places,it was horrendous. She had a spare stable but had "just put £25 of shavings in as a friend is coming to stay for a week " and I couldnt have the stable until her friend had been to stay. I moved as soon as I found another yard. what a nightmare. I now have my own yard,thank goodness.


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## HBrae2 (17 November 2011)

This thread has answered a question I have wondered about for ages : )
I could never understand why people always say that they want their own place when I think it's lonely to be on your own and not have good facilities / holiday cover / someone to hack with.... I used to think it was because they had never kept their horse at home and though it was all sunny evenings and fun and didn't realise the down sides. NOW I understand totally!!! No wonder people don't want to keep their horses in yards if that kind of thing is going on! - really shocked by the stories of neglect , cruelty or just complete stupidity! I am really, really lucky that I love my yard!!! I hope you all have nice, happy yards now!


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## dunkley (17 November 2011)

I was on one, briefly, where the paddocks were filthy when I arrived.  I spent a whole weekend poo picking until they were immaculate, and continued to do so, daily, for my three.  I couldn't understand why I was getting three full barrows every day (the grass was pretty c**p as well)  until I left and another livery said to me that the YO was turning her four out into my paddock every night when mine had been brought in!


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## hackedoff (17 November 2011)

I v popsted my previous moans... but just remembered I was on a very good yard with a lovely groom. . I warned the groom that to catch my pony he tended to gad around and then run to the gate, if you waited fine, if you walked of you would never catch him. She got fed up of this so she and a 'natural horse expert' threw stones at him as she told me afterwards that they thought he would get tired and so they could catch him . after 1/2 hour they gave up. He was at the time fit enough to do 40 mile endurance rides and yes she coudl nver catch him very easily after that....


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## TopTotty (17 November 2011)

Being the owner and living on!!!!


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## christine48 (17 November 2011)

We had an awful experience at a supposed 'pro event yard' ( he has ridden at 4*). One horse had done 6 novices clear the previous year as a 6 yr old so had a good record. The others were 4 and 5 yr olds. None of the horses ever got any schooling or jumping between events just hacking around the roads by his grooms. They got no feed, only had 2 small nets of haulage twice a day so stood 23 hrs with no food. He'd tell owners he'd ridden the horses or they'd been to the gallops when they hadn't. Wed find the horses with banged swollen  joints which no one noticed . The 4 yr old hardly got ridden at all. Some horses lived out 24/7 no food or  proper work between events and these horses were expected to do novice and above. Some even lived on the horse walker for a week while the fencing in the fields was repaired. We were only there about 4 months and our 6 yr old started losing form, his bloods showed he'd been tying up and was anaemic. The more we saw what was going on the less we liked and we found put the 4 yr old who'd been entered for Houghton YEH hadn't been ridden for 2 weeks and he'd told the grooms not to ride it while he was away abroad for a week but we weren't supposed to find out! That was the final straw we moved them that day, the middle of the month even though we had payed in advance for 3 horses to the end of the month. The man was the most dishonest person we've ever met.


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## Paddy Irish (17 November 2011)

Bettyboo222 said:



			On our yard we have no YM or YO anymore just the farmer who doesn't give a ****. So basically we are left to our selves. Last winter me and another girl had a small fall out over something (barely anything) I just left it but said girl chucked a bucket of water over the stable door of my 44 year old when it was -2 and I couldn't get B out of the stable as it was like sheet ice and no one could get in without making the problem worse. (finally got her out when we got some salt) I have never forgiven her for that
		
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Horrible horrible cow , lets hope that what goes around , comes around.


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## EmmasMummy (17 November 2011)

Ive had things going missing, being used without askign and never returned and feed being nicked.  I got so fed up I got my OH at the time to build me a big lockable tack cupboard and I had all his feed bagged up (as had a sharer and no ligh tin the feed shed) to make it easier and noticed that a few were missing, so I added sugarbeet pellets to a few bags and left them on the top..................The horse didnt get colic, but the person who was nicking my feed (a teen whos dad was LOADED and her horse was worth like 7k with a 2k saddle etc etc etc) gave me evils for weeks.  Serves her grubby theiving mits.


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## soulfull (17 November 2011)

a few 

first one was someone put water in my wellies  haha  I ignored it but then found nuts and bolt in horses feed and those VERY thin food bags in his water   I moved that day!  Fair enough pick a fight with me but so called horse lovers taking out on a horse 

next one went down unexpectedly late one night to find the person I paid to bring my horse in had actually stollen one of his nets of hay and given it to her horse.  (I don't know what made me look in her horses stable??) I do not know how long this had been going on as she obviously used to put the empty net back in my stable   needless to say I took it back and didn't trust her again


I had recently bought a new horse, 17.2hh ISH  he started getting a real handful,  then one of the grooms told me the owner was over feeding him so that I would be afraid of him so she could buy him cheap  I left!
Very long story but I did eventually sell him to her, and haha she couldn't handle him and lost loads of £££


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## miss_c (17 November 2011)

juliag said:



			No, not an L. a C and a T.
		
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Ooh I think I know who you mean... husband is D?  Yard is RRS?


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## HeatherAnn (17 November 2011)

A riding school I used to do work experience in, had a huge livery attached and the stables were so tiny. Someone on our local horsey website was asking about it and when I politely pointed out how small they were some of the liveries there took it upon themselves to send me horrid messages telling me that I had no idea about horse welfare as I wasn't an owner. They also sent me several BHS links with information on how big a stable should be. Even though the stable she put her 16hh hunter in was too small according to the specifications she sent. It also had terrible winter turnout. It was a horrible place, full of bitchiness. While I was working there all the outdoor water troughs froze over and I had to go round and crack the ice. I was told to use my hands and then was refused a towel as my now blue hands were too wet! :/


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## petsywetsy (17 November 2011)

scarymare said:



			Quite apart from all the bitching and stealing worse thing happened to my sister's horse at a REALLY expensive yard in Windsor.  Basically the horses were looked after like kings, fantastic beds etc etc.  BUT what they used to do was as soon as all the liveries had gone home, grooms resurfaced and turned out the whole yard!!! (fantastic post and rail grazing).  Anyway end result was that my sis's horse (16.1 ID x TB) got laminitis and THEN the YM tried to say it was pedalostitis or somesuch.  He never fully recovered.  We were both too young to take it further unfortunately.
		
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UH oh...... I found out my full livery (v. expensive livery) pony was living out - supposed to be in at night etc.  One yard was in Windsor (same as yours?) and another one was near Fulmer in Bucks.

Recently, I rode on Sunday and then the following Friday.  My tack was exactly as I had left it - dirty etc. and stirrups my length on the Friday.  Thing was I was full livery and he was supposed to be exercised Mon-Friday!!!!

Its shocking that you just can't trust the yards!!  I have had a pony ridden by others when I wasn't there and other nightmare scenarios.  And all these yard owners have the cheek to say that liveries are difficult?!


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## HOYSbabe (16 October 2013)

Just had a really bad experience. Been riding for the past 36 years. Owned horses for the past 33 years. Competed in most disciplines. The last livery experience led me to pick up a dictionary and look up the phrases "bullying", "intimidation", "exclusion" and "harassment". What sad people. Hence, I turned around and departed quickly. What is happening to the horse community? It is very sad and totally unnecessary.


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## Arizahn (16 October 2013)

Last yard was a bit unpleasant which surprised me as had been there before and loved it  But not everyone on it was the same - some are still lovely, and one helped me find my new yard, which is wonderful! 

So don't be put off, chin up and look around - there are great yards out there too!


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## poops (16 October 2013)

Had YM storm up to me screaming that I could burn down the whole yard smoking in the stables & leaving matches on the ground.

When I calmly replied that I don't & have never smoked, or carry matches around with me she went mad!

Also was at a yard that had a really awful boggy field. YO said she had moved her horse out of this field as it was totally unsuitable but she would be swapping my pony into it while hers took mine!


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## flurryjuno (16 October 2013)

Had a pony on loan at a yard, YO bought the pony of the owner whilst I still had her for his riding school and came down the next day as I was tacking up telling me not to touch her and if I really wanted to ride her I would have to pay Broke my heart, but told that was a common thing at the livery yard afterwards.


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## Spot_the_Risk (16 October 2013)

Blimey, some of you have really been through the mill!  Years since I've been in livery and never had any bad problems, but many people come into our shop with awful tales of livery yards.


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## YorksG (16 October 2013)

flurryjuno said:



			Had a pony on loan at a yard, YO bought the pony of the owner whilst I still had her for his riding school and came down the next day as I was tacking up telling me not to touch her and if I really wanted to ride her I would have to pay Broke my heart, but told that was a common thing at the livery yard afterwards.
		
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Not actually the fault of the YO IMO, rather of the person who loaned you the pony and then sold it out from under you!


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## flurryjuno (16 October 2013)

YorksG said:



			Not actually the fault of the YO IMO, rather of the person who loaned you the pony and then sold it out from under you!
		
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You're right. I got the pony through the YO as he knew the owner, it makes sense now! I was 10/11 at the time though and very shy and parents weren't on the yard, being hauled away from the pony and being told was a bit of a shock


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## Antw23uk (16 October 2013)

Possibly not a good idea telling this story but like on the day I'm in a cheeky mood so what the hell 
We had an 'all the gear, no idea' very well spoken women at our yard. She owned an ex racer and it was a kicker through and through ... She wouldnt accept this even though it would regulary threaten to kick her and she would politely ask it not to and tell him he was a naughty boy ect .... You get the idea 

Anyway we had always kind of got on, I didnt like her horse so although I didnt go round telling everyone because its not my style I didnt lie if I was asked 

Anyway one day I went down and her horse was tied up outside my stable with my loan mare inside. She was pretty unhinged (the mare) and I couldnt do anything with her in the stable otherwise she would have potentially killed me so I asked 'all the gear, no idea' to move her horse so I could get on with my mucking out etc .... Well my god she absolutley lost the plot and this 'all the gear, no idea' posh talker turned into a foul mouthed gutter rat and the language was unbelievable (turns out the fat ugly YM daughter took great delight in telling her I 'hated' her horse... Personally couldnt care less about the horse, lol) ...... Needless to say I was up for the challenge so I went hell for leather and what ensued was an almightly slanging match across the yard with all the letters of the alphabet being used with much venum  I just found the whole thing hillarious to be honest and she ended up crying and screaming abuse at the very people who went to her aid when she started sobbing .... She told them all exactly what she thought of us all which made them stick two fingers up at helping her and they left her to it.

I know I shouldnt have egged the situation and I could have avoided the whole thing knowing she was spoiling for a fight which was the whole reason she tied her horse up outside my stable knowing I would ask her to move! But I'm immature and slightly evil and felt like a bit of fun. Still makes me laugh now


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## splashnutti1 (16 October 2013)

have never been a livery but have worked on livery yards, one lady i worked for was terrible, all were full livery and some required special feeding which they never got, any special food brought by owners was given to her horses! Stables were often left dirty on the day i didnt go in so that mucking out on my day was twice the work. horse often had little water as she said to much water caused them to wet the beds more, same for hay less equaled less muck! She was drunk everyday and often forgot to feed or complete basic tasks!

her answer to everything was to give the horses a good hiding with anything to hand, 3 worst experiences were 1. a pony in for breaking wouldnt lunge, she took it in to small yard and hit it with a lunge whip till it panicked, in the process caught it in the eye, horse eventually lost its eye, she told owners it hurt it in the field. (i left shortly after this) 2. a young horse which used to kick the door got hit round the head with a poop a scoop several times ( i was a bad employee and snitched to owner about this as she was lovely and she moved him!!) 3. one horse had to wear bioflow boots at night, i was off for a week came back boots hadnt been removed for a week and when i took them off skin came with them so she just plastered with suda cream which then shavings stuck to and caused infection, took me ages to sort them out! There was so much more!! 

I did what i could to improve conditions on the days i was there mon- thurs and sat she was off fri and wed, but didnt stay in this job long (couldnt leave till i found another job)and when i left told everyone exactly how she was, soon after her business went under. she bad mouthed me everywhere but no one took notice thank goodness!

Also took someone on as a favour to a freind as a livery on my own land, she was a psycho!! her horse had come from different places and cost different price every week and one day she told me she used to be a man and had gone throught the sex change and i should treat her different because of this ( untrue as lady i know knew her in school) one day she had an illness which caused her dodgy neck next day it was caused by a fall!! when i asked her to leave she told everyone my partner had made sexual advances at her! he never came to yard she saw him from a distance...once!!! wierdo!! 

folk are strange lol! so glad i have my own place


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## shannonandtay (16 October 2013)

Interesting reading and I can relate to a lot of it and I've only had ours for 18months.  I won't go into details as some of it concerns someone with very worrying tendencies to harm animals, and I thought i'd seen it all growing up on a rough council estate in east London but believe me nothing compares to some livery yards lol


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## Megibo (16 October 2013)

Blimey just read the whole thread- and I thought some of my experiences were bad!


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## MiJodsR2BlinkinTite (16 October 2013)

PitPony said:



			When I was younger witnessing two women in their 40s chucking water buckets at each other in a fight over something to do with their daughters ponies!
		
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Sorry, just read this!!! Ha ha ha, laffing me head off. That must have been HILARIOUS (plus - sorry its the way my mind works - oh I dunno, a tad kinky too???)


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## susi (16 October 2013)

Megibo said:



			Blimey just read the whole thread- and I thought some of my experiences were bad!
		
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exactly what i thought. mine seem so silly now 

ive had the normal things being knicked etc. the worst was when i was 17 (to many years ago to remember now) i kept my 2 on a working farm. 1 was at the top end of a line of 10 stables. the bloke (cant even remember his name now) was the other end. when i was taking hay etc to the stables in winter it would blow around (like obviously, i dont use nets). he used to get so pissy with me that hed sweep up and add fertilizer to the hay and chuck it into my horses to eat!! 

I had an agreement when my 2 mares were youngsters for the owner of the yard i was in to bring on my 3 year old as i was doing my gcses and i didnt want her to stop progressing. i said not to touch my 2 year old as i was going to start her late at 5 when my exams were over. i went up there to see my 2 year old tacked up being lunged with dogs all around her legs. then to my horror his daughter got on her!!!! im was livid. i stormed upto him with my mum and we went balistic. then returned to the yard to find my 3 year olds head tied with side reigns so tight she couldnt move!!! we left the following day. this is the same yard that had my mum and me doing maintenance as their horse trashed a fance.

the other bad story is when my mares were 7 months and 2. we had a phone call about 8am saying that the woman that owned the stables had called the police as someone had been prowling around my horses (they were the only horses). this happened in the middle of the night but she didnt want to wake us up!!!!! again we moved that day. it was a comedy act as my brother was sat there with a cricket bad, mum a baseball bat and me a lead rope to wack anyone that even thought about trying anything with my gals hehe

susi x


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## Pigeon (16 October 2013)

Equilibrium Ireland said:



			Not trying to be rude here, but single horse owners always seem to gave special needs horses.
		
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We have multiple special needs horses


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## fattylumpkin (16 October 2013)

On the subject of kids I don't normally mind toddlers or youngsters on the yard  I've known a lot of parents who've managed to keep one eye on their kids and one on the horses, though I'm in awe as to how they manage it!

And then you get that one parent who treats the yard like a kind of free babysitting service.  When I was 17 we had one woman who'd come find me in whichever stable I was busy mucking out, chat a bit, then sneak off leaving her 8 year old son behind with me.  Old enough he wasn't really a bother but still too young to be left on his own like that.  His mum would just head off on a hack and naturally I couldn't go ride my horse and just leave her son behind.  But she was one of those women with a very forceful personality who'd talk over you, and back then I was so shy I couldn't say peep to a mouse.  Eventually she moved to a neighbouring yard that was posh enough for her darling horses.

The bright side was that her son was extremely helpful, he was desperate to please and if you told him good job and said thankyou he'd be over the moon.  Then the minute he was back with his mum he'd play her up constantly so you could hear her screeching at him even from the fields.


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