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Yard Manager......sigh !

14 replies

princesspuds · 28/03/2014 17:04

Apologies in advance if this goes on a bit.

I currently have a miniature horse on a yard which is just DIY and we do everything for him, I have also had experience working on livery yards and at riding schools in the past.

The landlady has made another owner "yard manager", herein lies the problem.

This manager seems to think that she has every right to tell people what to do with regards to how they look after their horses, she told me that she threw some hay into my horses stable as he was shivering and looked cold, despite us constantly asking for people not to feed him as he is so small and we didn't want him getting fat.

She seems to have an opinion about everything and pokes her nose into everyone else's horsy business to the extent of drawing up a worming plan and telling us what products to use even though we are up to date and telling us what we need to buy for our horses.

Her husband does odd jobs on the yard and I suspect they are getting a reduced livery rate which I don't mind but they think they are better than everyone else on the yard, they allow their kids to run all over the place unsupervised and constantly smoke on the yard and in the stables, he was ranting today about the fact that the landladys father had come onto the yard and had shouted at his wife about yard stuff yesterday and he has taken exception to it by saying that people need to go through his wife as she is the manager etc not go to the landlady, I suspect that the definition of yard manager has not been clearly defined and they don't know what is expected of her.

When she initially came to the yard, she didn't even have a horse but she bought one from an owner who was on the yard and then bitched about him until he left, she claims to be very knowledgeable about all things equine due to the fact she had a horse when she was a child.

Would I be unreasonable to tell her to jog on and mind her own business bearing in mind that I am an owner and customer and imo, all she is there for is to make sure the yard stays tidy.

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Booboostoo · 28/03/2014 17:57

Well it depends.

A lot of yards have a compulsory worming schedule, whether DIY or not, as it's the only way to manage worms with larger numbers of horses and some horses coming and going - I think this is rather sensible. A lot of yards insist on buying and administering the wormers as well otherwise it doesn't get done by everyone. What do you mean by telling you what products to use? Everyone should be using the same active ingredient, especially if the yard has had positive worm tests, but she can't insist on the brand unless she buys bulk (at a better price).

YMs have a legal duty of care so I can imagine some circumstances where she would be justified in feeding hay. Was your pony shivering? That would be an odd thing for a pony to be doing in a stable, he should be warmer. Low energy hay is the best thing for a mini, it keeps their digestive system working without giving them the blast of grass or hard feed. You may want to try a double hole hay net to ensure the pony's hay lasts through the night.

Children running around, smoking and people screaming sounds like an awful yard environment but I think your only choice here is to move.

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Deborah51 · 28/03/2014 18:23

I know a few people like your yard manager, can quote everything from a book but no common sense, as long as your up to date with wormer, jabs, dentist farrier etc absolutely tell her to jog on or mayb try and find somewhere else, difficult situation , no one wants to be in an atmosphere??

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princesspuds · 28/03/2014 18:48

Sounds like I've drip fed a bit, all owners at the yard are responsible for keeping up to date with their worming, jabs etc, she has no say in the actual care of the horses as the owners all do everything for their horses, the yard itself is at at a house which has some stables attached so not an established yard iykwim, just a field and paddock and about 12 stables, just a place where the landlady makes a bit of extra income, the yard is a nice place apart from her, everyone minds their own business apart from her.

Boo, I don't know if he was shivering but he had a massive amount of hay in there which was too much for a miniature imo, his stable is one big stable but divided in 2 so 2 miniatures are in there, it has 2 entrances/exits, one is a metal gate and the other is the conventional stable door, my horse has the stable door and the other horse has the metal gate, so it can get blowy but the weather wasn't really cold.

WRT the worming, as far as I know there haven't been any positive test results at the yard, but it appears that when something happens with her horse, she goes barking orders at everyone telling them what they have to do, even if their horses have no contact with hers.

I have just been told by another owner that the YM got right into the face of her and yelled at her to respect her as she was the YM, her child aged about 8 then yelled at the owner to "leave the f-ing yard ! "

She even got the landlady to buy her a hoodie with YM printed on the back, she just appears to be on a power trip, .

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Amandine29 · 28/03/2014 18:57

She sounds unhinged and the situation seems unworkable. I would be looking for another yard asap!

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Deborah51 · 28/03/2014 20:51

Arnt Horses Fun!!!!!!

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Pixel · 28/03/2014 21:09

It sounds awful, I couldn't put up with that. We have one woman who would jump at the chance of wielding a bit of power, in fact when she arrived she informed us all she was going to be 'managing' us all. She didn't get very far with that luckily but it doesn't stop her trying to throw her weight around.
Can you get together with the other liveries and tell the owner that you don't want to have her in charge of you, and that you have your horses on DIY so that you get to decide on aspects relating to your horses' welfare, not somebody else? Maybe even say that if your pony gets laminitis as a result of the extra feeding you will be holding her responsible for any vet bills etc.

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Pixel · 28/03/2014 21:11

Also say that if the place goes up in flames you will know who is responsible. Smoking in the yard should be a big no-no for any owner.

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princesspuds · 30/03/2014 16:19

Well I have an update !!

I went up the yard this morning, put my pony in the paddock and noticed my feed, hay and other stuff wasn't in it's usual place, so I messaged ym asking if she knew who moved it.

She replied that it was her husband who moved it as it was getting wet (it wasn't) and that they were going to put a tool rack there even though there is plenty of room elsewhere for a rack to go, I had specifically asked the landlady if I could put my stuff there as stuff kept being dumped in front of it or my stuff was being moved in the other barn.

We moved our stuff back and I messaged the ym saying the stuff had been moved back and it was staying there and it wasn't her place to move things which weren't hers.

Cue a phone call from ym demanding why am I giving her attitude, she is the ym and I have to do as she says, I tell her she couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery and her husband is effing and blinding. shouting that he is going to get me kicked off the yard.

I've gone to pay my livery to the landlady and give her the heads up and show her the messages as ym is on her way, when she arrives.

She is ranting like a deranged banshee saying she is ym and I tell her she can't move stuff around which belongs to other people without asking, she says she can do what she wants and it was being moved to make a tool rack as a horse had been injured by stepping on a pitchfork and stuff needed to be put away, I then said that as ym that it was her job to ensure there was no risks to the horses.

Her husband has got out of his car and is swearing at shouting at dp about his wife being ym, he then threatened to hit me and got right up in my face, dp had got out of the car so I got between them in case he hit dp (im a bouncer btw) and shoved me and dp, we never responded, he then got back in his car and he then said he was going to find out where I lived.

I apologised to my landlady and her husband who had witnessed all this, needless to say, they are unimpressed with the aggression shown by the husband. Hopefully they will leave soon.

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PigletJohn · 30/03/2014 16:27

you ought to complain about the smoking.

Absolute no-no.

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Ohbyethen · 30/03/2014 17:00

It's definitely time for the landlords to step up here. The usual politics and mild argy bargy can often be managed perfectly well with a hands off approach in the main if you have good ground rules in place so everyone knows where they stand. A yard full of adults don't need to be running to management because of a few pfh gripes & 'horsey people' personality clashes.
But this is beyond the pale. I'm sure you're aware you're within your rights to report to the police? That behaviour is unacceptable, the duty of care to the horses and clients is not being upheld & horses are being put at actual risk and in terms of business sense - well it doesn't fill you with confidence.
I'm sure the landlords are lovely but sometimes lovely doesn't cut it. It's a shame they have been let down so badly but this should have been firmly nipped in the bud.
I'm sorry you got a load of abuse too, you've probably seen ten worse than him before breakfast with your job but it doesn't make it less unpleasant.
Butting heads about wormers is a bit different to assault I think!

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princesspuds · 30/03/2014 17:15

Well the yard owners are going to go back to how everything was before with everyone chipping in wrt the yard being kept tidy etc and everyone being equal, I honestly don't think they even thought there would be this amount of disharmony over someone who was on a major power trip

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BelleateSebastian · 30/03/2014 17:32

Christ on a bike! Hopefully they'll be booted off pdq!

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QOD · 30/03/2014 17:52
Shock
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Fathertedfan · 30/03/2014 20:42

Good lord. Either this woman needs kicking off the yard and taking her awful husband with her, or I'd give notice and get the hell out of it myself.

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