We have 2 mares, 1 retired and 1 DD rides.
We were at what was a lovely yard for years, then the husband and wife owners split up and it all went mad. It got unbearable so 3 weeks ago we moved to what appeared to be a lovely yard with a really lovely yard owner.
We pay for 2 x full livery which is supposed to include a paddock per livery. We agreed at the start that they’d share and we’d rotate between our 2 paddocks. We now want the 2nd paddock - was told he was saving the spare ones for his horses.
He has a side business selling bedding and feed. We tried his bedding, didn’t like it so went back to the type we’ve always used - he’s now told us we can’t, we have to use his bedding (not told anything about using his bedding at the start, no written contract)
He has another horse which was at a different yard when we moved in. Horse is now at our yard and has taken a liking to DD’s riding pony. YO’s horse won’t come in if ours are not in. If YO does manage to get it in or we put ours out earlier, horse kicks the shit out of its stable - honestly, there’s huge holes in the bloody roof!!!
YO has now announced that we cannot put our horses out before 8am and must bring them in before 6pm - we’re at work during the day, we put them out about 7am and depending on work bring them in anytime after 6:30pm. We made it clear to him when we looked round the yard these were our hours and he was fine with it (he lives on site so we wanted to be clear that we’d be there early). Weekend we can accommodate him, but weekdays we can’t.
He’s told us we make their beds at the wrong end of the stable, he doesn’t like where we put their water buckets. He goes through our stuff - he told me the other day he’d been reading the ingredients on the back of a supplement we use and he sold something cheaper so we should buy it from him rather than the vet we currently buy it from. It’s in our cupboard. He rearranged the rugs we have hanging up.
So yesterday DD went to the yard with a friend. We asked him when we looked round if he was OK with DD being there on her own/or with a friend and he said it was fine. DD is 14 and quiet and sensible, as is her friend.
DD got her pony in, groomed her and tacked her up - his horse started to kick off in the field so YO had to come out of his house. DD and friend rode DD’s pony in the school for an hour, hosed her down, turned her back out. YO’s horse then calmed down.
DD and her friend mucked out/did all the jobs so we just needed to bring them in last night, then they got the bus home. They were there about 3 hours all in.
She said there was a livery in the school when they got there but they finished pretty soon after she got there, the other livery was out on a hack when DD got there and came back while they were mucking out (there’s 3 liveries including us). No one else was there.
I go up there last night and the YO tells me that DD isn’t allowed to use the school during the day anymore - I asked why, it was the school holidays, of course she wanted to ride, was she misbehaving. YO replied no, but bringing pony in during the day meant his horse kicked off and pulled down some electric fences. I asked what his plans were for when DD took horse off for a competition this weekend? Or she fancied a hack - he replied that we needed to give him ample notice if we wanted to take DD’s pony out so he could make plans. I told him that wasn’t possible but if I saw him on the yard I’d do my best to let him know of any plans
So, were looking at another yard this Sunday.
But, it’s only been 3 weeks. They’ve both taken a while to settle and I don’t want to keep moving from yard to yard, but he’s not being reasonable right? Friends have been on yards with pretty mad rules and crazy micromanagement but I can’t see we’ve done anything wrong