Looking for some insights/ideas about a dilemma I have. I have a 29 year old horse and recently had to move to a new livery yard due to the one I was at being sold for building land.
There isn't a lot of choice of yards in my area and I didn't want my old horse to have to travel too far. This yard has recently been purchased by a relatively young couple who seemed very nice at first (as they often do!). Recently the cracks have been beginning to show and all the liveries have issues with the new owners. Things like lack of bedding so I am having to buy shavings even though I am paying the yard for this (they won't do DIY), horses running out of hay by 7pm when they're in at night, turnout time being gradually reduced each week, the female owner being miserable and rude, the usual stuff! So, I am not overly happy with the yard, but loathe to move my oldie again. The liveries are all really lovely and 100% look after their horses.
On top of this is my real dilemma. I caught the female owner using an illegal glue trap to catch mice and rats. I had gone into the feed room and could hear this awful squealing noise but couldn't tell where it was coming from. The owner came into the feed room to put her tack away (her tack room is next to the feed room) and I asked what the noise was. I was told me it was a stuck mouse and pointed to a poor mouse stuck on a glue trap. She had an evil smirk on her face and said to it, 'Good, I've got you.' I was so upset by this that I walked out in tears.
I then looked into use of glue traps online and found out they were banned in the UK in 2024, but it's not illegal to sell them, just to use them! Only professional pest controllers who have been awarded a permit can use them, and only in very specific circumstances. The penalty for use is up to 6 months in prison. In addition anyone who finds one and fails to disable it is committing an offence. Also, if you know someone is using them illegally and you don't report it you are also committing an offence.
About a week later I heard the same noise coming from the feed room and went to investigate. She had left her tack room door open and I found yet another mouse stuck to a glue trap (at this point I hadn't looked into how to release them so failed to act, which I feel dreadful about). One of the other liveries caught me in tears again and when I told her why she said the yard owner had told her they were catching the rodents in a humane way and releasing them into the woods behind the yard.
I know rodents are pests, but the traps are illegal because they are considered to be hugely cruel, and affect wildlife and pets as well. My last yard managed the vermin by keeping everything clean and previous yards have had dogs/cats to keep the vermin down.
My horse was recently been given a clean bill of health by my vet so I feel she could travel further and cope with a yard move, but it seems unfair on her. On the other hand I am having to buy my own bedding (which was recently stolen by the owner - actually from the bed! - to use in another horse's stable). Meanwhile my poor old horse has a thin and damp bed :(
I also feel that if this woman thinks it's fine to let a mouse suffer, what happens with the horses when no-one is there? I know she's hit one of the livery horses a few times and there was an incident where her friend was riding her (the yard owner's) horse and he was booting the horse in the ribs with spurs and jabbing it in the mouth.
I know the shavings were moved from my horse's bed as I buy Bedmax and the yard uses small flake shavings. I put a new bale in on Saturday and couldn't work out why the bed looked really thin and tiny by Tuesday (the bed was big on Sunday morning - the liveries muck out etc. at weekends). I then happened to go and stroke the horse opposite and noticed my large flakes in her bed! I am friends with this lady so I let her know that her horse was getting my second hand bedding - she then went out and bought us both some shavings as I work full time, saying that the beds were very low when she was there in the morning. We are on full livery five days a week and the bedding is supposed to be included. I don't think there is any point saying anything as they will lie and just make things even more awkward than they are.
The mucking out is appalling and I recently had to take out four barrows of crap from the bed (while getting over Covid) and then make up a decent bed with my own shavings. One full livery person is now doing her own mucking out even though she is paying for full livery.
The water is topped up even if the remaining water is dirty and the water buckets are only cleaned when the liveries do it. One horse pooed in his water bucket and the water was just topped up, so he was expected to drink liquid poo!
But my real issue is that I feel I should report the illegal goings on, although I don't have proof but will take photos if I come across any more traps (and then disable them and release any wildlife). I feel I should start looking for another yard, but realistically that could take a while. But what do I do in the meantime?
I am at the yard every evening to make sure my oldie is okay. I will start turning up at odd times, unexpectedly. Especially on days when they are supposed to have new bedding (by my estimation I think the yard is putting in 1/3 of a bale each week!). I make up my own feeds (the yard is supposed to provide a 'basic' feed in the price but it's just a big bucket of chaff so I buy my own feed as well) so I go into the feed room each night and sometimes the tack room door is left open, so I can check for glue traps. I have also purchased some of those smelly balls which I'll put down in an effort to deter any wildlife and vermin. I have also put a post asking for shavings recommendations as the Bedmax 'goes down so quickly' on the local riders' FB page - hoping the yard owner will read and realise that I know what she is doing!
Any suggestions re getting the glue traps reported/discovered without her knowing it's me that's reported it? Don't want to have a homeless 29 year old horse.
Also, any suggestions re how to deal with the bedding issue? I have thought about maybe asking to put down Sorbeo or similar and just getting them to skip out in the week, but I am supposed to be getting bedding included in my livery price.
Sorry, this post is long but I think I needed to rant a bit!