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Post by jen1 on Dec 14, 2011 11:55:34 GMT 1
sad fact is that equestrian places just don't have enough land, when i was building this place i could have had 30 stables and still have enough land for year round turn out, but i chose to keep it small and personal and good quality, and as i always say you get what you pay for, my place is empty bar 1 because there are lots of livery yards packing then in cheap and people dont seem to care what happens to the horses, its a given round here that horses stay in in winter, i only use my stables during the day whan it proven they sleep more and when i can keep beds totally clean, thats not to say customers cant do things there way,
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Post by cbc on Dec 14, 2011 12:35:27 GMT 1
Its often about getting the customers in then thinking about land management if t is thought about at all in SOME yards. Pound signs are being seen more than horse welfare if you see what I mean.
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amber
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Post by amber on Dec 14, 2011 13:52:49 GMT 1
Can sympathize with you, as we're in the same boat really 2B'sand a G,.. we've been so restricted these passed 2/3 weeks because of the amount of rain that's hit us and severely restricted turnout.. When i first went on this yard it was all year turnout and last winter we were restricted to half days only (am or pm i.e. 4 hours).
The land is drenched through and simply cannot cope with the amount of rainfall we've had lately... i hate it that my boy has had to stay in so much. When i finish work it's been so bad i've not been able to ride either so he's had pretty much no 'work' exercise these passed 2 weeks, other than a wizz round on the end of the lunge to get rid of the 'exuberance' that's built up....
....And it looks like we're in for yet another unsettled/windy/snowy/haily/cold end to the week too,..so the outlook isn't too good either... /:
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dingbat
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Post by dingbat on Dec 14, 2011 14:05:23 GMT 1
There wouldnt be such land management problems if YOs didnt insist on having 10 horses on 10 acres (or less). IMO the MAIN priority for the horse is turnout. Ok, maybe horses have to be stabled at night in winter (to help grass) but daily turnout is a must for welfare. If you cant manage your land - dont have the horses on it. End of. No wonder so many horses have behavioural problems.
But i too have had people go back on their word. One time i was promised a sand paddock for my laminitic and only after arriving did they change their minds and expect him to go out on a field that no way would i have ever put him in for an hour, let alone longer. Its very frustrating having a horse with needs and having to try to comply with livery yards. Some have very bizarre rules. But in the main i've actually been lucky with the places i've been to and i've always had daily winter turnout. I would definitely consider finding somewhere more suitable.
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Post by specialized on Dec 14, 2011 15:05:39 GMT 1
In some areas there seems to be much more demand than supply, which means there will be loads of farms jumping on the livery bandwagon for the money. A lot of the time you are dealing with landowners who do not have a clue about looking after the welfare of the horse, and really the only way to educate them is not to use them - but then you have the problem of where to go. Catch 22.
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Post by 2 bays & a grey:D on Dec 14, 2011 15:14:32 GMT 1
In some areas there seems to be much more demand than supply, which means there will be loads of farms jumping on the livery bandwagon for the money. A lot of the time you are dealing with landowners who do not have a clue about looking after the welfare of the horse, and really the only way to educate them is not to use them - but then you have the problem of where to go. Catch 22. Exactly what we were all saying at the yard last night
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amber
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Post by amber on Dec 14, 2011 15:49:25 GMT 1
.....we should vote with our feet then eh??....or our hooves should i say.... LOL
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Post by lilaclomax on Dec 14, 2011 16:16:41 GMT 1
I can completely understand the YO's point of view when it comes to protecting the land but, they are living in the land of the pixies if they believed their clients would not remember the promises made I have been thinking a lot about my two's turnout this last few days, up until the end of last week my field was coping well with being halved and the fencing being moved by 7' weekly and alternating sides. With this rountine I was due to run out of grass in the first week of February when I would up their hay supply and completely rest one half of the field until April... now with the heavy rain and the sodden ground without respite the land is starting to suffer nearest the ponds and even along the hedge row there is no let up from the squelching! As a result I have been letting them onto the rested grazing overnight and feeding hay during the day... but if the ground doesn't dry out by Christmas then I may have to resort to bringing in overnight.
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steve
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Post by steve on Dec 14, 2011 20:53:26 GMT 1
Well I went to look at a livery yard a few years ago and I was told as much turnout as we wanted and there were LOTS of lovely fields around the yard so we moved there from a full livery yard run by Hitlers long lost (separated at birth) twin!! Well, moved there only to find out the lying witch had ONE tiny paddock that was about half an acre big and it had at most 3 blades of grass one it!! The fields she had pointed to belonged to a neighbour and not her!! Had to stay there 2 months til we found a better yard but the horses were allowed out everyday in the swamp - OH EXCEPT Mondays!! As hers went out on a Monday (stayed in 24/7 the other 6 days!!).
Yard owners are generally a law unto themselves and usually completely NUTS!!!!!
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Post by specialized on Dec 14, 2011 21:12:41 GMT 1
Yard owners are generally a law unto themselves and usually completely NUTS!!!!! Thanks steve , but where would you keep your horses without us?
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Post by muddy boots on Dec 14, 2011 21:27:38 GMT 1
Its ok if when all the grass is dead and gone liveries can move to another yard leaving the yard to reseed and the fields will be out of action longer.I have known some people who rent a field for the winter,churn it up so its good for nothing and then move on somewhere else in the spring!If bringing horses off wet ground means preserving it thats much better in the long term.Its called land management!
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steve
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Post by steve on Dec 14, 2011 22:26:24 GMT 1
Yard owners are generally a law unto themselves and usually completely NUTS!!!!! Thanks steve , but where would you keep your horses without us? Well hopefully with someone that says what they mean and means what they say!! Lol - Obviously I am being flippant but some yard owners really are bonkers!! Lol Luckily we are at a yard currently thank goodness that the YO has the horses best interests at heart - fields always recover no matter how bad they look in winter - rest does them the world of good.
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Post by shan on Dec 14, 2011 22:34:25 GMT 1
I'm quite glad our fields are getting churned up, might get rid of some of the weeds! I feel bad about Ginge being in at night for a few nights until her new shelter's built, but she'd go stir crazy without being out as much as possible. Thanks to the mild November I still have half a field to strip graze - after that it's piles of hay and a boggy mess - and I agree Steve, they always recover just fine
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Post by suzirock on Dec 14, 2011 22:48:46 GMT 1
In some areas there seems to be much more demand than supply, which means there will be loads of farms jumping on the livery bandwagon for the money. A lot of the time you are dealing with landowners who do not have a clue about looking after the welfare of the horse, and really the only way to educate them is not to use them - but then you have the problem of where to go. Catch 22. Not sure I entirely agree with this - in my experience farms/farmers/landowners have far more respect for and knowledge of their own land and hence try to look after it as best they can, a lot of them are also stock men and try and offer the best solution for horses and their owners. Again, in my experience, its the yards run by horsey people that have the worst horse to acre ratio, with over grazed paddocks and no winter turnout.
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Post by specialized on Dec 14, 2011 22:54:33 GMT 1
I'm quite glad our fields are getting churned up, might get rid of some of the weeds! I think you will find it does exactly the opposite, once the sward is broken it allows the weed seeds to germinate and proliferate.
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