You spend time looking around and finally you think you have found a livery yard that suits your needs and that of your horses. I found myself in this position around 18 months ago in 2006, I arrived at a yard to be told it was a working progress, okay so the yard wasn't as good as most I had been to but it seemed friendly and there was potential if as said it was a working progress. The arena was flooded but I was told that was being taken care of, it did get drainage put in later but the old stones and muck was laid back on top and before long the flooding was back. I also noticed in winter the ground was like concrete which was disheartening as winter is one time when the arena is very useful.
One a good note the fields all had post and rail fencing as opposed to barbed wire and sheep fencing, We had a secure place for our carriage though the two stables in there were flooded about 6 inches deep in water when it rained and I often had to wade in to my feed which luckily I had on Pallets. we were given a choice of stables and took one that turned out well as when I bought my hackney we got the stable next door as well.
It is strange though how little things start to emerge and yet you say nothing and amble on, things can irritate you but again you say nothing to keep the peace and just get on with day to day life. You think to yourself, maybe its not to bad, but are you trying to kid yourself or staying away from confrontation?
At first it was things like seeing a horse being led with a chain around its nose and a stick to control it, a mare being teased with the stallion its its stable. Now that may sound fine but when there is a overhang and the visiting mare rears and bangs her head, that is a different story. However I say nothing, it would only cause ill feeling and it is their procedure.
Now if you know me you will know I am a stickler for tidiness, I like things where they should be and everything safe from hazards. So you can imagine what was going through my head when I'd clean up all around my stables only for 30min later someone to go past with a wheelbarrow and leave a thick trail of straw behind them just where I had cleaned up. Now that wouldn't have bothered me if they had of came and cleared up after them but they never did.
Talking of wheelbarrows I would every day see half or full barrows just left all around the yard, a few stables half mucked out, forks and brushes left everywhere lying around or proped up againt a wall. I thought this was just temporary but no this was as good as it got. When friends came they often commented on how the only tidy place on the yard was at my two stables. How interesting...
The working progress I was expecting never materialised. We were told we'd get an extention of the already half built roofing at the side of the stable but that never came about, instead we used tarp to protect our hay and straw from the elements, the round pen ended up being erected in the path leading to the fields and used as turn out. Then on one of the narow paths around the round pen there were 5 large square wooden posts dumped and this meant a safety hazard. What if a horse got its foot in between two of the posts and tripped, panicked, the risk of injury and the extent of it was not a nice thought... there was also kids toys wedged inbetween the posts.
Now I know you have to have some leniency especially with kids, you can't be military and expect 100% tidiness but when you want to go in the arena (when you could get in) and had to move bikes first or move bikes to get to your feed or carriage then it gets tedious.
I started to realise that I went from enjoying being at the yard to waking each day thinking "Oh lordy I have to go to the yard" It was not a pleasent feeling to be thinking so negative and once there I did what I needed to and left.
Things came to a head when the husband took ill and the yard really did deteriate, weeds 4 ft high covered the 2ft wide pathway to the muck heap which was originally about 8-10 foot wide, weeds again 4ft high in the paddocks, the arena with 2 ft piles of manure left for weeks. Fields rarely poo picked apart form my paddock which was done every day as only my horses were in there. One day I sat and watched a mare with a foal pushing manure out of the way to get to the meagre grass. Dog poo around my hay and straw, my horses obviously not really happy, tolerant but not happy especially my hackney who the yard owner was afraid of and would upset him. All this is a mere fraction of everything that went on, but that is another novel.
After a year I was fed up and started looking around for another yard, but you know what its like, you keep thinking maybe it will get better, who was I kidding. One day I was told I could no longer use a field to drive my pony which was another agreement we had, well that was just what I needed. The push in the right direction to leave and so I told the yard owner "You leave me no choice but to look for somewhere else" and look I did.
I eventually told a great big white lie, why? Because everytime someone on the yard left they would face a hysterical screaming fit of abuse from the yard owner with language so blue that it turned the air thick with poison, but then bad language was her native tongue. and to be honest it was somehting I could do without. My partner told her I was going to work on a horsemanship yard when in fact I wasn't, it was just a motive to try and leave on a good note and not have the hysteria.
Oh dear! One day I just couldn't escape it, yes the air turned to poison in a nano second, with words of F**K, arms all erractic of a mad woman, spit flying like a torrential rain fall and accusations like that of a play ground kid. What did I do? I stayed focused and calm even though I was then accused of being cocky just because I would not raise to her temper and retaliate. All I did do was remain composed and calm and ask "Why are you shouting"? Well you can imagine the reaction I got to that. There was two lasses on the yard at the time, one who instigated all this and the other who thought she knew best and when she spoke I wanted to tell her "Do yourself a favour, keep out of it" Instead I thought she wasn't worth the bother.
The yard owner parked a car with a flat tyre in the way of my carriage I knew this was to stop me taking my carriage but when I told my partner this he didn't believe me. But why after having this car in the car park for months suddenly put it in the barn that she wanted kept clear. I was proven right when Brian was asked for rmoney before they moved the car, fortunately Brian talked them into moving the car by agreeing with whatever was said and being really nice when he really wanted to tell them what he thought. Very tactful.
Eventually we left only for Brian to start getting emails that were written very poorly, Trying to sound offical with bad grammer and spelling only made us laugh. Funny how I never received any emails not that I would have wasted energy in replying. I was accused of being a bad debt, Dunno how when they actually owed us money and that was without time and parts that we never charged for. If we had of they would have owed us around £2k not the £270 which we decided to forget about. The peace and tranquility was worth loosing the money for.
The moral of this is that I learned a good lesson from it all, that there is light at the end of the long dark tunnel and most of all I learned to keep myself in a postive emotional state. While one person was frothing at the mouth I was relaxed, unemotional and content. I could get on with everyday life knowing the future was positive. My horses are now at a beautiful yard with honest and trustworthy people, the pastures are scenic with excellent grazing. I don't have to put hay in the field in spring and summer, the horses are so happy here that on arrival on a morning they are lying down basking in the morning sun something they never did at the other yard.
I have miles of off road hacking and friends nearby who enjoy horsemanship just as much as I do. No mess, no dog poo, clean fields, no swearing, I can arrive at the yard with a spring in my step and a good feeling inside.
If you find yourself in this position, well maybe not as bad but you know what I mean, can you focus on the postive outcome rather than the past , can you deter yourself from raising to the bait like a doomed fish? Can you "Let it be"
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