This is a bit of a long one so apologies in advance.I bought my youngster over the summer, and the yard I chose seemed perfect at the time. It's DIY, with services available at extra cost so allows for a bit of flexibility in terms of scheduling. There's an indoor and an outdoor arena (not the best footing in the outdoor), a track for walking and cooling down. There are regular competitions and clinics which is ideal for getting my boy used to things especially since I am new to the area and in no position to organise or buy my own transport. The hacking is a bit poor but if you're willing to put up with a bit of roadwork (along a fairly busy main road) you can make it to some fairly decent offroad stuff. Livery round here is proving to be incredibly expensive and having already looked I'd be compromising on facilities, turnout, herd grazing, hacking, or the social side (which at my yard is amazing, no bitchiness and a real team atmosphere among the liveries).Recently however there have been a number of issues;- Staff are young and inexperienced. While a few are competent and my boy is not one to cause an issue, I worry that if something were to happen there aren't many of them I'd trust to be around him.- Consistent breakouts, horses have been escaping and in the space of a week I have been bolted at on the way to bring mine in after three ducked out under the fence, and been kicked by a horse (luckily right at the end of the kick so barely a bruise to speak of) while attempting to coral a number of loose horses before they made it to the main road. *The road is a fair way down a track in the opposite direction to the yard, it is INCREDIBLY unlikely they'd make it that far* We've asked repeatedly for better fencing/the electric to be turned on/batteries to be bought and the only answers have been that "oh they'll be moved to post and rail soon."- We're repeatedly asked to move fields with little to no notice, often the morning of, which for me is okay but I know there are others with older horses or horses with dietary requirements who do need more notice. As a result of constantly moving over the winter because the YO doesn't like the 'look' of the muddy paddocks (they are not overly horsey and rely on the managemen but override them regularly) the fields are now struggling and we don't know what will happen come spring and summer. I suppose my question is do I risk unsettling my very difficult to travel youngster now, losing the facilities and the experience for him in terms of competing and socialisation/desensitization on a busy yard when I may have to relocate in the Summer anyway? I know we can't stay where we are forever, but do I ride it out for now and only move once or upset him twice and hope the experience will make him better at coping with change?I'm totally at a loss so this is more of a ramble and a rant than anything else.
01-09-2018, 06:44 PM
Concerns about yard
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