Those of you on full/part livery, a question

Jessey

Jessey

Well-Known Member
Dec 20, 2004
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Suffolk, UK
My rising 4 year old has been very worn out, sleeping alot reacently since I upped her work, i commented to the YO this morning that I might consider putting her on a little bit of mix for more energy (currently my two are both on Alfa A, grass nuts and a little bran to help prevent sand colic) and she told me that rather then mess about in the mornings she has just been giving them a scoop of mix (just a basic low energy one).
The reason my horses don't normally get mix is Bo gets very hyper on it and spooky and naughty and Jess has always been fine without it.

I am a little upset that they have given my horses mix without letting me know and it does explain Bo's reacent naughty behaviour and Jess being somewhat inconsistant - very hyper one day and spooky and the next very lazy. Jess ends up doing more work than I would like on the hyper days and wears herself out for the next day.

So now to the question, how involved are you with what feeds and how much feed your horse gets?

Thanks J x
 
If your horse is that tired, apart from the feed issue, I would have the vet do a blood test to see if there isn't anything abnormal going on! There probably wont be but it's best to be on the safe side. Years back, I had a mare on full livery, she was always knackered when I took her out. I had a blood test done, nothing showed. Turned out the stables were using her while I was at work.As your girl is only 4yo, she could be finding the work a bit hard going (and a culture shock!) at the moment. You must also let the YO know that under no circumstances must your horse be given feed without your consent. Regarding my pony's feed, yes the YO feeds him but gives him what I've asked her to but of course when I'm there, I feed him.
 
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Just wanted to add in many years of horses this is the first time I have been on livery :eek:

Afellpony - I was thinking about that on the way to work after seeing her this morning, I think I will call my vet and see what he says, I don't want to be an over reacting mother but she really is sleeping alot but she is getting pleanty of fibre feeds i don't really want to go the cereal route unless I really have to.
 
I would agree with a blood test. She's young, and it's better done now than waiting until she's older and any potential problem has gotten out of hand.

If that doesn't show anything up, I would cut her workload completely for a couple of weeks and see what happens. It may be that she is ridden by other people, in which case you should see this by how tired she appears to be when you aren't riding her, and if any of your riding things are moved. Clean your bit really really thoroughly, and if there's anything on it after it's done...

Feed wise, whilst I'm on DIY, all the horses are fed together in a morning. We all leave a feed made up downstairs, and whoever is there first gets the job of putting the feeds in the respective stables. Perhaps this is an option for you? If you make the feeds up, she isn't messing around in the morning, and has no reason to give your horses mix instead.
 
I doubt very much that anyone is riding her, I have my saddles and pads all stacked at the moment (must get more saddle racks up) and I am very funny about what order things go in :p and they have never been moved.

Her work has upped from about 1/2 hour 5 days a week to about 1 hour 5 days a week, I am also reintroducing canter work in preperation to hack her out soon so that is quite a bit more, but she was on the lower level since november so I thought was ready for it. She is turned out for 9 hours a day.
 
I'm on full but I tend to make up her feeds in advance, I put the supplements in a tub so they just need tipping in.

I also have a 'menu' on my cupboard door with the feed that she has.

I don't think that the YO should have added mix or any feed without your permission. I would be furious if ours did that (they wouldn't though).
 
The lass I deal with is the YM, her mum is the YO and helps out occasionally in the mornings to feed - the YM fully understands why I don't feed mix, YO doesn't get it :rolleyes:
 
Hi Jessey

I have Sennie on DIY livery with services. In practice at the moment that means full livery during the week and DIY at weekends. I'd be horrified if YM started giving the feed she thought would "do". Our YM knows what feed Sennie has and gives him that, hay and nothing else. She gets the quantities right as well. I know, because there have been times I've gone up and seen his morning feed laid out for him. The only thing she doesn't do is chop the carrots up, but hey ho, I don't consider that a big issue. As long as she has it in writing and its easy to get at, she'll make up whatever the horse needs. I must admit I wouldn't be happy with what's happening to you.

You may find it useful to try what I did when I took Sennie away. I put all his feeds including supplements for while I was away in individual poly bags tied at the top, so all I had to do when I got there was untie them one by one and drop the contents for each meal into a bowl and add carrots/apples or whatever.

Cazx
 
I used to be on full livery at my last yard, but they staff kept on getting my horses feed wrong - he was v over weight, and only in light work at the time, so I'd asked for his mix to be cut back, but sometimes I'd go and there'd be a scoop of mix in his feed bowl and hardly any chaff, other times there'd just be chaff... it was really inconsistent. His baheviour when being led back then was terrible, although this might have been more to do with the yard staff's handling!

I decided to go onto part livery so that I could have more control over what my horse was fed, and bought my own feed, made up breakfast & evening feeds and left them outside his stable for the yard staff. That was fine, until I was there late one night, and happened to see YO going doing a last check on all horses with a big bucket of hard feed, letting all the horses stick their faces in as he checked their stables for water! My horse wasn't meant to be on that type of feed at all!!

That was the last straw... there were plenty of other issues! Have moved and now on DIY.
 
My old yard was full livery only. When we first went on to the yard (just bought Silver) they took over the feed - in hindsight it was risky because they never asked us what he had been eating before, they just shoved him on the 'staple diet' the horses had there (pasture mix and hifi lite).

We stayed on their regime for about a year and a half and then I decided I wanted to experiment. That was fine with the YO - you just had to pay for it, only pasture mix and hifi-lite is included in the livery cost.

Anyway I changed his feed and ended up making it up myself because I was changed the quantities etc and one of the reasons I wanted to change anyway was the changable quantities and misunderstanding about the feed from the staff.

To be honest its one of the reasons I left - they got snooty saying that I should hand over the responsibility of making up his food to the staff. We also had a little niggle about something else and YM blamed his feed which had nothing to do with it. She was very against us doing anything ourselves in the end and I'd had enough.

Now I've moved and I'm on part livery - breakfast is given as part of the livery. I just make it up (needs soaking) and YO bungs it in. My feed is by Simple Systems so can be a bit alien to some yet YO has never asked - its my decision and my horse. If I want her to feed him dinner I just leave his supplements out etc and she'll mix it in etc. No questions asked - such a relief! I hated not knowing what was happening with my horse in terms of feed.

Oh and on the previous yard I noticed before I left that some of the others had been switched to alpha lite. I asked a livery if it had changed her horse and she had no idea it had changed :rolleyes:
 
I am going to have a word, they have seen Bo 'on one', he has proven he is perfectly able to stand verticle and could be a bucking horse for professionals :rolleyes: the mix just exagerates this and I am seriously unhappy about it. I suspect the YM will totally understand and tell her mum (YO) off about it :eek: I just felt like maybe I was being over protective :eek: when we first moved there I had to have words about how much hay they were getting - thankfully thats sorted now, they get twice as much as the other horses :D

I already give them a small supper at night after I have ridden, with their supplements in, of HiFi and some soaked grass nuts.
 
I kept my horses on part/full livery (depending on your definition), so everything was looked after. But I expected always to be involved in any feed changes - though at one yard I did have to threaten to leave to make it happen!

I do feel that it's not on to charge you for fulll livery and not want to be bothered looking after the horse - surely that's what you're paying for?

Ross
 
Don't get me wrong, they charge a very reasonable fee for a good service and my horses are well cared for, its just the YO has been feeding all her horses (including a whole riding school when they had it) on the same basic mix and chaff and bran diet for 30+ years - she just doesn't get that it doesn't suit my guys, but I am working on it :eek:
 
i've had this issue on part livery. with my last mare it wasn't a problem, well, she was a monster anyway - they just got a scoop of nuts in the morning and a 'proper' feed at night with plenty haylage. however my current mare used to get stiff if stabled and fed too much startchy food so I ended up changing her diet, providing my own feed and getting a reduced bill as I wasn't using the yard's feed. the one thing that bugged me about the yard feed was it was never mixed, so they'd get chaff, speedibeet and mix or nuts, but not mixed together, didn't look appetising!

if you make the feeds and leave them outside the stable the problem should disappear...
 
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