Frozen Water in Livery Yards

Flipo's Mum

Flipo's Mum

Heavy owner of a Heavy
Aug 17, 2009
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Perthshire, Scotland
Those of you who have a space on a livery yard, who is responsible for providing water throughout the winter period?

I'm a DIY yard and from what I can tell we've got a bit of a different set up to the traditional. The yard is owned by a laird who owns a large chunk of land and lives in his lovely castle in the middle of it. He has a farm manager who looks after everything, its arable farming so no livestock owned (apart from the odd renting of land to local farmers now and then). There is no yard manager as such, no rules or interference or interest from the farm manager or laird - everyone is left to their own devices really.

The yard has some stables and the school on one side of the road and a couple of fields set about a quarter of a mile away on the opposite side of the road. My field is one of these two set away from the yard and we don't use the stable block at all, we use the school but being apart helps keep us out of any yard politics and for the most part we are self sufficient (we also get our own hay since last year my mate found ragwort in the hay crop while out for a hack).

In previous years there has always been electric in the farm buildings beside our field, we use one as our feed room, and the others are used as a lock up and work room for a local handy man (who has a mini digger and we love him for clearing our track the other day!)

We have switched the water off to the field and turn it on in the farm buildings just to fill up our containers and lug it round to the field. This has worked fine before apparently, because my mate could boil the kettle and defrost the tap. Tonight no such luck since the laird decided to cut the leccy off and we're now dependent on bringing this from home or going along to the stable block for water (which the farm manager defrosts every day for them and when that freezes underground he sources it from elsewhere and puts out a huge vat of water down by the fields near the stable for everyone to use every day).

I'm one for a quiet life and don't mind but I can't get my car down the track in this weather (or even in the ice) so my mate is doing the water every morning (and she's happy with this arrangement despite my protestations) - she's peeved cause she had leccy last year but laird is being a skinflint now. This is fuelled further by the fact that he has still seen fit to put the rent up during the summer.

She called him to complain and he's told her to ask the tenants who live in a house just beside our field if we can fill up there every day. She said she wasn't comfortable with this plan and he said he would talk to them.
At the moment I'm thinking this could end up with us making a rod for our own backs (I don't know how but I'm one of those people who thinks if you rock the boat you get booted out). She asked if he would switch the electric back on and he refused saying the wires had been cut.

Sorry for the length of this, I've never been on a yard before so I don't know what is normal and whats not. What am I really paying for? Should we expect them to help us with the water at our little bit or should we be expected to get ourselves along to the stable block and back, what do others do?

Holy crap I've just posted and then noticed the length of this. Soorrryyy
 
Holy crap I've just posted and then noticed the length of this. Soorrryyy Welcome to my world FM - I do this constantly think it must be soooo annoying for other members - but hey ho - if you have the writing bug tis a genetic defect you have absolutely no control over!:giggle: Trouble is I get mine from a father who earnt money as a journalist - my little forays into writing just irritate the poor reader don't they!!:redface:

Back to the question - do you have any sort of livery contract - if not - did you and your friend take the livery space on when leccy etc. was readily available? If so think he is more than a little out of order just switching off - especially at this difficult time of the year!:devil: The wires have been cut!!! Dont like the sound of that TBH! He isnt a laird on his uppers is he? Not about to go under or anything significant?

As for asking the tenants for use of their water - I think he is a bit out of order - Im assuming here that there could be a steady stream of liverys sourcing from the poor hapless tenants - wouldnt be at all surprised if they get a bit put out by his attitude TBH!

Sorry not much help - and what did I tell you - been typing for a few seconds and Ive bored you all to pieces!:giggle:
 
We are in a field these days and when the underground pipe to our tap/trough stops working we either bring it from home or ask nicely at the house next to our field if we can use their outside tap (they are our landlords family so they don't tend to mind..)

But back when I was DIY we had to sort our water ourselves, the entire yard was frozen the winter before last and we ended up taking water cannisters to the Esso garage down the road where they filled them up..

Think it's a bit out of order for him to pass it on to his tenants rather than help you yourself but unfortunately I kind of take the same view of bothering our farmer as you - think if you bother them too much they will have enough!!
 
The four fields where we are all use local neighbours outdoor tap :dance: They are worth much much more than my measly box of choccys and wine for chrismas :eek:

If it goes well, it could go really well - after all, if they are on rates and not a meter it shouldnt really affect them :)

My neighbours are so fabby Ive now set up 300m of hosepipe to have "running water" in my field, though everything has been frozen for so long now :(
 
Do you have a contract? If not, then it's hard to establish who's job it is.
On my yard, there is one tap that always gets the sun so even if the weather is minus ten million (as it is now) it is usually defrosted by lunchtime. Failing that, we boil the kettle to do it. There are about half a dozen taps on the yard but we just use this one in winter. Last winter, a pipe burst (underground somewhere) and the water had to be turned off. The YO went round on the night time when the water had been put back on and filled everyone's waters.
YO always defrosts the pipe on a morning but we just boil the kettle to do it later in the day if it refreezes.
My YO is fab though :D
 
I'm on a livery yard but am DIY on there, as are approx a third of the yard. I have noticed that the YO is very keen to make sure there's always water available on the yard but mine are out in the field 24/7 at the minute. The way I c it is if my field tap is frozen then it's my responsibility to get some water in a water butt on the yard and wheel it down (which I do at the min) but if water on yard frozen as it was this eve then I'll have to bring it from home (which I am going to be doing tomoz morning), the YO didnt offer any suggestion of where I should get water, but also I didn't ask as I made sure I filled up both bins in the field yesterday when water wasn't frozen so it wasn't like I needed any his eve!)

Sooo suppose it depends on your contract, but generally as DIY I would expect during cold times like this it's the horse owners responsibility?
 
we have a big metal tank on the yard which can hold about a weeks worth of water for the 3 sometimes 4 horses who are stabled for their buckets, the boys field has an auto water through, not really sure what happened with that as i have no dealing with it, im a bit oblivious to things on our yard sometimes, i think best example is been on the yard for 1 year 4 months and still dont know where the muck goes when the muck trailer gets emptied weekly :giggle:

but anyway, girls field in summer we have 3 dustbins and 2 water buckets which we fill up daily, thats our job, owners of mares, we have a hosepipe to fill that up which we go into silent partner YO (the active YO MiL, who is in her 60's and gave up horses when she lost her old boy years ago) garden which is right next to yard, (other YO is accross the road)

but in winter the pond fills and we just have to smash the ice with metal spade on the yard

i do think it is really bad of the owner to not let you have water supply, i presume you pay the same as those on the main yard, minus the stabling costs, but it might be worth talking to the tennents, if they pay a block amount for things like water bills to the owner then as long as you thank them regularly they may be happy to help, they may also realise what a pain the owner can be :giggle:

either way i hope you can find a solution to your problem x


eta - i think im another of those who suffer from writing to much :giggle:
 
We have three taps on the yard they all freeze , but the YM will have one running by around 9 o'clock during the week but not weekends we have to do it then (she keeps her ponies at the yard and comes up she normally does it but someone will try before she gets there, it's her days off and I don't think she should have to do it).

The fields are automatic but they underground pipes freeze we have to fill them our selves but again we are on a DIY yard and to have water on tap I think is fab. I know a lot of DIYS that have nothing.
 
We sort ourselves out. If the yard pipes are frozen then it's up to us to get round it. Mind you, we aren't on livery and rent land with water troughs on and use of barn/stables. All DIY. no services offered.
 
LOL, I think the general consensus is do it yourself from home and anyone who has a lovely yo is very lucky.
We don't have a contract, very informal. I've just heard from my mate that the laird has been in touch with the tenant and they are happy to help. Just wonder what they expect to happen when the tenant isn't in when we want water...he'll know my mate is just trying to force his hand.
Just a little frustrating when we get no help while the rest of the yard is pampered.

Cortrasna and Minniemoo thank you! I really think I need to learn how to be more concise but its nice to know there are others who have the same 'flaw'. (I don't see it as such but heh thats me!)

The problem my mate is having is that she's just moved house and her containers no longer fit in the bath to fill up plus she's got horrible stairs to traipse down to get to her car. I've given her links for this - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CARAVAN-CAMPE...velTickets_Accessories_RL&hash=item230ba787c4
and bought her one of these -
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SILVERLINE-2P...034?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item45f0e8ff8a
so that she doesn't have to balance the container through the chicken fencing or humph it round into the field.
 
We have water tap at the field and similar at the yard, all frozen up now for 3 weeks and if anything to go by from other years most of winter - we will be filling up from home, although the field does have an ancient natural pit in it which fills up with water during the winter (dry as a bone in summer) with the bit of melt we have had its been filling nicely, frozen over but from footfall around the edges the obvious thin ice areas where they are breaking it this has taken the pressure off having to take water up twice a day, we tend to take up 1/2 container of hot water in a morning and chuck it in the water bucket this has enabled us to break the ice in that and allows them access to it if they want it during the day until it freezes again - stables is another matter - the buckets in the stables are solid by morning so having to take hot water to defrost and then fill up every couple of days from home, thank god only little one is in.
Even his poo is frozen in stable by morning, got his lead rope out this morning and it was like having him on the end of a broom handle! -17 at 7.00am.
 
I think I am quite lucky as all the water for the yard comes from a natural underground spring - so even though the main tank blew up last week and all the auto-drinkers and yard taps are off until it can be fixed, there is a pump set up that draws water from the spring into a water butt and the YO has it going a few hours a day so everyone has enough :) The tap for the water butt is often frozen but we have a bucket attached to an old leadrope that we put in through the top and then haul back up like an old-style well. We've also been using all the tricks to stop the water buckets freezing in the stables - packing dirty bedding round them, putting chunks of apple in etc = and we seem to be managing ok so far. The big problem on our yard is that the path to the fields is completely frozen over (and on a slope) so all the horses are being kept in till its safe for them to walk on it again.
 
The taps we have.. we must have about 4 with either use the taps that are in the cafe or recently have have been putting towels over the taps until they froze:banghead: quite a few taps are frozen so someone put a towel in a pastic bag and the bag over the tap. Failing that, boil the kettle :)
 
I find it strange that he says the cables have been cut for the electricity, he can cut them so he must have got a company out to take them down and they dont just pop out and do that. Its expensive to do and they dont tend to take the wires down unless there is a problem. Whom ever owns the cables would never allow him to tamper with them.

If he actually means he has had the electricity turned off could you offer him a little extra during the winter to have it put back on again, just for your peace of mind. Or contact the company who supply and see if you can contract and pay them direct ?? What a gitish thing to do in the middle of winter.

Our yard tap has been ok (touch wood) but we fill the kettles before we leave just incase we can then boil them and defrost it. Maybe wrapping the tap and pipe in some insulator and lagging might help ?
 
Just spoken to OH as he works in the gas/elec industry. There is no way the guy could have done anything to electricity that comes from mains in the road without being deadas they are 415 v. If he has wires that come from road mains into the barns then he would still be injured "cutting" them as they are still 240V. He also couldnt touch overhead mains.

He could have a mains box which would divert the elec to your barn and he has removed the fuse to it.

OH said basically he is a liar ! hth's.
 
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