advice on starting/owning a livery yard

[deanos9]

Hello,

I am a young person looking to start a career in owning a livery yard, however, I don’t have a clue where to start, I have knowledge of management as well as knowledge of the equine industry, however starting a yard is a whole new piece of cake, therefore I was looking for advice on how I can buy/fund a livery yard from the experts which use Horse&Hound.

Kind regards

 

[MillionDollar]

Hi, I'm building my livery yard at the moment and hope to open in April. I'm 21 and have done a Equine and Business Management degree, worked at a riding school/livery yard for 2 years and owned horses for 11 years.

I am very lucky in that I live on a farm, have a family investing in the livery yard and we are in a great location.

Do you have any premises? What area are you in? If you rent/buy a place it is very hard to make a living TBTH. I'm not expecting to make a huge amounts of money just more than I would being a farmer.

Hope that helps?! PM me if you want

 

[Fleur100]

Get youself a good accountant, bank manager & make use of all the grant money you can get your hands on.....

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

People believe that hard work & dedication will mean that the yard you take on will provide you with a living. The problem is that in many cases it won't. If you actually own the land then it helps however if you are leasing the yard then you must be very careful on what rent you pay & what the owner will be responsible for.

I had a friend who worked incredibly hard, long hours & really looked fter the liveries well to the eventual detriment of her health. At the end of 12 months she had to call it a day. She had made nothing, infact lost money & was physically ill. Do your homework really well on this, if you don't it can break you both financially, physically & mentally. I wish you luck

 

[deanos9]

Im looking to buy a premises which is already a working livery yard and ready to go, its in the sound east, which has some gorgeous locations for hacking, however im stuck on how to get grants etc in order to get the deposit, is it even possible?!? I am 19 but i have the drive to get where i want, its just the joys of getting there thats proving hard! thanks alot for all the posts so far, they are really helping!

 

[pennyh]

you'll be unlikely to get a grant for the deposit

alot of the grants about are of the farming diversification type , some are available if creating employment in higher unemployment area's

to get a bank loan to buy the place you will have to be able to show a lender that the business will generate enough profit for you to meet the repayments as well as funding your own living costs

most standard livery yards don't generate fabulous profits & interest charges on loans will eat into these also

it sounds like you really need some professional advise with regards to wether this is actually going to be a viable business & if so if you can actually raise funding

 

[c7mlm]

absolutely right Toby_Zaphod i took one on march 07 and had to give it up at the end of 07 before it killed me or sent me bankrupt. i spent a small fortune but the liverys all wanted a bit more especially my time. i found that i wasn't able to devote the time i wanted to my own horses. i had a lot of help from OH and daughter. i had cheques bounce for livery, and i am very dedicated to my horse but was so exhausted from it. I must add though that i am know the model livery as i have been a YM and see what they have to put up with.texts 24/7 asking what the weather is going to be like, what rug should i put on. then they text you at 5pm to say stuck in trafic can not get up tonight and could you put the horse to bed. leave lights on, never shut gates. sorry i am going on just getting it of my chest. i would not ever want to do it again.

 

[Touchwood]

I take in a few liveries on my small stud. We specialise in taking on breeding/young stock, retired horses and also rehabbing racehorses from local trainers. They are all on full livery, and I can honestly say without a shadow of a doubt I would never ever run a 'normal' livery yard.
The way we do it works very well for us and we have wonderful clients.
We dedicate a lot of time, effort and money into it and the rewards (especially at this time of year!) are very few.
I should also add that we do not make a fortune, my husband and I both have to work also, our horsey business generates enough to fund my competing and our breeding program. We have ploughed any profit back into the yard. Maybe one day it will be self sufficent who knows, but I suspect that is a long way off!