Basic livery yard cost

annagain said:
Because they also have fairly decent grass all year and are only in overnight in winter they don't eat that much. 12 horses get through 2 round bales a week - so YO is effectively getting about £90 per bale. I get that we're paying for storage and the convenience but when friends pay about £35 a bale it smarts a bit! I try to look at it spread over the whole year to soften the blow. Overall I think it's still fairly good value.
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I do see what you are saying when you compare it in that way, but you could be at another yard (like I was) where the grass isn't as good so hay or haylage counts as the main forage.

A large bale of haylage is generally considered to feed 3 horses (based on 8 to 10kg per day) per week. And that is average, I would get through more with a big tb on poor winter grazing.

That fact that yours does for 6 is a testament to how good your grazing is and if everything else is good, sounds like a fair deal overall. Actually would be cheap round here but you can't compare different areas.

And the convenience of storage and care is especially useful with haylage. There is always the odd bale where the plastic has been pierced or for some other reason all or part of the bale is not useable. My experience with a yard that provided haylage was if that happened, you alerted the yard manager or owner and another bale appeared. If you buy in your own you have to get into discussions with the supplier to get it replaced and if the delivery was a while back when the damage happened. Someone at my yard recently bought some small bales of haylage but from two different places. When they found a dodgy bale, they had to take the hit as they weren't sure where it came from.
 
Perhaps you should look at it a bit differently. I keep two ponies at DIY livery on a sheep farm. I do have stables but there is so much land the ponies are field kept all year round. I pay £25 per week per pony, but I was also previously paying the same amount for DIY livery where the grazing was restricted and virtually non-existent in the winter months. So, the same livery but I am making a huge saving in not having to pay for bedding and hay.
Perhaps you could work out what you are saving by staying put and then decide to put some of that saving towards going to clinics, having schooling and other horsey activities to get you company and motivation? Or get someone to come and join you?
 
£160pcm for own field with shelter, use of outdoor school, ad lib hay & undercover horse walker. Assistance for feeding, catching etc available on top if needed. Main draw for me though was the off road hacking.
 
£150 pcm in Wales for floodlit 20x40 martin collins, WH field, Paddock turn out, stable, small tack/feed rooms for 5 people or less, direct access to off road hacking.
Solarium, horse walker & Flood lights at extra cost, as well as services.

£37 Large round bale of hay (has been £47 for over 6 months but now back down to £37)
£5.75 per wood pellet bag
 
£260 per month for stable. Bedding, hay and feed not included. Have to purchase their bedding at £10 a bag (Essex) 👍
 
criso said:
I do see what you are saying when you compare it in that way, but you could be at another yard (like I was) where the grass isn't as good so hay or haylage counts as the main forage.

A large bale of haylage is generally considered to feed 3 horses (based on 8 to 10kg per day) per week. And that is average, I would get through more with a big tb on poor winter grazing.

That fact that yours does for 6 is a testament to how good your grazing is and if everything else is good, sounds like a fair deal overall. Actually would be cheap round here but you can't compare different areas.

And the convenience of storage and care is especially useful with haylage. There is always the odd bale where the plastic has been pierced or for some other reason all or part of the bale is not useable. My experience with a yard that provided haylage was if that happened, you alerted the yard manager or owner and another bale appeared. If you buy in your own you have to get into discussions with the supplier to get it replaced and if the delivery was a while back when the damage happened. Someone at my yard recently bought some small bales of haylage but from two different places. When they found a dodgy bale, they had to take the hit as they weren't sure where it came from.
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Definitely. It's a lovely yard and as I say overall it's good value. There's a reason I've been there 17 years! In that time livery has gone up from £16 a week (but we had to pay extra for school) to £20(inc school as some were using it and not writing it on the board), then £22, £25, and most recently £27.50 but haylage has more than doubled in the same time.
 
£175 pcm for individual paddocks you can manage pretty much how you like. Large stables, tonnes of storage, fabulous hacking. 60x30 rubber/ sand but poorly lit arena, heated tack room, rug room and toilet facilities.

Hay prices delivered and stacked locally are around £4.50 for small bales and £22.50 for a Eurobale. I buy pallets of wood pellets. The ones I’ve recently ordered work out at £4.11 a 15kg bag inc. delivery cost.
 
criso said:
Guess it depends on how much you horse eats but when I had to buy in haylage for my horse in the winter as he couldn't eat the yard hay, it cost me twice as much as £15 a week 10 years ago.

Yards round here that include hay/haylage are probably about £10 a week more but that is all year round so £15 a week for only some of the year is no worse.
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Yes hay gets expensive, one round bale lasts me 2 weeks and three days in the Winter and more than twice that in the Summer.
 
£40 a week for grass livery. Includes use of 2 schools, amazing off road hacking. Staff check horse once a day and do field maintenance. Hayledge included.
 
Asha said:
Some of these prices really are quite depressing. Doesn't seem to have been any inflation over the last 10 years, makes me wonder why people bother to offer DIY. the upkeep/ running costs of facilities would swallow most of that. Then you have the hassle of dealing with people.
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Agree! The yard Id love to go to has changed to only full liveries as she said she just can’t even pay her rent on DIY
Thanks for the info everyone
 
Tarragon said:
Perhaps you should look at it a bit differently. I keep two ponies at DIY livery on a sheep farm. I do have stables but there is so much land the ponies are field kept all year round. I pay £25 per week per pony, but I was also previously paying the same amount for DIY livery where the grazing was restricted and virtually non-existent in the winter months. So, the same livery but I am making a huge saving in not having to pay for bedding and hay.
Perhaps you could work out what you are saving by staying put and then decide to put some of that saving towards going to clinics, having schooling and other horsey activities to get you company and motivation? Or get someone to come and join you?
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This is a really good point. It’s all just ideas at the moment. Some of the fields are to be sold though so less grazing (enough for what’s there but no more) mean that no one else can really join and I think most people do want facilities these days. I currently don’t even have use of the mounting block because a huge tractor roller is positioned in front of it and has been for 2/3 weeks!
 
Asha said:
Some of these prices really are quite depressing. Doesn't seem to have been any inflation over the last 10 years, makes me wonder why people bother to offer DIY. the upkeep/ running costs of facilities would swallow most of that. Then you have the hassle of dealing with people.
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I think the money to be made in DIY is for 'extras' i.e. assisted DIY - turn out/bring in, hold for vet, trailer/lorry parking, etc.
Ours is I think £2.50 to bring in/turnout a day (we get one free) and holding for vet is I think £5 although the vet/farrier just help themselves to mine.
My most recent bill for last month bearing in mind I've had every weekend day bring in, every weekday bring in, trailer parking and a weeks holiday livery came to £270 which I think is very good with the great facilities we have, although others on the forum that pay £25-£40 per week total may disagree!
 
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hopscotch bandit said:
I think the money to be made in DIY is for 'extras' i.e. assisted DIY - turn out/bring in, hold for vet, trailer/lorry parking, etc.
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I think some yards struggle where this is inconsistent. Fine if you know you have x horses to turn out and bring in every day but where you get people helping each other out, you can have nothing then several people go on holiday at the same time and you have multiple horses to do. Difficult to plan staff in these circumstances.
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Criso - yes you are right about that, it can be very inconsistent at times. Sometimes I know myself on a Sunday I will get my horse in myself if I want to trailer up to the local pub to park and hack around the lanes so I don't have every weekend day, sometimes depending on my circumstances I might only have two or three.
 
I pay £35pw per horse in Essex. I'm stabled in an American style barn, We have an indoor and outdoor school, both floodlit and a jumping field with portable xc jumps as well as show jumps for summer use. A horse walker and a hot water washroom. Each have a field of OK grazing and i have a tack room/feed room. hay shed and bedding shed.
 
I know my friend pays £25 a week here, that's 24/7 turn out in summer, stabled at night in winter. Group turn out and no other facilities
 
£15 PW box & grazing - DIY, own hay/straw/people onsite 24/7 but not YO/managers (on a working farm) no tack room, no menage, has trailer parking

£40 PM grass, no box, ménage (not lit)

£50 PW DIY outdoor ménage floodlit, close to off road hacking with XC facilites (offer assisted £80ish) full £100 PW
Secure tack room, inc hay, straw.
Shavings etc extra.

going rate for majority of yards near me.

Edited - north Yorks
 
Gosh I think DIY livery is the only thing that seems cheaper in the south than the north! We pay about £35 a week for stable, individual fields (your get two small ones to swap between). We have two menages (small and a large) but the hacking is average these days as the farmers keep churning the fields so close to the hedge we can't ride on the fields anymore so you have to cross a 60mph road for any decent hacking. I'd do anything for a solarium and hot water shower!
 
I'm in Northamptonshire. Was previously paying £200 per month for DIY on a livery yard with stable, small arena, XC field and good hacking. Negative was no winter turn out...main reason I left tbh.
Now I'm paying £60 per month for grass livery with no frills! There is four shared stables so could use if horse was ill/ needed keeping in but otherwise its 24/7 turnout, all year round. No arena but one paddock kept for riding in, hacking is good and the people are lovely. I'm so glad I moved, and not just for the money saving!
 
Many around us have just put up prices for the first time in around 5 years or so. We have a large stable, wash box, arena, secure alarmed tack room, hay storage area, kitchen, toilet, individual storage shed, individual paddocks (1 x Summer & 1 x Winter}, lorry parking, owner lives on site. This is now £33 per week. We source our own hay/bedding. It's worth every penny!
 
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