Can I Have Your Input Please. (Long)

FRESHMAN

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Very shortly we are about to open a brand new Competition/Livery Yard/Stud Farm. At the moment I am throwing ideas around as to exactly what people want & how to run things. I really would like to hear peoples ideas on what they would prefer to have included in the price, or use on a fee paying basis as & when they want to use all or some of the various facilities. I have several ideas in my head but would really appreciate peoples thoughts. Facilities on offer are:

14' x 14' Monarch boxes in American barn. All boxes have outside opening top windows (with grill) Automatic waterers. Spin round feed mangers. Hay racks that are filled from 12' central corridor. 20 boxes per barn.
60m x 30m Indoor School with gel surface & veiwing area.
65m x 65m Outdoor manage with Professional surface.
Grass arena with Derby course
All barns will lead directly into Indoor (no need to go out in wind & rain)
All feed & bedding available on site.
Hot Water horse wash rooms with solariums
Equine Spa treatment & Equisage.
Treatment room for Vet. (Top Vet to visit on regular basis)
Farriers Forge. (Again in house several days of week)
Stocks & hopefully AI service eventually.
Looking into the oval covered horse walker. Lunge pen.
Heated Tack & Rug rooms.
Showers & Lounge with snack & brew facilities.
Good parking for Boxes & Cars (on Tarmac with no cars to go in horse area)
Small 2 acre paddocks for Individual grazing if required.
24 hr on site supervision. CCTV. Fire/intruder Alarms etc.
Professional grooms on site (live in)
Hopefully, training & Clinics from Pro SJ's & Dressage trainers.
Want to provide DIY, Assisted, & Full Livery. The question is do I charge on tier basis or pay as you use? What value would you put on this facility?
Many Thanks & I do appreciate your time.
 

Weezy

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Oh Fresh, you have just described my PERFECT place!

One thing, and this will be controversial...why DIY option? If I were you, I would be rather hesitant about doing that, for many reasons that I shall go into if you so desire.
 

Madam_max

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Gosh it sounds fantastic. I am suprised you are offering DIY, as all the yards in my area that are 1/2 that calibre won't take DIY (that is not meant to be offensive as it's a problem I encountered, hence I am now on full livery).
 

madhector

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Sounds fantastic...when can I move my horse in?
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Holly27

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im opening a yard in january , and im just doing 5 day full and 7 day full livery ,i will not be offering D.i.Y and i advice against it !
you have a fantastic place there and you would get the liverys in with out doing do it yourself IMHO

GOOD LUCK
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burtie

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Sounds fantastic, why are you the other end of the country to me?

I must admit with a yard like that I would not offer DIY unless you know the person or possibly assisted DIY as a minimum with Hay and Bedding in with the price, again I'm sure the reasons are obvious!

Also I would charge monthly in advance for a set deal with the possibility of extras for those on part or assisted DIY.
 

dieseldog

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I would pay extra for the Equine Spa/equisagge and Solarium

Stocks and AI - but wouldn't use it.

Lessons obviously extra

Hay and straw extra

The rest I would expect included in the price. For DIY I would pay £30 a week.

I pay £20 down here and we've got an indoor/outdoor school
 

FRESHMAN

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Please do Louise, I am grateful for any comments good or bad. Maybe I should put my thoughts as an answer first.
1. It is a business so I really do need to get some revenue as soon as feasibly possible.
2 Really unsure about starting off just full livery then having to back track.
3 From what I read on here lots of people dont appear to like some one else having day to day full care of their horse. sort of want to be involved themself.
4. Worried sick that every time there is a staff problem or over Xmas holidays I will be left mucking out a 40 box yard LOL
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dieseldog

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If you do include hay/bedding in the price people take advantage on DIY, you have never seen beds so fluffy and white.

But if you don't you will need seperate storage space for each person otherwise it will lead to arguements.
 

burtie

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[ QUOTE ]
If you do include hay/bedding in the price people take advantage on DIY, you have never seen beds so fluffy and white.



[/ QUOTE ]

At our yard we have mats and you get 1 bale a week, if you want more you mark it up. It is not monitored as such but it would quickly become obvious iof someone was taking more and they would be asked to leave. Also if you horse has lots of hay left in the morning on a regular basis this will also be mentioned so I don't think that is a problem. Putting it in with the price keeps away a certain element that want to do everything as cheap as possible IMO.
 

_jetset_

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I would think the Equissage etc could be charged as and when people use it... I sold them to quite a few competition yards who charged between £15 and £25 a week extra on top of the livery they paid.

I also think it is an easier system having an all inclusive system, ie. stable rent includes haylage/hay per week. I have done both systems and I know that the all inclusive is the most 'honest' one.
 

KatB

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SOuunds fab. The only advise with the livery packages is to make sure bedding/hayledge is included in all packages, and be flexible with the packages offered. You may find if there is an option to have to horse mucked out for them, but they can do the turn out-In etc you may get very few "real" DIY'ers anyway and you will have more control over beds/tidyness of yard
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_jetset_

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Forgot to add, the school can only be booked out for lessons and then at all other times people have to share which they should be able to if they understand the rules of working in.
 

Weezy

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OK, I will give you a run down on what happens on my yard...

We have DIY only on my particular yard, all assisted and part/full are on another. On the other yard there are 2 grooms who do all of the mucking out and sweeping down daily. On our yard obv there is no employed groom, as Jackie and I always say "It's F'ing DIY!". Jackie the groom also has her horse on my yard. She and I end up doing pretty much everything to do with communal areas - we sweep the whole yard (liveries may/may not bother to do outside their own stable but they never look to doing anything else), we tidy the muck heap (it was removed yesterday, I turned up this morning to find some sh!t for brains had just dumped thir muck in the middle of the area and not chucked it up - I was LIVID), we ensure that all horses are hayed break/lunch/tea - the YO does 10pm, and without us doing the other 3 times some of the horses wouldn't be checked other than once, fleetingly, per day. We sort rugs (some horses are only seen in the evening and the owners think it is fine to leave the same rugs on all day - sure, up to them, but when the bloody thing is wrapped round the horse's neck someone has to intervene). We ensure there is hay and straw available (from YO), we fix things that need fixing, we communicate with the yard about what is happening etc.

However much a DIY yard sounds like a good idea, you will, more than likely, have enough for a full time groom to do on the yard, and you will make zero money if you are having to employ someone to watch over them. Mess spilleth over and if you have full liveries having to share space with others that don't actually give a toss about the area, or the area outside of their own immediate area, you could find you have grievances you will be constantly trying to sort out. Then there is school usage, shower usage, etc... There is a certain breed of DIYers who think it is their God given right to have the same sway as full livery payers
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I could prob go on if given half a chance! Would you like me to come and troubleshoot
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burtie

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Our school is always share, if someone is having a lesson you can still use it but are expected to respect the person having a lesson. The school is 25x65m so this is not really a problem!
 

henryhorn

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My experience of being a DIYer is years ago, but I did have 15 of them for many years.
I would try and ensure they all stay together in one barn rather than mix them up, my biggest bugbear was the vastly different feeding regimes, which made horses sour seeing their neighbour's fed but not them.
I used to charge a flat rate winter and summer which included winter haylage.
Anything else was on top, so changing rugs, feeding their prepared feed, turn out etc, was all listed and added on each week. (rent was paid in advance with a week's notice either side.)
DIY's need vast amounts of storage space for hay and shavings unless theybuy them from you.
Will you allow them to bring stuff like that on site or must they buy from you?
I started off saying yes but ended up saying no, haylage or hay must be from us, as we went to the trouble to provide decent stuff.
The biggest problems were of bitching amongst the females I am sad to say, livery yards seem to bring out the very worst in people, and we had some trouble stealing each other's stuff at times too. (and ours!)
I would say ideally you want some sort of part livery from them all to make it pay, even if it's just from feeding their horse and turning it out. Most used to have private or class lessons with me so I made a fair amount that way too, plus the odd week of schooling their horses for them.
We are building stables for ourselves at the moment, but don't want any more liveries really, but the plan has already escalated into a washroom and rest area, as the only outside loo was in what's going to be my new smart utility room inside my house.
If however we get asked often enough we will stick another row of 8 boxes opposite the existing ones.
Our biggest complaints from liveries were always about restricted turnout; they just couldn't see that sometimes you had to say no just a play in the arena or you will end up with no grass next spring if the roots of the grass are wrecked..
I think you have most things covered, and for a facility like that they should expect to pay a premium..
 

Butterbean

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Will all clients have to use your farrier? (that would put me off a yard). Similarly will clients be able to arrange for their own instructors to come or just in house / clinics? (that wouldn't put me off so much)
 

JM07

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is this the place featured in H & H earlier, FRESHMAN?







if so......*thud*....JM has passed out..............
 

_jetset_

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Ours is only a 40x20 so you always infringe on the persons lesson. However, there is a rule that you should try to avoid booking lessons in the busiest times (ie. 5pm til 7pm).

I agree with Weezy that some DIYers are a bit messy but our YO is incredibly strict about the yard being kept tidy, the muck heap stepped and we HAVE to pick out the horses feet before they leave their stables and wash any poo stains off the cobbles.

How about references for liveries?
 
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