Charges for holiday care what do you all pay/charge

Passtheshampoo

Passtheshampoo

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Hi I have a very small yard with my horses and 3 diy liveries. I do offer to help out with turnout, bring in and muck out in winter as and when needed. If the owners go on holiday usually through summer 24/7 turnout I charge them £1 per day to bring in their horse, feed and check over. My other charges through winter are £1 turnout or bring in £3 muck out. Am I charging a reasonable amount? I'm in W Yorks. Thanks guys
 
Passtheshampoo said:
Hi I have a very small yard with my horses and 3 diy liveries. I do offer to help out with turnout, bring in and muck out in winter as and when needed. If the owners go on holiday usually through summer 24/7 turnout I charge them £1 per day to bring in their horse, feed and check over. My other charges through winter are £1 turnout or bring in £3 muck out. Am I charging a reasonable amount? I'm in W Yorks. Thanks guys
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Way back in 2001, the last time I had a holiday :( since all the people on the yard who's horses I did for them when they were on holiday refused to do mine, I had to hire a private groom. The charge was £20 PER DAY to give my horse her breakfast (I'd made all the feeds up and bagged and labelled them), rug if necessary to turn out across the road, and pick up the three poos she did overnight, tidy the bed and change the water and haynet. I did persuade one of the kids to bring her back in and put her to bed in the evening as it was literally just walking her 20 yards from the field back into the yard. To be fair, the groom was doing it as a business and had travel costs as she was coming quite a distance and I was prepared to pay more to have an experienced, reliable person deal with my horse.
 
So you are charging £7 a WEEK for full grass livery holiday care in the summer ?!
This is far too cheap. Our yard charges £6 a day in summer if they are out , and £10 a day when they are in.
This is , of course ,on top of the normal DIY weekly charge.
I think that is fairly standard around here.
More of course if you bring in a freelance groom from outside the yard
 
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That's cheap!
I suppose it depends on how much you value your time.

If it helps, round my way (South) it's £2-3 for a turnout/catch in and £5-7 for a muck out. Generally I'd expect to pay at least £10 a day for full cover
 
When I went on holiday in September it cost me £56 on top of my £230 per month rent (summer) for seven days care, feed, rug, turnout, muck out, in, haynet, feed. So £8 per day.

At the old yard they used to charge £1 turn out and £1.50 bring in with feet/legs wash or just a £1 to plonk in stable. Weekends were £2.50 out and £2.00 in which I was happy to pay for a lie in.
 
I'd work out how long it takes you to do the job on average and work out whether you are at least getting the equivalent of national minimum wage! You do sound very cheap!

Can't really help with prices as I have my horses at home, so have to pay someone to come in and do them when I am away, so the rates have to incorporate travel costs.
 
When my mare went to stud on grass livery it was £5/ day, so £35/week. For sole responsibility of someone's horse, I'd say that's fair enough really.
 
concorde said:
So you are charging £7 a WEEK for full grass livery holiday care in the summer ?!
This is far too cheap. Our yard charges £6 a day in summer if they are out , and £10 a day when they are in.
This is , of course ,on top of the normal DIY weekly charge.
I think that is fairly standard around here.
More of course if you bring in a freelance groom from outside the yard
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Yes £1 day extra for bringing in to stable checking over, swapping fly rugs etcif needed and giving them their feed. My current diy pcm charge is £90 includes newly built 12x12 stables with lights water on site and well fenced and maintained grazing. Just decided I need to increase this and I'm not charging enough. Feel guilty about putting assisted livery costs up too! Having said that when I was paying livery 15 years ago was paying more than I'm charging now.
 
My YM charges £10 a day (when they are in) to turnout, bring in, muck out etc!! our fields are a good 10 mins there and back, so it does take a while, so I think that is fair!

In the summer she didn't charge me, as mine was out 24/7 and wasn't fed, he is turned out with 2 of her horses so she just made sure he hadn't hurt himself and that he had fly spray on!! So I just paid my instructor (YMs daughter) to ride a few times for me, so at least he had a bit of love!!
 
When I had a horse at grass I paid £3 per day for feeding once a day and checking twice, wasn't brought up to the yard but separated off to feed. Would also change rugs if needed.

Full cover for a stabled horse i.e. mucking out, turnout/bring in feeding and hay costs is about £7 - £10 round here.
 
Passtheshampoo said:
Yes £1 day extra for bringing in to stable checking over, swapping fly rugs etcif needed and giving them their feed. My current diy pcm charge is £90 includes newly built 12x12 stables with lights water on site and well fenced and maintained grazing. Just decided I need to increase this and I'm not charging enough. Feel guilty about putting assisted livery costs up too! Having said that when I was paying livery 15 years ago was paying more than I'm charging now.
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Charges seem to differ vastly depending on the location of the yard. We are a bit out of the way with not too much off road riding (except for beaches) - and I don't think I have seen any charges as reasonable as yours. Our neighbours have a yard of 10 internal stables , purpose built schooling/jumping menage and grazing for £25 a week DIY . They do not do holiday relief.

We have just put our house up for sale, but until recently, charged £200 a calendar month DIY for up to 5 horses .( That covered grazing, use of the yard,tackroom, storage , electric, water, security for all 5 horses) . We did not charge for extras and holidays as the owner would look after our 2 horses for us to have holidays.

The cost of running a yard has risen quite a bit over the years and am sure your livery owners will understand.
All the best,
Teg :)
 
allowing for you being in a cheaper area £110 a month is not over the top and is only just over £25 a week. if you are doing more than just bringing in then £1.50 in summer or £2 with rug changes and I would be looking at £5-£7.50 for mucking out. what do other yards in the area charge?
 
Last yard was DIY with other services at cost - full day's care is £10 - turn out/bring in, rug change, muckout.

New yard is 5-day Part livery with weekend care being additional £5 per day
 
I think my yard owner charges similar to you. When they are in it is £5 per day holiday cover for turn out, muck out, bring in and feed. Extra £1 if they have rugs on.

I think this is very cheap, as I would expect £10 per day (my dog costs me £10 per day!!)
 
Pixie88 said:
I think my yard owner charges similar to you. When they are in it is £5 per day holiday cover for turn out, muck out, bring in and feed. Extra £1 if they have rugs on.

I think this is very cheap, as I would expect £10 per day (my dog costs me £10 per day!!)
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Agree kennel charges seem to have risen with inflation whereas livery is similar to 10 years ago. Perhaps it's down to more people owning horses who are on lower incomes.
 
I think ours is £10 for daycare which is rug change, turnout, muck out, feed, water, bring in and rug change.
They knock off 50p for no rug change
 
My charges vary, but service for the whole day would include mucking out, poo picking, bring in/turn out, change rugs, change boots, give breakfast/dinner/hay in field, scrub buckets and bowls, fresh water in stable, make up feeds, make up haynets, apply creams/flyspray, pick out hooves, tidy up.

Normal weekday: £5
Whole weekend: £10 Weekend AM or PM: £5
Dec 24th, 25th, 26th, 31st and Jan 1st Full day: £20 AM or PM: £10
(There are no extra charges for any other bank holidays in the year)
I'm more than happy for liveries to help eachother out, as I try to have a life too! :)
 
Our yard is £7.50 a day full livery for holiday cover/one offs. This is hay, turn out, bring in, foot care, giving feed, changing rugs, muck out. Total bargain!
 
My yard charge £5 a day when they are in. That includes turnout, bring in, muck out, hay, water feed, A check over when brought back in and hay in field of needed. No rug changes unless drastic change in weather (I.e horse in hw rug and temp turns to 25c)

Summer its £2 a day for a feed and check over.


We are in East Yorkshire.
 
I'm on full livery but the yard I'm at charges £4.50 a day for everything done if you're not there and the yard I was at is £6 a day. That's on top of your DIY rate and includes muck out, turn out, bring in, feed, rug changes and feet.

My old yard did full summer livery (so grass livery including poo picking and horse checked twice a day) for £150 a month. DIY rate is £120 a month.
 
I keep my horse on a yard which originally offered a part-livery service. It changed suddenly to a DIY with no services. I didn't want to move but I travel a lot for work so now I pay another livery £12 a day for full care Mon-Fri inc some poo-picking. This is on top of £150 I pay for stable etc. plus hay, bedding and feed. It costs me as much if not more than 7 day part livery would locally but I don't get dictated to about how my horse is managed so I prefer it. Another girl on yard who does it as full-time freelance work will do it for no less than £15 a day on yard or £25 a day if she has to go to another yard.
 
My YO charges £10 per day for full livery, this is on top of rent. For this you get either turn out/in fed once if going out or twice if staying in. Skip out (even though it's supposed to be a muck out) no rugs changed no feet picking. Individually the jobs she does add up to £6 as per her charges. So I feel ripped off when I have to ask for full livery!!
My friend booked full livery for a week, her horse stayed in the same rug for that whole week!!!
 
If you are living on the yard or there everyday anyway you don't have to factor in travel costs like someone who does this as a job, so you can be cheaper and still cover your costs. I would work it out on a minimum of £10 per hour. For each horse it takes about an hour to change rugs, turn out, muck out, clean and fill water buckets, clean feed bowl, fill and hang hay nets, sweep yard, bring in, quick brush off, pick out feet, change rugs, give feed. You could either break that down as you have been doing or charge a flat rate for the whole deal. And of course, you still have to fill field water and poo pick field for that horse as well while owner is away! It all adds up - I think you need to put your prices up!
 
learn2horse said:
If you are living on the yard or there everyday anyway you don't have to factor in travel costs like someone who does this as a job, so you can be cheaper and still cover your costs. I would work it out on a minimum of £10 per hour. For each horse it takes about an hour to change rugs, turn out, muck out, clean and fill water buckets, clean feed bowl, fill and hang hay nets, sweep yard, bring in, quick brush off, pick out feet, change rugs, give feed. You could either break that down as you have been doing or charge a flat rate for the whole deal. And of course, you still have to fill field water and poo pick field for that horse as well while owner is away! It all adds up - I think you need to put your prices up!
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Thanks everyone concensus is that I'm underselling myself so I will look at my charges and increase them for holiday care as I hadn't really taken into account all the extra hours of poopicking I do etc. Thanks to everyone who has replied
 
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