Charging for water?!

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Paint it Lucky

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My yard owner has recently decided that the liveries use too much water (I'm sure they don't use anymore than a normal yard) and is threatening to charge us extra for water (he already charges top rate). But what can we do? The horses have to drink, we have suggested he puts in place a system to collect rainwater but he says this is too expensive (!) And now he has stated that if anyone wants to cold hose their horse they have to pay £5 a time! Imagine how much this will cost if you have an injured horse that has to be hosed 2-3 times a day, it would add up to the extent that you wouldn't be able to afford to treat your own horse! I think this is shocking and many of the other liveries do too but he will not listen to reason. Sorry this is a rant really. Does anyone else get charged for water?
 
No but our YO has cut the water supply off (I think he doesnt want to pay the bill) So we have to lug buckets of water over from the river through the field and wash all our things in the river and if our horses are injured they have to stand in the river instead of getting hosed. Really not good at 6 in the evening in the pitch black slipping and sliding across the field with a full bucket of water
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Oh dear! Reminds me of the days I used to rent a small yard from a local n'er do well "farmer". I had the use of an old battery hen house which husband and I converted into 4 internal stables and a 5 acre field. On top of my monthly rent he used to charge me for water and electricity on a quarterly basis. I thought it seemed a bit pricey £100 per quarter electric for 4 stables until I had some rewiring done - electrician found out he had all his pigeon lofts (he was a keen pigeon fancier) on the same electric as mine! The lengths some tightwads will go to! Sorry no idea as to what you can do - other than vote with your feet.
 
Oh eck bit steep isnt it, we dont get charged on our yard but Im sure we will do, could you not move somewhere else if he does put this charge into effect?
 
I assume the stables have gutters to a down pipe?

If so where does this water go?

If it is just into a drain ask if the YO will let you put a water butt in to fill up from?

If he will then change it and ask if you can put in a bin in place of the water butt as it is easier to fill a bucket from that than a butt.

If he show's no sign of relenting even when a solution is given to him then i'd say there is more to it than that and probably that rising costs in general makes the business less lucrative than it used to be and he is trying to recoup a lost income somehow!
 
Actually I have recently left this yard (sorry should have said) as this water thing was just one in a long list of rediculous and unreasonable things the yard owner used to do. Just wondered if you agreed with me that's its rediculous, we already pay livery so surely that should cover the cost of water?
 
i have a water meter on my home field,i have had 4 pons there most of the year(have moved some now so only 2 there at present)
the meter is read twice a year.
i have used about £30 this year.

my livery has a meter on her bit, and has 2 horses,she soaks her hay.£20 a year there.


i think you are being overcharged.
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water is just over £1 a cubic metre.
 
Chunkytim, we did suggest this to him but as he'd never bothered to put gutters on the stables it would cost too much to install the complete system in his oppinion even though it would save him money in the long term.
 
i have just got my bills out to look at for you.
cubic metre of water(thats quite a lot actually) is 107.09 p(so just over a quid)

fixed rate charge £6.03 per quarter.

i have had 4 bills this year,all about a tenner.so i have spent about £40 this year,sorry,little more than i quoted above.
my livery is still the same as above cos there is no fixed rate(standing charge)on that one.
 
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Yard owner told us it was A LOT more than that (think ten times that amount), I think he may have been lying!

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I think he must have a leak!!!!................***Spot who used to do leak detection for a water company!!!***
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I was on a yard once where the lady said we were using too much water and that she would only change my horses water once he had finished his bucket....I was on full livery and have a fussy drinker...
needless to say she soon had two less horses to 'care' for!

I think if you rent a stable with grazing and facilities on a yard, a water supply should be a given.
 
A friend of mine keeps her horses on full livery and the horses aren't allowed to have their legs hosed or even a bath in the summer!

I think this is taking it a bit far?

Surely you factor these costs into the livery charge in the first place.

Well - it has been factored in, but then you don't get the 'service' anyway, and the YO makes more profit!
 
A livery yard where you cant cold hose horse's legs if they are injured is not one worth being at....

A yard round here charges £5 per bath which I think is taking the pee a bit but apparently they had people washing their horses multiple times a week, so I wonder if it was meant as a deterrant rather than a real charge.
 
My old YO used to charge £3 for bathing and £1 a week extra to soak hay. We weren't allowed to hose feet or legs off if muddy but could cold hose for injury etc. That was before all these price rises though so I dread to think what she is charging now!
 
As long as there is a facia on one of the long roof egdes then most remotely competant husbands should be able to put up a gutter and down pipe costing probably not alot more than £30~.

My yard where i livery at recently asked us not to use the hose unless we had to but linked the guttering into two of those big cube shaped water containers which IIRC is about 5000litres per tank. they were filled in the space of about 3 days rain!!!
 
We don't have mains water at our yard (a friend and I rent the whole place). Two big tanks (about £50 each) - we have six horses on there and so far have been fine. We're goin to get two more tanks as we lose a lot of water due to lack of storage. Hubby hooked up a long hose (working on gravity), and we can now fill the water trough (which does two fields) without having to haul it by bucket
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Field ownes don't want the expense of standing charges so won't link up ot the mains (which is on the edge of the land as previous owner was going to hook it up). It's a pain for washing and I don't know how we'd hose a leg, but no doubt would figure something out
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it is not good the YO doing that at all but as a YO, i must say i once had a water bill for nearly £600! (and most of the stables have automatic water feeders in)
he should collect the rain water as suggested but TBH, he should realise that water bills are part of being a YO and maybe if teh prices have shot up that much, he should put his rents up as what he seems to be doing just makes him look like such an @rse!
 
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