Confusion over full livery services.

When I worked on a yard in the Home Counties full livery was everything a horse needs really. We had the horses tacked up ready to go for when the owners wanted. Clipped, trimmed tack cleaned afterwards. Literally all the owners did was turn up and ride. Some of them not very often (ever week or every other week) due to their work commitments. However they did compete and expected their horses fit and ready to go. We did fast work with the eventers and schooled the dressage horses (I had lessons on one as agreed by the owner). It wasn't really training livery as much as they were kept ticking over. Training livery they were worked by my boss.

However here in the midlands what you've described could be part or full. The part livery yard we're moving our horses to that we looked round yesterday offers everything you said apart from the walker. They will exercise on top.

Depends where you are.
 
Debz87 said:
Non ridden exercise of 45 mins on horse walker at least 5 times a week
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Absolutely no way on this earth would I want any of mine doing that much constant circling. Even if it was an oval horse walker (which studies have shown don't knacker the joints the way circular ones do) I wouldn't want them on there for that amount of time.
 
I class full livery as everything outside of riding. We then have full livery plus exercise...

I agree with Faracat re the horse walker. Three times a week 20 mins max is more than enough strain on joints and enough to keep them ticking over on non ridden days.
 
I would call that full livery based on what the yards round here do.

Personally I need ad lib hay/haylage. When mine is fed according to her weight (and we have a weighbridge brought to our yard every year so I know her weight) she drops weight quite alarmingly!

I would also suggest that you ask people to supply their own hard feed. You can't find a feed to suit every horse on your yard and people will feel "ripped off" if they are paying for feed and supplying their own. We changed from having feed supplied to supplying our own feed on our yard and everyone is happier now, even those who didn't want to source their own. As an example on our yard we have my barefoot poor doer who is kept fit enough to hunt and compete, we have an elderly cob with problem teeth, a part arab with ulcers, a laminitic, one with cushings, one with recurrent choke, a competiton pony with copd, and several easy keeping natives. You can't feed them all the same food and keep them all happy and healthy.
 
That is pretty much full livery for my area. If ridden work is included it tends to be called 'working livery'.
Full livery on my yard includes 1 bag of bedding per week. Basic chaff, sugar beat, pony nuts and carrots. The hay consumption is up to the owner depending on the horse rather than in weights.
 
as long as that is for 7 days a week i would call it full livery, where i am in Hampshire full livery is seven day care and the owner just grooms and rides and part tends to be full 5day care and DIY/Assisted DIY sat&sun. walkers are often available but not 'included unless you want them. exercise is available at extra :) round here that wold probably be about £120pw would also go ad-lib hay not by horses weight, if you are worried about them gaining weight decrease the consumption! Part livery for me (as above) is £90pw
 
Kokopelli said:
Just a thought, a yard local to me has just started making individual packages for each livery. The YO starts with the basic stable, TO and muck out etc and adds things on top of this for each livery depending on their needs. From what I can gather they have a waiting list as long as my arm and it seems to be working really well.
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This would be my suggestion. If you can offer perhaps a couple of fixed packages - DIY, part, full or whatever.. then have prices for extras so if a livery would prefer part livery but perhaps full livery type services on two days each week?

This would be something that would make a yard stick out to me as it would cater for a wide range of people without restricting.
 
Firstly, huge thanks to everyone for their comments.

I think ab lib haylage is fine, just thought it may be a more professional touch to try and maintain correct weight for horses with weighed nets, as in the amount of haylage recommended daily and then spread out during the day with more haylage at night.
The yard is just outside of Petersfield with easy access to local Riding Club venue etc so ideal small yard with reasonable facilites and good turnout but if you need more like cross country jumps its all hackable.
I think regarding the feed you could be right, I just wanted to avoid lots of different feeds taking up loads of space and the hassle of trying to get people to arrange their own feeds or for them to pay extra for me to purchase the feed they want.
Re the horse walker, I have never used one for my horses but I know they are quite popular and I based 45 mins on what another yard had advertised, this was because there was a lack of turn out mainly that it was used, but from searching previous threads a lot of people said it would be ideal to have one, of course it saves me work.
Bedding - well I know people like their horses to have huge beds but I have used wood pellets and worked out costs and think the bedding would along with the rubber matting prove to be easier to keep clean, thus smelling less and be less time consuming to muck out, I want to focus on cleanliness so the boxes would be skipped out regularly too if the horses are in. I personally don't like shavings, I don't think they are absorbent enough and there is a lot of waste.
With the pellets I would expect to put a reasonable depth down but not have banks and the rubber matting covers the whole of the floor, I'm sure that many people will not agree and wouldn't like this kind of bedding but there were no complaints at the training yard I was at and if I make allowances for some to have shavings, everyone will want them and I have a situation I didn't want in the first place.
I think as long as I am clear about everything in advance people either like it or they don't and if they don't they can choose another yard that gives them shavings.
I intend to do most of the work myself and want to have 3 or 4 training liveries to fit in as well as the stable work and will only have someone else in to help if I need to go and freelance as I teach around the South.
I think offering a few variations would work, I have looked at other yards in the area's websites for ideas and again they are offering a mix of part and full so it's difficult to pin down a suitable price, I was advised £120-150 for what I have written in my first post but obviously want the yard to be successful and attract the right kind of people.
I would be willing to ride horses for liveries but would rather offer the option of no exercise first and do bolt ons as I want to concentrate on my training, the training by the way is a western starting and training business which has been freelance but was getting difficult to train horses with lack of facilities at the owners yards, so although I can ride English and did do for years its not what I focus on hence not wanting to ride livery horses.
 
Also was going to offer 7 day care to avoid owners turning up late in the morning after others had been turned out etc.
 
I work on a yard in hampshire.

They get turned out mucked out brought in skipped out rug change 7 days a week. Horse walker twice a week. as much bedding as needed to maintain beds, as much hay/haylage as needed to maintain weight. Any hard feed ( we will buy what the owner wants to feed, not just basic feeds) The yard has a 20x40 school, good hacking and is near a well known competition centre. That is 120pw

For grooming, hose legs, tack cleaning ontop its 140pw

Any exercise is an added extra
 
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