Confuzzled! Your opinions please...

dominobrown

dominobrown

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I am hopefully starting my own equestrian business soon, and have the opportunity of renting part of wonderful livery yard :) which has really good facilities.

However, I am completely confused and depressed when working out the prices. I sat down and worked out all the costs of breaking in a horse, including insurance etc, and then thought I would give myself a wage on top of that... of £30 a week? Ummm

So what would you pay for breaking, schooling and full livery? If selling a horse would you prefer to pay less in livery but for a commission to be taken?

And those who do break in, what is the breakdown of your costs? PM me if you like.
Any help appreciated! :):o
 
I'm on schooling livery for £125 + vat which is quite reasonable for what I should get which is full livery, very good facilities and schooling for either the horse or me and the horse 6 days as week (it can be a little variable). Having looked around £150 seems common.

When fully staffed, the lady who does the breaking and schooling will literally ride/lunge/free school from 9.30 - 6pm one horse after another, while the care is done by the grooms. The trick is definately to have good staff and low staff turnover.

Paula
 
I think it also depends on your experance and the area you are in. Livery was much cheaper when I lived up north to when I moved south but roughly 150 a week I've known of
 
A wage of £30 per week!!! Even if you put aside the hard graft that is involved in looking after and breaking/schooling horses....I would not even get out of bed for £30 per week. Seriously, you cannot live off that surely, that is not what I would class as a 'business'.
I can only assume that you do not need to earn a good wage for whatever reason?
Good luck though, hope it all goes well for you.
 
I'd contact other breaking yards and see what they charge. You'll need to spend time/money getting your name out there and advertising, i know someone whos recently done the same and its hard to convince people to be your first customer when they could go to someone else whos been doing it for years. Try to get lots of testimonials from previous clients/friends in the equine business.

With the livery fees for selling horses, what happens if the horse is unsold?

I wish you the best of luck and hope it all works out well for you :)
 
Not sure how your working it out but are you saying the £30 a week would be earned from just one horse? If thats the case then thats not bad. good luck.
 
I too am/ was looking into a breaking and schooling business. I have already a few people interested as have worked as a groom for 4 years in area and also have impressed stud owner of youngster I have brought on.
However, I do have my own land, stables and ménage.
When I sent my youngster away for breaking it cost me £100 a week at one yard where he was out 24/7 in between training sessions and £150 at another yard when he was stabled majority of the time.
To supplement my wage I would have to keep on my part time job as a groom and thinking about possibly training as a riding Instructer. Also would love to compete people horses for them but need to get my name more well known in the BD circuit first.
 
Just be aware, OP, that many of the people who manage to do horses as a viable business are only able to keep their prices competitive (leaving out fair - horse people are cheap!;)) because they either have access to facilities at cost or it's run as a family business and not everyone draws a living wage. Some of the big names, even ones that charge top rates, are located on family farms and while they have all the usual high overhead they don't have market rate rent or a big mortgage.

I'm not saying this to put you off, merely from a business perspective. If you're going to do comparisons outgoings are as important a factor as takings. If you compare yourself to say, someone whose mother does all their mucking for free, then you won't get a realistic view.
 
You need to research carefully and understand what the market locally is chargeing.
I own my own private yard and I am amazed by how little the DIY yards round here charge there's no way I could maintain my yard and fields and make a profit and family from outside the area moved in near here and put in a fab school and opened as a DIY yard they charged more and it was more realistic they got no customers because they where charging more than the local market will support.
You must cost what it's going to cost to feed and bed a livery carefully.
Good luck.
 
You need to contact yards nearby that are offering a similar service & find out their prices. As has been mentioned many yard owners make a living because they actually own the land the yard is on & don't have to find rent money each month. I had a friend who fulfilled her ambition to run her own yard. The yard folded after 12 months though because she couldn't make enough money to cover her bills & pay her living expenses. She charged similar prices to nearby yards & worked long hours but the yard rental soaked up all her money.

I don't want to put you off but you must get your sums right or you will go the same way. Good Luck.
 
I definitely agree re outgoings, to turn a profit they do need to be a minimum. Even the difference between cutting your own hay/straw & buying in, to who does the yard work. Plus how many horses do you need in at a time to make it viable. The near vicinity I'm in isn't particularly affluent, far more diy, & cheap farm diy than full livery cos few locally have that money, so a schooling yard would have the same struggle for business. But, there's certainly a market for going to yards & providing the service with the horse at home. Or even with the horse moving on diy & the owner providing the care. Of course that does depend on area, but unless you can guarantee a certain no of horses, traveling yourself means there's no fixed overheads whether booked up or not. And its a cheaper way to start off, so when yard taken on you have clients already lined up.
 
pottamus said:
A wage of £30 per week!!! Even if you put aside the hard graft that is involved in looking after and breaking/schooling horses....I would not even get out of bed for £30 per week. Seriously, you cannot live off that surely, that is not what I would class as a 'business'.
I can only assume that you do not need to earn a good wage for whatever reason?
Good luck though, hope it all goes well for you.
Click to expand...

Nope I am a normal person, so cannot live off £30 a week! I was just trying to work out how people can do it for so little money, and still give top quality care to the horse.

I am looking at renting a yard, as at the moment I go from yard to yard. I have 3 breakers at one yard, but are on full livery and I just do all the ground/ ridden work with them, but this works out very expensive for the owner.
I have had a few breakers over summer, when I had space at home (have 3 boxes) but don't at the moment. Someone did ring up but wanted to pay less than £50 a week for breaking including full livery, as that's how much his 2 year old cost! :eek:
Told him politely as possible that to come back next spring, and no one in their right mind would break a horse in for £50 a week, and actually look after it and feed it?

I understand that no one becomes a millionaire breaking in horses, but I don't understand how people can charge less £150 a week and make a living from it, even a poor one!
 
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