Cost for yard staff holding for the dentist?

mavandkaz

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I think I paid £20 when my boy was on full grass retirement livery. (Was made clear in the contract it was an extra).
Large fields, so could easily take 20min or more to catch and bring in, and even though my horse is very sensible and doesn't actually need holding, the yard hand would be on stand by just in case.
 

teddypops

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I see they have to be brought in and out but does everyone actually hold the horse for the dentist? My dentist is my vet and I'm not sure he would even need me. I'm rarely in the stable at the same time. I am usually the one making the tea and keeping a supply of horses coming. .
I always hold my horses for the dentist or the vet to do their teeth.
 

Christmascinnamoncookie

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But if the horse lives out, doesn’t have a stable, is brought in, borrows a stable, borrows the power supply, borrows someone to bring in, someone to keep an eye as most professional’s insurance requires a person on site to be responsible the horse being done, someone to turn back out.

It does rather depend if it’s full service retirement livery or renting a field for a retired horse? Or somewhere in between.

For sure, but charging £25 is taking the mick!
 

windand rain

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Full livery £0 DIY £20 full grass livery for retired or youngsters is inclusive of handling but not riding them would only happen a few times a year and should be part of the livery.
 

SO1

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If the horse was on full grass or retirement livery
I would expect this to be part of the costs of the livery.

If not included it would depends on how far away the field is from the stables and how long the horse has to be held for. At one yard I was on 14 years ago catch in/turn out for grass livery was £10 each way as the field was so big and far away from the stable it could take an hour to catch in if the horse was at the far end of the field.
 

bouncing_ball

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For sure, but charging £25 is taking the mick!

It depends. I had 2 horses on temporary grass livery for a month. I think it was £25 a week per horse. One needed to come in and have abscess poulticed. Wasn’t stabled but I think I got a surcharge for using yard facilities rather than staying in far field. (It wasn’t a problem) but I’d needed more than just the field.

TBH if I couldn’t be there my self for dentist £25 rather than child care or taking a half day annual leave sounds okay. If I had a stable and access to the yard for the horse I’d find it a bit steep.
 

Birker2020

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So I'm just curious if you have a horse on full grass livery/retirement grass livery and the yard caught them, then held them for the dentist and turned out again, what sort of additional charge would you expect to pay for this service (on top of the charge for the dentist)? The horse is fine to catch and well behaved. Thank you!
£5 on our yard to hold for dentist/farrier/vet plus the bring in fee of £2.50 a day I believe it is now. We get a free turnout or a free bring in once a day, weekdays only.
 

Ample Prosecco

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Livery yard barely cover their costs really. My YO is out ALL DAY LONG every day doing stuff that everyone needs but which doesn;t make any money: fencing, trimming hedges, sorting the muck heap, harrowing the arenas, weeding, spraying, painting, repairing, moving stuff around and on and on and on. If you workl out the REAL hourly rate of a yard owner who works 12 hours a day 7 days a week she is paid a pittance! I don;t begrudge her extras, I am just grateful she offers them.
 

dominobrown

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Livery yard barely cover their costs really. My YO is out ALL DAY LONG every day doing stuff that everyone needs but which doesn;t make any money: fencing, trimming hedges, sorting the muck heap, harrowing the arenas, weeding, spraying, painting, repairing, moving stuff around and on and on and on. If you workl out the REAL hourly rate of a yard owner who works 12 hours a day 7 days a week she is paid a pittance! I don;t begrudge her extras, I am just grateful she offers them.
I worked out it out one winter, few years ago mind… think it worked out about 21p an hour ??‍♀️
 

Ample Prosecco

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I worked out it out one winter, few years ago mind… think it worked out about 21p an hour ??‍♀️

OMG that;s mad!! But I am not that surprised - a good YO running a good yard puts in thousands of invisble hours to keep the place from falling apart. And those that don't, get slated. I have a few issues with my YO but costs aren't one of them!
 

kc921

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If its retiremebt/full grass livery I wouldn't be expecting to pay anything, I would expect it to be included in the price you pay monthly
When I was on part livery, bring in/ turn out/holding the horse for the vet/farrier/dentist was included
 

bouncing_ball

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If its retiremebt/full grass livery I wouldn't be expecting to pay anything, I would expect it to be included in the price you pay monthly
When I was on part livery, bring in/ turn out/holding the horse for the vet/farrier/dentist was included

Full retirement / grass livery is about £350 a month and should include everything.

Field livery without coming in / using stable or yard facilities is typically different.
 

Tarragon

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I think that £10 might apply if the person doing it was already on-site and the field convenient. Allowing an hour for the actual treatment, it might take another 30 minutes to bring the horse in and turn it back out. If the horse had to be sedated, it would have to be kept in under supervision for longer than an hour.
 

AShetlandBitMeOnce

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It should have been discussed beforehand, but I like the saying that 'it's not too expensive, it's just out of your price range'. No personal comment on OP, as I don't know their situation, but the YO has the right to charge whatever they think appropriate, and if you don't want to pay it then either be there yourself or make alternative arrangements.

The error here was not being up front about the charge.

No-one would tell me, as an Accountant, what I should charge for a tax return - I name my price, and they either hire me or they don't. I am either within the price bracket they had in mind or I'm not, that doesn't mean I am too expensive, just more than they're willing to pay.

Business owners don't owe you a living.
 

Leandy

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Well if it is described as full retirement/grass livery I would expect routine handling like this to be included. However, i would also have checked what extras if any there were and what was included when agreeing the contract, so I wouldn't expect to be surprised by a charge. If a yard is charging extras it should have a clear price list for those up front. Different yards have different offerings and structure their pricing differently. Some may have a lower base charge and charge extras on top, some may be all inclusive for a higher rate. If I was expecting extras, I wouldn't be particularly surprised by £25 to deal with the dentist although I would like the option to deal with it myself if I didn't want to pay the extra. Whether I did it myself or paid the yard would depend on how convenient it would be for me to get there.
 

sport horse

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So I'm just curious if you have a horse on full grass livery/retirement grass livery and the yard caught them, then held them for the dentist and turned out again, what sort of additional charge would you expect to pay for this service (on top of the charge for the dentist)? The horse is fine to catch and well behaved. Thank you!

So is the horse on grass livery or retirement livery? How much do you pay per week? This might make it clearer whether the charge is fair or not. If you are paying £25 per week to include checks then it is quite reasonable to add a charge at the level they have. If you are paying a full service at say £80 - £100 per week then it probably should be inclusinve of dentist, farrier etc.

What does it say in your livery contract?
 

PapaverFollis

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I'd happily give someone 50 quid plus to deal with The Beast and the vet for me. But that is a special case! I'd expect to pay at least £10 for a normal horse.
 

Jango

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Wow I didn't expect all these responses! It's not my main yard, my friend and I moved our little mare there to have her foal over the summer as we didn't have facilities for foaling or youngstock. Foal is now weaned and sold and we have moved the mare back closer to home so she isn't at this yard any more. The mare was out with other horses on retirement livery after the foal was weaned.

It's full grass/retirement livery in that you can't go up and check them yourselves, the yard owner does daily checks. They have monthly visiting days when you can go up and see your horse. We didn't have any kind of contract, just had the bill emailed each month and other professionals e.g. vet and farrier we have paid the professionals directly with no charge for handling on the livery bill (we paid a foaling fee which was agreed upfront and fine). No mention has ever been made verbally of any handling charges. The yard owner put on the group fb did anyone want the dentist, we said yes and then got this bill a month later. I think she should have said it will be cost of dentist plus £25, and in that case we would have waited a month til she was back near us and then sorted ourselves. It's her own property and I still feel £10 would be fair, £15 steep but ok as she would bring in in twos and put them in a pen for the dentist.

We are going to pay it as my friend uses her for lessons and stuff. But I won't be using her yard/services again as I feel she's ripping people off/being a bit underhand.
 

criso

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I've always been on some sort of part livery and there have been different pricing structures on every yard I have been on in terms of what is included and what is extra. I've never been on high end everything done for you packages.

However what I would expect was a clear understanding of what was included and an itemised price list for extras.

What I would add though is grass livery may mean the fields are bigger/further away and the horse is not coming in every day and spending time in their stable which has a bed down and hay in it. . Often horses are left in n or brought in early for vets, farriers, dentists so it is not as much extra work.
 

Ample Prosecco

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Wow I didn't expect all these responses! It's not my main yard, my friend and I moved our little mare there to have her foal over the summer as we didn't have facilities for foaling or youngstock. Foal is now weaned and sold and we have moved the mare back closer to home so she isn't at this yard any more. The mare was out with other horses on retirement livery after the foal was weaned.

It's full grass/retirement livery in that you can't go up and check them yourselves, the yard owner does daily checks. They have monthly visiting days when you can go up and see your horse. We didn't have any kind of contract, just had the bill emailed each month and other professionals e.g. vet and farrier we have paid the professionals directly with no charge for handling on the livery bill (we paid a foaling fee which was agreed upfront and fine). No mention has ever been made verbally of any handling charges. The yard owner put on the group fb did anyone want the dentist, we said yes and then got this bill a month later. I think she should have said it will be cost of dentist plus £25, and in that case we would have waited a month til she was back near us and then sorted ourselves. It's her own property and I still feel £10 would be fair, £15 steep but ok as she would bring in in twos and put them in a pen for the dentist.

We are going to pay it as my friend uses her for lessons and stuff. But I won't be using her yard/services again as I feel she's ripping people off/being a bit underhand.

Full retirement livery should include everything in my view. Obviously you pay for the wormer, trimmer, dentist, whatever but I would not expect any handling fee under those circumstances.
 

Fransurrey

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Wow I didn't expect all these responses! It's not my main yard, my friend and I moved our little mare there to have her foal over the summer as we didn't have facilities for foaling or youngstock. Foal is now weaned and sold and we have moved the mare back closer to home so she isn't at this yard any more. The mare was out with other horses on retirement livery after the foal was weaned.

It's full grass/retirement livery in that you can't go up and check them yourselves, the yard owner does daily checks. They have monthly visiting days when you can go up and see your horse. We didn't have any kind of contract, just had the bill emailed each month and other professionals e.g. vet and farrier we have paid the professionals directly with no charge for handling on the livery bill (we paid a foaling fee which was agreed upfront and fine). No mention has ever been made verbally of any handling charges. The yard owner put on the group fb did anyone want the dentist, we said yes and then got this bill a month later. I think she should have said it will be cost of dentist plus £25, and in that case we would have waited a month til she was back near us and then sorted ourselves. It's her own property and I still feel £10 would be fair, £15 steep but ok as she would bring in in twos and put them in a pen for the dentist.

We are going to pay it as my friend uses her for lessons and stuff. But I won't be using her yard/services again as I feel she's ripping people off/being a bit underhand.
I think your mistake as already said is not having a charge agreed in advance. I wouldn't expect it to be for free under that arrangement. To be honest, though, the monthly visiting days alone would put me off the place. I like to see my horses when I like (within reasonable hours!) and definitely not monthly!
 

Kat

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Our yard doesn't do grass livery and holding for the farrier/vet/dentist is included in the full 7 day livery cost. For those on part/assisted DIY I think it is £5 per half hour holding. Any additional bring in or turnout required would be charged in addition at the usual rate.
 
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