DIY

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hogged2trot

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I've been loaning a horse who is DIY and realised how much I love doing the horses morning/evening rather than full livery.

I'm considering putting my own horse on DIY and am wondering if people could give me an idea of costs.

What does the DIY livery include?
What do you have to pay on top? e.g. bedding/hay/feed? How much does that cost? I know it may change over summer etc. but I'd rather budget for the winter when horse is needing more of everything.

Thanks - don't want to do it and find out I'm being caught out and there's added costs or more expensive than what I'm paying on full livery.
 
It's difficult to say what DIY includes, some places you get stable & grazing & use of facilities, others you will get hay included in the price. It also depends on where in the country you are as that can mean quite a difference in price.

Again hay/haylage prices are different all over the country. Small bales are more expensive than large ones. Large haylage will go off if not eaten in a certain time so unless you share with another owner they may not be any good to you. Bedding price depends on what you want to use & how dirty your horse is in the stable. Shavings are more expensive than straw, wood pellets, rape straw etc. There are loads of different beddings, all have different qualities, all have different prices which again will change if you bulk buy.

Feed, again basic pony nuts are cheap, named other feeds can be 2 or 3 times the price. Some fibrefeeds like Alfa etc can be expensive but there are other forage feeds that are half the price. You may wish to use sugar beet instead & again your costs will alter.

This post tells you very little regarding actual costs but unless you actually say where you are in the country & what you want to feed & what bedding you want to use then it is impossible to give prices. :)
 
We're on DIY ...

Our cost for our private yard is £25 a week, so £108 a month. For this we get individual 24/7 turn out in 6 acres, use of a school whenever we want, American barn type stables which are rubber matted, secure tack room, cctv, electricity and mains water and excellent off road hacking direct from the yard

We provide our own feed and bedding which works out for me about £20 a month (30kg wood pellets, and haylage only for feed) - but we only have a mini shetland at the moment! The other livery at the yard uses a bale of shavings a week. As mentioned above, the cost of bedding and feed depends upon what you want to use.

Then you need to factor in farrier bills, vet bills, insurance, public liability etc ...
 
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£100 per calendar month for stable and grazing, no school, use of a tack room and storage space in a barn. YM will supply hay and shavings if required, but I get in my own bedding, haylage and feed. Use a bag of wood pellets a week at £5.99, (have my own rubber mats) and about 2.5 - 3 bales of haylage at about £7.50 a bale. Hard feed is negligible as he's a fatty, but he does get a few supplements which put the cost up a bit.
 
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I'm in West Sussex/Surrey and pay £130 pcm for DIY livery.

For this we get facility wise:

Good sized stable
AYTO (not 24/7 though) - in large herd (although split mares and geldings up) with very good fields.
Direct access to off road hacking (although have to pay a license fee to use it)
Flood lit sand school with use of jumps.
Individual storage facilities

Hay & straw I buy through the yard manager - I could probably get it slightly cheaper off another farmer if I looked around, but for the convenience it is worth it for me.

A large bale of straw is £12 and lasts about a month at this time of year A large bale of hay is £25 - it lasts about two months in the winter feeding ad-lib. In he summer, both last forever!

But, I own a good doer 14hh New Forest pony who is relatively cheap to feed.

Hard feed wise - he is on Allen and Page Fast Fibre, Dengie Good Doer and gets some high fibre nuts in his snack ball.

The Yard Manager does offer assistance - in the winter I tend to use it more, as he will be bought in when I'm at work. Again, it is not the cheapest assistance I've had - to either T/O or bring in during the winter is £2.50, but this is reduced to £2 in the summer (as summer fields are much closer). In the winter I tend to do one day of 'full assistance' in the week to give me a break - and naturally if I go away, he will go on 'full' - £9.00 a day and for this they are fed, T/O, mucked out, hay & waters done, bought in, feed picked out & rugs changed.
 
I'm south east, near Surrey/Kent boarder.

He would probably do 1 bale of hunters every 4-5days. He is currently on deep litter although I would happily go to rubber and shavings. His diet currently consists of a scoop of pony nuts, a scoop of chaff, half a scoop of mix and sugar beat am and pm. The trouble is, I have no idea how much this would cost and how long bags of these feeds would last for as he is on full livery and it's included in my bill.

He is on 12-15lb hay at night, out during the day.

Sorry for not being very helpful. I will see if I can find prices on yard websites. Didn't want to contact yards as am not 100% sure yet and didn't want to make people think they might get potential business with me and then say no.
 
Our assisted DIY Surrey is £320, this includes stable, grazing in single sex herd, hay both in field and as much as you need for stable, similarly haylage. Floodlight rubber school, sj, water, electric etc and either a bring in or turnout with rig change and feed over the door daily.

Feed costs me £15 per month, shavings 1 a week at £7.50. About 8 bales to start a bed. Extas for yard to feed/to/bi is £2.50 a go.
 
I'm in Gloucestershire and pay 100 pounds pcm. For this I get a good size stable, individual all year round turnout (we do as we please with our own paddocks and I share paddocks with my daughter), we have our own lockable tack room and our own barn with lots of storage. We also have a small indoor school which us included. Hay and straw available on site at 25 pounds for large bale hay and 15 pounds for large bale straw. A bale of hay lasts my daughter and I approximately 2 weeks in winter.
 
My DIY livery is:

Field and stable £25 per week
Hay/Haylage, ad lib from yard £10 per week
Bedding - flax, about 1 bale a week at £8 a bale
Feed - depends on horse
 
I pay £25 a week for DIY stable and grazing.

There are no facilites such as a school but there is use of one 10 minutes hack away.

I pay extra £28 per week for turn out and bring in (£2 for each turn out/bring in).

I bought through YO a large bale of hay is £45, small bale of hay is £4.50 and
shavings are £7.20.
 
I pay 196.00 per month and for that I get rubber matted stable in indoor barn, hay or haylage (ablib), bedding, all year turnout, gallops, indoor and outdoor school, off road riding and Ridgeway access. On top of that I spend 50.00 per horse on feed and supplements and 40.00 on insurance. Shoes are 60.00 every 6 weeks. Mine are also accident prone hacks so also budget for chiropractic visit every few months at 50.00 per horse. .
 
I live in Rutland and have just moved yards...

Pay £97.50 pcm for Stable, turnout, use of school and jumps, electricity, secure tack room and feed room all included. Hay/ haylage £7 a week shavings 1 bale a week both extra :)
 
The thing a lot miss in comparing the two is diesel for two visits a day 365 days a year - that can really add up unless the yard is very close!
I think in a lot of places it's very close in price once everything is taken into consideration - people I've met assume you're rich if you use full livery but all in they spend more on DIY!
 
I am in north west. I pay 120 a month for stable grazing use of school and farm ride.

I have rubber mats so use one bale of shavings a week 7 per bale. I share a large haylage with another it lasts two horses a week and costs 27. Feed is cool fibre a bag a month at 10 a bag
 
I get through one bag of Alfa a per month. £12
2 bags of nuts per month. £14
1 bag of mix per month. £8
5 bales of shavings £35
1 round bale every 6/7 weeks @ £35 per bale.

About £80/£90 per month on top of DIY livery cost.

HOWEVER, if you have a busy job and cannot spend the time am and pm before and after work, I would consider part livery during the week and DIY on the weekends.
 
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