Do you have to pay to hire your own school?

ycbm

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I don’t think you are reading my posts as I said I wouldn’t go to a yard that charged extra for facilities over and above. I moved to a more expensive yard to get facilities, not to pay more for the basic rate then more on top for facilities.


If you had two yards to choose between and one was 30 a week basic and £2.50 to use the school and you expected to use it for times in a normal week, and the other was 50 quid a week, would you chose the one which was 50 a week (everything else being equal) ?

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Pippity

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If you had two yards to choose between and one was 30 a week basic and £2.50 to use the school and you expected to use it for times in a normal week, and the other was 50 quid a week, would you chose the one which was 50 a week (everything else being equal) ?

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I'll often pop in for five minutes or so before a hack, just to see what sort of mood she's in, or pop in for ten minutes after a hack to take advantage of her being warmed up to have a bit of a play. I'd resent paying £2.50 for that so much that I probably would opt for the £50/week yard.
 

ycbm

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I'll often pop in for five minutes or so before a hack, just to see what sort of mood she's in, or pop in for ten minutes after a hack to take advantage of her being warmed up to have a bit of a play. I'd resent paying £2.50 for that so much that I probably would opt for the £50/week yard.


Well then if you did that eight times a week for 52 weeks a year, it would make sense, but do you get the point that blanket ruling out any yard that charges for the school isn't very sensible?

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bouncing_ball

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Yeah it transpires that this was indeed the motivation. Bit of a bruised ego I think because the 3 DIY liveries use off-site trainers. No skin off my nose nor one of the others as we box off to lessons anyway but pretty crap for the one without transport ?

If YO could train up to GP dressage or advanced eventing then I expect we'd all be happy with the offerings on site but unfortunately that's not the case ?

Even if they could teach to those levels instructor choice is personal and depends on learning styles and routes want to take.

I also try and avoid lessons with anyone based on the yard as feel over complicates the yard owner relationship and makes harder to change instructors if my needs change.
 

Pippity

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Well then if you did that eight times a week for 52 weeks a year, it would make sense, but do you get the point that blanket ruling out any yard that charges for the school isn't very sensible?

As I said upthread, I've been on a yard that charged to use the school. The result of that was that I was discouraged from using the school, because I constantly thought, "Will I get enough out of it to pay? ...Nah, I won't bother."

My brain is broken and makes/doesn't make all sorts of wonky chemicals. It's tiring to explain but, for me, I need the school to be freely available. One more hurdle to overcome - and it's as much the admin of paying as the actual money - may be enough to stop me riding.

I'm not saying it's blanket wrong to charge for the school. I'm saying it doesn't work for me and, yes, now I've got a better handle on my brain, I would blanket rule out any yard that charged for the school.
 

ihatework

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I wasnt questioning you pippety - and for what it’s worth I’m exactly the same. I much prefer an inclusive use price and not needing to book.

My gripe was with the other poster slamming YO’s that do charge as Robbing them!! Completely unfair. Just a different business model that as paying clients we can either choose to accept or not.
 

Roasted Chestnuts

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If you had two yards to choose between and one was 30 a week basic and £2.50 to use the school and you expected to use it for times in a normal week, and the other was 50 quid a week, would you chose the one which was 50 a week (everything else being equal) ?

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I wouldn’t chose either as up here that would be classed as expensive. For £50/£55 per week up here that’s part livery, that’s not something I would want and would include all facilities anyway. £40/£45 is assisted DIY with facilities and hay included. I guess down in England your values are looked at differently. My previous yard was £20 a week, stable and field, electricity and water, 24/7 from April/May to Nov then in at night out all day. No school, good grazing but Homegrown organic hay and shavings/straw bedding available to buy onsite and five mins from my house. I prefer as basic as possible with an established horse however with backing a baby I prefer a softer surface than grass and summer hard ground to land on should the worst happen ;) hence the move for a yard with a school lol.

I just wouldn’t move somewhere where I had to pay extra for schooling facilities is all. Just my take on it. Our only extra on the yard is electricity other than the yard lights. Most of us share it so it usually works out at 40p for your hours lights. You put a small amount of money in the meter for flood lights and clipping which has always been the case on most yards roundabout anyways.
 

Sussexbythesea

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If you had two yards to choose between and one was 30 a week basic and £2.50 to use the school and you expected to use it for times in a normal week, and the other was 50 quid a week, would you chose the one which was 50 a week (everything else being equal) ?

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For me I’d not want the hassle of it unless I was really watching the pennies. Like Pippity it would do my head in as have enough other things to organise in my life. From my personal experience there isn't such a massive financial difference in reality, certainly not in this part of the country. Maybe £20 pcm between the two set-ups but certainly not £80 unless one didn’t have any school at all.
 

chocolategirl

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now that lockdown has lifted enough for lessons to start again, friend has asked YO if it's OK for her instructor to come over. He's said yes but wants to charge a fee for the school. This is the first time I've ever come across having to pay for facilities you are already entitled to use within the livery fee.

Anyone else have a similar arrangement?
I don’t charge extra to use my arena, however, in defence of YO’s, I have just built a brand new 40x40 arena, my old one was fine, just not big enough unfortunately. It cost us approx 47k all inc, apart from my husbands time, which we didn’t factor in. I have 20 liveries, Paying £31 pw each on DIY, so if you do the maths, it’s clear I will never recoup my investment, so I don’t blame others for trying to do get at least something back. If it wasn’t for my daughter competing, so needing an arena big enough to leave jumps up in all the time, I would have just kept my old arena. It had served me very well for 20 years ?‍♀️
 

milliepops

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I don’t charge extra to use my arena, however, in defence of YO’s, I have just built a brand new 40x40 arena, my old one was fine, just not big enough unfortunately. It cost us approx 47k all inc, apart from my husbands time, which we didn’t factor in. I have 20 liveries, Paying £31 pw each on DIY, so if you do the maths, it’s clear I will never recoup my investment, so I don’t blame others for trying to do get at least something back. If it wasn’t for my daughter competing, so needing an arena big enough to leave jumps up in all the time, I would have just kept my old arena. It had served me very well for 20 years ?‍♀️

I understand the cost etc involved, we had one put in at home in a previous life. If this one was maintained I might be less annoyed by the prospect of being charged extra, but only us DIY liveries ever drag the edges in and it hasn't seen a roller or harrow in all the time I've been here (18 months). our DIY livery is nearly double yours!

Anyway all the whys and wherefores aside i feel this should have been approached as a change in contract because we have all signed one and it specifies no additional charges for the school.
 

JennBags

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My old yard used to charge extra if you used water buckets rather than the automatic water drinkers. I like to monitor my horses water intake so I much preferred buckets and paid the extra.
 

Sussexbythesea

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My friend is on a DIY yard that is £55 a week and they have to bring water up in Jerry cans. It was supposed to be a temporary problem but it’s gone on for months and they are still paying £55

That’s disgraceful. Also really expensive for DIY even in the south-east.
 

Sussexbythesea

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I'm on a livery yard at the moment, and I have to pay for ******* water!

(that is, on top of my "standard" bill)

Is the base DIY rate really cheap? Personally I don’t understand why yards don’t factor in the amount likely to be used per horse and it’s cost and put it in the base charge. I looked at this on my Yard because at one point they had a massive bill but it turned out they had two massive leaks that had been going on for ages. We’d told them that we could hear water going through the pipes when nothing was on several times. My calculation on usage which was generous actually worked out a very little added to a monthly livery charge. Can’t remember exactly Around 3-5 pounds. This included bathing and hay-soaking.
 

Muddywellies

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My friend is on a DIY yard that is £55 a week and they have to bring water up in Jerry cans. It was supposed to be a temporary problem but it’s gone on for months and they are still paying £55
Good Lord. I'll remember this next time I grumble about my yard.
 
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