chillidragon
Well-Known Member
Well, the BHS guide on livery costs runs as follows (I've merely broken down their per annum costs to weekly ones):
Full Livery: £100pw
Part Livery: £70pw
Working Livery: £50pw
Grass Livery: £30pw
BUT you have to bear in mind that they have made no allowances for facilities or region. The best thing you can do is market research, and LOTS of it. Ring up all your local livery yards within a one hour's driving radius and pretend that you want to part-livery your 15.2hh gelding (or whatever) with them. Ask all of them what they charge for part livery, what is included, what is extra, what facilities they offer, what turn-out the horse will get, and so forth until you have a damned good idea of absolutely everything going around you. This way you can gather what your area's average is and where you fit in compared to them, so if customers say "Well so-and-so is cheaper" you can come straight back with, "Yes, but they have no school/cross country/don't throw in feed" etc. To me £85 may sound horrendously high, but then I live up North and expect to pay around £55 per week for full livery with plenty of grazing and hacking so it's no good taking my word for it that you're charging too much. In the context of your local yards, you may actually be the budget yard, but you won't know this until you get on that phone and start ringing around or checking their websites, if they have one.
Full Livery: £100pw
Part Livery: £70pw
Working Livery: £50pw
Grass Livery: £30pw
BUT you have to bear in mind that they have made no allowances for facilities or region. The best thing you can do is market research, and LOTS of it. Ring up all your local livery yards within a one hour's driving radius and pretend that you want to part-livery your 15.2hh gelding (or whatever) with them. Ask all of them what they charge for part livery, what is included, what is extra, what facilities they offer, what turn-out the horse will get, and so forth until you have a damned good idea of absolutely everything going around you. This way you can gather what your area's average is and where you fit in compared to them, so if customers say "Well so-and-so is cheaper" you can come straight back with, "Yes, but they have no school/cross country/don't throw in feed" etc. To me £85 may sound horrendously high, but then I live up North and expect to pay around £55 per week for full livery with plenty of grazing and hacking so it's no good taking my word for it that you're charging too much. In the context of your local yards, you may actually be the budget yard, but you won't know this until you get on that phone and start ringing around or checking their websites, if they have one.