Does anyone actually enjoy running a livery yard?

you may be better to offer what I call full livery which is turnout and bring in with a leg check and pick feet out. muck out (properly) and bed down plus skip out if fields are closed for whatever reason. hay 2 - 4 times a day depending on the time of year and grass available and a basic feed twice a day. plus being there for the farrier or vet etc. that way the owners do not need to be there every day and will be able to turn up and ride without having to think about stable work and you will find it a bit easier to get quality staff to cover for your time off since there is no riding or grooming involved. for people working its going to save a lot of time and should be popular and done properly you can charge a reasonable price as it will be a smaller yard. if you can find somewhere that is in an area that has mostly diy yards you will stand out from the others but you must be seen to be doing the horses to a high standard and offering good quality for the money. with a smaller yard its easier to keep the boxes full when you have a reputation for being good but fair. dont make the mistake of being too cheap to start with and always budget for having someone working for you even if at first you think you can do everything yourself. years ago one of the best yards I have been at was run by someone who was very strict and some liveries did gripe about it a lot. after she moved on to better things and the new manager came in within a few months they were wishing she was still there as the standards she enforced dropped badly. so keep everything very tidy and fair to everyone and have rules in place that you stick to. get a spreadsheet with all the numbers on so that you know how much each box will cost you when its empty as well as when there is a horse in there and make sure your prices cover repairs as well as the forseeable costs. you could also perhaps include worm counts and wormers as part of the cost so you are able to control that
 
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Wagtail said:
I have worked every single day 365 a year for ten and a half years. The only time I ever had off was one Christmas seven years ago when I got pneumonia and pluresy. Luckily as it was the holidays my teenaged sons and husband mucked out and I also paid one of my part liveries too. I have not had a single day or weekend off and obviously no holidays. I can't visit friends or family. My poor husband has to go alone or with the boys. I have worked through a shoulder operation and tendon injury, still doing everything by myself. My latest finger injury means I cannot ride at present, although I still lunge and long rein. I booked my shoulder op for the summer because I knew I wouldn't be able to muck out. But I still had to get horses in and out and after 3 days was wheeling a wheelbarrow much to my surgeon's dismay.
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One question - Why?

Your husband must seriously love you and be very tolerant
 
I've been on a good few yards over the years. When I first had horses (young teenager) until I left home it was purely DIY and the best place by far was when I rented a building and land from a farmer. I basically did as I pleased and my yard was immaculate as were the fields (with a little help from farmer) we shared with s couple if friends and helped each other.

Since I've left home and moved areas I've had many problems over the years with different YO on different yards.
THE main problem being turnout, often the YO weren't truthful with what was available and had favourites, there were those who only allowed YO to turnout, some liveries sllowed tirnout, some not.
I could go on and on.
Tbh I think that if you have very clear and basic rules, be clear about what facilities are available and when, clear costs of jobs/livery, payment dates etc you will be fine.
Good luck and please can you open your yard near me!!??
 
The last yard I was on the owner did enjoy running it (or at least seemed to), but she ran the yard to finance the building of the stables and school and give her someone to ride with and cover for holidays / sickness rather than strictly for income. She was a farmer primarily. It was DIY, but controlled, i.e. if you were going on holiday you let YO know and she arranged with other liveries to cover, then vice versa. We only had one iffy livery while I was there, girl with a TB who couldn't handle it, and she was soon run off. It was mostly parents with children and we had an instructress come over and teach everyone Sat mornings in group lessons, all very friendly. YO also grew very nice hay and sold it to the liveries. Place was a bit of a dump outside the horse area (rusty machinery laying about) but she had masses of lovely grazing and you could hack off road on the farm which helped keep everyone cheerful.
 
Goldenstar said:
How about five day livery .
You do the horses during the week the owners do weekends .
That's in demand round here .
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This is what I do with a bit of flexibility as one girl works odd shifts so her "weekend" varies from week to week, she covered for me on Christmas day so I could visit family for the day, another livery did the yard over new year, it is not easy to have a break in the winter but not so tricky in the summer when they can all be out and just require a good check twice a day.

It is a 24/ 7/ 365 job but should not mean you never get even a day off, physically if not mentally, having a few good liveries that will muck in and out makes all the difference, I am very lucky with my current lot as they are all very competent, I can trust them to notice if anything is amiss and know they will act appropriately.
 
Cortez said:
I have run a livery yard, and would never, ever do so again. I found it a mixture of torture and pure slavery. I cannot see how you could make any sort of a living from just 6 liveries, unless you were doing it purely for the pleasure (none, in my case) or to help cover the costs of running your own horse. But then, I'm not a people person. At all :-)
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I had one for 8 years, most owners were fine, some became good friends. I echo the above, we worked all the time, things always needed doing, I was exhausted, and rarely had time for my own horses. Winter was murder - it took us 2 years to sell. I was getting to the stage where I seriously disliked horses. Going down to just my own horses after 20 to 30 took a huge adjustment, I was "wow!I have time, l can go for a ride, I don't have anything to do" In those 8 years I had probably 7 nights away, and not all at once. I miss my farm, my lovely barn and facilities, I don't miss anything else though.
 
ihatework said:
One question - Why?

Your husband must seriously love you and be very tolerant
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Well he doesn't have to lift a finger in the house. I do all the cooking, cleaning and washing. I'm always there for him when before I would disappear off competing for whole weekends or more. Every weekend was spent riding and he looked after the kids. So surely what he has now is better. And for me, I get to spend every day with horses in a beautiful place. I keep fit and healthy and look better than I would if I had a desk job. In the summer it feels like being on holiday every day. I don't have to work for any boss. I could go on...
 
Sorry it's taking me ages to reply! I have also been on a yard where my horse was done during the week and I sorted her out at weekends. of all of the livery packages I have ever been on (DIY, part, full) this was the best one. I would be looking to run it myself, hence only having a maximum of 6 as I think I could feasibly manage this number, albeit with no exercise. I fully appreciate it would be a very demanding, tiring job to undertake. However, people do manage it. It's a lifestyle and I know that going away at a drop of a hat would not be possible. Not that I can do that at the moment anyway!

Although I am very experienced I do not have the desire to school clients horses, at least not on a daily basis hence I would not offer this service. Where I live (Wiltshire) decent yards with good facilities are charging in the region of £110-£140 per week for full (no exercise) so if I were to have 6 on the yard that would be somewhere in the region of £700-800 per week. Then I would have running costs - this is what I need to work out. I appreciate this is best case scenario, all boxes filled etc. I really do not enjoy my current job, have been in marketing for over 10 years with a massive commute to work and worked with horses before that (racing). I am mid thirties and ready for a change in job and lifestyle, I also do not currently have my own horse, I sadly lost my mare last year after 10 years together and to be honest I'm not bothered about having another for the foreseeable future. That might sound a little strange given my interest in running a livery yard but I think this would work to my advantage as all of my time and efforts would be put into my clients and their horses.

I guess it's going to boil down to finding the right property, with the right land on good soil (not clay!), then ascertaining how long we could survive on my husbands salary until the yard was filled, I think there is always a demand for decent, well run yards with good facilities even in our area which is very horsey. I really need to calculate how much it's going to cost to keep each horse taking into account bedding, hay, feed, water, electricity, rates etc and I will message you Wagtail when I have the required number of posts, thanks again everyone
 
OP, as you do not have your own horse, that may actually pose you a problem. How will you attract the first livery client? No one is likely to move their horse somewhere that has no equine company. Unless, of course they have more than one horse and not many can afford more than one horse in full livery. However, as you say, it does mean you can devote all of your time to your clients.

There is a profit to be made in offering full livery; quite a nice profit too, but this is usually people who specialise in training and producing and have a name for themselves in doing this. I know someone who charges £30 a day for full livery and his stables are full. The other way to make money is if you are able to grow your own hay and straw. In your situation, I would reduce the numbers down to four or five and offer exercise as an extra. This is where you will make your money.
 
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