Does anyone make 'proper' money from running a livery yard?!

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Gerdy

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As per title really!

I wondered if anyone makes any kind of a decent living from having liveries (earning £25k+ let's say)

I imagine the costs of development, maintenance, rent, rates, staff etc must make it hard to really make a profit? Hoping someone can prove me wrong though..!

(also in cr)
 
No - that is why I gave it up!!!

I now work part time for the National Trust and my take home pay is the same as the profit I made from a handful of liveries.

I only work 3 days a week compared to 7 days a week with the horses, so although am the same off financially, have more time to spend with my family and enjoying my own horses.

I think it would be hard to make decent money doing livery unless you are at top end of the market, with a large yard primarily doing full livery. Even then.....?
 
It might be possible if you own your own yard, land and property on the land.

Friends of mine rented a 25 box top end yard with lots of land, direct access to bridleway network, lovely big school, heated rug drying room etc etc. They only did full livery - they didn't make much money but they did pay rent of £50k per year (including the rent for their on site house).

So if you have several million £'s to start with to invest in the property yes you can make £25k ish a year !!
 
I know someone that owns her own livery yard with a few acres of off road hacking, school, and a stunning property with a huge garden BUT she only has all that because her husband was a founder of a very profitable building business. As far as I know, the money she makes from the yard covers all maintenance, bills for her own animals and her hobbies.
 
Where I am they own 2 farms, it's £30 a week per horse and there's 44 boxes. Hay / haylage and bedding and services are on top.

Most farmers where I live have stopped doing livery saying it's more bother than it's worth but they were only small yards.
 
Not 'proper' money on its own, no.

When I did my calculations in 1985 - and it was family owned yard and land :( - I realised even then that it wasn't going to work.

Had horses for 40 years now and sadly, I don't think the situation's changed.
 
Have own house with own yard and own land and....no. A *profit* at all would be nice:D
(Perhaps half of the figure you quote may be achievable in a busy yard.)
 
Very difficult if you do the horses properly I reckon. We own our yard so don't have the extra expense of rent but with ongoing maintenance expenses, rates, insurance, utilities, staff wages, suitable feeding etc it's very hard. We don't do DIY at all. At the end of the day I run the yard to cover keeping our own horses rather than expecting it to make a big profit.

Unless you are in an area where there is a large wealthy clientele livery yards have too many overheads and are too labour intensive to generate big profits. The other problem many face is competing against yards who aren't run as an official business, pay no commercial rates and have no insurance and so can undercut the yards operating "by the book"
 
I know somebody who does.
But it's quite a unique set of circumstances.

Owns a lot of land outright and has been buying up small plots/fields ect. steadily for the past ten years.
And all of it on the NF.

35/week for DIY grass livery (includes hay in winter), the hay is all off their land.
Never has a problem being full.
Also has a yard that does full livery, which again is always full.
 
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