Following on Livery Bills, DIY additional charges etc

viola

viola

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I had a chat today with a person who does the livery bill for my horse and following the increase in charges the bill is going to be over £500...this is DIY livery plus 13 days on full livery due to snow and my inability to get to the yard.
That £500 doesn't include hay or bedding which we buy from the yard so there would be another £150-200 ish to add.

So that's about £700 for a month on DIY livery with 13 days on full livery.
Now, thankfully I don't pay this, the owner of the horse does, I look after the horse. She hasn't seen this bill yet but I am pretty sure she will be rather shocked.

I think I will have to look around for another place just in case she decides she would rather move. The yard we have the horse on at the moment has nice facilities and is very convinient for me so I would not be too happy moving but these charges are just way too much
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I thought I ask you on here what you think about these costs...I wouldn't want to move just to find other DIY yards charge similar for any additional services.

The yard I'm on now is in Berkshire, nice big yard with 2 outdoor arenas, small indoor, turn out, lots of positives and several negatives but isn't it everywhere...

How much would you expect to pay for an assisted DIY/Part Livery on a yard with good facilities (all areas within 1 hour drive from central London)? The horse has to be on full livery 1-2 days a week most weeks, sometimes 3 and some help with turning out/bringing in/feeding on some days.

Am I being unrealistic thinking we are overpaying?
 
So how much is your weekly livery - we charge £30 a week DIY (owner only comes up once a day) plus £8.50 for haylage and then bedding on top - at the most 2 bags at £5 each so that makes £48.50 a week. Then if they need full livery for a day - that is an additional £7.50 a day which if was for 13 days would be an addtional £97.50 so I would expect the monthly bill to be about £300 plus feed. Even on full livery at £110 a week it would only come to about £440 so I would say your YO is raking it in from you and I would move post haste. We have a lovely yard Here Ok we only have an outdoor school but with only 16 horses on the yard tops, and 4 of them mine the school is never busy, all year round turnout, 24/7 from spring onwards, grass gallop and jumping paddock. Fantastic outriding and thousands of acres of Dartmoor to ride on. Ok it is cheaper here but not by 100% less.
 
Remind me not to move back to the UK.

I am on assisted livery. All I have to do is muck out each day. All feed (5 times per day hay/hayledge one time per day hard feed) is included. As is the Straw or shavings.

We have an outside school, round pen, lunge arena, 8 hour a day turnout in sand paddocks in winter and 24/7 in pasture April - October (if you want it)

Costs me 290 euro 252 GBP per month.

If I am away then I can either arrange cover for the period or pay 5 euro a day 4.50 GBP per day and they will do my mucking out.

This yard have just the one inclusieve price and everyone has to have the same i.e. they feed all the horses put them out and bring them in as they just wanted it to be simple for everyone.

But I am shocked at the price you are paying although having lived in Berkshire am not totally surprised.

Bosworth your place sounds lovely and as your area is on on our hit list for when we do move back to the UK eventually I shall make a note
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Does sound expensive. If you work on part livery (i.e no riding poss no grooming but everything else done plus all feed) being generally around £80 - £100 depending on yard and possibly work back from there. Friend is on assisted DIY at a yard in Wiltshire, not as smart as yours but good school, horsewalker, etc and I think she pays around £75 a week which includes 2 full days per week of the horse being done.
 
I am in Surrey, less than 1 hour from London. We pay £500 per month for Part Livery (everything expect excercising a full grooming). We only have one school though. Average for the area is £450-£550.

To be honest it seems a lot, I would expect £700 p/m for Full Livery including riding etc so I think it is a bit steep.
 
My yard within easy reach of London charges from £400 /month and that is 7 day livery ,all duties and everything supplied,there is a 20x40 all weather school and great hacking.
 
Definitely agree with asking for a breakdown of the costs. Seems very steep. Especially as 13 days (OK two weeks of full livery) would be about £70 to £120 a week but I would of thought that inc. hay and bedding being ''full livery'' for those two weeks.
How much is the DIY livery normally then??
 
I pay £355 for 5 day livery We've only got one school but daily turnout and great hacking. DIY is £145 a month and that includes all hay/haylage and straw and a day's livery is £10 per dayThere are posher yards (cross country courses, horse walkers etc) which are still only around the £500 mark for full livery but then there are some seriously expensive ones round here too so there are places where I could imagine those sort of prices.
 
we pay £390 for 5 day full livery (weekend is DIY/part) with 20x60 indoor, 20x60 outdoor with lights, indoor lunge pen, walker, and good hacking with very knowlegable staff so to me yes that does seem rather a lot (full livery there is only £440 a month). I would advise you ask them to break down all the costs so that you know and they both know exactly what your being charged for. If then all those cost seem reasonable, and you gave them permissoin to do all the things you were charged for, then i dont think you have much right to quibble over the price even if it does seem rather a lot.. :S we are in somerset btw
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jeeeeesus!!! the bit i was shocked at was that you would get through £150-200 of hay/bedding in a month?!?!?!?!?

What yard are you at? Im in berks and my diy is £150pm. T/O is £1 and its an extra £1 for rug change. If you put horse on part livery for the day thats £10 which i think is reasonable. I spend £30 a month on haylage using 1 of those big bales, and £8 on shavings a week. Hope this is of some help? My livery bill came to £400 last month for much the same reason as your situation!! i would get a breakdown def just to see what they are charging for what services as that is extortionate!!!
 
Thank you for all the replies. Definitely food for thought
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Just to clarify, I am not complaining/moaning about paying for what was asked to be done. I guess every business has its own ways, I am simply wondering whether for me/owner it's simply too much.
I do know the breakdown and there is nothing added that we didn't request - it's just the first bill after price increase (which is just 1% short of 100% btw).

For those who are interested here is the breakdown of some adds on services:
[The prices are from - to as yard has a policy whereas the price changes depending what time of the day services are requested]:
Muck out £5-£7
Brush off and tack up £4-£6
Schooling (45min) £25
Hacking (45min) £20
Lunging (30min) £18
Feed in stable £1-£3
Feed in field £5-£7
Change rugs £2-£4
Turn out (inc. rug change,boots etc) £4-£6
Catch (inc. rug change, feet picked etc) £5-£7
Assist with farrier/vet £5 per 15 minutes
Washing off boots/saddlecloth £1 per item
Hire of lunge equipment £10

There is more of course but I guess this gives an idea.

Full livery daily (excl. feed, hay, bedding) £19 (was £10 before price increase)

All prices were basically half of the ones now before the increase.

The yard is near Reading, Berkshire.
The person who does the bill did come to me to talk about it today and we might be able to discuss better option (even putting him on part-livery might actually work out less costly!!) but I am not sure how we can work it long term. The owner wanted to buy another horse very soon and I really can't see us covering all those costs.
Keeping horses on different yards would be out of question as I am running around as it is.

Anyway, I am quite encouraged by your posts actually and will definitely be shopping around for a livery that is more suitable for us should owner decided to move.
 
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jeeeeesus!!! the bit i was shocked at was that you would get through £150-200 of hay/bedding in a month?!?!?!?!?



[/ QUOTE ]

We keep him on equizorb which is I think £8 a bag and we use about 11 bags a month. To be honest I don't remember how much the yard charges for hay
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but that's just about what we paid in the last few months each month.

The basic DIY livery is £44 per week (no adds on, not even feed over the door when all feeds made up)

EDITED to add: the bill does not include the feed that we buy seperately ourselves ....
 
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