For those who keep their horse at livery where they work

[Fools Motto]

Or anyone else who might be able to suggest answers!!
If you do work full time at the yard where your own horse is kept, what, if any, perks do you get?
Discount on keep?
Free bedding?
Full livery on your day off?
Anything else???

Opinions welcome!

 

[teapot]

In one of my old jobs staff effectively got full all inclusive grass livery at a bargain price (all things considered). Paid farrier/vet/extra feed out of own pocket etc. Came with a massive trade off though - a nice hack on a day off often meant no peace from boss/clients/fellow liveries. They were never truly away from work as never had the time to ride on their days working, though one girl would be schooling at 6am pre a ten hour day.

Another had their kid’s horse there (to save time and money) but the yard management didn’t suit the horse… Moving horses then became a bit tricky so a lot would depend on how sane yard owner is. It doesn’t look good if staff move their horses

 

[Rowreach]

I worked for a while at a well known, mainly tourism based EC, where a "perk" of the job was full livery for one horse. This included being fed, bedded, mucked out, shoved on the walker each day, any extras or anything different you paid for separately. Turnout was minimal. Staff worked incredibly hard for long hours, so if you were on shift you were usually too knackered to ride afterwards, and you couldn't hack out alone or ride in the arena unless someone else was with you, so it was even more restrictive. As teapot says above, if you wanted to ride on your day off you usually couldn't get in the arena and/or you got caught by someone who assumed that if you were there you were working.

I had a few ideas for changes I wanted to implement but I hated the place so I only stayed there for a few weeks, and having seen how it worked for other staff with horses there, I kept my horse elsewhere.

If it's going to work, it needs to work for everyone, yard and employee.

 

[SEL]

Only once for a short time. Got heavily discounted livery but like everyone above said I never felt "off" on my day off. One memorable day I got shouted at by the farrier because the RS horses were all plastered in mud and then had a cross vet turn up for a procedure and the horse was a field away. None of it my fault or problem but it reminded me why horses needed to be a hobby and not a job!!

 

[Otherwise]

I used to, staff horses were basically diy on what was normally a full livery yard. I think we paid about £9 a day which included all feed, hay and 2 bags of bedding a week. The full liveries in comparison were paying nearly £250 a week. I was lucky in that we looked after them during work hours, we'd muck them out after the rest of the yard and we rode during work hours as well, usually 5 lessons a week and one hack. We had to look after them on our days off but if we were on holiday they were on full livery at no extra cost.

 

[Fools Motto]

Thank you everyone. Going on this basis so far, a discount is generally standard procedure which counts as a good perk?!
Fully aware of not really having a day off! lol

 

[Horses_Rule]

I used to get 1 stable for free as part of my package as a livery yard manager on a full livery yard - horse was done on my days off, included hard feed that the liveries had access too (no fancies included) and full use of facilities as the liveries got. I ended up with a second horse for a time and that was charged at a reduced rate of £85 per week when the liveries paid £125.

 

[Sleipnir]

Got no discounts for my 2 horses, the pay went to shite due to the virus and the YO went royally bonkers. Needless to say, I've moved on.

 

[HashRouge]

My first job as an SJ groom, you got free livery for one horse. This included hay, bedding and feed, and she used to get mucked out by my boss (international SJ rider) on my day off. He had two grooms, so would muck out for the absent one when we had our day off (only 1 day each per week). The turnout was non-existent in winter so I only kept her there for two months in the end, although I used to turn her out in the young stock barn for a few hours once we'd finished the yard and put her back in her stable when we did the night-time check, so she did get a bit of time to have a mooch.