Full Livery a dying trade? Livery musings

[asterid]

Musings.....

With the financial climate as it is, do you think full livery is dying out in favour of DIY to save money?

What makes people have full livery?

Even in financial hardship, do people still have full livery?

What do you expect for you full livery?

What would you expect to pay for the following:

Indoor 25x45
Outdoor 20x40
Small XC course
Off road Hacking with a small beach
Large airy stables
All year turnout on sandy soil (less mud!)

What would you expect to pay without an indoor or XC course?

Would you consider a livery that was a sort of part assisted whereby for 7 days a week the yard turns out or brings in and rugs etc and the owner does the other end of the day and mucks out etc. What would you pay for that.

Having considerations of running a yard, not for profit, but to pay to keep mine. Would rent it and have been doing my homework and can see all the pitfalls and expenditure, so just musings really.

 

[mynutmeg]

My yard charges £65 a week for 5 day full livery with the other 2 days DIY, or £80 for 7 day full livery. My girl is currently on full while I'm laid up following surgery but normally is on DIY. Career wise I expect to have to put her on full livery for a couple of years in about 4-5 years time as I will be working stupid hours, other wise personally I prefere DIY or part assisted (ir she'd turned out in the morning) as I enjoy taking care of her.

Facilities we have a 20x40 and 40x60 outdoor schools with excellent surfaces, superb cross country course, decent hacking and all year turnout.

 

[Janette]

I'm currently on DIY, but am moving to a full Livery yard on Thursday. When I did my sums, I will be spending the the same amount of money, but not driving as many miles (twice a day care).
I will be able to ride in the winter, and there is all year turnout. A flood lit arena, a horse walker, the yard is right on the bridlepaths and it is very secure. (The hunt kennels are on site).

I will miss the daily contact and currently feel as though I'm sending her away to boarding school, but it's for the good of her health. Airy stables, turnout, exercise.... It's a health farm for horses.

 

[SadKen]

Those facilities sound amazing, and I doubt I could afford the livery charges for them! I'm on part livery, they chuck my lad a feed in the morning and turn out, then catch in about 3,4pm and put up a haynet. I muck out, feed and refresh haynets in the evening. hay is included, bedding isn't. We can step up to full livery if needed for hols etc, that's 85 a week. We have a lovely outdoor with fab surface and in summer it'll be full turnout 24hrs. I pay 40 a week which is an unbelievable bargain. I'd be happy to pay 65 a week for the service to be honest. For assisted with the facilities listed, it'd be 80 a week here easily and 120+ for full.

 

[Shooting Star]

Depends very much on where you are as to price.

Full livery around our way with those sorts of facilities would be £700+ a month (full includes exercising 4-5 times a week, hay, bedding & feed costs)

Part with the same facilites would be £500 ish (same as full but without exercise)

Assisted DIY about £300 but would essentially be DIY with one end of the day done so not including any hay feed or bedding.

As to whether there's still a call for it - I'd say yes but probably depends on where you are based, there are quite a number of full / part only yards around us with some more full than others but being within commuter distance of London it makes it appealing to those that live in the suburbs and still want a horse without the worry of getting back from the office in time.

 

[Orls]

Both my horses are on full livery, I couldn't manage to own horses without full livery as my work shifts don't allow me to be reliably at the yard in a good routine for care chores. I pay a fortune thought .... Don't really want to admit how much I spend on my horses every month (and I think hubby's head would explode if he knew ...) but for livery it's around £800 a month for both the horses. We have wonderful facilities and fantastic staff and I think this is a very reasonable amount for the service I receive. We have an indoor and outdoor school, brilliant year round turnout, spacious barn style stabling, all the usual turnout, muck out etc, plus optional excersise and grooming available included in the price though I usually opt out of this unless I'm travelling.

I'm sure there are many more people like me who rely on full livery to make horse ownership possible. I think people may want to save money but there's only so many corners you can cut, many people at my yard are on part livery though which seems to work well. They have a schedule drawn up of what chores/days they are able to take care of and the yard staff fill in the gaps and bill accordingly.

 

[madmav]

Plenty paying through the nose in Hertfordshire. £700-plus for a non-fancy yard. £1,000 a month for a poncy yard with CCTV in stables,solariums, etc. People there have two or three horses. There are plenty of moneyed people round there. Sadly, as ever, not me.

 

[TandD]

What do you expect for you full livery?

What would you expect to pay for the following:

Indoor 25x45
Outdoor 20x40
Small XC course
Off road Hacking with a small beach
Large airy stables
All year turnout on sandy soil (less mud!)

fully livery - including basic feed, hay/lage, bedding, and general basic care e.g. muck out etc

i would expect to pay for good, personal, co-operate service
down south £130/150
up north £90/120?

im a down south girl and know many yards with less facilites to be chargeing top rate of £150 for full livery, they are constantly full and have waiting lists.
people will always be willing to pay if you provide a helpful, friendly service!

 

[Copperpot]

For full 7 day livery with exercise I paid £185 a week. Didn't have XC course either.

 

[Busybusybusy]

What do you expect for you full livery?

What would you expect to pay for the following:

Indoor 25x45
Outdoor 20x40
Small XC course
Off road Hacking with a small beach
Large airy stables
All year turnout on sandy soil (less mud!)

What would you expect to pay without an indoor or XC course?

Would you consider a livery that was a sort of part assisted whereby for 7 days a week the yard turns out or brings in and rugs etc and the owner does the other end of the day and mucks out etc. What would you pay for that.

I used to have my horse on full livery and paid £100 per week which included muck out, turning out and bringing in (when weather ok for them to go out) basic feed hay & bedding. Basically all i had to do was groom & ride. The lack of year round turn out and distance from home was causing problems, plus I actually like to do my horse! so I moved him to another yard that was much closer to home with year round turnout, an outdoor school, some jumps, off road hacking, no indoor school. The YO will either turn out or bring in and will give feeds. Hay & straw included. I supply all feed. The usual price for this is £60 but I pay £70 per week as my boy has approx 35lbs of hay a day - basically as much as I can stuff into him! (He's a skinny Minnie & needs to put on weight so he has this plus hard feed).
This works very well for me and YO will do him, if for any reason I can't. I like assisted DIY as it means that I can fit it round work, I am doing most of the care for my horse, but there's someone who can help if I'm away or incapacitated!

 

[Always-Riding]

I think there is always demand for full livery but in some areas more than most. Where I am in Devon I paid £60p/w for full breaking livery. Although no facilities but the rider had a fabulous reputation for backing the unbackables!

On the other hand I paid £130 p/w for full livery inc ridden 4 times a week. Eventing yard with two indoor schools, small outdoor, horsewalker and large stables.

But the latter have now diversified and offer DIY and rent out part of the yard to another rider.

 

[LadyLuck1977]

I pay about £70 per week for five day livery, turn out, bring in, muck out I have the use of two good schools and have my own paddock. It worked out cheaper to have her on 5 day livery than pay for services I needed and fuel to get to the yard and back twice a day.

 

[Chestnutmare]

I've moved and my mare is on full schooling livery and is far cheaper all round than DIY I've worked it all out and when she's finished schooling livery il be having her on either part or full to help her and me out

 

[Greylegs]

I pay £425 per month for full livery which includes all feed, hay, daily turnout, use of all facilities including a good indoor, outdoor and access to excellent off road riding, cross country course, show jumps, walker etc. Yard also has a solarium which is just £1 for half and hour. Downside is that all bedding is extra but yard offers 3 different types and a range of prices or we can get our own if we prefer.

They also do a sort of DIY which is geared to allow people to only go to yard once a day, so yard feed and turn out in the mornings and bring in a tea time so people generally go up later to muck out etc. But this option is still £300 per month and personally don't think it's worth it given driving time etc, if you add on an allowance for your own work, time etc.

It has to be said that yard has a waiting list for full livery facilities and limits the number of DIYs it has for commercial reasons, so there is clearly a demand.

 

[Spring Feather]

I don't know about prices but in my country full livery is the norm. Almost no-one has their horse on DIY livery. All horses who reside on my farm are under my full care and control. Most of the owners live very far away and come to see their horses once or twice a year. I have pretty decent facilities on my farm, and incredible off-road riding trails, which barely any of my clients use but my neighbours (and my family) all make use of regularly.