Full Livery - bucket feeds

wiglet

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My full livery yard is having a change of management/owners so I will be posting the odd question here and there with my various queries!

At the moment, each livery supplies their own horses bucket feed. New management will take over the provision of all feeds soon though. There is going to be a yard meeting to discuss the types of feed available but, what does everyone else on full livery have the choice of?

I feed AlfaA and feed balancer, friend feeds HiFi Lite with speedi beet, in fact everyone feeds differently and I can't imagine the new management wanting to get that many different feeds in so generally speaking just wondered what was the norm?

FankQ
 

Deltaflyer

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Our yard has a range of feeds which they use according to what each horse needs. They have different levels of mixes. Alpha A and Hi-fi-lite, various types of nuts and balancers, oats, barley, bran etc.. Liveries only have to buy their own if they want something specialised that the yard doesn't stock or a specific brand.
 

TheMule

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As above, a range of different feeds to suit different types. Balancers/ supplements supplied by owners
 

blood_magik

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We get a choice of basic chaff, mix, nuts and beet - Pegasus brand iirc. Anything above and beyond that has to be provided by the owner.
 

Wagtail

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I will feed any brand or type of feed the owner requests. Supplements and balancers are extra, although the main feed I use (pure feeds) contains a balancer.
 

EventingMum

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We offer Calm and Condition, Fast Fibre, Alpha A, HiFi Lite, Ready Mash Extra, Bruised Oats and non heating nuts included in our full livery price. Owners provide supplements or anything else they wish fed.
 

criso

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Would depend for me how on much the yard charges how much choice you have - I know some high end yards where you can have more or less any bagged feed their supplier stocks.

On less expensive yards I would expect to be able to have at least basic straights provided if needed say - Alfalfa , Straw chaff, Sugarbeet, oats which generally work out good value anyway and I would pay for more expensive things if needed. It's something I would ask about when viewing a yard.
 

pippixox

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my old livery yard used to have quite a range: but basically was able to provide a lo-cal/sugar option for the good doers (light chaff, pony cubes & fast fibre) and a higher cal option for heavy working/ poor doers (conditioning cubes, alfalfa) so they had enough range to suit a variety of horses but did not have to stock 10 different types! a lot of feeds are quite similar.
we just provided supplements if needed and YM let us know when they were running low
 

Hexx

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We would get a basic feed on part livery - hi-fi (lite or mollassed) or Alfa A, nuts or pasture mix or barley rings and sugar beet. There was also a veteran mix that was introduced as a standard feed when the long-term residents got older.

If you wanted anything different you paid for it. So when my boy was out showing/dressage every weekend, he had an extra conditioner and a few oats to give a bit more oomph.

Sometimes if enough people wanted a "special feed" it became a standard, eg, veteran mix.
 

wiglet

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So, like I said in my opening post, I feed AlfaA and feed balancer, nothing else required. If they didn't offer a balancer as standard, I would/could buy my own but, would it be fair to ask for a discount or would i just have to suck it up?
 

eggs

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So, like I said in my opening post, I feed AlfaA and feed balancer, nothing else required. If they didn't offer a balancer as standard, I would/could buy my own but, would it be fair to ask for a discount or would i just have to suck it up?

I'm afraid you would probably just have to suck it up. Full livery means different things to different people but my take on it is that everything is done for your horse including exercise. It is the manpower costs that make up the bulk of the livery charge.
 

Ella19

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The yard I'm on offers mollichop, hifi, own brand nuts or own brand mix. You can pay extra for Alfa A oil. I use none of this! I have Alfa a molasses free and Bailey's lo cal balancer. I have to suck it up :( which at £510 soon to be £525 for part livery (muck out, hay and rug change) I find grates on me occasionally!
 

wench

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The yard I'm on offers mollichop, hifi, own brand nuts or own brand mix. You can pay extra for Alfa A oil. I use none of this! I have Alfa a molasses free and Bailey's lo cal balancer. I have to suck it up :( which at £510 soon to be £525 for part livery (muck out, hay and rug change) I find grates on me occasionally!

I always like saying that it would be nice to have the financial option to chose if you want the yard feed, or if you don't want it not to have to pay for it, as well as the feed you want on top
 

SO1

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We have choice of a range of molasses free high fibre feeds - YO does not like feeding high starch and cereal feeds thankfully. My new forest just has bit of the dengie molasses free he does not need much as he is a very good doer, but he could have fast fibre, Alfa A, Alfa A Oil, or calm and condition or copra or a combination of any of those.
 

JennBags

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So, like I said in my opening post, I feed AlfaA and feed balancer, nothing else required. If they didn't offer a balancer as standard, I would/could buy my own but, would it be fair to ask for a discount or would i just have to suck it up?

IME, yard proves feed but owner provides supplements. To me a balancer would come under the heading of supplements, so yes you would probably have to supply this yourself.
 

Micropony

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I have never heard of balancers or supplements being included in livery costs so I think you will probably find you have to provide that.
Our yard stocks a range of different chaffs, nuts, mixes, sugar beet etc. that are included in full and part livery costs. However if you want cereal free, molasses free etc. the YO is happy for liveries to buy their own feeds and make them up and pop them in the feed room and then the staff will give them to the horse. A bit is knocked off your livery bill if you do it like that, but I think that's quite unusual and most yards wouldn't make any adjustment to the bill, we're just lucky.
 

tallyho!

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I think all you owners have been bought into the marketing!!! :D :D

All feed if you look closely enough is THE SAME!!!

Get over yourselves and unless you have a severely malnourished or undernourished horse, a grass based feed would do you all nicely.
 

Leo Walker

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I think all you owners have been bought into the marketing!!! :D :D

All feed if you look closely enough is THE SAME!!!

Get over yourselves and unless you have a severely malnourished or undernourished horse, a grass based feed would do you all nicely.

Not in the case of my good doer! He lives on a diet of limited grass, mainly straw with a bit of haylage and a tiny handful of feed with a mineral balancer. Hes the stereotypical cob that lots of people have
 

tallyho!

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Not in the case of my good doer! He lives on a diet of limited grass, mainly straw with a bit of haylage and a tiny handful of feed with a mineral balancer. Hes the stereotypical cob that lots of people have

So grass with a bit of another variety of grass plus a bit of pelleted powder?
 

Kylara

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This is interesting to follow. I'm looking for a big ish yard to rent to expand and have decided to not include feed in the price. Especially with schooling liveries!
Just too many people wanting different feeds and brands (even if lots are basically the same) and some horses not needing food anyway. So feeding horse would be included but what fed is not, that way everyone can have whatever they want.

Whenever I was on a yard I used my own feed anyway so a bit miffed at being charged for food I wasn't using!

It's tricky I think, but balancers and supplements are generally extra anyway as they are £££s!

I think if you are having a chat with new management then it may be worth chatting to the liveries beforehand to get a list of what everyone feeds and what brands. See if there are doubles or possible doubles if people swapped brands. That way when you chat with management you'll be a bit more in the know about what might work best for most than simply all liveries demanding their own food!
 

wills_91

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We have to buy our bedding,hay & feed from YO. YO will buy you in anything you want, works well for us. My mare gets hi Fi molasses free & speedi beet she costs me peanuts to feed & I wouldn't want to be on a yard that was a set price for feed knowing it doesn't really cost that!
 

wiglet

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I think all you owners have been bought into the marketing!!! :D :D
All feed if you look closely enough is THE SAME!!!
Get over yourselves and unless you have a severely malnourished or undernourished horse, a grass based feed would do you all nicely.
I DO actually agree and I'm not particularly precious about feed - my girl maintains her weight well therefore in spring/summer she could really manage on a feed balancer alone. If one isn't supplied as standard, I will just choose something that they supply and add a powdered vitamin and mineral supplement - it will be more cost effective.

I think if you are having a chat with new management then it may be worth chatting to the liveries beforehand to get a list of what everyone feeds and what brands. See if there are doubles or possible doubles if people swapped brands. That way when you chat with management you'll be a bit more in the know about what might work best for most than simply all liveries demanding their own food!
I have been doing this! Many people use a feed balancer and little else! Will wait for the meeting - the new management seem like nice, approachable people - who knows!
 

skewbaldmillie

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Ours all have balancer,pony nuts and optional sugar beet or conditioning mix. We wanted her on alfa-a too so just provide that. Everyone has the same and most people also buy one or maybe two extra feeds if they need them. All seems to go quite well they just need a very big whiteboard
 

Clodagh

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I think most people on full livery end up quite happy with how their horse looks and a lot of people don't know enough about feed and feeding to make a decision over the YM (not aimed at you, OP, more thinking of the yard I used to work at).
All horses had plain chaff (Baileys light chaff so no molasses) and then topline cubes or mix depending on owners choice, default was nuts. Speedi beet in winter added as necessary. TBH all the horses were a bit fat as there was all year turnout and everyone always had loads of hay. Owners provided any extras.
Just remeber, molasses are BAD and any YM that feeds unmolassed chaff is to be applauded. :)
 

tallyho!

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No. He gets almost no grass, either as grass, hay or feed. His balancer isnt pelleted either so he gets a handful of speedibeet to carry it.

Oh sorry forgive me. Theres me thinking haylage was GRASS!! lol!!!

Straw (high calorie product) + haylage (high calorie product) = I wonder why my cob is fat..?
 

ester

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Not many commercial chaffs are grass though are they? unmolassed chaffs can still hide a plethora of hidden nasties, and all those healthy versions containing moglo instead. No thanks.
And not all grass is equal, I would prefer not to feed redigrass/grazeon and alike which is exclusively ryegrass.

We have a couple of different feed merchants deliver orders every week, what you order just goes on the livery bill (DIY) I don't really see why full livery couldn't do the same.
As it is that means several bags of oats, several of speedibeet and several of aspero or leicht gneiss from agrobs.
 
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