Full livery - Q about the feed

Angelbones

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If you have a horse on full livery which includes feed (basic chaff and nuts) but you want your horse on a different, more expensive regime (ie Topspec) and have to provide it yourself (fair enough), do you get a discount on the livery price for not using their feed?

I ask as I have two horses on a yard where their feed type is not covered and am about to provide all they need and am wondering if I can ask for a discount on the price or whether it's a case of 'use it or lose it' so to speak.

Alternatively if the nuts I want fed are the same price as the yard nuts would it be acceptable to ask for the yard to order in my nuts instead and feed them to mine?

I don't want to rock the boat unnecessarily to thought I'd ask you lot first in case I'm out of order for considering such a thing!

Thanks chaps :)
 

bubbilygum

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In my experience no, you wouldn't get a discount. My horse has always had minimal hard feed as he is a good doer, and when he was on full livery I paid the same for my paltry amount of feed as those whose horses were having bucketfuls of nuts.

In regards to the nuts, it might be worth asking but I would expect that to be a no also, as this will affect other liveries too.

You might be better off taking the hit and forking out for feeds separately if you want your horse to be fed specific feeds. Equally you could ask the yard owner to cost up the other aspects of your livery (ie. hay, mucking out etc) and give you a price for full livery without feeds.

I always found myself out of pocket by paying for livery with hay/bedding/feeds included as my horse didn't need the feed and hay I was paying for him to have and hence I found myself supplementing other liveries who were feeding their horses three times the amount mine was having! I much prefer the pay-as-you-go method of livery when it comes to hay and feed :D
 

zigzag

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Well I don't know... but I looked into full livery for a 11hh pony and it would cost me £80 a week, same as a 16.2 TB, even though the shetland be on no hard feed and minimal hay..
 

TandD

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any yard that i have been at the answer was no every time.....either use yard feed - and even then they only provide a certain amount! - or buy your own

ended up buying complete feed for one horse, and an extra 'side order' for the other.....so yo's were making quite a bit of money out of us!!!!!
 

Honey08

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Interesting, how much discount do they give you Kat? I would think most yards wouldn't. Ours only have basic feed, and they cost less than £5/week to feed for two of them, so if a large yard buys in bulk or gets a feed discount, that would be even less per horse.

Zigzag thats a really naughty yard charging the same for your two - it should be cheaper for small ponies.
 

Chocy

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I get discount on horses full livery & but my own feed- he only gets topspec lite so I do save money. But then my YO is really helpful like that!!
 

splash30

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I buy my own feed, I don't get a discount and don't expect one, its my choice to have him on a specific feed so is down to me to buy it.
 

Kat

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Er about 50p per day. And there are about three liveries who get their own feed as the yard feed isn't suitable, we all get the discount. But I also pay extra because I use more haylage than most.
 

eggs

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I wouldn't expect to get a discount. A large proportion of the cost of full livery is in the labour and not the horse's rations.

If however the feed wan't mentioned when you went to look at the yard you might have a negotiation point.
 
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