Grass Livery ideas

[exquisitus]

To set the scene, I’m a farmer and have 70 acres of grassland behind my house currently under utilised, the majority is free draining that can support stock all year round.
Hacking wise there is a Bridleway running through the middle of the land, giving immediate access to Forestry Commission woodland with waymarked horse routes as well as further bridleways.

At present I have three wooden stables with electric and water.

I had intended to build a new stable block, but reading through old posts Grass livery seems to be sought after...?

It seems a typical charge weekly charge for DIY stable+field is £30-40, whilst grass livery is £15-30?

I’m trying to work out some costings... I appreciate this is a subjective question, but would you want all the horses in the same field, individual paddocks or a mixture of the two?

I would want to rotate the grazing to save the driest land for winter and prevent the land turning to a mud bath, what would be a sensible number or horses to have?

Is a high standard of DIY grass livery a bit of an Oxymoron?
That’s to say would people be prepared to pay a little more for excellent hacking, scenic location, well drained land that won’t turn to a winter mudbath, very good fencing etc.

I could build some more stables, but searching through it seems there a quite a few posts bemoaning the lack of Grass livery, I could offer 24/365 turnout even in a year like this due to well drained land, so thinking I have an advantage here.

Any comments/advice is most appreciated.

 

[Jools1234]

what area you are in will affect cost and demand.

most people IME including myself want year round turn out 24hrs per day if poss but definatly over night, but i would still want a stable or the use of one between my 2 horses.

i am in essex and pay £90 per month for as much turn out as i like and the use of, two lit maneges, a round pen, a parelli school, 100 acres of road hacking, a stable water/electric,

i would be happy with one large geldings field and one mares for summer and the same for winter, unfertilised grazing would be my choice too, also a large area of hard standing that is fenced around the stables may mean you need less stables, a roof over it would be a bonus too then people could pay extra if and when they need stables for emergencies or before shows etc, but also be able to tack up groom have farrier and vet see horse somewhere dry and enclosed

 

[mynutmeg]

We pay £25 a week for DIY stabled livery where we have 24/7 turnout in the summer and daytime turnout in the winter and thats pretty average around her. We also have a brilliant school and cross country course. Yards I've been on without a school have been less - about £75 a month for turnout and stable. Grass livery is less but not sure exactly as have never had ours at grass livery.

Turnout wise my preference is several groups so you have them turned out in a herd environment but can move them between groupd to suit the horses personalities as they don't all get on.

You need to make sure that you have tack/feed/rugs storage as well as stables as horses come with lots of stuff

 

[dilbert]

I pay £60 a month for stables and all year round grazing 24/7 in the East Midlands so as others have said location will impact on what you can charge. Having a stable / shelter is really important to me as sometimes I like to be able to bring the boys in for a rest / to dry out .

At my yard we have sole use of our own fields / parts of fields which we manage as we wish. This is important to us all as most of the horses need restricting in spring etc. we provide our own electric fencing.

I would also say that having a smaller number of horses / owners who are trustworthy / get on is much better than having a large number . I think we probably have around 20 acres at ours with 10 horses and 5 owners.

 

[EllieandGeorge]

If you want to offer just grass livery, you definitely need some type of covered place to tie up for rug changing, feeding, grooming etc! Also water/electric. I would also make sure you have stables available that people can use or pay extra to use if their horse has to be on box rest for some reason.
I would suggest something like an indoor barn with maybe 4 stables down one side or stables outside and a tack room/feed room would be ideal! With plenty of place to tie up and store things etc.
My yard offers the rent of a stable + 24/7 turnout (no arena) for £20 a week, and just turnout for £13 a week. I would pay a considerable amount more for a yard with this set up with an arena, as I love being able to turn out/bring in whenever and have my own routine without having to follow routine of YO/other horses.
The ideal turnout for me would be (depending on how many liveries you took on) 2 fairly large paddocks to alternative between for a herd of maybe 5 horses, and then individual smaller paddocks for people who either want their horses alone or just with one or two other horses, with a set amount of land per horse for owners to manage, this means you can turnout your horse as to what suits them and means theres less likely to be fights about turnout between owners! Good fencing is also important for grass livery.

Im in west yorkshire by the way.

 

[Gentle_Warrior]

where are you ? I am in grass livery in berkshire, at 80 per month, I have 2 fields, share with 1 other horse and we manage the land ourselves, as in rortating etc. We source our own hay etc. I do the morning checks and feeds and she does the PM.

all the yard supply is fencing materials and man effort if the job is to big to do, harrowing twice a year, ragowort tratment and storage ofa individual shed each for feed etc and a shared storage for hay. And obviously general management etc

We have use of a school at weekends and evening through a booking system and can book the yard for use for vets etc with prior arrangement and pref outside of their working hours.

There are other liveries around with the same set up.

The hacking is good and the land is good to.

 

[Honey08]

Hi, sounds a lovely set up and potential grass livery yard.

I think your estimates for DIY are very high. Depends where you are, I guess, but I would say an average of £20-30 for DIY and £10-15 for grass livery.

I would have a few more stables, or shelters that people could groom/tack up in (an old barn would be perfect) and somewhere that people could store feed/rugs etc (again in the barn?).

Re numbers, it depends on how much land you would have for summer/winter. If you halve the 70 acres, and had 35 for each six months, then I would perhaps go for 25-30 horses? Another alternative would be to make some hay/lage that could be sold to liveries in winter. I would split the fields into mares and geldings perhaps, or groups of five or six horses perhaps. You could offer individual turnout by elec fencing bits off if need be, but I would charge a couple of £ extra for that.