Grass Livery - What Do You Get, What Do You Want, and What Do You Pay?

MrsMozartletoe

MrsMozartletoe

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As title really :D

Been discussing grass livery, how hard it is to find, and what one would be willing to pay to be able to have one's horse out 24/7/365, plus what would you expect to get - just a field and water, or would you want more, and if so, what?


Jaffa Cakes and Custard Creams - help yourself :D
 
My youngster is on grass livery. He has water piped to the field, is fed hay twice a day as our grazing isn't great and is checked for me twcie a day. They also give him his hard feed if I cannot make it to the yard. I'm pretty happy at 35 pounds a week.
 
well I pay £160 a month for 6 acres sole usage.............no running water/ stables or electric but a great location, hedges for shelter, flat and relatively easy access to Cannock Chase ( 10 min ride ) - forgot to say good road access and most of all no mud!!
 
wow you all pay a lot!!!
I pay £76 pcm for grazing (all yr turnout but have to come in at night from nov - april)
Ive been told my cob could do full grass livery but how do you manage if your horse is ill etc with no stable, even to sedate for dentists?
 
darkhorse123 said:
wow you all pay a lot!!!
I pay £76 pcm for grazing (all yr turnout but have to come in at night from nov - april)
Ive been told my cob could do full grass livery but how do you manage if your horse is ill etc with no stable, even to sedate for dentists?
Click to expand...

I myself rent a stable DIY at a livery yard, although my youngster is currently there for breaking he will go back out in the field in October 24/7 - I will still pay for my stable even if empty.
 
I'm at a yard that does DIY and grass livery. The only difference between the two is availability of a stall, for the DIY.

For 77 pounds/month, I get:

place in field in a same-sex group
hay/haylage (placed in round feeders in winter, and available year round for haynets)
water piped to field
access to starvation/isolation paddock if needed
sand school
secure storage space for stuff/feed
access to loo, microwave, fridge, kettle

The yard manager lives on-site, so keeps an eye on everyone. There is a yard worming programme in place, a yearly fun show, and a newly-instituted dressage and SJ league. We have easy access to marvelous hacking, and are in easy hacking distance of two competition venues/riding schools. I think I'm getting a %&#$ good deal! :)

Re. darkhorse123: When I've needed a stable in the past, I've made arrangements with one of the DIYers, since most of theirs live out.
 
That's very expensive for grass only! I'm on there but by us grass only, water supply, storage & jumping paddock out 24/7/365 is £10 a week! Obv more if you chuck hay in over winter.

Another same as above but in at nights during winter plus stable is £15 a week!
 
I want a field with shelter, running water, good grass, lots of space, preferably not just a flat square field. Other horses to be out with, a school nearby to use, and i have a xc course, outdoor and indoor schools, and unlimited hay. All for £10 a week :)

Bloody good find me thinks :)
 
Thankies all :D

An interesting mix of prices and facilities.

No grass livery 24/7/365 round here (apart from the little place I've been lucky to find :D). Land is expensive (though not as pricey as darn souffff), so it's hard I guess for landowners to balance out the costs.

Trying to talk a local landowner into doing grass livery 24/7/365, but he'd like to know what he would have to provide and how much he would get :cool:

P2 - rofl. I've put it to D that I go and find m'self a farmer. He laughed, nicely, and said Good Luck, and asked if I could get a tractor thrown in for good measure? What on earth is he going to do with tractor? Good job I love the big galoot :cool::rolleyes::D
 
At my yard grass livery is £15 a week. You have to pay to hire the schools/walker/jumps, and even then full and diy liveries have priority. Seems to work quite well though as most of the grass liveries are happy hackers or have youngsters.
 
i pay £12 a week for single sex grazing use of school and jumping paddock( which i dont need as one is baby and other is retired) but no facilities at all including tack storage
 
I charge £20/week for DIY grass livery with water, running in a herd, no paddocks.
Got two stables and three paddocks for emergencies and hard standing for 20 horses with wooden posts. Was originally told no one would ever like it as too rustic/etc ... got waiting list as long as a my arm!
 
ROFL - D likes your thinking :cool:. Having looked in a mirror today (and wishing I hadn't - think big red hooter nose and eyes that look like streaming slits), I am thinking that I'm stuffed on the finding me a farmer front. Maybe I should send D instead? Lady farmers in need? :D
 
I pay £55 per month, per horse. I have good grazing and a water trough, that's it. Good access to fab hacking though and 5 mins from my house so it suits.
 
I have paid in the past:
£100 pcm for grass livery in massive field with use of a school and tie-up stall in the dry when needed. Had use of usual tack room and storage space like everyone else on DIY for feed etc.

£120 pcm for roughly the same as the above (different yard) but my girls had their own smaller field so no worries about bullying etc.

£100 pcm for field and school, no tie-up area but had other horses there on DIY so could use their stables and swap ponies around if one needed to be in.

£40 pcm for field and storage space only. Was an extra £20 a month if wanted to use the school.

Now got own field so not grass livery any more lol.
 
I should have added the my yard has an indoor and outdoor school, private off road hacking, toilets, a cafe and a secure tack room as well as a play area for the kids! So I am very happy with what I am paying. I have a stable as the kid's pony is on part livery - mixing grass and part is the only way I can afford to keep two at my yard.
 
I'm not surprised that MysTic is doing well. I would jump at that & I can think of several others who would as well.
I was on grass livery at £30 a month - just a space in a field & a corner of a barn to store feed & hay but over the years the fences weren't maintained, the barn got big holes in the roof & I wasn't happy with how they looked after (or rather didn't look after) their own pony so I moved on. Theyalso had a strange attitude to riding on Sundays!
Shame it could have been lovely, could see horses from my bed & is the only grass livery I have found around her.
 
I pay £20 per week for a fenced field plus £10 per week for a stable, the farmer puts the horse in and out if he is stabled at night during winter, and puts up haynets, it is £10 per week for winter forage. The horses are all checked at 11.00 pm and waters checked, the tack room is locked at 9.30, opened at 6.00 [I think]
I don't have to go every day, so save on petrol when horse is resting, within reason the farmer will look after him and bring him in for me.
Any time access to woodchip arena, own tack/feed-room space.
Only a few, sensible, children as YO wife is pretty strict, so no nonsense allowed in the yard.
It suits my horse because he now has a lady friend [who is also the dominant mare], before he was in with geldings and the herd dynamics kept changing, so he got himself in a bit of a tizz with sporadic fighting
I think there are a few 24/7/365 grass liveries who have a tie up rail and a hose, they might pay a bit less than me £15-18 per week, but get no "extras"
 
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I pay £50 p/m for grass livery + stable.

There is 13/14 acres, two open barns for shelter, automatic water, stables, storage barns, tack room, feed room, electricity/water on yard.
Field maintence included.
Summer schooling/jumping paddock.
Isolation paddock.
Farmer puts big bales of hay in fields over winter.(we pay for the hay.)
Unlimited hacking.
 
Where I am grass livery is £10 a week. DIY is £15 a week. The only difference between grass and diy is the use of the stable. For both liveries you get the use of a sand school at no charge, running water and limited storage. However, you do have to provide your own hay, straw etc. It is very good value for money. All the other people are lovely. No yard politics. YO is easygoing.
 
I pay £45 a month for grass livery, i get a large riding field (4 acres) and his field is about 5/6 acres with two other horses. Water is pumped to his field and we have access to the main yard/tack room etc.
 
When there was an overload at the yard and I had 3 at once (failed vetting, got new horse overlap etc) kept two down the road on a 2 acre paddock with piped water, and a field shelter that was partitioned and gated so could shut them in. It was dead of winter so did shut them in at times, however got very wet and muddy around gate and field as there wasn't much drainage. Just put so much straw in shelter and wet didn't seep through, but it wasn't pernament for them. Could hack down to yard and use menage as we had one on livery there... Land owner said we could put as many horses on as we wanted, do what we liked. Had to put up electric fencing as there was barbed wire, but for £20 a month for two I don't think it was too bad! Fed them hay as well as it was mid-December through the January. Little filly loved being out 24/7!

Ours are now out 24/7 and could go out all winter, but am on DIY livery. Access to outdoor menage and jumps, designated stable, wash-down area, trailer parking and easy access to competition venues (Kelsall, Somerford, Stafford, Llanymynech etc.) for £20 for my TB and £15 for my youngster, excluding any feed or bedding. Not bad at all I don't think!
 
farm livery for 2 horses and 2 ponies £90 a month, i have a stream 3 sides of the field i'm in for the horses to drink from, no electric but i have a generator for winter nights if i need it. got about 5 acres of field all to myself, can put whatever i like in there so there's a stable type building;) old lorry container for storage and a caravan for tea making and toilet. OH can borrow tractors etc to roll the fields and farmer will deliver hay at £25 for round bale when needed. I love it because altho there are other liveries on the farm we are all separate, we can socialise if we want but we're not in eachothers hair all the time:)
 
My grass rent went up from £10 per week to £15 per week in May. tackroom, feed room, 38 acres of hill & glen, live as herd with my wee madam as lead mare (share with cattle which can at times be nerve wracking ).good hacking. Could prolly get a stable for an emergency if I absolutely had to. . . (extra £ ) I'd just like an outdoor school of some kind. That's not being greedy. . . . .is it ? Oh & perhaps some post & rail near the gate to stop the wire fence from claiming shoes. . . .and perhaps a field shelter so that princess doesn't get covered with snow all winter. . . . . . .erm. . .forgot to add that we have to clear the field of ragwort too
 
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I pay £15 a week where I have good grazing, use of tack room, feed room, yard to tie horse up, access to haylage to fill a haynet. We have no arena but we have a cross country course and huge field to ride in during the summer, but none in winter.
We buy our own hay in the winter to put in the field. There's usually a stable available for emergencies which I had to use last winter for a few weeks when my horse got bad mud fever. I also park my trailer there at no extra cost.

I'd love an arena, but at least there's one within 10 minutes hacking distance where I have my lessons.
 
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I originally wanted my horse on grass livery but I just couldn't find what I wanted.

I'd be happy to pay £20-£25 a week for:
-a good large varied field
-access to a school
-access to a stable for if needed in an emergency
-lights, running water, storage

Basically I want what I get from a DIY yard but out 24/7.
 
I pay about £35pw for whatever he needs - turnout 24/7 with 2 other geldings; a feed a day (excl supps); checking, rugging, bringing in for farrier/vet etc as necessary; Access to a stable when required and an indoor arena + loads and loads of off road hacking :D

This is exactly what I'd want for his "summer livery" although I appreciate it might not be quite the usual grass livery as I could (I don't!) leave him for weeks and he'd be taken care of.
 
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