Horses at home - Friends/ Liveries

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Fanatical

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To those of you who have your horses at home and have maybe 1 or 2 friends/ liveries, how do things work?
Do you help each other out when you have holidays or do you keep it a strict livery business and employ a groom?
If you do have friends/ liveries – why? Is it so you have someone to ride out with or maybe so you have some help around to give you some flexibility – or any other reason?
Do you pay business rates or are you exempt?
And if you don’t mind me asking, what are the costs of insurance for such a small number of friends/ liveries?
 
I have planning permission for stables for private use but clarified with the council that I am allowed to rent out one or two stables to friends much as you can rent a room or two to a lodger. It's still classed as private use not a business.
Any horse not owned by me is not covered by my home insurance and I would need public liability in case it escaped. If you are handling your friend's horses you would also need care and control insurance to cover you. Both of this can be bought for a small livery yard of less than 6 horses. I no longer have another horse here but I'll look for my old insurance policy is no one else gives you the costs.
As for business rates, they are actually non domestic rates on the buildings which would be due whether you run a business or not. I've not yet been assessed as we moved and developed the property very recently.
I would factor in all your maintenance costs and increases in muck removal, electricity and water meter so that you are not at a loss. As for sharing chores that's totally personal to you and your friends but please make sure you are insured.
I don't have anyone here atm but I would do so to have some company hacking and generally just to have someone else around a bit but it really would need to be a friend and for it to work it would need to suit us both very specifically.
 
I have 3 friends keep their horses with me. Two of them are basically full livery. One lives quite a long way away now, so she just comes over once or twice a week. The other is a Vet who works - well, Vet hours! So she comes over when she can.

The other friend is here every day, usually twice a day, but only once when she is working 2 or 3 nights in a row ( works night shifts). We share the work between us. Holsidays we cover for each other, no questions. Couple of times a year we are both away for a night together, and my neighbour looks after them ( I do hers twice a week through the winter). The last couple of years have qualified for champs together, I pay for someone to come in and look after those remaining (usually 7 horses left at home).
It works for all of us. Friend 3 couldn't manage alone when she is working, I couldn't manage without her when i'm working. The first 2 muck in as an when they can.
They all have their own insured, and I have 3rd party liability.
 
Britestar that's almost exactly the arrangement I have in mind - two full liveries and one who is part/ DIY and who would be prepared to help out if we were away.
Would you mind giving me a rough idea of how the financial side works out? Do you charge normal rates for your full liveries given that they are friends and how do you work it with the DIY? Do you sort of pay each other or does she get discounted livery. Obviously I don't expect you to give me these details if you don't want - I realise its quite personal. But feel free to PM if you prefer. :-)
 
I was once the 'friend'. It worked very well and only came to an end as I moved house out if the area. The owner worked it on a purely DIY basis, rented the boxes at going market rate and I would strongly suspect didn't have insurance/ pay business rates. When I moved my horses then those 2 boxes were filled by 2 different mutual friends.

Every one pitched in like a cooperative. It was always people with similar values and attitudes to horse care
 
ETA, the owner had an a slightly weird/psychotic neighbour who obviously complained to the council at one point - I was there when the council arrived to check things out and they were completely happy with the set up and nothing ever came of it
 
I see quite a few set ups like this in my travels. Most work quite well especially if everyone remembers that, at the end of the day, they are guests in someone's home on one side but also paying for a service on the other. Agree very much with above, pick your liveries carefully and map out the situation honestly right from the start.

This goes for horses as well as people! Quite often when I've seen it not work it's nothing to do with the people, it's because one of the horses has particularly different needs, handling issues, bad paddock/herd habits etc. So worth having a frank discussion about such things and - very important - don't agree to anything you can't sustain!! If, for instance, a horse is difficult to turn out, you can't really say yes in the summer, when it's not too big a deal, then be upset about it in the cold, dark, slippery winter. Much better to be honest and upfront!
 
We have one *livery* who doesn't pay anything, we swap jobs to help each other.

Between NMT and myself we feed, rug, turn out, muck out and poo pick her pony in the week and then she(and her mum) get mine in, groom/wash them, rug, skip out, tidy yard etc weekday afternoons and poo pick ours at the weekends.

Sat and sun we take it in turns to turn out/ bring in to give everyone time off.

Works because we are all of a similar mindset, like everything to be super neat and tidy and all have very high standards lol! We have a good laugh and get on really well, they are lovely people who treat the yard as though it IS theirs, take really good care of it.

I have had nightmares before though, people I thought I knew who lied, stole and moaned 24/7 as well as constantly criticising the way NMT and I do things.....so my advice is to only have people who you know think the same way!
 
Thank you all for the replies, it is really helpful and good advice. All taken in board.
Britestar - thank you so much for the PM. I have replied but on my phone this eve so not 100% sure that it'll have reached you!
 
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