How do yard owners organise their tack and feed rooms?

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dede

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I am planning on opening a livery yard and have no idea on how or where to have the liverys put their stuff. The yard has a tack room and a feed room so just wondering how people store their stuff
 
Depends on your layout, the size of the storage areas and how many liveries you intend having.

Being on livery previously most people had 2-3 black dustbins each with feed. They take up quite a bit of space.

The last livery I was on had a wall of saddle racks and everyone got 2 each. Then there were individual storage units* around the other 3 walls.

*old wardrobes, metal cupboards etc. Nothing fancy, just what they'd accumulated over the years.

One farm I was at had stables in a stone barn. The stables were all along one side and faced the other wall. They hung pipes from the ceiling at chest height along the wall. The space opposite each stable was your rug storage.

There is always someone who takes up too much space and feels entitled and (usually the same person) someone who doesn't keep th4 fees room tidy or sweep up spills, encouraging vermin.

I'd encourage you to have black & white rules and boundaries [for space] for each person and enforce it.
 
Also, dedicate a space for each livery if its a shared area for for feed and tack. They'll need room for feed bins, a shelf or two for supplements and bits and bobs, and saddle rack(s) for tack and saddle cloths. Saddle cloths usually need somewhere to dry off after a ride, and Ive supplied some of my liveries with clothes hangers ( basically a metal pole on wheels) for hanging clothes on. They're very inexpensive to buy, take up hardly any room, and perfect for airing saddle cloths, boot, bandages etc.
 
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Ours varies - rugs are indeed a struggle, particularly drying wet rugs. I had forgotten but the posts about reminded me that years ago I was on a DIY yard with a rug room, with hanging rug racks per person and if you have space that is excellent. Am sure many yards would have just had it as another stable.
 
AShetlandBitMeOnce said:
People keep rugs in their stables on a hanging rail or they keep them in their boxes surely? I have never been on a yard that has dedicated rug storage...
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Not all horses can be trusted (especially youngsters) with rugs in their stables! Ive known a couple yards with dedicated rug rooms.....they're a wonderful thing!
I'm so tight for space in my current yard that my liveries have to drape their damp rugs over their hay bales dry off. Some keep their dry rugs in their stables if their horses can be trusted and some keep their dry rugs stored on shelving either in the barn or in the tack room. Its being able to dry off damp turnout rugs that can be problem sometimes.....however, spreading them out to dry over hay bales in a nice dry barn works well - no ones complained yet!
 
The best arrangement I have had is separate lockable storage sections for each livery. The owner had put up a series of small rooms in an adjacent barn, with enough space for feed bins and some shelves in each. One per stable, so if you had two horses you got two. It was neat from the outside and everyone could organise their own space to suit themselves.
 
We have hooks up outside our sttables to hang rugs, otherwise they stay on if damp or are spread on your hay.

DIY storage has varied wildly in size from yard to yard but, ime, roughly has been about half a stable's-worth for everything. Lots of yards won't let you put up shelving. And there is always someone who oozes into more space than they should have. One yard I was on allowed 2 pallets per horse for hay, feedbins and bedding, a chest outside your stable and 1 rack per horse in the tack room (2 if you managed to get a low one and could fit a Stubbs stand underneath)

If someone wants more space than you want to allocate per stable, and you have the room, definitely charge them for it or everyone will spread out.
 
If you have a cattle yard you probably have an old cubicle shed? Take out every second bar and give double space per person let them organise and put in what they wish

Number each one with a corresponding stable number
 
On a yard my parents had when we were children all the stables had a cupboard as the back of them.

They were built in an old dairy barn. I'm not completely sure on the dimensions as I was small but say the stables were 14 x 12 the back 2ft was partitioned off and used as storage. Doors were raised off the ground to avoid issues with bedding etc getting in the way and they were bolted shut and you could put a padlock on the bolt.
 
My previous yard had individual tackrooms for each livery. These were all different sizes so if you had two horses, you qualified for a bigger tackroom. They were all lockable and secure and used for storing feed, bedding, hay and your tack and dry rugs. Wet rugs were hung in the rug room. Bliss.

Unfortunately I'm not at that yard now and my present yard just has a small storage bay in the communal tackroom and same for the communal feed room. We all manage but there's always a few liveries who are really untidy or start to expand into your area.
 
My previous large livery yard had individual tack rooms behind barn stables and then ex-army cabins for outdoor stables.
My current small and very exclusive little yard has an old shipping container for tack that we all share and then we all have space in a large hay barn for storage. We also have the aisle and area around our stables.
 
I think it depends on the set up of the yard, whether they're indoor or outdoor stables... or even if they're outdoor, is there enough of an overhang roof that if you hang rug rails up out of the front of the stables, will they get wet? I suppose it also depends on how many liveries you intend to have and what type of livery.

Here's what I've found on yard I've been on/viewed:

Yard 1: (Full Livery)
Tack room - one saddle rack and one bridle rack. Space underneath for a set of plastic drawers. The space was very tight but I suppose everyone only kept essentials in there and if they needed anything else they would bring it from home and take it back.
Feed Room - Metal feed bins and basic hard feed included. 4 other feed bins for specialty feed provided by the owners. Up along the other wall there was coat hooks for rugs, one per stable. These would fit about 3 rugs on at most, but people would swap these for the rugs they're currently using and for example take summer rugs home.
Hay/Bedding were stored in another room.

Yard 2: (DIY)
Tack Room - even smaller, no security, people expected to keep tack in the car/take home. Enough room for small storage trunk/shelves and seperate shelves along wall where each stable had a small section for rugs. Most people hung rugs inside the stable but those that couldn't used the shelves.
Feed Room - two bins/one metal bin per person.
One pallet per person for hay and one pallet per person for bedding

Yard 3: (DIY to Full)
Tack Room: Alarmed corridor/container style. Only for storage of bridles/saddles and you get however many you want/need.
Feed Room: Different room per barn, two/three bins per person really and no one takes the piss.
Hay and Feed are stored elsewhere, liveries pay by the weight of the haynet and per bale of shavings.
Nearly every livery has one of those animate lockers though in front of their stables, and some have a garden trunk thing for rugs, but most hang the rugs inside the stable on string or on a rail out the front of the stable.

Yard 4: (Full)
Tack Room: Small, one saddle rack and one bridle hook per person. Small area below this for garden trunk. Was easier when there was less liveries that had multiple horses, than multiple liveries with one horse. This got incredibly messy incredibly quickly.
Feed Room: 2/3 bins per person, no more than 8 bins in corner of hay/straw room.

Personally I think the best I'd found/would want is a dry space to keep my 3 feed bins, would be happy to invest to those metal ones to save some space/be more organised and a space to put one of those animate lockers. You can usually find somewhere to hang a rug or store it, and if it's not being used, take it home.
 
definitely separate at least tack/misc items, a shared feed room wouldn’t bother me as i have a lockable metal feed bin, and a small set of shelves next to it for supplements.

my yard is pretty much “if you can squeeze it in feel free” - outside one of my stables the wall is set back a bit so someone made me a tack locker to fit the space, another livery’s OH made her a metal one, everyone else brings tack with them more for security than space. bedding and hay is in the barn (haylage included but some buy their own hay), but very relaxed about cramming other stuff into our areas! in my block we all have garden bins outside the stables for rugs etc, and plastic drawers. it works but it is an issue with some people taking over the “tack room”. even having a painted line on the floor to set out bays per horse in the tack room is a wise idea.
 
dede said:
I am planning on opening a livery yard and have no idea on how or where to have the liverys put their stuff. The yard has a tack room and a feed room so just wondering how people store their stuff
Click to expand...
My liveries get a chest freezer for rugs and space and high rack in tack room for other things
 
We have big stables, with a room sectioned off at the back of each for tack etc.. There are also feed rooms away from the stable if your horse is likely to break into the back stable area. Consider that not everyone is honest, and if you can allocate space for lockable boxes or wardrobes, so much the better.
 
The yard I'm on has approximately 30 outside stables. Each stable has an allocated cubicle in a large barn. The foot print of each cubicle is approximately the size of three small bales and is about 8 foot high. Hay and straw is supplied by the farm and your order is delivered to your cubicle once a week. I use mine to store shavings and hay along with a storage trunk for rugs and shelves for odds and sods. Wet rugs can be dried on the hay/straw in the barn. I keep rugs in current use on a drain pipe slung across the back wall of my stable.

We also have a six shared feed sheds and three shared tack rooms. There is no allocated space as such but I'm not aware that it's ever been an issue. In the 20 years I've been there I can only remember one light fingered livery and we all knew exactly who it was! I have another very large trunk in the tack room and another trunk in my stable.
 
One yard we were allowed one dustbin each.
A saddle rack and the space under it was the space you were allocated.
Another yard had cubby holes so one cubby hole for rugs, one for other stuff, your saddle was above these and there was the top of the cubby hole but below your saddle you could store stuff.
Wet rugs were hung over stable door.
 
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