How much to secure a stable before getting a horse?

[Spit That Out]

Hi,
My friend is buying a horse after taking a break for a few years. She's looking at the moment but also wants to secure a place on a yard so when she finds her dream horse she has somewhere to stable him/her.
I've said her options are to pay for a stable on a yard she likes or find a horse first and then look for a yard until she takes delivery of the horse, however she might not get on the yard she wants right away.
She's wanting part livery once she has her horse but only wants to pay DIY prices (av £25 a week) to secure a box until she has her horse.

What's the usual deal in this situation?

How long do you think a YO would hold a place for and what would you charge/pay?

She's been looking for a couple of months at horses but the only one she has put a deposit on failed vetting so the sale fell through, she didn't have a stable arranged but did have grazing with another friend until she got sorted but unfortunately her other friend no longer has spare land.

 

[Theocat]

If the yard usually does DIY and Part and lets liveries switch from one to the other, it would be reasonable for her to pay the basic DIY cost of £25 per week.

She certainly shouldn't expect to pay any less than the minimum cost, and on a busy and popular yard the YO would be a bit of a fool to take less than the standard minimum rate.

If the yard did part livery as a bare minimum and was very oversubscribed, I'd try to negotiate a rate that took off the cost of hay, bedding and feed, but I wouldn't expect to get a discount on services even if I wasn't using them, because on a busy yard like that the YO can presumably easily fill the box with someone paying full whack.

It all depends on the yard set up, how oversubscribed the yard is and how desperate she is to guarantee a space on it - but it could take her months to find the right horse; she might be better saving the livery money and either putting it towards the horse or to cover alternative livery for the first period of ownership until a vacancy came up at her preferred yard?

 

[hnmisty]

I did this...looked round the yard before I had the horse lined up. I played the flat DIY rate (£130/month). It was worth it for me for the peace of mind. Didn't want to find my dream horse and have to either find a yard that was more expensive, or further away, or didn't like, or not even be able to find anything.

 

[hnmisty]

On phone so can't edit to say...paid to keep the stable empty for 2 (or 3?) Months before I found Barry.

 

[Gloi]

I wouldn't dream of paying for a stable until I was sure I had found the horse. Have a look around a few places so that if there isn't a space immediately at the first choice there is somewhere else to keep it until a space comes free.