I don't call this full livery, would you?

Thankyou all for your posts. Today is one of the "full livery days" so I haven't been able to make a proper point, so I just asked that whoever was doing him for the dyas, PLEASE can they ensure he gets turned out for a play and has his rugs changed/left off for a little while, (so he can have a good itch and them be put back on nice and straight!) he currenlty has 3 cosy stable rugs on, so this in my eyes is very nessacary. I'll be down this week to check what he's had done, and to clarify with the yo just what is being done, and make sure it is what was agreed. If its anything less then the best for my boy, I shall be down at 5am and 8.30pm after work and do a good job myself! xxxx
 
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Thats not full livery in my book, although I guess it would depend how much you are paying. I used to keep my horses on full livery for £60 pw each and that was very basic and in my opinion NOT full livery. They were only brought in if the weather was really cold, their outdoor rugs were kept on, they were fed and watered and hay was given in the field. They would bring them in for the farrier or vet or if I called to say I was riding, but I had to fight for that.
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I eventually decided to leave and now have them on DIY and they and I are much happier
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But you didnt pay for a stable, so why would you expect them to be brought in every evening? And you cant put a stable rug on in the field can you? Mad to bring your horse in? Why?
 
I think of full livery as being the full care of the horse in question, depending on what they need. So if a horse lived out, full livery would be feeding, checking over, change rugs if needed, possibly some grooming and picking out feet if specified. Full livery is only going to include bringing into a stable if you have a stable in the first place, and your horse routinely is brought into it.
 
You are lucky, below are my list of complaints i am on full livery
Mud is never washed off legs,
Feet never picked out,
Rugs rarely changed,
Never groomed.
Not adequate enough bedding (quite often none)
Not adequate amounts of hayledge given for a horse of his size. i.e. (given less than I would give an overweight 12hh pony) half a haynet to last him all night and he is 16hh!!
Feeds are not given to him on more than one occasion.
Cuts and scrapes gone unnoticed and untreated despite one needing medical attention
And finally being left in his stable all day 2 days on the run with no hayledge because they didn't want to have to come back down to get him in and the girl who runs livery her willies were wet!! my little man is only 2 years old and is ever so good i really makes me sad to think he is treated like that.

Needless to say i am moving him before planned but i have found the perfect yard and the lady seems absolutely ideal so i am ever so excited!! :)
 
The OP's post reminds me of the yard (farm) I'm on which is now advertising as doing full livery - by someone who has little experience of horses and none whatsoever of stabled horses. I don't know what is charged but I had a quick look-see over the door of one which is enjoying the ahem, service, and its straw bed would have failed the fork-stab test hands down and the bed only measures 5 feet from front to back - the horse is about 16hh and a TB. It spends 24 hours in the same rug so basically it just gets put out/brought in and fed. My idea of full livery is that the horse is cared for as if it was the property of the person being paid to look after it, so to me that includes at least a basic groom daily including feet, properly weighed and measured feed and hay, some form of exercise and a fully cleaned bed, no deep littering or whatever. The field is a bog in places and mine has a minor dose of mud-fever but is anyone checking this chap? I doubt it. They wouldn't even know what it was and how to treat it, even if they noticed it. As someone else as said, I also loathe seeing a horse in the same rug around the clock. Even just taking it off for 10 minutes and resetting it improves the comfort, plus it is often much warmer in the stable so the horse is likely overheating at times.

Unfortunately,places like this feed on the fact that many people would rather spend a few extra ££s rather than get up in the morning and see to their animal before work. I used to see someone who claimed to not have time in the mornings despite the fact she actually drove past the place to get to work (and only lived less than 10 minutes away) and I used to pass her as I was leaving the yard on my way to work.
 
When I worked on yards and we done full livery for someone only a couple days per week or as and when required they would pay as diy then be charged for the days full liv they had used. It always involved a muck out, horse fed according to it's requirements and TO or a stretch in the paddock. They would be skipped out in the evening and rugged and settled in for the evening.
If the owner called after lunch for a days full liv they would just get the afternoon and evening service of feed, hay water and a skip out.
We did have one livery who put her horse on a days full liv once a week and it looked like she had only been bedding over for about 5 days before hand :(
 
RobinHood said:
No that is definitely not acceptable! Where I work part livery means muck out, hay, feed, water, walker, rug changing, turning in and out and skipping out last thing. Full livery would be this plus grooming, exercise and possibly tack cleaning.
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this is exactly what i do on my yard . and regardless where the owner is the horses get full care and attention they are treated as my own if not better !
 
Coffee_Bean said:
Unacceptable.

ETA I keep my horse on part livery at a part + full yard. I also work there at weekends. Full livery horses are fed, rugs changed, any creams/grease applied to legs, turned out. We then muck all beds out fully, add any new bedding if needed, clean buckets, refill waters, make feeds + haynets, soak hay and put in stable. When they come in they have legs washed, feet picked out, any wraps/bandages put on if wanted by owner, rugs changed and fed.

That is what I call full livery.
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Ditto this. I have mine on DIY but we have the option of full and part livery.
Full is the above at my yard and part is arranged with owner (usually rugs changed, turned out, skipped or mucked, hay and water and then you are left to bed down and bring in)
 
gillcouls said:
You are lucky, below are my list of complaints i am on full livery
Mud is never washed off legs,
Feet never picked out,
Rugs rarely changed,
Never groomed.
Not adequate enough bedding (quite often none)
Not adequate amounts of hayledge given for a horse of his size. i.e. (given less than I would give an overweight 12hh pony) half a haynet to last him all night and he is 16hh!!
Feeds are not given to him on more than one occasion.
Cuts and scrapes gone unnoticed and untreated despite one needing medical attention
And finally being left in his stable all day 2 days on the run with no hayledge because they didn't want to have to come back down to get him in and the girl who runs livery her willies were wet!! my little man is only 2 years old and is ever so good i really makes me sad to think he is treated like that.

Needless to say i am moving him before planned but i have found the perfect yard and the lady seems absolutely ideal so i am ever so excited!! :)
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Now just to prove that I do read posts properly...... her willies were wet........ ong!
 
Corona said:
For 2 days a week my horse is kept on full livery. Now this to me would suggest that he's mucked out, fed and watered, rugs changed, maybe turned out or a light groom. I've since realised that full livery, is a very shoddy skip out (his bed was absolutley filthy one day), a huge handfull of haylage is thrown over his door at 4pm (he usually has a haynet so has eaten this by 5pm). And thats it. His rugs weren't changed for 2 days, meaning they were all crumpled and itchy, and he also hadn't been out of his stable for 2 days, meaning he was very depressed and bored.

Am I just being soft? Do some yards, consider this ok?

I just feel awful for him :-(
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That is terrible I would address the YO and explain your concerns I must admit I'd of lost my temper at that level of care and would already be looking around to move my horse to another livery yard!
 
No, but some yards I've been on wouldn't be far off that. If there's no winter turnout, or say just horses not out because its really wet, and full livery does not include exercise or grooming (which it doesn't on some yards), so the horse wouldn't be getting brought out of the stable, then tbh I wouldn't expect rug changes (I don't want them anyway, I think p!ssing about with rugs just for the sake of it just annoys horses, mine stay in an outdoor rug) I would, however, expect a muck out and a skip out a day, two feeds, and ad-lib hay and water.
 
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I have always been pretty lucky with the level of care for my horse, even on DIY. At my last yard if you weren't there and your horse needed holding for the vet or farrier, even for an hour for x-rays, you would never be charged. DIYs wouldn't be caught but they would be brought in if they were hanging around at the gate. You had to pay to have breakfast thrown in (whether you wanted your horse to have breakfast or not - if you didn't want hard feed you had to leave a carrot in a bucket and pay 50p for them to throw that in unless you wanted to be stood there doing it yourself at 8am!) but you did get a fair amount of other benefits.
When I went away for six weeks YO worked out whether it would be cheaper for me to be DIY and pay for services or to go on full and have her buy me hay and shavings and she told me so that she made less profit and I saved money. Then she mucked out my horse herself every day instead of letting her staff do it because she knew how picky I am about having a white bed (and put in twice as much bedding as usual, without charging me, she knew I was stressed from going away). She also did my horse's massage pad, hand walking and carrot stretches every day and put on her magnetic boots at night. This cost £80 a week, including the fact that my horse was on box rest and busy destroying the stable and everyone's sanity at the time.
Currently I am DIY at a farm where YO chucks hay and water at my pony so I can have a lie in at the weekend (I do it in the week). She will also bring her in and pick her feet out occasionally if I leave everything else done (nice pony that comes to call) so that I can go out on a Saturday night. She doesn't charge any extra because she is wonderful.
Some yards are lovely - OP - just move, you will find the right one!!!
 
Where I come from as above full livery is everything including tack cleaning and excercise.
What you describe here is less than part livery if your paying for full your being ripped off!
 
Move yards! For the price of ful livery I'd expect a good honest service with a daily routine. If I weren't getting it id be gone ASAP with a very snotty and blunt word to the staff! Not acceptable at all for you or your horse.
 
full livery

feed
change rugs
turnout
muckout (full)
tack cleaned
ridden
brought in
1hr groom
feed
hay
feed
put to bed




thats what i class full livery
 
That is ridiculous! I offer full livery, and horses on full livery with me get fed and mucked out properly at 5am, groomed when the yard is finished, and then exercised. Once they've been exercised they either go out into the field for the rest of the day until 5pm, or go back into their stable (which is skipped out while they're worked. No horse on my yard walks into a dirty box, ever). Stabled horses are skipped out twice at 10am and 1pm, and hay and water topped up at 1pm. They are then skipped out properly at 4pm, fed, hayed and watered, and if they need rugs changed or they've gone a bit skewiff, we do that too. Then the horses who have been turned out come in and have legs and tummies washed off, a good groom to get the mud off them, and go to bed.

THAT is full livery! I'd be mortified if one of my clients wasn't getting exactly what they pay for.
 
I'd discuss it with YO but meanwhile I'd be looking for a new yard to move to.

It would seem that your idea and theirs on what standard of care your horse should have differs greatly. I wouldn't be happy to leave my horse in the care of someone in such circumstances.
 
I would not be happy but I would also be looking at my livery contract too. As there is so much variation between interpretation of full livery, each yard should define what is exactly meant. In the 1980's full livery also included weekday exercise and tack cleaning but nowadays that is extra. Times have changed but u know when u are on a good yard or not. My feeling is that if u can't go away with complete trust and no worries about leaving your horse in soneone else's care, you are in the wrong yard. Sometimes it is better to have better care than the flashy facilities - great if you can get both!
 
gillcouls said:
You are lucky, below are my list of complaints i am on full livery
Mud is never washed off legs,
Feet never picked out,
Rugs rarely changed,
Never groomed.
Not adequate enough bedding (quite often none)
Not adequate amounts of hayledge given for a horse of his size. i.e. (given less than I would give an overweight 12hh pony) half a haynet to last him all night and he is 16hh!!
Feeds are not given to him on more than one occasion.
Cuts and scrapes gone unnoticed and untreated despite one needing medical attention
And finally being left in his stable all day 2 days on the run with no hayledge because they didn't want to have to come back down to get him in and the girl who runs livery her willies were wet!! my little man is only 2 years old and is ever so good i really makes me sad to think he is treated like that.

Needless to say i am moving him before planned but i have found the perfect yard and the lady seems absolutely ideal so i am ever so excited!! :)
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Good heavens gillcouls you have dragged this up from March 2010 Why?
 
jnhuk said:
I would not be happy but I would also be looking at my livery contract too. As there is so much variation between interpretation of full livery, each yard should define what is exactly meant. In the 1980's full livery also included weekday exercise and tack cleaning but nowadays that is extra. Times have changed but u know when u are on a good yard or not. My feeling is that if u can't go away with complete trust and no worries about leaving your horse in soneone else's care, you are in the wrong yard. Sometimes it is better to have better care than the flashy facilities - great if you can get both!
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You are absolutely right i work away during the week and i am sick with worry all week! i feel physically sick going to see him on a sat as i don't know what i am going to find. But the best news is that i am moving!! :D and the yard i am moving to is absolutely perfect!
 
jnhuk said:
I would not be happy but I would also be looking at my livery contract too. As there is so much variation between interpretation of full livery, each yard should define what is exactly meant. In the 1980's full livery also included weekday exercise and tack cleaning but nowadays that is extra. Times have changed but u know when u are on a good yard or not. My feeling is that if u can't go away with complete trust and no worries about leaving your horse in soneone else's care, you are in the wrong yard. Sometimes it is better to have better care than the flashy facilities - great if you can get both!
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I include exercise six days a week and tack is cleaned every day for my full livery clients.
 
Starzaan said:
I include exercise six days a week and tack is cleaned every day for my full livery clients.
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I know this is a very old thread, but I HAVE to ask... Starzaan, which county are you in?? Daily tack cleaning would be heavenly... Hate it at the best of times but at the moment I'm still scrubbing my bridle several weeks after one of the yard staff left it in the mud in the field after turning one of my horses out :(
 
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