If I wanted to open a livery yard....

I

Ilovefoals

Well-Known Member
Joined
27 March 2010
Messages
1,935
Visit site
How would I go about it?

I have 6 stables at home and 8 acres of land which is fenced into 2 large fields and 1 smaller one.
I have an outdoor school and there is miles of off road hacking locally.
There's a locked tackroom and feed shed and use of jumps.

I have 4 horses of my own currently but 1 foal will be advertised for sale at weaning and I'm thinking about loaning out my older mare as a hack come spring next year.

What would I have to do/provide to potential liveries an order to offer an attractive package?

What would be important to you and what are you prepared to pay?

I only work 2 nights a week so I'm there all the time and my husband is when I'm at work. I'd be able to muck out for people during the week though not at weekends, offer grass livery and would you provide hay and bedding and include it in the livery price or ask people to provide their own?

Sorry for all the questions but it something I've been thinking about for a while.

I did have some ponies on grass livery last year for a nominal amount as their owner was meant to help with poo picking and mucking out. However, this didn't work out as she was never up and the ponies were basically on full grass livery with me doing everything for hardly any money. I'm not very good at assertiveness!

Any tips or ideas appreciated!
 
Firstly you need to work on your assertiveness otherwise you will be walked all over by clients & they'll take you for a ride. :)

You would need to look at the costs involved, insurance for your yard & consider what your council tax would be should you decide to let the council know that you are operating a business. :(

I have no idea what your prices would have to be as you don't say what part of the cpountry you are in. Prices vary considerably depending where you are in the country.You need to ask around your area for prices to get an idea of the going rate & also what they include. After finding out the local prices then work out what your overheads would be i.e hay/bedding (if you decide to supply it) & don't forget to include maintenance cost for your yard & paddocks. The will need topping, spraying for docks & buttercups etc & all this has to be paid for.

This post probably hasn't helped much but it may give you a few things to think about. I had a friend whi opened a livery yard, she actually rented the yard so had extra expense, however at the end of 12 months she had lost money. She had lost weight, never had a day off as she couldn't afford to pay anyone to cover...basically her dream turned into a nightmare.

Good Luck with your venture.
 
Thanks for your reply.

I'm in the north east of scotland and I'd say that there are a mixture of very cheap and very expensive yards.

The last one I was at is quite a big competition centre and was near enough £400 a month for full livery, (no diy) and £300 for part livery.

I'd like to do grass livery in summer only, diy or part livery,(diy at weekends).

Since I live on site, I can offer rug change, turnout, feed etc in the mornings and bringing in service in the evening. I can muck out mon to fri but not at weekends as I'll be working my 2 nights and sleeping in the day. Tho my hubby would still do the turnouts in the morning.

We have a very well maintained wee place and spend a lot of time and money on it to keep it nice so I want to make sure I can manage with the extra work so the yard wont suffer. So we are thinking of only having 2 liveries, (horses), until I know I wont be neglecting other things.

I have been pricing hay, straw, shavings etc and would probably charge seperately for them as I think if they were included in the cost, folk might use more than they should. Or is that cynical?!
 
DEFINATELY charge extra. I didn't, and the wastage of hay was appalling, so I told them all either the rent goes up massively, or they buy mine, or get their own in....funny thing is, no wastage now they all get their own! Hehe....

Start off small. Just get one in if you can, and see how it goes. I'd also be inclined to further separate your paddocks, we did that as people kept whining about 'kickers' blah blah blah.....wooden posts and electric rope have worked wonders for us.

The usual things about poo-picking is important, and stipulate from the beginning that all horses get wormed at the same time. My lot are happy for me to buy in the wormers as it is cheaper to buy in bulk.

With DIY, I would say from the beginning as well, if someone hasn't sorted their horse in the morning by whatever time you feel is bad for the horse, that YOU will feed it, put it out etc. etc and charge them. The amount of people that are quite happy to let their poor neddys stand in the stable way past 1pm on a Sunday morning is quite dismal. Doesn't happen on my yard....used to, and drove me nuts, so the yearly contract (after a meeting with the clients) had this added, after one or two of their bills were being driven up, amazingly the horses were sorted at a decent time, and not left in for hours and hours with nothing to eat!

I'd have a rule about who comes to the yard. After all, it's YOURS. I don't have 'friends do the horse while I'm away'....I do them. You don't want oodles of people sniffing about.....your not preventing them bringing family and friends, but you CAN tell them to limit it, for your own peace of mind and safety.

Might seem alot, but I've found it works for me (and other things too) and everyone seems happy. Haven't had anyone leave (yet!) and we've been there quite sometime, I've a waiting list!
 
I agree with dragonslayer, sort your rules out before you open. I limit the type of bedding as I spread my muckheaps on my fields once it is well rotted, my bedding rots down in weeks other stuff doesn;t so I give a list of what they can use. I also provide the haylage/hay at a fixed price per week. Don;t include it in teh livery as they will just use abuse and waste. I also keep an eye and if I feel they are wasting haylage I will tell them. Now I find everyone uses what they need and non thrown away.

I limit the number of farriers, vets, dentists, riders that could potentially come on the yard. I have 2 farriers who are fantastic, reliable and honest. They are the ones everyone has to use. The reason being there are some seriously bad farriers out there and no way do I want those people on my yard. We provide a clipping service, an exercise service - again I don't want 'friends' coming on to the yard doing that as we are a business and provide an excellent service. Also to be honest we are providing the electricity and water so why should another use those to make a living. As Dragon slayer said we also don't have 'friends do the horses' we are a business, thats how we make our living.

With 8 acres I would not be doing grass livery, you have 6 stables so 8 acres is just about enough. If you add in grass liveries then you need more storage area for their stuff andin teh past I have found that grass liveries expect to use all the facilities, and need a stable when their horse is ill. So I now insist 'one horse, one stable' and they can then keep them out 24/7 from April to December.

In my DIY i include turning out all the horses in the morning, otherwise I find there is always one who doesn;t bother getting up till gone 12. Cue horse stressing, kicking the stable and screaming. If the owner wants it left in then thats fine but I expect a made up hay net and a text the day before to let me know. Not at 7.30 when everything has gone out.

With the rules you have a happy yard, people know where they stand and what they can and can't do. Make them reasonable but stick to them, don't treat people differently depending on your relationship and be wary fo doing favours for friends, inevitably they take and take and take until the relationship sours.
 
As all posts above say, make sure you have rules set out. My aunt has the livery yard that I am on. She, and the lad who works on the farm, get nothing but moans about unimportant issues. I could go on but i won't. Lets just say some people take a huge advantage, texting them to get the horse in when it is raining and owner CBA to come down, or want a small dairy farm to turn into a top class livery yard with perfect arenas over night! I would never run a livery after this...just constant moaning and bickering between themselves . Please be sure you want to put up with that.
 
Starting off with two liveries is a good idea, but have your rules/framework firm by then. It sounds as though you would be around enough to make it work. I would never have DIY again (sorry guys!) as I like more of a routine, with things all fed together and brought in together if possible. I also like the yard looking smart and swept - something that didn't happen when people were coming at different times unless I did it several times a day.

Re hay, we did DIY, but they had to buy haylage from us as we didn't have the storage for loads of different open bales. They used/wasted loads at first, but soon settled down.. Everyone seemed ok with this system - it worked out cheaper for everyone and they liked not having to think about buying it. We did the same with shavings - bought a load at a time..

Also remember that they come with an icredible amount of rugs and crap! Also that people don't always look after the place as much as you would. We used to get locks with combinations left undone and showing the numbers, or gates not locked after them.

Re blacksmiths and clippers, I think its a bit much telling them who they can use, but I would want to meet all new people, and be around the first few times they come, just to suss them out a bit.

You could try a system that a yard I was on before moving here did, where they were on DIY, but you could add on whatever you wanted for a set price - turnout, bring in, muck out etc and we bought hay and straw from them - bale at a time, which was also added to your bill at the end of the month.. You just had to give them a few days notice if you wanted to change anything..
 
Thanks for all your comprehensive replies guys. I really appreciate it!

I was thinking about including rug change, feed and turnout in the a.m in the price as I do like to have them all out at the same time in the mornings. I'd also bring in if a horse would be left out alone.

I would have grass livery as an option in summer but in winter, they'd have to come in at nights from Oct to April as my fields would be wrecked otherwise.

I also don't have much storage room so they'd have to use my straw and haylage unless they brought their own from home. I was thinking as an alternative, I could buy a couple of sheds to put up for folk to have their own wee storage areas.

I'll definately have to draw up some rules as I've been stung before trying to be too nice. I worry about things like the mud in the gateways, if I don't have time to level the school surface, poo picking etc. I get worried about folk not being happy!

Do you poo pick your fields or do you ask your liveries to do it?
 
I've been on full livery, part livery and now for financial reasons I'm on DIY. My bugbear with livery yards most recently has been the state of the schools at the yards I've been at. The last yard seemed to think that because it had fabulous hacking they didn't have to keep the school in good condition and it was really deep sand round the outside and rock solid on the area inside the track. The one before this was a small indoor school of fibresand which had to be watered before you could go in as it was disgustingly dusty. I don't like the replies which say that they wouldn't allow friends of the liveries to look after them when they were away or couldn't get there. Why not? It is the owner's horse and to be honest, I want to choose who looks after and rides my horse - not have the YO tell me who I can and can't have exercise it for me. If any yard said to me that I couldn't have a friend ride/look after horse for me, I'd leave the yard immediately. Yes, the livery yard is a business, but they provide a basic package with extras "if required". If your friend can do it for you, then it's not required. And the answer about someone else using the electricity - well the owner would be using it if the friend wasn't, so what' the difference???
 
I don't do DIY at all, have part, full and schooling liveries, all feed and bedding included in the price, I cater for special requirements at an extra cost.
I allow different farriers, vets and some instructors, but no riders.
I mainly harrow the fields, do some poo picking in the smaller paddocks - the owners on 5 day livery are required to tidy up the small paddocks themselves at weekends.
I still feed the horses their hard feed at weekends as I insist on everything being fed at the same time.
 
Rebelzmum.
The reason a good yard specifies no one else to see to a horse whilst owners are away is actually complying with their Insurance. Unless it is immediate family ie Mother, sister etc. The yard insurance is null & void if a friend actually attends on owners behalf. Also, unless they are very familiar with yard rules, (inc fire regs) it also causes arguments with other owners who arrive to find their wheelbarrow or treasured possesions being used by someone else. If the 3rd party attending causes any damage or injury to the horse/someone elses horse the yard would be held responsible & a claim made against them. In this day of the claim culture it is a very big risk, & a fair policy/rule to have in place. Riding the horse is a different matter providing owner/rider has insurance in place.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top