If you don't like the feed supplied on full livery...

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bollybop

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Would you ask YO for a reduction on livery fees and ask to supply your own feed.

I'm not unhappy with the feed supplied by my yard, horse does well on it, and he's nice and shiney, how ever if he gets a bit nervy he does tend to loose the plot a bit. It's not often he gets like this, and I am going to tweak other things first before fiddling with the feed.

However do people think its reasonable to ask for a reduction in the livery if I want a different feed to the one the yard supplies. I can't really afford to be spending an extra £20-30 on feed, over and above my current livery.
 
Yes.

I do full livery and I do not include grain feeds in the rent.

Owners supply grain, I feed it and give them due notice when they need more.

I think it is entirely reasonable to approach your YO on the subject, just say that whilst you are very happy with everything blah, blah, blah, you feel your horse may do better on a different feed, and could you work out an adjustment to the rent please. If you give supplements etc I would even go so far as to bag up all feeds so that all the staff have to do is open a Ziploc bag and feed it, several of my owners present me with a weeks feed at a time bagged up like this. It is no skin off my nose, in fact it makes life easier :)
 
When I wasn't happy with hay supplied I bought haylage...but didn't get any reduction in livery cost. May be easier with hard feed as that's bought in more regularly whereas hay is committed in one go and paid for.

So you might get a reduction, or might not....worth a try tho
 
When I did full/part livery basic feed was included, it was a big brand and I have a good knowledge of nutrition and had a nutritionist come regularly. If they wanted something special then I asked them to buy it in at their own cost. Never saw a problem or had any complaints. But then I wasn't feeding rubbish or cutting corners on rations.
 
Definitely worth an ask.

Where I work they don't offer a reduction on livery with hard feed (basic nuts/mix & Hifi), but if you want alternative hay/haylage livery is reduced by £10/wk.
 
It's a question I've always asked before I move to a yard. My tb can't cope with even small amounts of molasses which rules out most commercial feeds.

Many yards are happy to buy in different feeds as long as it is easy to get i.e. can be added to their monthly order and not too expensive. In my case what I want is often cheap so they don't mind.

In your case I would try as an experiment to see if it helps explaining what you are doing and why. If it does help then have the conversation and see if either ordering in something different or giving you a discount is an option.
 
Depends on the yard, some will, and some won't offer a discount.

TBH I'm happy with my current arrangement where feed isn't included and I can get in what I want.

On a previous yard, I had £5 per week knocked off for not using their haylage..

its always worth asking.
 
The feed supplied is just a basic molassed mix from the local feed merchant. My first intention of change would just be cheapo pony nuts.

My horse not being on the feed would not make much different to the amounts the yard orders of the mix.
 
Ideally I don't want to be having to fork out more money on feed, as at another £30ish a month, on top of the livery is money that I could do without spending
 
I would have a chat with the yard owner. If the horse does and looks well on the feed, they do have an idea what they're doing. If you speak to them about how he is getting a bit sharp they may be able to adjust his feed to get rid of the issue without you having to buy in..
 
As previous I am happy with the feed, as it obviuously suits him, for the most part, just looking forwards to if I want to try altering it too see if the feed affects the behaviour
 
When mine wasn't holding weight on the yard feed I negotiated a discount and supplied my own feed. I wasn't the only one who did this. Now my yard doesn't supply feed at all which I think is better.
 
Out of curiosity does the yard feed everything the same then?

I would be most unhappy if I was not allowed to feed what I wanted to, but then I am a bolshy old bint who mainly feeds straights.
 
Given that all horses are indivdual and have different needs based on type age character etc i find it hard that one feed does all? even a "general" mix(for want of bettwer words.) surely a yard must think of welfare ,needs of horse and also such things as safety of rider(if a feed affects a horse) just my thoughts though:)
 
Enfys said:
Out of curiosity does the yard feed everything the same then?

I would be most unhappy if I was not allowed to feed what I wanted to, but then I am a bolshy old bint who mainly feeds straights.
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Yes in various quantities and proportions.

It is pretty difficult to feed a mixture of types the same feed with decent results. The feed was mainly aimed at natives in steady work so it didn't work for my poor doing youngster or for another livery's veteran.
 
My horse is fed pretty specific feeds and when I moved I was prepared to have to buy ths as an extra but, as luck would have it, the yard feeds those too so I was a happy bunny :) My yard will also feed pretty much what you want as long as it is not too expensive.
 
I'm quite lucky that my yard provides high quality feed that I am more than happy with. But we have had a few liveries who require different feed regimes for their horses and my YM was more than happy to come to a sensible agreement to cater for it.

If you don't ask you don't get :)
 
Any YM/YO worth their salt would understand that you can't lump all horses into the same 'hard feed' category. The basics as you say are supplied which is a great addition to the livery facilities, however if you wanted to 'tweak' his hard feed in some way in the near future, i'm sure your YO/YM would listen to you and oblige...and yes, hopefully agree on a discount if you were to discontinue using what they supplied as 'the norm'.

My YO and i came to an arrangement as i cannot feed haylage to my horse and it's what they supply within the livery package. We arranged that i could supply and store my own hay in leiu of paying for storage space and bringing my own forage onto the yard (as some yards can be a bit 'funny' about that in itself!!...and it's stored in a trailer too). I have a 'horse trailer' as well so i get my hay trailer and storage space in place of using their haylage!

It's always worth asking!!
 
I am one of the few full liveries on the yard, so my horse gets what the YO horses get. My horse is fed on a suitable feed, and is actually getting two square meals a day, which is more than I can say for some other yards I have been on.

Ideally I would like to try Topspec, as I have used this with great success on previous horses, however this would require storing loads of bags at the yard, which is not ideal. I am therefore happy to use a bag of pony nuts, or other "complete" feed from one bag to see how we get on.

Thanks for all the help.
 
Laafet said:
When I did full/part livery basic feed was included, it was a big brand and I have a good knowledge of nutrition and had a nutritionist come regularly. If they wanted something special then I asked them to buy it in at their own cost. Never saw a problem or had any complaints. But then I wasn't feeding rubbish or cutting corners on rations.
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I second this, I supply a good range of basic feeds and don't cut corners either. If owners want something different and it doesn't come under 'standard feed' then they buy it at their cost, which i can order if need be. I have one that has half a scoop one of mu feeds and half a scoop of one that they buy and a discount has never been given as it is their choice. The same goes for haylege as above, the contract states we provide hay, if you want haylege it is up to you to buy and supply.

If you do one thing for one then everyone should have the same rights in theory so it is easier to keep things simple as to avoid confusion or arguments!

ETA I have had a similar problem with shavings at one point, liveries must use what we provide other wise there could be a few different brands being used and unless you have lots of room buying it all in would be costly and storing quite difficult.
 
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McCauley said:
My YO and i came to an arrangement as i cannot feed haylage to my horse and it's what they supply within the livery package. We arranged that i could supply and store my own hay in leiu of paying for storage space and bringing my own forage onto the yard (as some yards can be a bit 'funny' about that in itself!!...and it's stored in a trailer too). I have a 'horse trailer' as well so i get my hay trailer and storage space in place of using their haylage!

It's always worth asking!!
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I must remember that, as at mine you pay to keep a box or trailer so equally would pay for storage room (if i could find any!), seems fair to knock the price of that off instead.
 
I don't really understand the problem. Doesn't your yard adjust the feed according to what the owners want? I use Pure feeds for my liveries and some are on Pure Easy, one is on Pure working and another is on Pure Racing. Any additives are charged extra, such as micronized linseed, balancers and supplements. One of my liveries has sponsors that provide all her feed and haylage, so I reduce her livery accordingly.
 
Wagtail said:
I don't really understand the problem. Doesn't your yard adjust the feed according to what the owners want? I use Pure feeds for my liveries and some are on Pure Easy, one is on Pure working and another is on Pure Racing. Any additives are charged extra, such as micronized linseed, balancers and supplements. One of my liveries has sponsors that provide all her feed and haylage, so I reduce her livery accordingly.
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Not all do, I have been on two yards where they had a one size fits all feed, yard 1 the feed package was optional so I chose not to take it up, yard 2 were happy to add a couple of different things to the order as they were cheap and straights.

But I always have the conversation when I am looking at possible yards, not fair to turn up and expect special treatment. I also say to them if what I need works out more expensive than their standard feed I am will pay the difference. As I don't feed alot of hard feed, it invariably works out cheaper.

The thing is that if you have a sensitive horse any mix even a healthy one like the Pure Feeds range can have a single ingredient that causes problems so I only feed straights.
 
bollybop said:
I am one of the few full liveries on the yard, so my horse gets what the YO horses get. My horse is fed on a suitable feed, and is actually getting two square meals a day, which is more than I can say for some other yards I have been on.

Ideally I would like to try Topspec, as I have used this with great success on previous horses, however this would require storing loads of bags at the yard, which is not ideal. I am therefore happy to use a bag of pony nuts, or other "complete" feed from one bag to see how we get on.

Thanks for all the help.
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There is actually very little difference between a 'basic' mix and 'basic' pony nuts from the same company, it is just that the nuts have compressed ingredients.
I am very particular about what I feed my horses (they are at home) and would fully understand if you said you wanted to avoid molasses by changing brands but I'm afraid that you will need to look into different feeds in more depth before you approach your YO.
 
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