livery price increases

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Anglebracket

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Just wondering how often livery prices increase at other yards. Also, when do any increases generally happens? And by how much?

Mine seems to go up every autumn and has just increased by £45 a month.
 
I pay £20 a week per horse for stable & a 4 acre field (i have 2 and the field is all theirs)
Haylage is £35 a bale & straw £2.50

Thats cheap in our area, i landed on my feet :) just wish we had a school :(

also no price increase :) but hay & straw have gone up
 
Mine went up £20 pcm per horse a few months back - finding an extra £40 a month is not the easiest but it certainly aided my decision in moving :D
 
Yard down the road from us went up by £2.50 a week- its a DIY yard so went from £30 to £32.50 per week. Ours hasnt gone up for the last 18months (hoping im not jinxing anything by saying that!)
 
I can cope/understand when the price increase is in proportion to the cost for the YO. but last year I was asked to pay [an indeterminate amount] due to increase in forage prices, I know the supplier has not increased the price of haylage in three years, as he told me, and so I was told
"hay has gone up", fine, so my horse does not eat hay, why should I pay?
I am still waiting for the minutes of the meeting where this was discussed.
For some reason, the yard staff who have horses there are also unable to tell me how much it costs to keep a horse at livery.
PS the farmer comes and takes haylage for his sheep
PPS the school horse are fed from yard haylage.
 
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Increased by £45 or increased to £45?? What sort of livery do you get?

I'm lucky in that my horse lives at home, my mum however runs a yard and they only offer DIY livery and when it started some 12 years ago it was £12 a week, over those 12 years there has only been one increase and that was to £15 a week. There are no planned increases in the near future and it is in line with all local yards offering a DIY livery. It also comes with a riding paddock, a sand school, indoor trailer storage for £1 a week, 38 acres of grazing split up into smaller paddocks and 638acres of off road hacking with access then onto a number of bridleways, woodlands and a forest.
 
Mine went up £50 which was more than 10% last spring - we were guaranteed it wouldnt go up again for a year or so - and might even come down!? It hasnt come down but i think once a year is about average and given the rise in bedding/hay etc think 10% is reasonably ok - assuming you are on part or full livery and that is included?
 
HOLD ON! Sorry i am being a numpty - i didnt read the A MONTH bit (that everyone highlighted :) ) mine went up 10% on the year so only about £10 a month - £45 a month as in an extra £540 a year????? Better be an AMAZING yard!? I would ask one immediate question to your YO and thats WHY and how they can justify it!??
 
Keimanp said:
Increased by £45 or increased to £45?? What sort of livery do you get?
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By £45 which the OP says is a 10% increase, so they're paying a lot per month (compared to my £78 pcm for DIY) and I assume it will be a decent yard with full livery being provided. (If not OP, move! :D)
 
I don't know whats got into me today, and apologies for filling your post with pretty useless posts but hopefully this will reassure you i have just done my sums and yes my first post was right - our livery DID go up £50 per MONTH so ignore my second rambling post! You are not alone. I will leave your thread alone now, think i have filled it up a bit much!! :)
 
phantomhorse said:
By £45 which the OP says is a 10% increase, so they're paying a lot per month (compared to my £78 pcm for DIY) and I assume it will be a decent yard with full livery being provided. (If not OP, move! :D)
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Yes it's full livery. I am just thinking that a 10% increase each year for 10 years would mean that my livery would at least double in that time. I don't think that my salary will keep up with that:(. I am planning to move my horse to part or assisted DIY once my work load changes (I am currently studying part-time as well as working full-time).
 
Anglebracket said:
Yes it's full livery. I am just thinking that a 10% increase each year for 10 years would mean that my livery would at least double in that time. I don't think that my salary will keep up with that:(. I am planning to move my horse to part or assisted DIY once my work load changes (I am currently studying part-time as well as working full-time).
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If its a consistent 10% annual increase I think you have cause for concern. That does seem an excessive amount piled on each year. Maybe have a chat with YO/YM and enquire about it. Maybe they can explain their reasoning (higher rates, insurance, staff costs, hay, straw, feed costs?) But even if they have a qualified reason for needing to put their prices up annually, you need to consider your own finances and be honest about whether or not you can afford to keep you horse at that particular yard indefinitely. Its not worth getting into debt. Would a sharer be a possibility? Someone who could cover stable duties for you in return for exercising one of your horses?
 
Anglebracket said:
It's a 10% increase. I am not finding it easy to afford but my horse seems happy were she is. Just wondering whether a 10% increase is typical.
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I expect it will be due to increasing costs of haylage and bedding. Is it part or full livery?

I put mine up in the Autumn after I have calculated any increase in feed or bedding prices. They went up 4% this year. 10% does seem a bit steep! But if your horse is happy then it is probably best to stay.
 
I'm intrigued. I don't know whetherI charge a lot or a little. I have 2-3 horses at grass livery here, and charge £80 pcm, which hasn't gone up in 8 years. If you have a second horse with me that second one costs £60pcm.

Hard feed and hay/haylage are on top of rent. The grazing is very nice old permanent pasture, with protection from the weather in almost every direction, plus two barns/stables accessible to the horses 24/7. The field has a stream through it as well as troughs.

There's no arena or school. I feed, water, hay and rug all the horses, as I live on the premises, so the owners do not have to come every day. Their responsibility is poo-picking, which they are very good about and do my horse as well. I am alwayss there (as at this moment) if the farrier or vet is coming to their horse and they are not able to be here.

I don't intend to put the charges up this year, though I would like to, as I have very nice liveries and I know they are finding things tight financially at present. Am I charging too much, too little, or about right? You can be honest!
 
The livery yard I just moved from went from £340 to £385 , so also a £45 per month increase but I have moved to a nicer yard which is £415 a month.
 
Rose Folly said:
I'm intrigued. I don't know whetherI charge a lot or a little. I have 2-3 horses at grass livery here, and charge £80 pcm, which hasn't gone up in 8 years. If you have a second horse with me that second one costs £60pcm.

Hard feed and hay/haylage are on top of rent. The grazing is very nice old permanent pasture, with protection from the weather in almost every direction, plus two barns/stables accessible to the horses 24/7. The field has a stream through it as well as troughs.

There's no arena or school. I feed, water, hay and rug all the horses, as I live on the premises, so the owners do not have to come every day. Their responsibility is poo-picking, which they are very good about and do my horse as well. I am alwayss there (as at this moment) if the farrier or vet is coming to their horse and they are not able to be here.

I don't intend to put the charges up this year, though I would like to, as I have very nice liveries and I know they are finding things tight financially at present. Am I charging too much, too little, or about right? You can be honest!
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As you do not have a school then I would probably charge around £20 per week (around £86 per month) but as you are doing other things on top then you are vastly undercharging. Rugging and feeding would probably range from £2 - £3 per day which would add a lot to your total livery charges. I think you are being over generous on the second horse too. A 25% discount is pretty high. That is my honest reply, but I expect it would be a shock if you suddenly put your prices up that much. I would probably add £5 on this year and the same again next.
 
Wagtail said:
I expect it will be due to increasing costs of haylage and bedding. Is it part or full livery?

I put mine up in the Autumn after I have calculated any increase in feed or bedding prices. They went up 4% this year. 10% does seem a bit steep! But if your horse is happy then it is probably best to stay.
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Just my opinion; its not worth getting into dept or financial worry just because your horse is settled at a particular yard. Thats like emotional blackmail! Horses can and do settle at other yards and its ridiculous to even vaguley suggest otherwise. Of course, no one should ever move yards willy-nilly, but equally, never beat yourself up if that decision has to be made because of financial reasons, yard bully, lack of grazing, etc.
 
Wagtail said:
......Rugging and feeding would probably range from £2 - £3 per day which would add a lot to your total livery charges. I think you are being over generous on the second horse too. A 25% discount is pretty high. That is my honest reply, but I expect it would be a shock if you suddenly put your prices up that much. I would probably add £5 on this year and the same again next.
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I agree with Wagtail.

I think £80 for good quality grass keep is reasonable but why discount a second horse by 25%? Maybe offer an incentive of 10% tops, if you feel you want to. But 25% is far too generous! And Im not sure its a good idea to 'do' the liveries horses for free 'so they dont have to come up every day.' IMO people owning horses should be encouraged to visit at least once a day and on those days that they cannot for one reason or another, they should be charged for your time.

Our YO only charges £1 per day for turning out AND bringing in per day (£2 per day at weekend) - hes not keen on switching rugs so the liveries using his services tend to use dual purpose rugs to save him the time and trouble. He does switch rugs if he has to but most of us believe his price is very fair and we dont want to trouble him into putting his daily rate up! If anyone cant get up to the yard because of illnes, snow, etc., he and his family will hay, feed and water all the horses for nothing. If you want a muck out too, theyll charge £6.50 per day.

OP, of course you cant suddenly announce to your present liveries that youre going to crank up their charges, but I think its fair to give them a months notice in advance about charging for feeding, rug changing, etc. Say 50p per day to start with. That really is fair. I expect it would cost them more in petrol/diesel to drive up twice a day, than that. And new liveries coming onto your yard shouldnt be offered the discount for multiple horses!!!!
 
Thanks. I appreciate all your remarks and advice. And, TBH, it's what my husband (poor non-horsy husband) has been saying at times. Luckily there is no 'second horse' at the moment so that doesn't apply. I'll bite the bullet in 2012.
 
Well I'm going to buck the trend! At my last yard I was paying £40 assisted DIY per week, lovely place by the way. But the yard owner was sick of being tied to the bring ins every day (other liveries weren't able to help each other out, had to go thought the yard)

So they dropped it down to £30 per week DIY, but liveries able to do each others.

The yard I'm at now is £25 per week DIY but with hay and straw included
 
Been at our Farm for twenty six years, in this time its only gone up three times, but the farmer asked me if people would mind a £1 a week bless him, I only pay £56 per month so if he puts it up would be £60, he is not a business man bless him, just does it for pin money now that he does not have cows. Very lucky :)
 
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