Livery prices & what to expect for your money??

H

HarwoodFarm

Active Member
Joined
20 October 2010
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33
Location
Cranmore, Somerset
www.harwoodfarm.co.uk
I have recently taken on my own yard where I am hoping to do full livery, I just wanted everyones opinion really for what you expect for your money, ie show jumps xc jumps??? School, lighting, grazing, anything you think is important from an owners point of view. As of course I want my owners to be MORE than happy with there horses in my Care. Im looking to charge £80pw including Hay, Bedding (shavings) Feed, mucking out, turning out (rug change when needed) poo picking individual turnout, bring in, groomed daily and tack cleaned weekly. School, Sort of Flood lit. Really lovely old fashioned large stables, FAB grazing all year round. Access to really good off road riding.
We are based in Doulting near Shepton Mallet.
And ME a friendly face. :):):):)
Thanks everyone & I hope you are not all too soggy on this wet summer day. ;)
 
Sounds fantastic! :D

I would also like to be included holding horse for farrier, dentist or annual vaccs etc. Grooming and tack cleaning I wouldn't particularly require - but then I often have youngsters which are not ridden. Actually - although I have often had expensive comp horses I do quite like the option of turnout with a friend if there is a suitable one avaliable - particularly for the youngsters but also for the horses in work. Do you live on site? If not when is the last check and hay ration given? One yard they used to leave at 6pm and never left my horse enough hay so he was standing hungry all night unless another livery spotted him and gave him extra.

Can't think of anything else!
 
For £80 tbh I wouldn't be expecting much, the only yard near me that charges £80 is really run down and is not well managed.

I'm in North Kent, so a while away from you and obviously prices will differ but £80 for full livery sounds extremely cheap!
I'm on full livery and would expect to pay around £110-£140 per week and with the higher end the facilities I'd want would be..
-big airy stables with a deep bed (shavings)
-access to good hacking
-at least a 20x60m school (preferably 30x60m) but often I look for yards with two schools as often yards have one school with jumps and one without, which for me is perfect as you can't really school properly around lots of jumps and it's impossible to jump and not get in peoples way when they're trying to school
-ad lib hay or haylage
-horses feet picked out when brought in from the field and my yard gives them a quick brush too
-school flood lit
-complete set of show jumps
-good grazing in small herds with mares and geldings split
-wash bays
-hot and cold running water for bathing
-proper toilets
-holding for the vet/farrier etc

facilities i wouldn't expect (but obviously the perfect yard would have it all) would be
-XC course
-tack cleaning, although would associate this with schooling livery tbh
-solarium
-horse walker

can't think of anything else atm! :) good luck with your yard
 
Have you costed it out properly?
Bedding/hay £30 unless you make your own hay
Feed£5/10 depending on what they need
Supplements livery usually provide these
Rent/water/elect./rates etc ?
Buying fencing/batteries
Other odds and ends you will need to provide.
If you dont live on site, fuel costs
How many do you plan to have? if you are paying rent you could be looking at £20 "profit" per horse per week!About £3 an hour assuming you can do each horse in an hour each day?
The better your facilities the more you can charge. I would compare similar yards in your area for a comparison.
If you dont live on site security would be my main concern.
 
I know its sounds cheap but Im a in a bit of a catch 22, I need to do some work on the yard & buy some new equipment, but cant until I get some liveries in and dont feel I can charge top money until I have done some more work, does that make sense??

Im very lucky as my outgoings are not very high at all. :):)

So if you know anyone looking for livery in my area please send them my way. :)

My in-laws are onsite and I only live 5mins down the road. :)
 
£80 per week is very very cheap. I run a livery yard and there is absolutely no way I could provide that level of service for that price. Granted, I have staff wages to cover. But even so, providing feed, hay, bedding, not to mention your insurance, business rates, electric, water bills etc, you won't have much left if anything at all to live on! I would think very carefully before offering this level of service. You will be innundated with clients who might not understand when you hike the price once the yard is finished!
I would advise you to offer a more basic assisted service and think about not including hay/ feed and bedding. The cost of these alone are massive now and I have had to restructure all my livery services to reflect this.
 
HarwoodFarm said:
I have recently taken on my own yard where I am hoping to do full livery, I just wanted everyones opinion really for what you expect for your money, ie show jumps xc jumps??? School, lighting, grazing, anything you think is important from an owners point of view. As of course I want my owners to be MORE than happy with there horses in my Care. Im looking to charge £80pw including Hay, Bedding (shavings) Feed, mucking out, turning out (rug change when needed) poo picking individual turnout, bring in, groomed daily and tack cleaned weekly. School, Sort of Flood lit. Really lovely old fashioned large stables, FAB grazing all year round. Access to really good off road riding.
We are based in Doulting near Shepton Mallet.
And ME a friendly face. :):):):)
Thanks everyone & I hope you are not all too soggy on this wet summer day. ;)
Click to expand...



wow thats under charging i charge 87 for part livery
muck out feed turnout schools etc

full livery i would charge at least 95 per week or your profit will go with electricity and the fact you give ad lib hay
 
That is about £60 a month more than I pay for GRASS livery!

I generally like a yard where hosepipes are allowed to wash off or if possible a wash box with hot water! But I do understand about water meters and you do have to be careful about liveries who want to wash their horse off everyday with copious amounts of water!
 
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HarwoodFarm said:
I have recently taken on my own yard where I am hoping to do full livery, I just wanted everyones opinion really for what you expect for your money, ie show jumps xc jumps??? School, lighting, grazing, anything you think is important from an owners point of view. As of course I want my owners to be MORE than happy with there horses in my Care. Im looking to charge £80pw including Hay, Bedding (shavings) Feed, mucking out, turning out (rug change when needed) poo picking individual turnout, bring in, groomed daily and tack cleaned weekly. School, Sort of Flood lit. Really lovely old fashioned large stables, FAB grazing all year round. Access to really good off road riding.
We are based in Doulting near Shepton Mallet.
And ME a friendly face. :):):):)
Thanks everyone & I hope you are not all too soggy on this wet summer day. ;)
Click to expand...

wish i could move to your yard, I'm paying £70 a week, but buy my own shavings and pellets!!!
I know it's an outlay, but would work in your favour, rubber matting, cut's down on the bed and the time to muck out, also we use wood pellets mixed with shavings and that keeps my cost down on bedding. Agree with the toilet and the farrier/vet etc and also the grooming part, ours just get a quick flip with a brush, lets the yard owner check for cuts etc. Tack i don't get cleaned.
As someone else said, are you under charging particulary if you're paying for bedding, £80 seems reasonable without the bedding and tack cleaning, what about other yards in the area, what are they charging and what facilities do they have?
 
While I do agree that your livery fees seem cheap, one thing I definitely expect (whatever the cost) is for the livery staff/YO to actually give a damn! I currently pay an average of £400/month for DIY/assisted livery and for that we get:

- good hacking
- 20 x 40 outdoor school, excellent all-weather surface and mirrors - it is lit but very badly - lights cost £1/hour
- round pen/lunging arena
- summer jumping field (full set of jumps and bank)
- summer dressage arena
- post and rail fencing (with electrics)
- brick built stables with automatic waterers
- wash down area (cold water only)
- locked/alarmed tack room with seating area, kettle, microwave, sink
- on-site toilet/changing area
- four kinds of bedding (flax, rapasorb, excel and straw - varying from £4.00/bale to £9.00/bale)
- hay (currently £5.00/bale - going up to £7.00/bale)
- extras (bring in/turn out/rug/boots/muck and skip out/prep and give feed/hold for farrier and vet) vary in cost but my EA (extra assistance) bill is generally no less than £100 and that's them only doing one end of the day, 5 days/week
- I also pay my trainer to school him three days a week - and she mucks him out for me on a Monday

Pretty good no? What we don't have is consistency in staff and there is sometimes a distinct lack of "care." A couple of examples:

- My horse has just started going out again after four weeks' box rest (received nasty kick in the field). He can be a little stressy and has apparently been hooning around - no'one at yard (staff/management) bothered to let me know. One particular morning he was really working himself into a lather (literally - he was sweating/steaming) so two liveries went to YM (who is YO's daughter and lives with Mummy on site) to let her know. Despite him being in the book to be brought in anyway - and knowing that we've been being very careful with him b/c of the suspected fracture - her response was "well, I'm not working right now - I'm going out for a hack - why don't you leave him and see what he does!" She then left the yard (for a hack on her own horse) for AN HOUR. The liveries caught him and brought him in, removed his boots, hosed his legs, put a thermatex on him and tucked him up in his box. 30 minutes later they went back and removed the thermatex and gave him some hay. I only found out about this two days later when I next went up to the yard (I work during the week) and one of the two liveries let me know. I would have expected/hoped that the YM would have texted me just to let me know he had been being silly.

- On Saturday I found a two-foot-long, rusted length of metal pipe (possibly from a gate) with VERY sharp ends protruding about four inches out of a haynet the yard had filled some time on Friday. I get that odd things turn up in hay - and I get that YO isn't responsible - but when I told her about it/showed it to her so that she could warn the liveries to be vigilant about checking their hay she was extremely defensive and dismissive - to the point of being rude.

- When a fellow livery had to have her beloved mare PTS after a long illness, YO asked that she settle up her final acount. The balance? 50p.

We're moving to a new yard a week on Saturday. He'll be on full livery. Huge brick-built stables, straw, hay/haylage, hard feed, feet picked out, mucked a.m. and skipped out p.m., rugged/booted/bandaged as required, rugs changed as weather requires - even in field, turned out/brought in, farrier/vet/dentist/physio all arranged and attended for, manes/tails pulled, clipping done, tack cleaned weekly, covered/lit wash down area (hot and cold water - shampoo/towels/sweat scraper provided), huuuuuuuge outdoor school, covered lunge arena, canter track, solarium, cross country course, jumping paddock and dressage arena in summer, 50+ private acres to hack on - all included. The only extras are shoes, vet, dentist, supplements and schooling (by my trainer - who will also be caring for him) . . . and when I add everything up it's the same as I'm currently spending.

Honestly, what owners want is to feel a) that they're getting value for money; and b) that YOs care. We get that it's a business . . . but we have our horses on assisted/part or full livery because we can't do it for ourselves - and we want to be able to trust the people taking care of our horses.

Hope that helps.

P
 
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PolarSkye said:
Honestly, what owners want is to feel a) that they're getting value for money; and b) that YOs care. We get that it's a business . . . but we have our horses on assisted/part or full livery because we can't do it for ourselves - and we want to be able to trust the people taking care of our horses.

Hope that helps.

P
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I agree, I lucky in that I'm on a small provately owned yard with only 8 horses (4 of which belong to the yard owner), I know that she looks after the horses as if they were her own, if she wouldn't do it to her own horses it doesn't happen to mine, was on another yard about 6 years ago where the owner couldn't have cared less and I used to worry constantly.
 
£80 a week is very cheap for that service, you wouldnt be able to afford to run a yard at top level for that price. You wouldnt expect much for that - muck out, turnout/bring in, hay and bedding, rug changes. If youre lucky feet picked out! maybe hard feed

We charge considerably more - £108 per week (and we're cheaper than our competition at the moment), and include the above plus leg washing, attendance for vet/farrier. facilities - solarium, wash area, 80x50 arena, show jumps, BE xc course, parking for box/trailer, onsite saddlery with coffee shop, showers and toilets, no time restrictions, 24 hr supervision, no restrictions on feed/bedding/hay. We rarely have any complaints about the service we give.

We charge extra for grooming, exercise and other services such as show prep and clipping
 
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