Livery Yard costs

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N2019

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With full livery increasing year on year and yard owners struggling to make ends meet with some yards closing. I’m intrigued to see if this concerns any other amateur owners? Often a livery bill is now more than your average mortgage with owners working full time to make ends meet.
 
Not personally, firstly if I could no longer afford it I'd just pack up, I don't ride a lot now and have considered it already. What actually happened for me is this - I've been renting a small private yard attached to someone's house for the last six years. YOs no longer have horses due to health issues. I was going to pack up the end of the summer, the person I was sharing the yard with had already moved out 'cause her horse can't be on his own and I was going to send mine back to the chap I got her from (polo player). YOs asked me not to go, said I no longer needed to pay rent and suggested I get a sharer. So my horse is still there, fine on her own and I have a sharer now so I suppose I'm ok until my YOs move or whatever.

But back to the costs of livery - I think that long term, the increasing costs of livery and the closing down of yards will bring the price of leisure horses down considerably. There's only so many horses the wealthy can buy and keep, the rest will end up being difficult to sell and much cheaper in price. It's always been said that it's not buying them but keeping them that costs.
 
Widgeon said:
Well yes....I suspect it concerns all of us except those lucky enough to have horses on land that they own themselves. And anyone who cares about the future of equestrianism in this country should be concerned (IMO) because it's increasingly inaccessible to young people, unless you're rich.
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Agree
 
nicola2019 said:
I wonder how it compares in other countries? Is it more accessible?
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Some countries have public funding for grassroots equestrian sport (Denmark does that, I think? Can't remember where I saw that though so it may be inaccurate) to make it more accessible. And I guess horse businesses in any country where land is cheap to buy / easy to rent will have more security than they do here.
 
I think the problem is that livery costs have been too cheap for many years with many livery owners happy if they make enough to cover the cost of their own horse never mind actually earning a wage.

With the closure of more and more yards I do wonder what the future holds for leisure horse owners.
 
N2019 said:
With full livery increasing year on year and yard owners struggling to make ends meet with some yards closing. I’m intrigued to see if this concerns any other amateur owners? Often a livery bill is now more than your average mortgage with owners working full time to make ends meet.
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When I lost my last horse at the end of 2023 I was, inflation adjusted, paying less for full livery than I was in 1983 and the facilities were hugely better in 2023.

I think what happened was that there was a sudden increase in livery places offered by farmers diversifying or getting out of dairy farming, which artificially lowered prices in the 1990s to 2010s.

I think this is probably also very dependant on where in the country you are.
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ycbm said:
When I lost my last horse at the end of 2023 I was, inflation adjusted, paying less for full livery than I was in 1983 and the facilities were hugely better in 2023.

I think what happened was that there was a sudden increase in livery places offered by farmers diversifying or getting out of dairy farming, which artificially lowered prices in the 1990s to 2010s.

I think this is probably also very dependant on where in the country you are.
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You may be right, in which case expect an imminent surge of availability - particularly from all those farmers now packing up dairy!
Statistically, disappearing like last week’s snow....
 
There was an interesting post on FB today saying the whole pricing of what (they believe) it truly cost to keep a horse on livery. It came to around £3000-3500 pounds a month. Now I don't know how many people have enough disposable income to be dropping that on just livery a month. It would be the end of equestrianism in the UK.

However, some of the pricing was a bit wacky as they said each horse ate £25 worth of hay a day and I worked out that my hay cost per day was £1.20.
 
I have been thinking about this a lot recently, and I agree that the average price for full livery remained pretty static for the best part of 20 years - so I don’t begrudge the rise in prices. My mum was paying £100 a week in the early 2000s for my horse, and that’s more or less what I was paying about five years ago still.

My horse is on full livery and whilst I’m completely happy where I am, I do pick my brain about where I’d go if my current place was no longer available. There’s a state of the art dressage yard near me which is £1,400 per month for full livery (no extras), and they are full to capacity at that price (!).

Options are so, so limited even in the full livery market if things like well-drained, year-round turn out are non-negotiable and most importantly, a genuine high level of care - I.e., not just turfing your horse out of a morning and dragging it back in of an evening.

I can’t imagine how tricky it is if you prefer, or only have the resource for DIY - I can think of six local DIY yards that have closed in the past few years.
 
shortstuff99 said:
There was an interesting post on FB today saying the whole pricing of what (they believe) it truly cost to keep a horse on livery. It came to around £3000-3500 pounds a month. Now I don't know how many people have enough disposable income to be dropping that on just livery a month. It would be the end of equestrianism in the UK.

However, some of the pricing was a bit wacky as they said each horse ate £25 worth of hay a day and I worked out that my hay cost per day was £1.20.
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Was that the one that said each horse needed four bales of straw a week? If you're using that many, you're doing something very wrong!
 
teddy_ said:
I have been thinking about this a lot recently, and I agree that the average price for full livery remained pretty static for the best part of 20 years - so I don’t begrudge the rise in prices. My mum was paying £100 a week in the early 2000s for my horse, and that’s more or less what I was paying about five years ago still.

My horse is on full livery and whilst I’m completely happy where I am, I do pick my brain about where I’d go if my current place was no longer available. There’s a state of the art dressage yard near me which is £1,400 per month for full livery (no extras), and they are full to capacity at that price (!).

Options are so, so limited even in the full livery market if things like well-drained, year-round turn out are non-negotiable and most importantly, a genuine high level of care - I.e., not just turfing your horse out of a morning and dragging it back in of an evening.

I can’t imagine how tricky it is if you prefer, or only have the resource for DIY - I can think of six local DIY yards that have closed in the past few years.
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"High level of care" - yes, we see many harping on about clients moaning about price rises etc but we've all heard the horror stories and even seen some dodgy goings-on on yards ourselves - like hiring out client's trailers (my friend hired a trailer from her YO, it was another full livery's trailer), using full livery's tack on YO's horses, the hunter on full livery that was sent out as a hireling and and let's not forget the YO who starved several mares & youngstock she was being well paid to care for.
 
I’ve been so unlucky on diy yards. I’m not surprised they’re dearer. Everything is dearer. I’m selling all my horsey stuff and sticking to share ponies.
 
marmalade76 said:
"High level of care" - yes, we see many harping on about clients moaning about price rises etc but we've all heard the horror stories and even seen some dodgy goings-on on yards ourselves - like hiring out client's trailers (my friend hired a trailer from her YO, it was another full livery's trailer), using full livery's tack on YO's horses, the hunter on full livery that was sent out as a hireling and and let's not forget the YO who starved several mares & youngstock she was being well paid to care for.
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Exactly. Sadly, it’s hard finding trustworthy people. My horse needs a fair bit of maintenance in the summer due to suffering with mild sweet itch, and honestly, I can think of so few places where I’d happily leave her.

So I’ve just sort of accepted that if I ever did have to move the small private yard I’m on, I’m looking at paying upwards of £1,000 + per month 🙄…
 
My livery costs £625 per month, 5 day part livery - it is a significant cost to consider when life planning and had I never gotten into horses I would be in a MUCH better position in life (albeit I wouldn't change it for the world). Dex's base level costs are just under £900 per month for me if farrier falls within that month, it will be almost equal to my mortgage once I have an offer accepted.

If they charge what they should adjusting for inflation then they all close down and do something else, as the amount of people that can afford it is minimal, and the ones that can want the fancy facilities not your average jo yard that most of us are on. Inflation does not dictate prices, market forces do. If we lose equestrianism then so be it, it is what it is, no point worrying about it. It would be heartbreaking but not much you can do.
 
Not really concerned. Our ridden horses are about £700 pm each for full livery and non ridden about £260 pm each + hay at cost for full grass livery. I'm not sure that is more in real terms than the £70 pw I was paying for full livery in the mid 80s. Horses are (and have always been) a luxury. Ours are by far our biggest expense but (like a lot of horse owners) we don't do anything else expensive.
 
shortstuff99 said:
There was an interesting post on FB today saying the whole pricing of what (they believe) it truly cost to keep a horse on livery. It came to around £3000-3500 pounds a month. Now I don't know how many people have enough disposable income to be dropping that on just livery a month. It would be the end of equestrianism in the UK.

However, some of the pricing was a bit wacky as they said each horse ate £25 worth of hay a day and I worked out that my hay cost per day was £1.20.
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If it's the one I saw, it also included riding and grooming, and the hard feed was something like £50 a week.

My ponies would be thrilled with that, but I reckon they wouldn't live more than a few weeks on that diet, so I guess it might work out cheaper in the long run.
 
Any full livery yard with any sense would just supply the basics feed wise (ie beet, cubes, chaff) and if the owner wanted anything different or special, supply it themselves. When my chiro first started doing full livery, she was getting in whatever her clients wanted and had a feed room full of this, that and the other, I had to say you're doing it wrong, mate.
 
marmalade76 said:
Any full livery yard with any sense would just supply the basics feed wise (ie beet, cubes, chaff) and if the owner wanted anything different or special, supply it themselves. When my chiro first started doing full livery, she was getting in whatever her clients wanted and had a feed room full of this, that and the other, I had to say you're doing it wrong, mate.
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this is what my yard does. The problem for me (and others who have been on/are on the yard) is that what's supplied is all junk food sugary stuff or alfalfa based which is far from ideal. There are a number of horses on the yard - mine included - that absolutely needs to be kept away from sugar and have also learned that alfalfa doesn't do him well either.
 
lme said:
Horses are (and have always been) a luxury. Ours are by far our biggest expense but (like a lot of horse owners) we don't do anything else expensive.
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That’s interesting. Up here there was maybe a few “well off” horse riders but the majority was farmers daughters. Had a farm and a daughter? Get a pony.

Nowadays it’s more of a luxury to have a horse but the small farms are being bought up by bigger farms and becoming more industrial. There’s no longer the little crofts with a crappy field that’s no use for cattle so pop a pony on it.
 
I saw an ad for full livery (actually just 5 days per week) at £480 plus your own feed and hay and bedding down south. I’m in Scotland and pay £260 for full livery, including hay (no stable, she lives out). Although we’d love to move down to the southeast at some point, I think we need to buy some land to make it work.
 
Kirstineridesagain said:
I saw an ad for full livery (actually just 5 days per week) at £480 plus your own feed and hay and bedding down south. I’m in Scotland and pay £260 for full livery, including hay (no stable, she lives out). Although we’d love to move down to the southeast at some point, I think we need to buy some land to make it work.
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I’m in central south England and it’s definitely more expensive here for many things not just horses. Finding land to rent/buy is even harder.
 
Npsouth said:
I pay £150 for two horses on DIY livery, and thankfully get on very well with yard owner/manager. It’s just the two of us and we help each other out wherever needed (with no point scoring). Looking at some of these replies, I’ll admit I’m feeling very fortunate….
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Wow! That’s amazing!
 
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