Livery yard in Yorkshire advise needed

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feet

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Hey im in the planning stages of setting up a livery yard (this isnt advertising) I was wondering what would you pay for the following facilities etc also would you want what im offering, if not please give me advise on what people are after. Thanks in advanced.

DIY livery includes
Morning and evening feeds (must be made before hand)
One turn out/fetch in per day without rug change
Stable 10ft/12ft brand new american barn style
Straw adlib but you will be pulled up if seen to waste it
Hay (same as above)
Brand new sand arena
200 acers with grass track round it which leads to bridleways (lots of off road riding)
Turn out in summer (some turn out possibly in winter depening on feild condition and weather)

What would people pay for this in Yorkshire?

Also would you (as a livery) prefer single padocks or small single sexed groups if horses got on, obviously 1st turn out would be monitored closely. In either situation you have to poo pick your self or would be charged once the fields were rested/roatated.

I am interested in any feedback people have if you have any question about this hyperthetical yard please ask :)

Thanks for all your help.

Feet :)
 
Well, Yorkshire's a big place to be and price will depend how close you are to the major cities or other cash rich populations. I would call what you're offering assisted DIY rather than DIY, and I thought it sounded lovely until you got to the no winter turnout bit, at which point your yard would not suit me at all. If you are going to insist that the horses are in for the majority of the winter then I think you either need to include mucking out in your basic package (and charge accordingly), or don't bother with the putting feeds in part as surely you want the horses mucked out at least am and skipped out (mine would require a full muck out again) pm, so you need the owners down there if they are doing it themselves?
 
Do your fields not get wrecked in the winter if you have the same turn out as the summer, or do you have reduced hours? Also how many horses do you have to the acre? is that the same in winter as in summer?
 
No, fields don't get wrecked. No limit on turn out, some horses live out (some are grass liveries come to that), mine mostly live out but I have stables available and they come in for a feed and haynet for part of the day during the winter, only stayed in at night (still out for about 6-7 hours during the day) when there was deep snow on the ground last winter. Number of horses doesn't change and we have generally 1 horse to 1:5 acres. Most horses are fat and muzzled on that! Big fields work better than smaller fields for limiting poaching, the lowest lying land is used during the late summer/autumn after being cut for hay, highest lying land for winter.
 
Just thinking about cutting up the fields, have always found horses out most of the time can't be bothered to charge around much, horses kept in for a significant part of the day (eg stabled overnight then turned out in the morning) play more and kick up their heels a lot more on turnout, so less time out causes more maintenance issues! Gateways, etc, do get churned up but always recover come spring (and we are on deep clay so when its wet, its wet!)
 
Sounds like a nice set up. Would the fencing be pot and rail? Would you make your own hay? I have my own place now,and my stocking density is 1 horse to 2and a half acres.1 pony to 2 acres. [that doesnt mean to say they are free on 2 acres all the time, it is the stocking density,eg 10 acres = 4 horses [or 5 ponies],they can all be in a 1 acre paddock together in May,for example] as this allows for ground to be rested, hay made and weed control. poo-picking is a must.
 
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The grazing is the final thing I need to get sorted. Ive got the use of 5 acres for my first year (will get more once I prove I can stay full). I was thinking of splitting it into 2 or 4 and having a mare and gelding group but alot of liverys near me have small indervidual padocks which are small. Ive spoken to a few people and they like indervidual packocks (these would have to be electric fenced) but if I could have a few big fields then it could be more post and rail with a bit of electric but it depends if that is what liverys like, and can liverys work together to poo pick and decent sized field or would I have to include that in my price.

Also what price would you think of paying for the above set up described in my first post?

Feet :)
 
Sounds ok on the face of it. I too would want winter turnout, every day if possible. The key would be to not take on too many horses then you wouldnt get wrecked fields, although if you have 200 acres I wouldnt have thought this would be too much of an issue. I also think you ought to have a rule about poo picking being done, your fields would stay nice if it was a rule of livery. Would want shavings, not straw as mine eat it (are good doers and prone to weight gain). It does sound more like assisted DIY rather than total DIY, so not something I would want for my 2. Im on DIY at the moment. Would prefer the horses to be in single sex groups and in fields large enough to have plenty of room. Rather than impose a precise package on liveries, perhaps would be an idea to tailor it to their needs, people are watching their money these days more and more.
 
Would not interest me either with no winter turn out ,

can i ask homany stables do you have ? 5 acres is not an awful lot and would only really accomodate 4 horses at most you need more acrerage i think so you can rotate fields too what is your riding like what area are you in ?
 
As the others have said depends where you are in Yorkshire?

and winter turnout has to be a must. At the very least you would need a horse walker and turnout into the arena.

do they get a feed store and secure tack room and do you live on the premises?

You should always poo pick as this is just good hygiene and grass management.

So anyway on the basic info I would not choose your livery due to no winter turnout.
 
I am near Hull in Yorkshire. The reason I include so much in my basic DIY is that yards near me do DIY then an aditional price list and if you have turn out 5 days a week at £1 a turn it soon adds up. It will only be the first year that I am limited with grazing as I have to prove to my dad (land owner) that its profitable then he will allow me more grazing, I will have about 7acres but over winter it will be about 2 acres as we are sowing the grass this year. If I do single sexed groups then rotation will be easier, but people who have yards like this do you find liverys argue about poo picking? because I would want liveries to do it and some people think they would argue about it.
Oh and I would have 10 stables, im not for one minute thinking they would be filled stright away which would also help the grazing situation.
The riding is a track round 200 acres ive not measured it out in miles yet but at a trot I think it would get you a good 1.5 hours to get round and that is before you get onto the public bridleways which are prob another 5-6 miles, so I would class it as a lot of off road riding. In the near future I would also be planning on putting a cross country course round the track for liveries use. There is also the 20/40 sand school, which would be rubber topped so I wouldnt really want people turning out into.

Thanks for all the advise, you have given me more to think about. Anymore thoughts will be really helpful though.
 
Regarding the poo picking - if you have proper livery contracts drawn up and the poo picking is a condition of livery that the customer signs, then they have no arguement. At the end of the day, if I was a customer I would want the best for my horse and that is clean fields....
 
I had six horses on fifteen acres and it got trashed! Depends on what type of horses they are - do they charge around when their BF is taken out etc. Our land gets quite wet and poaches easily (clay).

I hate having to leave feeds made up overnight. I could just cope if they were left dry with a cover on.

Poo picking, my DIYs didn't do any! You would have to have it in the contract. They seem to do it more at yards where they each have their own individual paddock. Personally I prefer small herds for turnout, same sex seems to work better, but we mix our own horses without probs.

Winter turnout. I would try and turn each group out for an hour a day - keep a one acre paddock that can get trashed over winter perhaps. This would appeal more to liveries. A couple of yards around here don't do winter turnout, and they are full to the rafters as everything else is great, plus they have a school. I'm another one that would have to have some option of turnout, even if limited in winter.

School - you don't have one. Is there schooling facililies locally? I didn't have a school, but we had all year grazing and access to two local schools within a mile... To not have turnout or a school is two big nos.

We offered haylage included in the rent, plus new big stables with rubber mats, tack lockers etc for £35/wk. It backfired on us one year when we didn't get out haylage due to rain and had to buy in, which obviously wrecked the profit!

Good luck. Its hard work and doesn't make much money!
 
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