Livery Yard Must Haves

ashlingm

ashlingm

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I am doing a bit of research and would love to hear your views and opinions.
What are the top 5 (in descending order!) most important things for you when choosing a livery yard?

I'll go first:
1. Turnout (as often as possible, no necessarily grazing if the grass is growing slowly but at least put in an arena for a few hours. Anything to get them out of the stable and have time time to be a horse!)

2. Facilities (Big airy stables and somewhere to ride)

3. Good quality feed and hay ( preferably ad-lib but depends on the horse really)

4. Security (want to know my horse is safe)

5. Friendly and approachable management
 
1) Turnout every day and 24/7 from Spring to Autumn. Good/ safe fencing and no barbed wire.
2) Good hacking with quiet roads and access to some off road riding/ bridleways.
3) Access at reasonable times.
4) floodlit arena.
5) close to home.
6) storage - option to buy haylage from yard.
7)option to pay for extras at a reasonable price.

Luckily my present yard has all of the above and I love it there! The only downside is that there is no tack room so have to take tack home!
 
1 - flood lite menage at least 20 x 60 which is raked and rolled daily
2 - turnout (individual or small groups), prefereably 365 days a year and 24/7 if required but a few hours a day will also surfice in the winter if needs to be restricted
3 - light airy well maintained stables
4 - secure tack room
5 - good hacking and/or gallops
6 - hot/cold wash bay
7 - lorry parking
8 - lunge pen

I could go on......... I think it depends what you do with your horses though as to what facilities are more important to each individual person. I do dressage and work full time hence the floodlite well maintained arena is my priority.
 
-24/7 turnout in spring and summer and at least day time hours in winter, preferably in small groups, the fencing must be safe!

-hay/haylage or straw available on site or better still included in livery price

-No over grazed, under poo picked fields the size of postage stamps-be realistic about the number of horses your land can support. The fields ideally would have auto-fill troughs that were regularly maintained!

-Stables must be a good size and light and airy and have running water and electricity

-Yard environment must not be too pristine but also not rank, dirty and dangerous. I don't want to get dysentry but I don't want to spend every moment I am there worrying that a wisp of straw might fall from my wheelbarrow

-A floodlit school with a decent surface and big enough to put up a couple of jumps-and some jumps to put in them! If I were dreaming, an indoor would be nice too!

-some nice, safely maintained xc jumps are nice too

-nice offroad hacking

-An easygoing atmosphere, I don't want to be micromanaged and even if you think I'm over protective and spoil my horse or whatever I don't want to hear about it EVERY 5 seconds, particularly when your own horse has worse manners than mine! ( I have been at THAT yard)

I don't mind if you laugh at me when you told me it was an abscess but I wouldn't listen and got the vet out to "Fluffy" because she was "dying lame" I will laugh too, and try and learn from it , I'd rather you laugh than hold a grudge and cut me dead forever more!

-I want to choose my own farrier,vet, instructor, dentist and chiro AND if I want some Amazonian Faith Healing Wombat charmer to come and wave coloured feather sticks over "Fluffy" to heal her, I have no problem with you laughing at that either but don't ban it just because you think it's stupid. (providing of course I've had proper medical advice for Fluffy as well as the coloured feather sticks)

Luckily, we are at a yard with all of the above! (except the indoor school) (and for the record my horse has never been treated by an Amazonian Faith Healing Wombat Charmer)
 
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1. Good Hacking
2. Large stables (my horse is not small!)
3. Good turnout
4. Plenty of secure storage and somewhere for the trailer
5. Arena

Hacking and location is the number one for me. I do a lot of hacking for fun and also fitness.

Arena is bottom of my list, I coped for about 10 years without so I can cope again :)
 
1) indoor school
2) individual turnout
3) clean, well-maintained and secure stables/tack room
4) friendly, knowledgeable staff
5) relatively close to home/
 
Good turn out, so they can live out all winter & smaller paddocks if they need to go on the slim fast plan in the spring.
People living on site
Access to decent hacking
A school
For the other liveries to be normal
 
Nice liveries, ones who will give advice when asked (!!) but keep their gob shut otherwise!

Good facilities (either a good indoor or outdoor with a good surface and floodlit)

Somewhere to chuck them out in the winter even if its not a field!

Decent hacking.

Hayledge/good quality hay provided

Option of going onto part livery if you are going away on Holiday and morning turnout

price!!!

Luckily I am at a yard with all of this! Massive indoor and massive outdoor, a covered lean to thingy for winter turnout. Good hacking along Hadrians wall too :)
 
all year turnout - preferably in small groups (we currently have 16 and id prefer a smaller group tbh....)

Secure...(owner on site)

Somewhere to ride - menage but i could cope with a field/fenced off bit!

Normal liveries...... a lot to ask sometimes lol.
 
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