Livery yard prices

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rhiannonmeg

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I think I may be getting ripped off at my yard. We get charged epending on the height of your horse/ pony. I pay £115 a month. We don't have a school of any description . Theres very little storage for tack etc. Hay/ haylage and straw is included in the price however I use shavings and still get charged full price. The owner still wants to put the prices up even more as he thinks we are not paying enough. A bit of advice on what to expect for my money.:(
 
Well I pay £130 per month which includes the below, I am in Berkshire

School 20x60 with lights (do not have to pay for lights)
Separate lunge arena
Horse walker
A massive field to walk, trot or canter around
Stable
Two large fields which I share with a friend and we rotate every 3 months between the two and we keep ours pooh picked but that's optional
Locked tack area and for extra storage
Hay barn (shared with others)
Feed area (shared with others)

Feed, bedding, hay etc we buy in ourselves (from my best mates dad :D)

No rules to be honest apart from first person feeds all horses and last person turns all the lights out if not already off
 
you dont mention what type of livery it is,


I can understand on one hand different prices for sizes as a 17hh horse will need more feed and hay and churn up field more than a pony .

does he say you have a choice of bedding??

If your the only one on shavings and he has to get it in specially or you get it then fair enough, you have to suck it up.

but

if he does say you have a choice then he shouldn't charge you for the straw

is it ad lib hay or not.

really you need to have a * livery includes * form you see and sign before you move to a yard so you know exactly what your getting .
we all have to put prices up per year we give 1 months notice and we say that in terms and conditions .



I think you need to tell us a little more to add more input to help:)
 
i pay 110 a month for stable, grazing, school with flood lights, hay, feed, tack etc storage. hacking isnt great but we have lots of land we can ride around. have to buy our own hay & bedding but we normally get a few of us together and split delivery charges.
 
Its DIY and theres 3 other people on shavings which we have to provide ourselves, its a small yard and the owner limits the amount of hay/ haylage. The other thing is he has lots of machinary parked in the yard so we don't have access to tie up points and theres piles of rubbish everywhere! We get charged to park/store trailers/ wagons and its not secure. It takes ages to get things fixed (drains, leaks)etc. A lot of people are unhappy but like me they have nowhere else to go:( P.S. We don't have any sort of contract or formal agreement
 
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I pay £20 per week this includes:
- Stable and year round turnout
- Use of rubber school and showjumps
- Summer S-J paddock
- Lunge/round pen
- Large feed room (enough for 3 bins, shelves etc..)
- Individual Hay/bedding store
- Tack room with individual lockers (the room is also alarmed)

Think I get a good deal :)
 
I pay £115 a month for diy livery. That includes my stable and turnout (24/7 in summer ... In at night in the winter) and also use of a 20x40 outdoor floodlit menage.

On top of that is:
Shavings £8 a bag
Hay bale in summer is £3.50 and in winter our haylage is done by horse height and amount of turnout. With my lad being 17.I and out for about 6 hours that's £42.50 a month!!
Lights for the menage are £1 pet half hour
And my horsebox parking is £16 per month

Im in Warwickshire

SS x
 
Hi Rhiannon , you don't say where your from? I'm currently setting up a yard, so your comments are useful to me. I want to know what people are looking fo in a good yard- so any suggestions welcome ! I've got a pretty good idea, as I've been on livery yards myself- I know how frustrating it can be!
 
tbh, for £115 a month I would not expect much more than stable and grazing, maybe some straw thrown in if the yard is basic. It is about £26 per week, which is not an expensive yard by any stretch of imagination.
 
martlin said:
tbh, for £115 a month I would not expect much more than stable and grazing, maybe some straw thrown in if the yard is basic. It is about £26 per week, which is not an expensive yard by any stretch of imagination.
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agree ^ ^

I was charging £100 pcm up till a year ago to the last DIY livery, who had for that:
Own use of paddocks & own stable.
Storage for hay/bedding, rugs & feed.

Bonus: Direct access to good hacking with no roadwork unless you want to.
Well maintained enclosed stableyard & secure well fenced paddocks.

Thats all.....no hay or bedding supplied. Their horse was only fed when mine were if it was stabled, otherwise they got left to get on with it :)

This in NW Surrey, and most yards round here DO have an arena but then again prices for DIY at these are a bit higher to correspond with facilities.
 
martlin said:
tbh, for £115 a month I would not expect much more than stable and grazing, maybe some straw thrown in if the yard is basic. It is about £26 per week, which is not an expensive yard by any stretch of imagination.
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Actually around here £26 pound a week for a yard with NO school is expensive.
The OP states there is no school at the yard. Also being further north than myself I would imagine the prices should be cheaper.
OP states that the hay/haylage is limited which I think is unfair as most yards that charge fee in with the price for forage do so ad lib. Of course I don't think many would agree with wastage though such as losing any to the weather in fields or chucking what is left in a net on the muckheap.
I can understand that the yard owner is not providing any shavings in the cost as these are more expensive to buy that straw. Also yard owners would have to buy in bulk at a fair whack to get them for decent prices. Whereas straw can usually be bought much cheaper and from a wide variety of sources such as sales/auctions, straight from the field or fields that need harvesting and baling.
What I would do OP is have the straw if it is included in the price and use to make your banks, therefore you are not wasting shavings to do this. It will mean that when you buy your shavings in or make up your beds from scratch it will be cheaper as you will have less area to cover.
As for the other issues such as rubbish etc on the yard and the lack of tie up points I suggest that you all meet up as a whole on the yard and voice your concerns together to the owner. Don't get singled out though and don't have a spokesperson as some people find it easy to hide behind others to get folks to do their dirty work and then act all innocent and go quiet (been there and got the t-shirt!). If you stick together then they should listen and if not all threaten to leave at the same time and hit them in their pocket.
You cannot put a price on safety and in my book a yard that is charging that much a month should have a safe environment for horses!
 
If you count a conservative 1/3 a small bale of hay per horse per day, that is 2.5 bale a week, at say £3 - which already takes £7.50 from the £26, and maybe 2 bales of straw for another £4, which leaves the YO with a whopping £14.50 to pay water, rates, insurance, maintain fences etc and obviously make a living. Still expensive?
 
martlin said:
If you count a conservative 1/3 a small bale of hay per horse per day, that is 2.5 bale a week, at say £3 - which already takes £7.50 from the £26, and maybe 2 bales of straw for another £4, which leaves the YO with a whopping £14.50 to pay water, rates, insurance, maintain fences etc and obviously make a living. Still expensive?
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But that wasn't what you were getting at in your original post.
You claimed that £26 a week was cheap and for £115 you would expect only a bit of straw thrown in for good measure.
To me it sounded as though you were saying that £26 a week was cheap for a diy yard.
Well in my book it is not. Especially as it doesn't have a school and is up north. Most of the people quoting on this thread are doing so and basing it on southern prices. There is a difference.
The yard in question sounds like a tip and I am sure the OP said they have to wait ages for jobs to be done.
One has to wonder if it is even registered as a stables at all, so your reference to rates does not add up. Everyone knows that business rates for yards and places offering stables varies according to the number of stables on the yard and what is actually being declared as an income.
I know of places that are making an income from charging anything from between, £12, £22 and £23 a week and other figures too. Some have been going for many years and they too have their own overheads and have not gone bump, so clearly they are doing something correct.
Since the yard we are talking about has around 3 to 4 people that are buying their own shavings in and not using straw then your arguement with regard to the cost of straw does not add up.
Nothing is mentioned about if this person has other livestock such as sheep and cows etc, and if so then the horses are probably just a sideline and not the main source of income.
Would they be paying any more rates due to the stables, or water rates based on the horses. Probably not because the stables may not be declared and if they have cattle are probably on a water meter and as we all know cows ( especially dairy) will consume much more water than horses per day! That is not including any water that is used in the cleaning process of the sheds and milking parlours if dairy cattle are on the premises.
I guess it all boils down to what this person is declaring or not so as part of their business.
They don't have a school so in my opinion should be charging £15 a week max for stables and grazing.
OP did not say if the £115 was pcm or 4 weekly either. If pcm then it is just slightly over £26 a week but 4 weekly is £28.75 per week so there is a difference.
So let's assume that the stabling should be around £15 a week max. That means that this livery for her pony is being charged around £11 per week for straw and hay, of which the straw she is not using. So essentially is paying £11 a week for hay. That is a lot for one pony who I doubt would consume enough bales of hay a week to justify that, and whatever they eat anyway it is limited by the yard owner so there could be horses being underfed as a result, depending on the goodness of the grass and how 'horsey' the yard owner is.
But yes she has straw available and is not using it. Well the yard owner may well have bought it in, and some liveries are not using it. However one could argue that if they are not using the straw it gives the yard owner more to use themselves or will last longer for those liveries who are using it. Therefore a win win situation because the yard owner is saving themselves the cost of straw for 3 or is it 4 liveries who are using shavings each week.
 
Here in Kent I pay £15 per week, we have all year turnout, sand school, own storage room for your bits, rug room, tack room, and a large barn we are able to use to buy in bulk our own hay. Straw is supplied at £1.50 a bale.Very lucky :)
 
Thanks everyone. The problem is that a for most of us this yard is the only option for transport reasons etc. The owners attitude is if you don't like it leave. The only upside is the hacking and turnout is good. The yard is small there are 8 horses on livery atm. He has 6 empty boxes and wonders why, there are yards in the area that have better facilities (schools, horsewalkers, xc courses) and are a similar price. To answer about straw my horse eats it till theres nothing left.
 
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My straw and hayledge add upto £27 per week, and then I pay £35 per week for DIY livery...And I live up north..Where apparently things are still charged in pounds and Shillings ...according to some posters.

So... I would say your onto a good thing.... Hay and straw are not cheap things anymore.
 
I am up north

DIY stable, field, no school but field to ride in plenty of turn out £25 a week- nothing else included

DIY stable field school flood lights run on a meter £35 a week

Your liver sounds cheap if it includes some forage/bedding if you can find better cheaper then move.

To be honest if you pay cheap livery you have to expect lower standards. Everything should be safe though. Basic, muddy,maybe a bit rought round the edges but safe.
 
I pay £40 per week per horse for assisted DIY which means that the yard either feed/rug/turnout or bring in/rug/feed 7 days a week. As well as that I get a floodlit 20x40 school, great hacking, my own summer and winter fields, and a large monarch stable in an indoor barn with aircon/heating.
 
Wales... £40 per month = stable with auto water, unlimited turnout, tack room, building to store bedding and haylage, parking area, outdoor school... If I had to find something to whinge about, I'd like to have lights around the school - but for the price I can live without them... :)

Haylage is £25 per bale with same/next day delivery if you buy from the farmer, bedding you can choose whatever you want... It's basic and totally DIY but there's only five liveries and we help each other out if needed...

We're very lucky...
 
I think I might have to move to Wales. Mine has to go into livery for a couple of months over the winter and I'm paying £110 a month for a stable and (crap) turn out. Stable is nice (American barn) and has auto drinkers but they have to come in at night and the grazing is very poor. Liveries have to provide all their own bedding, feed and forage and "do" everything themselves; if you want the horse turned out/brought in they charge £2, rug change is £2 and the charge is times 1.5 for Sundays and times 3 for public holidays. There is a sectioned off piece of (sloping) field for schooling and the hacking is awful unless you really like riding round country lanes (no thank you). The New Forest is about half an hour's walk away but you have to cross a very busy trunk road (A36) to get to it :(
 
I think £115 pcm including hay is cheap! I think people expect far too much for too little regarding livery. Wait until it is licenced and the prices will go through the roof as some small yards will have to close, depending on how they implement it. :(
 
I'm in North Wales and on DIY. I pay £110 a month and that includes stable, turnout, all weather 60 x 30 arena fully lit (don't have to pay for lights), locked tack/feed room, storage for haylage/bedding, place to park trailer/lorry (£10 a month), on-site security etc and all the small stuff like hosepipes/place to wash down horses, electric etc...I buy my haylage separately from local farmer which is £25 a bale and lasts my 2 horses approx 2 weeks, and also I buy my bedding separately.
Only down side is the hacking is not very good and winter turnout is very limited..fields get very muddy very very quickly and they stay on same fields for most of the year :/
 
rhiannonmeg said:
Its DIY and theres 3 other people on shavings which we have to provide ourselves, its a small yard and the owner limits the amount of hay/ haylage. The other thing is he has lots of machinary parked in the yard so we don't have access to tie up points and theres piles of rubbish everywhere! We get charged to park/store trailers/ wagons and its not secure. It takes ages to get things fixed (drains, leaks)etc. A lot of people are unhappy but like me they have nowhere else to go:( P.S. We don't have any sort of contract or formal agreement
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sounds like a hazard I would get out on the circuit and try find somewhere else safer and more suitable.


I think 115 per month is cheap you get what you pay for , or you should do.

we are 40 week
indoor and outdoor school
round pen- show jumps- comon room -wc
library
this is an expensive area

storgage and more
no charge for trailers
 
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£170/month - DIY (in N. Hampshire).

Hay - huge bales - £55 each - a big bale lasts me about a month
Straw - £20/month - unlimited amount - grown on site (it's lovely stuff and Kal has a huuuuuge, deeeeeep bed)

Facilities:

Large, flood-lit, sand/rubber school (lights are 1p/minute)
Horse washing bay
Large wooden stables
Secure individual tack lockers
Secure feed barn (everyone has their own "bay")
Secure rug-drying room
Year-round, mud-free turnout (3 horses per field, rotated)
Hacking straight into Forestry Commission land (no roadwork)
Toilet and kitchen area
Grass gallops
Set of showjumps
Free, secure, on-site horsebox/trailer parking

If you want any bedding other than straw, you buy it in yourself - but liveries do tend to club together to get bulk discounts. Ditto haylage.

Friendly, supportive atmosphere - owner lives on-site (has two horses of his own) and does all maintenance/handy-man type stuff (including salting the yard when it's frosty/icy and shovelling it when it snows - and all paddock maintenance - rollowing/harrowing/dressing the fields). The only things liveries need to do to the fields are: poo pick, put out hay (if required) and break ice in water troughs.

P
 
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I pay different prices for my 2:

jay retired grass livery £21 per week including adlib haylage in the field and haylage for when tied up on the yard. grass livery for retired or youngsters is the same no matter what size,jays 16.2hh.

fizz (11.1hh) is in work, grass livery with a stable and adlib haylage in field and when in £25 per week, on the yard we are on we have 2 outdoor schools,round pen, also use of indoor school, think its about 400 acres off road hacking,x/c jumps,w/h jumps,sj's. straw is £7 per week if in,£2 if in overnight only now and then.

I think we get a fantastic deal tbh.
 
martlin said:
If you count a conservative 1/3 a small bale of hay per horse per day, that is 2.5 bale a week, at say £3 - which already takes £7.50 from the £26, and maybe 2 bales of straw for another £4, which leaves the YO with a whopping £14.50 to pay water, rates, insurance, maintain fences etc and obviously make a living. Still expensive?
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Absolutely.

Not getting at any Horse Owners in particular here, but some live in lala land, really, they do. They expect everything for nothing and forget all the little add ons.

Martlin, you forgot the YO's wages for maintenance etc there, at about 25p an hour isn't it? ;) :)

OP, if you are not happy with the conditions of the yard, and the deal you are getting then you need to communicate with the YO and sort things out.

Wagtail, sorry, you said the same thing, I'd missed your comment.
 
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Enfys said:
Martlin, you forgot the YO's wages for maintenance etc there, at about 25p an hour isn't it? ;) :)
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Don't be so silly! 25p is waay too much! Don't you know there is recession on? We should be happy we HAVE a job, never mind making any money! And everything goes up in prices, at times like this, it is just immoral to put your livery price up - how are people supposed to pay for it?! :eek: :p :D
 
martlin said:
Don't be so silly! 25p is waay too much! Don't you know there is recession on? We should be happy we HAVE a job, never mind making any money! And everything goes up in prices, at times like this, it is just immoral to put your livery price up - how are people supposed to pay for it?! :eek: :p :D
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:eek: We do it for money?

There was me thinking we did it because we are charitable institutions ;)

I put my boarding charges up, a whopping $5 a week, and 'Mr Grumps' had a hissy fit and handed me his notice! A week later he asked if he could stay and I had to tell him that, "Sorry, No can do, your space was filled an hour after you gave your notice to quit" Ohhhhhhhhhhh I so enjoyed that conversation:D
 
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