Livery yard pricing.

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Equifarmer

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I own a livery yard and offer DIY to Full livery I have stabling internally, large fields all mixed herd grazing or you can have individual, a 30x 50 m all weather very nice arena with jumps etc. Access to non stop off road riding inc beach riding and mountains. I offer lots of services and we have shows every other weekend. We take all type of equine young to old etc.
I charge a basic livery charge that the client has to choose this includes bedding/haylage all year round, the price is adjusted to needs.
What I want to know is what do people prefer do they prefer to be charged a basic low rate then have a list of add ons IE turning out in the morning only for one day because you cant get there, changing a rug or feeding on the odd day, or would people prefer to pay a little more and know their horse would be looked after when they needed it.
I find a lot of yards these days seem to have endless lists of charges and I cant understand how they keep on top of it.
I want some ideas on what people pay for these things and a rough idea of livery charges. Also how many people have to pay extra to use the arena on top of their livery and how much? Some of my clients complain that they dont feel they should have to pay to use the arena, but as I had to pay a lot of money to build it and as it wasnt there before people do want to use it all the time. they have the choice of using the fields and extensive bridleways so its not the only form of riding area. I really need it to make the money back and dont see why riders should have this free. They also dont feel they should pay extra on their livery so they could just use it adlib.
I only charge £22 p/wk for grazing and £25 for grazing and a stable I dont feel this is alot, full livery with a stable is only £65 pwk and then £10 pwk on top for adlib hay in the winter. They have year round support, advise and a very friendly well run yard. Am I charging alot???? :rolleyes:
 
Thankyou for that, good to see someone is on my side. I am a softy and love to help people out but not particually at my expense. Its funny how people are lovely to your face then when you feel you need to do something to make a living like charge a little for the use of a excellent facility they can turn out to be not quite so lovely!!!:confused:
 
I pay £26 a week for a stable, 3acre field that I share with 2 other horses, 200 acres of off road hacking, jumping paddock and outdoor (large) all weather school.
I buy my own bedding however the yard does sell straw at £30 for a large rectangle bale.
Hay is £40, the same size bale.
The indoor school is £5 an hour to hire out.
All other services are charged for like turn out, rug changes.

They also charge £45 a week part livery that includes turn out, bring in, skip out and a rug change Monday to Friday but doesn't include feed, bedding or any other service.

Full livery is £80 a week which includes day to day care of your horse 7 days a week excluding riding, feed and bedding.
 
I would have a basic price and a list of add-ons, including arena hire, for DIY, and then I'd have a couple of assisted / part packages that are progressively better value the more you commit to paying each week, and once you get up to a reasonable number of included services / cost I'd include free Ad lib arena use. Your prices seem cheap - what does your full livery include?
 
A different area to you but my full livery is more than double that! I have a small yard though so prices are a bit higher to cover expenses plus i think it's more expensive round here to feed, hay etc generally. All my facilities are included (schools, walker etc) there is a very small list of extras but nothing that is essential, grooming, tack cleaning, for my part liveries would be included in full.
I don't offer DIY but you must be realistic to yourself about pricing, yes you want people to come and stay but make sure your costs are covered. People will come if you need to have a higher price.
 
Just an idea but my yard used to charge £5 per use for the arena or £10/week for unlimited use. It kept the hackers happy because on the odd occasion they wanted to be in the arena they could pay for it and they weren't paying all the time they didn't use it. It also kept the people who competed happy because they could pay the £10/week and be in there every day if they wanted without worrying about racking up a big bill.

I agree that all the '£1.50 to change a rug, £2/day to bring in' type charge must be a nightmare to keep on top of.
 
Firstly, wish I was near you!!! I'd be there like a shot. I have full livery on a great yard. I pay a set price every month of £435 for my 14.2 (it's 455 for larger horses) and the things we get charged extra for are putting on the lights in the indoor school (£1 for half an hour) use of solarium ( which i never use, but many do - £1 for half and hour) and any extra bedding we request. Other than that, it's an all in price and I get all feed, ad lib haylage, a good shavings bed to start with and then a bale of shavings every week, all the work inc turn out, muck out, rug changing etc, parking for my trailer, use of a very good indoor, outdoor, jumping paddock with jumps, storage for my gear inc secure tack room, use of walker.

We have extensive off road woodland to ride in and there is a small annual charge for a permit to use that. Generally we all prefer this set pricing structure (25 liveries) and there is no moaning about having facilities but not using them. They are there for all to use if we wish. I think it would be complicated and a bit chaotic if we had to pay each time we used the indoor, for example, or a charge for using the off road hacking every time we went. How on earth do you keep track unless you're there evey minute of every day watching what people are doing? even the hackers use the indoor when it snows!

The point is that everyone knows the routine when they come and either go with it or find other yards. I've been there 6 years and wouldn't leave as I love it and it suits me.

If I were you I'd set a fixed price to reflect the investment you've made in facilities, and the care you offer, building in a reasonble payback period, and keep it as simple as possible with as few " extras" as possible. That way everyone knows where they stand. You sound lovely as are the YOs at my yard and I wish you every success.
 
If I was on the ideal livery yard, they would offer DIY livery at a set price, part-livery at a set price and full livery at a set price. There would be basic/minimum conditions for each type e.g. turn out part livery horse am but not bring in and full livery have option of both?
I would also then like a simple list of services and added extras. This would be useful for DIY and part liveries who manage fine under usual circumstances but may need a one off T/O or something. The list would include T/O, muck out, AM feed etc. This would be ideal as I am on DIY livery now but occasionally find I could do with a hand one or two mornings a week.
 
Nope sounds good! I pay £70 per week all year round for the same as ur offering for full livery. It's the cheapest in my area!!!
 
I pay £120 a month no bedding or hay/haylage included. They have outdoor schools, lunge pen, walker, indoor school and jumping school. We have our own tackrooms. Year round turn out if we want in your own paddocks.

I think your charges are very cheep think your liveries are being unreasonable. In my personal though is that you could be asking a lot more.
 
I honestly think you prices are only relevant to your local area. Ring around other yards to see if you are too cheap, but I suspect depending on where you are, you are in the right ballpark.
Where I live your prices are bang on, although no yards here charge extra for using the arena, that's included in even the grass livery price.
Most yards I've been on charge a basic rate which includes what posher places charge extra for ie
Grass livery-£25 includes grazing, use of all facilities and dedicated stable, how you use it is up to you, no services at all, total DIY really.
Part livery -£45 as above plus unlimited hay or haylage, 1 bag of wood pellets, plus turned out in am and held for farrier if need.
Full livery- £80 as above plus mucked out, feet picked, rugs changed, not exercised though.
Most folk ended up on part livery in winter, Grass in summer and this still gives good return for YO.
 
I think that is a good price. I pay £122 a month for Stable, turnout Monday to Friday, so the yard manager does morning feed, changes rug etc. I pay for my hay, shavings and feed. We can either get hay off the yard at currently £4 a bale or get elsewhere. The mares and geldings are separate and there are 5 geldings to about 5 acres maybe a bit more. We have a rubber school however is not floodlit so riding in the winter is hard when you work full time. They live out in summer if we want, from April to October which they seem to love. Lovely hacking, don't have to go on roads if we do they are back lanes. I'm in Kent, I think its a reasonable price livery and nice yard.
 
That's much less than I pay! Where are you? Can I come? Mines £130 a week, hay / haylage and whatever bedding on top ( hay is weighed and written down daily, as is bedding ). All services are charged for separately unless you are on full livery and my assisted DIY isn't that much less. Very large indoor, off road hacking and sj paddock in summer. The indoor seems to be booked up with lessons most of the time. I don't use the facilities as horse has soundness issues. Could really do with somewhere cheaper but virtually nowhere near me and yard has waiting list.
 
I agree with above posters-set prices for each category of livery & includes as much as possible of everything. Keep 'extras' to a minimum-it's a bl**dy faff for billing& more difficult to keep on top of (especially if some liveries aren't as honest as they should be;)) I would always include school use in set price,or they'll be loads of 'But I only went in once,2weeks ago for 10mins and *she* goes in every day for an hour and doesn't put it on the board *and* she loose jumps' etc kind of whingeing.:(
Like others have said-you have the facilities,which you've invested in and want (&need) to maintain them how you like. Best way of ensuring this is to factor cost in-no choice,no arguments. If people don't want to use the school,they'll not come/leave. Others will come,don't worry-it will fill up and then hopefully with the kind of people you want.
:)
 
As others said really depends where you are
I pay £35 for stable/grazing. Free use of 3 arenas including huge indoor and a covered one. Adlib haylage and lorry parking
Horse walker. Wash box and solarium
Regular shows inc bd and bs
Limited but off road
hacking
Having a xc made too
We are exceptionally lucky :)
 
You are probably not charging enough for the location you are in and the facilities that you are offering.
As an excercise you need to work backwards and work out exactly how much it costs to run the manage and also decide what return of investment you want to make from it

So for the manage.
New manage (including land it is built on) (Paid off after 10 years) £40,000
Average annual cost of repair maintenance of manage (including daily cost of picking up poos, weekly levelling of surface and refurbishment after 10 years) £5,000
Annual cost of lighting of manage £2,000

So the cost of the manage would be £11,000 per year
If you have 11 Liveries then that would be £1,000 additional rent per year per livery which equates to £19 per week
 
I pay £150 pcm for stable, t/o, storage, school with poor lighting and fantastic hacking. No services or anything else supplied. (however I am in expensive part of country)

I think the basic price should take into account the range and quality of facilities provided. Then on top should be services such as t/o, muck out and also extras such as hay and bedding. I wouldn't like to be tied to one supply of this because I wouldn't want to feed haylage in any case or bed my horse on straw those are things I want to be able to choose for the best management of my horse.

However I guess the issue might come where you have added a facility that people previously did without? Then I think it is trickier however at the end of the day it is your business and you need to get a good return on your investment so provided good notice is given then I'm afraid people will need to pay more or find somewhere that now suits their needs better.
 
Around here we have:

22.50 - stable and grazing and use of school
17.50 - as above for second horse (as YO says can't charge more as you can only ride one horse at a time so he won't charge more). Hay and straw, reasonable quality, to be bought from him. Haylage can be bought in. No onsite hacking.

Around here the prices are around the 22.00-25.00 mark for stable, grazing, use of school. Some places charge for school lights.

Few places will allow or provide an injury or lami or fatties paddock :(

Full livery varies greatly in terms of price and what you get for it. Most are DIY around here. Highly horse centric area in the midlands.

I would object to paying extra I use a school to be honest. I believe it's part of the basic requirements of having a horse these days, ie somewhere to exercise the horse when the weather is rubbish. So saying, most schools around here freeze and or flood, but one accepts that one is paying for something that might not be useable. Even the places with the smart schools that don't freeze don't charge per use. Where a yard offers an option it's been a £5 reduction in the livery, but then one pays £2 or so per use.

Sorry, Woffles on a bit about schools!
 
It depends where you are tbh. I wouldn't pay that for grazing round here, there isn't much difference between your grass and diy, which normally there is. Round us, you would pay £90 a month on a nice yard with a school, turnout and stable (this is what a friend pays, and it is a VERY nice school) without hay, so it really does depend on where you are.
Did you put the price of livery up when you put the school in?
Personally I would not have to pay extra to use the school on the yard.
Your full livery sounds rather cheap, especially in comparison to your DIY, but it would depend on what is included.
 
I think this one is very difficult to answer without knowing where you are and what the going rate is in your area.

For what it's worth I've never met a yard that charges extra for using the arena (unless booking sole use) and the use of facilities has been wrapped up in the basic livery charge.

That said, I would in theory be happy to pay extra for arena use if the basic livery charge was on the low side (and the suggestion of £5 a time or £10 unlimited seems reasonable).

I live in Thames valley area and £25 a week would not get you far at all. Realistically you are looking at at least £40 a week for a stable, grazing and decent school on a well managed yard, that would be inclusive of school use.

Part livery round here (all basic care, bedding, hay, feed 7 days a week) would be £90-125 a week depending on quality/standards

Full livery (part livery plus exercise and tack cleaning) would be £140-160, higher if schooled by decent rider
 
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