Livery yard question

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Marigold4

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I've posted about this before but just need some help now making a decision. Having looked after my own horses for over 20 years at home, I'm looking to move to livery for the first time. As I've not done livery before, it's difficult to make a decision. I've looked at 7 yards within 30 mins from me and the 7th one looks really good. 10 horses in total, nice paddocks with safe fencing no mud and surfaced walkways between stables and fields so no wading through mud, my horses are allowed in together, lovely stables next door to each other, adlib hay at night. I met another livery who loves it there, fantastic hacking - mostly bridleways with a little roadwork on a quiet country lane, an outdoor school available. However ... the horses are finished/in stables at 5 pm at night but with adlib hay. They say that they adjust hay so that the horses still have some left in the morning. YO has cameras in each stable. There are horsey people living all around the yard. I'm used to checking and topping up hay later in the evening. Would you be OK with horses being left so long at night? Do all the other good things make up this?
 
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I think this is normal and as good as can be expected. Is there a yard curfew where you can’t be there after this time? - for me this would be offputting but not the fact that they finish work at a normal time.
 
Sounds great, so currently they have eight but two vacant. Have you checked they aren’t planning in expand? No mud is amazing given the amount of rain at the moment. We bring in before 5.00 in winter and most yards will but do a later check.l would seriously consider this yard. Good luck. = have you met the other liveries? Need to make sure they’re ok!
 
Sounds amazing, like someone said just make sure you are allowed to be up there when you need to be. (I.e yard opening hours). Also if it hasn't been going for long just keep an eye so things do not start changing as yo realises how expensive everything is. Sounds ideal!
 
gallopingby said:
Sounds great, so currently they have eight but two vacant. Have you checked they aren’t planning in expand? No mud is amazing given the amount of rain at the moment. We bring in before 5.00 in winter and most yards will but do a later check.l would seriously consider this yard. Good luck. = have you met the other liveries? Need to make sure they’re ok!
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It's quite a small yard. Max 12 stables so nit sure she can expand. Doesn't sound like she'd want to either. Liveries are there to subsidise her horses/competing.
 
Where I live in the new forest very few yards have owners that live on site. Not many people are lucky enough to be multi millionaires to own a yard that comes with a house around here. Those that do wouldn’t want a livery yard or wouldn’t get planning for one…there are a couple but very few and far between
 
Flowerofthefen said:
It's normal in my area. Why is there no mud? Are the horses allowed out daily? Even on the best of land there will be minimal mud!
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Horses go out every day. Good acreage per horse. Good grass coverage and gateways have hard core. Hence no mud. Either that or too good to be true! I"m keeping my rented field for a few months so we can come back if it doesn't work out.
 
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Flowerofthefen said:
It's normal in my area. Why is there no mud? Are the horses allowed out daily? Even on the best of land there will be minimal mud!
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We are on very well draining sandy soil and have no mud yet. The walkways get a bit muddy towards the end of winter but the fields always stay dry and are currently mud free. All turned out minimum of 8 hours every day. I brought in from the field wearing trainers the other day :oops:

Although for balance just so I don’t sound too smug, the field I rent for my retired ones is a mud bath 🙄
 
Marigold4 said:
I've posted about this before but just need some help now making a decision. Having looked after my own horses for over 20 years at home, I'm looking to move to livery for the first time. As I've not done livery before, it's difficult to make a decision. I've looked at 7 yards within 30 mins from me and the 7th one looks really good. 10 horses in total, nice paddocks with safe fencing no mud and surfaced walkways between stables and fields so no wading through mud, my horses are allowed in together, lovely stables next door to each other, adlib hay at night. I met another livery who loves it there, fantastic hacking - mostly bridleways with a little roadwork on a quiet country lane, an outdoor school available. However ... the horses are finished/in stables at 5 pm at night but with adlib hay. They say that they adjust hay so that the horses still have some left in the morning. YO has cameras in each stable. There are horsey people living all around the yard. I'm used to checking and topping up hay later in the evening. Would you be OK with horses being left so long at night? Do all the other good things make up this?
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I think that’s fairly normal and I’ve been on a lot of yards like that.

The 2 I have living out I often finish up by 5pm on a weekend trying to catch the daylight and they won’t be seen until 7am the next morning. In a dream world they’d be on my doorstep and I’d do night checks but it’s a 40 minute round trip so not feasible to drive out to check on them at 10pm.
 
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