Livery Yards, The good the bad and the ugly

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Horsehairdresser

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Hi guys,

In the very near future i will running a high end livery yard. Has great facilities including indoor and out schools, xc field and walker. I really want this to be the yard that people want to be on!! Gearing more to compition yard that will offer full and part livery and extras in between.
Please can i have the good thebad and the ugly livery yard experiences. And anything that you would want and need from a livery yard. Any ideas would be greatfully recieved. Feel free to pm me if you stay private.!!

Many thanks in advance!!
 
A yard manager who is a competent horse person, who keeps their opinions to themselves, unless asked for advice or its a serious welfare issue of course, who you can trust, who doesn't lie and doesn't back stab!!! That's my starter for ten!
 
A good atmosphere is almost more important than facilities.
My new yard is the best commercial yard I've been on for that - lovely friendly people, lovely friendly YO. I feel so welcome. I've been on yards where I didn't feel I could stay any longer than I needed to in order to ride & feed my horse. I could sit in the stable and dream all day quite happily at new place :)
 
hi there,
me and four other liveries are leaving a yard we thought what had a lovely friendly enviroment with good facillities for your horse. as like all livery owners, i just wanted a 5 star home for my horse and a yard that didnt have a nastie atmosphere with loads of backstabing, whispering and bulling on the yard.
sadly this yard i thought was above all of that, but sadly the above issues was dished out by the manager and some of her side kicks.

what i also didnt relizse that the yard has a very bad rep and because it was out of my area i didnt relzied this untill after i got there. i also found out that the yard manager has been thrown off loads yards shes been by the yard owners as for abusing the owners and liveries trust ect. the is to long to mention all issues.
they have always found it hard to fill the yard because of these major problems i feel for the yard owner as she is completley unaware.
they did get a lady in to help run the yard with this horride manager, then she cotton on that the horride manager was taking all money from the yard and not putting back into the yard and repaying what this new part manager was putting into the yard, so the new part managaer left as she didnt need the agro and nastieness.
this yard is being run into the ground and livieries are bullied and talked about in a completely unprofessional manner by the yard manager.
u have very limited turn out facillities that need improving and fencing that dosent work and never gets maintained, you have very littlle storage. the manager will lie about whats broken on the yard so you cant use it. i pay over £240.00 a month rent for this and i am so glad i have found a new yard where liveries have been on for year and years, what a difference.
so if you a looking around the bovingdon, herts area please be very cafeful as i wont want to hear that more people are being subjected to this.
 
Clear communication is key for me, knowlegeable and trustworthy staff and little things like frequent newsletters, a yard bbq, etc make for a nice atmoshpere.

my biggest livery gripes are not knowing when there is a change to my to horses routine, paying for a service i'm not getting (a previous yard used to charge for putting a horse on the walker/night haynets but not do it!), feeling like i'm being treated unfairly compared to other liveries and b1tchy atmoshperes.

All the best, working with horses can be sooo rewarding, the people are sometimes the downside! ;)
 
At my yard, there is no booking policy for the big school or lunge arena - actually this works really well :)

The owner does not tolerate any BS or b*tchiness (minor eccentricity is OK).
 
No cutting corners I never want to see empty haynets/water buckets or thin/dirty beds.

Agree with others direct communication is major ie I don't want to find out from others that horses are changing fields or turn out times changing etc etc

Next is a YM that doesn't join in gossip. One that has the ability to deal with trouble makers
 
Communication and common sense - neither of which seem to come as standard anymore!
I have 3 on a "lovely" yard with indoor and outdoor school, gallops, walker, off road hacking, all year grazing, heated tack rooms, wash box etc but I'm honestly at the point of tearing my hair out and wondering if mine would survive in a field shelter somewhere in the middle of no where.
The YO is very young but very blessed shall we say and has landed on her feet in the current set up. Except that there is no management. We have Grass liveries as this is "easy" money but means no fields are being rested at all which will catch up with us no doubt in the winter but no thought of this.
Horses are all to be fed together if in - yard rule but this time fluctuates so you can never be sure of turning up and being able to ride. New horses come and just get put into stables next door to existing liveries. In fairness we've all kicked off about this so they now go into isolation - although this didn't stop the new horse (24hrs) being taking to a show yesterday with 4 other liveries!!!
5 full liveries in the last 12 months have had to start their jabs again as the YO forgot to check their due dates.
I can go on and on. Facilities are awesome - people are a pain in the butt! I pay more than my mortgage for this :-(
 
soulfull said:
No cutting corners I never want to see empty haynets/water buckets or thin/dirty beds.

Agree with others direct communication is major ie I don't want to find out from others that horses are changing fields or turn out times changing etc etc

Next is a YM that doesn't join in gossip. One that has the ability to deal with trouble makers
Click to expand...

This sounds like the yard i'm in the process of leaving!
 
tell me about the lack of communication from yard a manager, at our yard this doesnt happen at all.
me and my friend use to sort out different evenings at the yard and christmas trips out but stopped when we noticed the yard getting bitchy and the atmosphere change around the yard. we didnt feel it was a happy yard any more.
i would go out of my way to tidy and clean up everyones mess around the yard, i would catch in turn out and help other livieries where i could between my full time job. i felt like was being treated like staff, when i approach the manager about this and asked if everyone could help tidy and maintain there areas and communal area; i was told that she would draw up a routa so everyone did there bit, her words to me were it shouldn't just be left to you to do. but nothing happend and noone bothered to clear up their mess.
i was told that they dont tolarate bitchyness and wont have atmospheres on the yard ,yet the manager who said this is the person who does it the most .she then tries to play other liveries off each other, and at one point she wanted other liveries to bullie a girl off the yard because she had friends that used to be on the yard that got thrown off , and the manager didnt want her reporting back to them about the goings on of our yard. the fact is that the manager doesnt like you being friends with past liveries/ managers, the things she has said about other liveries and the lovely people that own the property is awful: i used to respect this manager and think she was out to look after us and make a happy settled yard , but sadly its far from this so many people leave and so many empty stables and noone stays for long. the yard has such a bad reputation that they even tried to change the name of the yard for a while- this didnt work.
what i have had to wittnessed on the yard and have had to tolarate is mental.
i understand yards and what they are like but to have them sell you a yard that is bitchness free and a fun friendly yard that offers a loving home for your horse is so far from the truth. and would say if you are looking in the hertfordshire area around hemel / bovingdon surrounding areas be very aware. that this yard is around and is one to stay well away from.
 
arizonahoney said:
At my yard, there is no booking policy for the big school or lunge arena - actually this works really well :)
Click to expand...

The only thing that I'd change (that I can think of atm!) at my yard is that you have to book the arena with the YO. Which means you have to go find her. The yard I had a pony on before had a book instead. OK, it's not usually too much effort to find her, but lives at home with her elderly parents, so you often end up knocking on their door to ask for her. That's the way she's chosen to do it, but I do feel bad that her parents often go looking for her for me.
 
Also be sure of your margins before you start. I know this sounds obvious but in a previous thread there was a lot of talk about liveries yard managers struggling to make a living and it was suggested that they don't make enough money to meet livery expectations.

Actually we all pay as much as we can afford and so I expect my animals to be cared for. In my business I can't tell a customer that I didn't look after their consignment properly because I didn't make enough on the job. My margin is my issue.

I know of a couple of full liveries who've had cuts etc not noticed because it's summer and they're turned out or because they're short staffed and somehow they missed it. Or full liveries who've has their stables used by someone else's horse. None of these are huge issues but its easy for people to end up feeling discontented especially when they're working hard to pay for this service.
 
if you are going to have part livery and full livery or whether it is full livery and competition livery. please remember that the part and full etc are in effect paying that same money for the facilities etc the difference between the two is the extra care/schooling so each type of livery has the same right to use the general facilities.

i have been on one yard where to get the owner to talk to you a couple of the liveries would swap up to full for a bit, on part we had second rights to the school etc
 
Dont offer what you can't deliver, my pet hate is ym's who offer great turn out, big fields, stables with lots of bedding then a few months in your field is split in half because ym doesn't want to walk so far with another horse because its winter, they have a few hours turnout and ym is getting them in at lunch time because it works for them and not always the horse and beds are being scrimped on because there are all the horses to much out and one person doing it. Being frank I pay on time and expect what I'm offered before I move, to then hear "ooh I don't make any money" isn't my problem change your prices or make sure they are right from the offset.
 
Characteristics of my dream YO:

- Knowledgeable and available but not interfering . . . I like to see YO "around" at key times and to feel that if I go looking for him/her for any reason that I'm not a hindrance

- Fair and impartial . . . I get that people are people and we all get along better with some people than others, but I don't want to feel that the YO has "favourites" . . . and a YO who can see both sides of a livery dispute and act accordingly is worth his/her weight in gold

- Approachable and helpful . . . all liveries have issues at some time or another . . . and having an approachable, flexible and helpful YO can sometimes make a difficult situation/time easier

- Reliable . . . if you as the YO say you will provide a particular service - regularly or on an ad hoc basis - I want to be able to trust that it will be done . . . e.g., if my horse needs Keratex putting on his feet every other day, or needs to wear a bib under his rugs in the winter, or must wear bandages at night, then I expect those things to be done

- Friendly and personable . . . no, we don't need to be best friends, but I do want to feel welcome on the yard at ALL times and a friendly "hello" is worth its weight in gold

- Discrete . . . if I choose to confide in my YO about ANYthing, I do not expect to find that whatever I have said has been broadcast across the yard . . . YO's who gossip with liveries are unprofessional and unpleasant

- Consistent . . . if there are rules in place, I expect the YO to enforce them across the board and without prejudice . . . there should be no such thing as one rule for one (favoured) livery and another for those the YO isn't bosom buddies with

- Organized and communicative . . . it should be very clear to all liveries what the rules are, what the consequences are for breaking them, how and when things happen (and due notice if those things change, e.g., turnout, feeding, bringing in, yard hours, etc.)

My dream yard:

- Stabling . . . spacious and airy, rubber matting, windows that open

- Bedding . . . choice of bedding (straw, shavings, etc.) and plenty of it - can't abide yards that provide skimpy beds to cut costs both in terms of bedding costs and time spent mucking out

- Forage . . . good quality hay and haylage bought in and provided on an ad lib basis (assuming full livery)

- Hard feed . . . liveries can choose to provide their own feed and supplements which is then fed to THEIR horse in the quantities THEY prescribe (you'd be surprised how often this doesn't happen), or can pay an all-in price for a "yard" feed

- Staff . . . competent and knowledgeable and genuinely caring . . . as an owner, I don't want to have to worry about the level of care my horse is receiving . . . one full livery yard I was on turned Kal out in stable rugs until I pointed out their error (in the winter!) . . . and I want staff to actually treat my horse with kindness

- School . . . indoor or outdoor I don't care, but I do want it to be well-maintained (fences fixed, regularly harrowed, etc.) and mirrors are a must (as is access to jumps)

- Turnout . . . well-drained, seasonally rested, water troughs, post-and-rail fencing (NO stock fencing), 365 (no unreasonable restrictions), adequate shelter in fields in the form of hedges and trees

- Generally well-maintained and looked after - no broken fences/gates, swept daily, all buckets washed/cleaned every day, automatic waterers regularly cleaned, etc.

- Secure . . . I want to feel that my horse and all his relevant equipment is as safe and secure as it can be and that YO has a good handle on people who are coming and going

If it were a DIY yard, I'd be adding things like lighting, storage, etc.

Hope that helps :).

P
 
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