Moving from a livery to a small yard

jadelovescassie

jadelovescassie

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So I have just found out a close family friend is taking on small yard of a few stables with rubber matting already in them, plenty of turnout, a 20x40 outdoor floodlit school, secure tack room, tea room and really good hacking! :D And I get a place! At the moment I'm paying £25 a week to have my mare put out each morning and when I move our family friend has said she will put her out mornings free of charge :) which is really kind of her. I am really excited! :D It's also going to cost less in livery but won't include hay/straw.

To anyone who has gone from a livery yard to a small run yard, what are the pros and cons?

How much is hay/straw/shavings going for these days? (I am on Wiltshire/Somerset border) I have never had to buy my own as has always been included in the liveries I have kept my mare at!
 
Am sooooo jealous!!
Hay atm round us (south glos) is £6 small bale for lovely stuff, bedding (I have shavings with chopped straw) is £7.50 a bale. If there is enough land then I would put her out overnight and really get saving some £!!
 
i moved from a huge yard to a really small yard, and i much prefer it. the downsides are missing the gang of people you knew. but i found that once i have a few people to ride with and chat to on the new yard i'm fine.

i love the privacy of the smaller yard, and sometimes i go up and completely have it to myself, which i like. less cliques and gossip as well, which is good! your stuff is less likely to go astray or stolen. my horse gets way more attention and care than he did at the last yard, mainly due to YO having more time and less horses to deal with.

its good that you have friends on the new yard, as if theres only a few liveries, an annoying livery can over power the place! we had one recently and the yo had to ask her to leave as she upset the balance completely. another downside is less people to go to shows, trekking etc with.

good luck with the move, it sounds great!
 
I am lucky as it's just going to be the family friend, her young daughter and a friend from her current yard who has a trailer :) so I can't see there being many issues. At my current yard everyone does their own thing so I have no transport to get anywhere whereas at the new yard I might be able to get out and about a bit more :D smiles all round!! :D
 
You LUCKY thing!!

Hay wise I'd advise you speak to local farmers asap and see if ther are making any this year... then arrange to buy it off the field. Should make it much cheaper for you but will mean you all need to get together with a trailer and go and get it in! Hay last year was £5 + a bale but you may get it cheaper off the field. You will need to calculate how much each horse is going to get through and be strick with yourselves about how you feed it though!!

Bedding wise, in order to save on the muck heap it will probably be advisable for you to go for a shavings, hemp, or woodpellet type bedding rather than straw which, despite there only being a few of you, would make your muck heap massive.
 
Thanks CBFan..... Glad to hear shavings would be more practical :) I would rather bed on shavings but straw has always come included in livery so never saw the point in spending more if she's fine on straw!
 
I moved from a yard of about 70 horses to a yard with about 10 horses; I am one of three liveries and the rest of the horses belong to the yard owner.

I thought the standard of care on the big yard was pretty good, but the standard of care on the little yard is fantastic! Also because the scale is smaller, things take me less time - turning out, fetching my tack, grooming kit, etc.

I do miss always having people to ride out with, but luckily I am fairly close to my old yard, so I can meet up with my former hacking buddies.
 
I went from a proper 30+ livery yard to our current place which has 5 of us on and it's great. Much prefer it and the horses do too :)

In terms of pricing, we feed haylage which we bought for £35 a bale which lasts 5 horses 4-5 days and shavings which I get wholesale for £6 a bale.
 
I've been on livery yards for over 20 years and moved to a yard in November where I am the only livery. Its a private stud and I've been riding a youngster for her for 18 months. When she offered me livery I was very wary but only because I didn't think I could cope without other people - even tho I couldn't stand 99% of the liveries at my old yard. I must say it's the best move I've ever made. My horse has come on leaps and bounds and I'm really enjoying her again. 6 months ago if someone had offered me £3k for her i'd of snapped their hand off. Now she is def not for sale and I think she likes me more as I'm no longer stressy.
 
only downside to a very small yard is that its sometimes too quiet! i recently fell of and broke my arm and there was no one else around to help!

i was lucky it was just a broken arm, it did cross my mind though how much worse it could have been if it was a broken back or neck or anything that needed urgent treatment. luckily i could phone my hubbie and he drove to the yard to get me to hospital!
 
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