Moving from full livery to DIY?

[Bedford Joy]

Has anyone done this? I have 2 mares on full livery which costs aorund £800pcm I have been offered a private yard for free in exchange for helping with owners pony. How much time does it take realistically to do horses on diy? They will be out 24/7 with shelter and there is no poo picking only harrowing. I am trying to work out if I have the time to go down this route. I will also hire a freinds daughter to do the days I can't as it will still cost me far far less than full livery ... x

 

[Nicnac]

If they're living out and you have no poo picking all you'll need to do is water (unless automatic troughs so just check they're working/not frozen) and make sure they have hay when grazing is poor. Will you have to do property maintenance i.e. harrowing/fencing etc. then how long is a piece of string as depends on whether you have fence destroyers; what condition the fencing is in.

For me full livery includes grooming, riding and tack cleaning so if you are currently on what I term part-livery which is everything but grooming, riding, tack cleaning you won't see much difference in time day to day bar the morning/evening checks and spending time checking everything over at the weekends plus ordering in hay/feed and so on.