Nervous... going to see possible new yard!!

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LankyDoodle

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I posted here a couple of weeks ago about a yard which only offers part or full livery but has amazing facilities and hacking. www.southeyfarm.co.uk

We decided we'd go and look at it and we're going at 5 today. I'm a bit nervous because we have kept our horses at our current yard for 6 years! There's a certain amount of comfort factor there really. And the new yard, being part livery, will cost us an extra 3k a year to keep horses, to what we currently pay!

So decisions are possibly going to be made this weekend. Trying to compile a list of questions now.
 
looks nice!!! Hope its what youre looking for!!
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I went to see it. It's the most wonderful yard imaginable and really really friendly with a great social scene - they go off to the beach in convoy (lorries/trailers), go to Olympia together at xmas.

What's included? All bedding, hay, feeds and supps, bringing in AND turning out, changing rugs, picking feet, checking over, basic grooming, skipping out stables, poo-picking the fields, year-round turnout, clipping once a year, show/hunt turnout if required, secure cctv tack room, rug storage, large, airy stables, and lovely owners and other liveries. Also fantastic hacking on 600 acres of moorland!

Not included - wormers, vets, farriery, lessons, travel there and back (obviously), exercising horses.

There's a tack room on site, an equissage machine (good for my old boy), regular chiro and dentist visits, worming programme in place, jumps and school use when we want.

She said we can go as much or as little as we like as the price is fixed and the horses are taken care of so all I'd have to do is rock up and play with my ponio!

Cost is....................... £85 a week, per horse and I need to let her know by tonight really whether I want it. I just don't know. The positive thing is we'd be getting away from our nasty builder whose wife keeps her horse at our yard and who I am scared of in case he does something to our horse, we wouldn't need to use the horrible school with a very thin layer of building sand or hire the one down the lane at £5 a time (£10 a week), people are more serious about their horses and don't just speculate based on a lack of knowledge, riding is 1000% better, horse would be living in the Ritz whereas at the moment he lives in the travelodge! Standard of care is excellent and we'd be able to go away for holidays without concern as they'd be well looked after! Although we wouldn't be able to afford to go on holiday!!!

This is what she calls part livery and as I didn't realise how comprehensive her package was, I thought it would be about £60 maximum a week, but her package is more like full livery without the exercise! Our costs for keeping 2 horses will sore from nearly 7000 a year to nearly 12000 a year!!!

What should I do? Help!! I mainly want to get away from builder, but I also want better facilities and that around here doesn't exist unless you go part or full livery. Arggggggggggggggggggh! Pressure, pushing down on meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
 
It sounds fab but I would ask a few more questions though as it sounds too good to be true!!!!

Firstly - skipping out is not mucking out. Will they do a full muck out every day? The mention of a skip out (as well as grooming) makes me wonder how many hours turnout the horses get per day, particularly in winter. Many yards that offer all year out turnout do no such thing in winter. They tell you its too wet and muddy to turn out (esp if they groom them and do feet as part of the price) or they have a tiny sand school or paddock and rotate horses every half hour or so. Therefore your horse could just be getting half an hour or an hour turnout per day. Watch out for the yard starting to charge you for extra bedding saying your horse is unsually dirty or wet.

All supplements. Hello!!!!!! At one stage one of my horses required over £100 of supplements per month.
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I doubt they would happily pay out that!!!!!!!! Generally yards include basic feed - usually sugar beet, alpha A and if your lucky pony nuts. Any balancers (usually at £25 - £30 a bag) are supplied by you as are supplements. How could they make a profit if everyone has ther horse on glucosamine, farriers formula etc etc?

One clip a year won't last long so make sure their charges are not extortionate for further clips.

I know you've probably checked all of this stuff, and I don't mean to be patronisng but as you can probably tell I've had my fingers burnt by livery yards in alll sorts of ways.

If they really do all that stuff for £85 a week I'm moving to where you are
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