New DIY Yard or several Private yards

E

exquisitus

Member
Joined
31 May 2012
Messages
13
Visit site
Hello,

I'm after a little opinion, I'm in the planning stages of setting up an equine diversification.
I currently have a wooden stable which has three stables, although this hasn't been used for horses for about 10 years.

I'm going to build some more stables, the question is whether to have one big block?
Or build a couple of small blocks, in effect creating three new private yards, with a view to letting each 'yard' to an individual.
I have 60 acres of grazing that ranges from free draining Limestone brash to wet clay, so there is suitable ground for practically all year turnout.

The land is very picturesque and is in fact old parkland that used to belong to a neighbouring Mansion house, with a commanding view over the old house.
The hacking is excellent a Bridleway runs through a couple of the fields that goes into the grounds of the big house and then leads onto 5 miles or so of woodland tracks and then onto a wider bridleway network beyond.

So would it be best to have a big block with say ten to fourteen horses and numerous owners or three smaller yards?

Would people be willing to pay a premium for their own private stables, tack room and paddocks?
As I'm a farmer all maintenance would be carried i.e. weed spraying, topping, harrowing rolling, fencing, stable maintenance etc.

What sort of rate PCM is feasible for each 3/4 stable yard or alternatively per stable if a bigger block.

I don't plan to have a menage initially to spread the investment, but would propose to add one in year 2 or 3.

I quite like doing things a little different but do like to do things to the highest standard possible.

Would some permanent cross country jumps as you'd expect at horse trials be a good idea?

Any input/suggestions would be grateful recieved.
 
From an economic viewpoint you will probably get more income from single stabling, and less risk of several stables standing empty if one person ups and leaves one small yard.
The fields can also be multiple use rather than for one owner.
I would also ask the Local Authority about rates for stabling, is it per stable or per square metre covered area [which increases the cost of an American Barn].
An American barn is preferred by horse managers because it is less labour intensive, but this is not of importance to you as a landlord, I feel that individual stables are more labour intensive but less costly to build, and if you are building them yourself you can have two rows back to back. You can also consider some larger stables and smaller stables with different rents for ponies and for horses.
Several small yards may need more water taps, drains, and concrete. Drains tend to get blocked with shavings.
You may need a ramp for the muck trailer, which has to be reasonably accessible for all.
Round here we owners look for daily turnout in winter and 24.7 in summer, usually different fields. With respect to grass, we really don't want perennial ryegrass, it is too lush and causes problems, so permanent pasture is better, often a few sheep will keep fields in better order and less worms. Some ponies may need to graze a small paddock with minimal grass in spring and autumn to prevent laminitis.
Generally farmers provide hay and or haylage in large bales, each owner will pay £10 or so per week.
Owners do not generally travel too far, so you would be advised to find someone very local to discuss local standards and costs.
If you do not want to get involved in day to day management you have to ensure people visit twice per day to feed and muck out, it might be best to employ a part time yard manger for a few months to get everything set up properly.
With respect to tack and feed rooms, these can be individual or shared, there are pros and cons, and it depends on your set up. You could condsider an adult only yard but this may not stop pilfering!
Look at insurance carefully, SEIB are pretty good on the advice front, ask them about cross country fences.
 
Last edited:
Where are you? Round here in Surrey people will pay a lot for small private set ups and I have in the past paid over the odds for peace and quiet. You might need to have very good contracts stating who is responsible for what repair and maintainance wise - people do not look after yards well sometimes.

Insurance wise I would avoid putting up xc jumps unless you are sure you are covered. If someone has an accident because the ground was not perfect or the jump was not correctly sited/made you might find yourself liable:mad: Stupid I know but worth thinking about in these times of sueing for everything.

MLT is right about small yards meaning more outlay and maintainance but would certainly be very lettable round here. A schooling area would be far more interesting to most people than anything else in the way of jumps or special facilities. If there were several small areas who would be responsible for harrowing the school and maintaining it - again strict rules often need to apply or people take the mickey.
 
Even if there is no arena, there may be a demand for an area for lunging, this may be a round pen:
http://www.roundpen.co.uk/
http://www.naturalhorsetraining.com/roundpens.html
Traditionally these are used for breaking horses in, but I know some people use the bigger ones for training dressage horses, it will be something different, and will satisfy the training needs of some horse owners. The only thing that worries me is the horses getting legs caught in the walls, they may be used for loose jumping, if so the walls need to be high!
In the UK the main thing is a free draining base and a good surface, it is a lot smaller than an arena and can only be used by one person at a time.
 
Thank you for the considered responses so far.

I guess my main thinking behind the thought of offering private yards rather than individual stables, was firstly a reduction in hassle, yes more eggs in one basket but hopefully less management required.
Secondly I hear people often fall out with others at shared DIY yards, where they want to really enjoy their horses they get side tracked into bickering and arguments that can ruin the enjoyment.

I would plan to make the new stables back to back for efficient construction but through, design, fencing and such make them separate to give privacy.

I did think XC could be a little dangerous and yes in todays world perhaps not worth the risk. Sad really.

But yes from reading a few threads on HH, I see menages are much sought after, it would most likely be one menage on site, I guess a simple booking system would work?

Maintenance etc. I would do this all myself, very much a stitch in time and all that. My vision is that apart from the actual horse work, all other maintenance repairs etc. I will take care of and just factor it in to the deal.

If you treat it much as you'd treat renting out a house on an AST, then surely this would reduce the risk of bad payers etc.?
If you take a deposit and payment is a month in advance by standing order, does this not reduce the risk of bad payers, and those dissapering in the middle of the night etc.
 
Yes a good deposit and payable direct debit a month in advance will cut down on the bad payers. I would definitely ask for a written contract to be signed ensuring a months notice (or whatever you see fit).

As you say manege/arena is usually valued highly and a booking system works well at our yard.

We also have no unsupervised children (under 16s) and so it is really an adult yard which is nice - you may want to consider early on how you feel about dogs, children, etc and access - will there be locked gates at night and what time will they be locked. Who will have keys? If people are coming past your residence or onto your land you may want some restrictions in place which could be lifted in emergencies for vets etc.

Will there be storage for hay/shavings individually or will there be a central store where people buy directly from you? Lots of yards do this to save storage.

Lorry parking is another useful thing.
 
Around us there are about three small yards of four horses that have been up for rent as a whole. With about five acres and four stables they have been about £300/month. The individuals are responsible for care and upkeep, they're basically yards that non-horsey people let out..

It sounds as though you are going to be much more hands on, and that the place will be well maintained, so perhaps it wouldn't be that much more bother to simply do DIY. You could still have seperate yards, so that its not so concentrated round one block, however if all the yards were back to back it would defeat the object really. Could you have yards at different ends of a field perhaps, or would that be too much trouble?

If you had three yards sharing a manege, you would have to have a good booking system, and it would involve everyone mingling.

Good luck. Hope you find a system that works for you.

ps, when we did DIY we provided an individual metal tack locker for each stable and a feed/tool room. We didn't have a lot of storage, so it made sense for us to include haylage in the price...
 
Whichever way you decide to go several small blocks is a good idea. It allows you to split people up who do not get on. It allows for storage to be more spread out too and people to be less on top of each other.
 
Bear in mind that the type of people who would want an individual yard are likely to want better facilities

Personally I think individual yards with lockable tack rooms would be a great idea

Do some Market research locally taking in to account existing yards and what they offer
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top