New Livery Yard Prospect

C

claireulike3

Member
Joined
21 September 2009
Messages
13
www.brinsealanesatbles.co.uk
Hi Everyone

I am thinking of taking over and re-vamping Mendip Trekking centre, and turning it in to a full livery yard.

I have previous knowledge of running and managing small equestrian businesses but not of this scale. It is a joint venture with my close friend who is also very experienced in the world of horses.

We are both commited and hard working and live for horses, so we know how much hard work this will be including the endless hours it will take to market and provide a top quality service.

Our aim is horse comfort and owners peice of mind. I am also qualified in merishia equine massage as well as having done equine studies @ uni, so i am very confident and comfortable working in the horse world.

There is alot of opportunity in this area to have a thriving livery buisness, as the location is rural and the hacking amazing.

But the main reason for me posting on here is not only to promote the new prospect, but to get valid feedback from horse people themselves.

What would you be looking for in a livery yard?
Does anybody have any ideas we could introduce at the yard?
What do people want?

Please check out my previous experiences Brinsea Lane Stables
 
Take a deposit from each new livery, in case of any damage or them doing a moonlight flit.

Get a contract drawn up of of the rules and get them to sign it.
 
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Take a deposit from each new livery, in case of any damage or them doing a moonlight flit.

Get a contract drawn up of of the rules and get them to sign it.

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Thankyou for the deposit idea. I have a contract drawn up allready from previous livery yard.
 
For me, I like piece of mind. I pay full livery fees, and I pay the high prices for piece of mind. I like knowing that if I were to be hellish busy at work, or away for a week, that the horse would be well looked after and happy.
The facilities you offer should reflect the price too. I don't mind paying extra if the facilities are good and they are available for use. Be careful of each livery having their own instructor. It can get very messy and arena access can become a problem. One qualified on site instrucor for all liveries makes life easier.
Hope that helps! good luck :-)
 
Ahh good luck with it
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As other have said get liveries to pay a deposit
It may also be useful to have times when each horse has to be fed by ie 9am. I hate seeing horses left in there stables until 11am without any food whilst all their friends have been fed and are now enjoying lots of grass in their fields.
 
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The facilities you offer should reflect the price too. I don't mind paying extra if the facilities are good and they are available for use.

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There is a reasonable size arena and a small practice xc, but i would need to acess whether that is usable first. Brillient hacking opportunities as situated by the mendips

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Be careful of each livery having their own instructor. It can get very messy and arena access can become a problem. One qualified on site instrucor for all liveries makes life easier.
Hope that helps! good luck :-)

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Yes i would recommend one or two instructors depending on discipline for the riders, otherwise it would be nightmare. I would also have a time slot allocation system for lessons. Allowing enough time for those just wishing to exercise to have a chance of using the arena
 
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For me, I like piece of mind. I pay full livery fees, and I pay the high prices for piece of mind. I like knowing that if I were to be hellish busy at work, or away for a week, that the horse would be well looked after and happy.
The facilities you offer should reflect the price too. I don't mind paying extra if the facilities are good and they are available for use. Be careful of each livery having their own instructor. It can get very messy and arena access can become a problem. One qualified on site instrucor for all liveries makes life easier.
Hope that helps! good luck :-)

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That would drive me nuts and there is no way I would move to a livery yard which told me who could and could not teach me.

Re lesson booking slots, the yard I am on now there doesn't seem to be much of an issue, where I was before there was a diary for booking lessons/sole use of arena which you could do up to 7 days in advance. Seemed to work fine, but TBH unless you are having a lesson then I really think on a livery yard people should be prepared to share the arena.
 
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It may also be useful to have times when each horse has to be fed by ie 9am. I hate seeing horses left in there stables until 11am without any food whilst all their friends have been fed and are now enjoying lots of grass in their fields.

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Thats why i am thinking of having a full livery system as all the horses would be fed at the same time, and turned out.

Also thinking as there is only 7 avaliable loose boxes for full livery, and that i would offer a full grass livery for up to 7 more horses offering them a stall for when they want to bring their horse in.
 
I wouldnt go to a yard that had restrictions on which instructor you could use. I think if you have a booking system, then it works. You just have to make sure that people dont abuse it by booking the same slot every day. I think there was a post a couple of weeks ago about booking systems and there were lots of variations depending on the yard and how busy the school was but lots of good ideas.

If looking at full livery I want to know exactly what is included:

1. Rugs - any limit i.e. some yards only change 1 so you cant layer
2. turnout boots etc - are these extra?
3. applying flyspray/sunscreen etc again are these extra?
4. how many bales of shavings/straw, how many sections of hay per day, any change if horse on box rest? what feed is available and how many times horses are fed i.e. 2 or 3 times a day?
5. assume holding for vet/farrier included, does this include changing bandages/poulitces etc?
6. feeding times (some yards feed at 2pm and then the staff leave!)

the rest of the stuff is the standard questions for livery yards, turnout times, closing times, worming programme etc.
 
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Re lesson booking slots, the yard I am on now there doesn't seem to be much of an issue, where I was before there was a diary for booking lessons/sole use of arena which you could do up to 7 days in advance. Seemed to work fine, but TBH unless you are having a lesson then I really think on a livery yard people should be prepared to share the arena.

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That would be the type of system i was on about, as long as someone books in advance, then others can use the arena around those times.

Obviously if people really wish to use their own instructor then im sure ther would be no problem. I would recommend trusted instructors to those who dint have one. From my own experiences people moving yards often change instructor if theirs is not willing to travel.
 
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1. Rugs - any limit i.e. some yards only change 1 so you cant layer

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no limit on rug layers thats rediculous, that comes down to caring for each indivdual horses requirement

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2. turnout boots etc - are these extra?

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Again this is not opportunity to charge, i would rather protect the horse from getting injured

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3. applying flyspray/sunscreen etc again are these extra?

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I would charge a little extra for this

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4. how many bales of shavings/straw, how many sections of hay per day, any change if horse on box rest? what feed is available and how many times horses are fed i.e. 2 or 3 times a day?

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On a full livery yard each horse would be provided with enough bedding. All feed requirements would be catered for within reason, if they required supplements then they would have to provide this themselves. All horses would be subject to 2 feeds aday unless otherwise stated, if an extra luch time feed was needed then there would be a slight charge.

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5. assume holding for vet/farrier included, does this include changing bandages/poulitces etc?

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Yes medical requirements only would not be chargeable

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6. feeding times (some yards feed at 2pm and then the staff leave!)

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As the staff would be myself and partner, maybe a student as well (future prospects) then mornings would start from 7.30 feed, hay and turnout. Evenings start from 4 bringing in, feeding etc unless otherwise stated. i found working to strict routines is best for horse care. Worming would be done on a system basis through the livery yard and charged as an extra. It is very important all horses are done at the same, it is pointless otherwise.
 
[quoteOn a full livery yard each horse would be provided with enough bedding.

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This would put me off. I would want to know that I was getting 2 bales of shavings (and the type) or 3 bales of straw a week etc and how many sections of hay my horse was being fed. Some yards think 2 sections is ad-lib!
 
Agreed. I have had horses full livery on several yards over the years and the amount of bedding/haylage has always been an area for dispute! I would much rather the price said 2 bales of shavings inc p/w - more available at cost. I also agree that hay/lage should be offered ablib and if the owner wants to top up horses net then that should be fine. Imo if you need to restrict the amount of forage available then you are proabably not charging enough to cover your costs.
 
I think you need to sit down and do a proper business plan - as much bedding as required will either bankrupt you with a messy horse or lead to unhappy clients if you think the horse is fine and they do not. I've looked at the other site - 4 stables to a proper sized yard is a hell of a leap - where else have you worked?

Being a bit brutally honest, this thread doesn't inspire me with confidence about how experienced you are in order to run a business well (and profitably) - and I'm in the general area of where you are planning to rent.

If I were you, I'd sit down with my friend, do a proper business plan then make an appointment with business link (a free service provided by the government and extremely helpful) and see what advice they can give you. Ditto with an accountant (first appointment is usually free).

I speak from experience as I have set up a business within the last year (and believe me, in the middle of a recession, when people are cutting back on things like full/part livery, this is a risky step to take!).

Have a look on manage My Horse too - they have a 'manage my business' section and Cate's drop-down lists are usually incredibly comprehensive and may trigger some thoughts about things you have forgotten.
 
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This would put me off. I would want to know that I was getting 2 bales of shavings (and the type) or 3 bales of straw a week etc and how many sections of hay my horse was being fed. Some yards think 2 sections is ad-lib!

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Unless specifically specified it would be standard shavings from mendip shavings or straw. All horses require different amounts of bedding so is unfair to say untill the horse is on the yard. All horses would have sufficient amounts of bedding, i like them to be comfortable and minimise the risk of becoming cast or hurting themselves. Of course if required i would give a limit of roughly 2 bales of shavings a week, this is noramlly sufficient in past experinces, but again these are all rough ideas that need to be looked into. size of stable and how messy/wet the horse is all contribute

horses would fed according to owners instructions, advise given if requested.

We are a yard looking to cater for all needs, we are not looking to tell anyone how to look after their own horse, as there are too many overpowering yards out there already.

Advise will always be happily given if asked for.
 
I think you need to set an amount covered in the terms of livery otherwise you will have pi$$ed off owners wondering why their clean horse is getting less bedding than the dirty horse but paying the same etc.
 
Exactly, I have 1 clean horse and 1 incredibly messy horse - clean horse had 1 bale of shavings and messy horse had 3 bales (each were allocated 2). If I only had messy horse I would expect 2 bales to be put in, regardless of whether he needed it.

If bedding is an issue, you could have it separate and then liveries can decide for themselves what they will have. Just be aware that some people will have very thick beds which of course take longer to muck out. One yard that I know only allowed people to have a maximum of 2 bales of shavings (only 1 included in the price) if any more was put in, they were charged extra to muck out out.
 
I viewed Mendip trecking centre last week.

Whilst the owner is open to you basically doing whatever you want its is going to be a huge money pit.

The menage is going to need serious attention as it has been used to let coaches park and turn round in.
Also, i am aware they are working on the access to the fields and school but the main field is one hell of a walk from the actual yard - would certainly put most liveries off walking that far i should think.

Also when i asked about lorry parking i was told it would be difficult as the owner is still going to park cars outside the main gate to the yard.

When i asked they did say they would maybe rent both yards at a smaller rental price - would mean you got 6 decent stables on the bottom yard and the use of the grazing up the main driveway.

Oh yeah - the main barn has no stable doors and is mainly pens - its going to be a huge outlay.
It does have the potential to be a nice yard but i dont have the £££££ to put inot a project that big - i wish you luck if you do go for it though!

ETS - that all sounded so negative - what im trying to say is that with the outlay involved in getting it right - be absolutly certain you can afford to do it - would be awful to do all that work and then not have the business coming in.
 
I'd never move to a yard that didn't let me take my own instructor.

All you need to make that workable is a system for booking exclusive use of the school for lessons. I'd say that you only book the school for lessons and that generally people should share and that perhaps bookings arenn't allowed at peak times, if your school is generally busy.
 
Hi C! Sounds very exciting!

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That would drive me nuts and there is no way I would move to a livery yard which told me who could and could not teach me.

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Ditto this... I would want to have my own instructor who I have built up a good working relationship with over a number of years. I have discounted livery yards in the past because of this, and also ones that charge for you to have an outside instructor. Fair enough if it's a riding school, but not on a livery yard.

Another consideration is are you sure you can fill the stables? I don't know the area particularly well, but do know that it's a horsey area and there are other successful yards in the area. I honestly don't know what the demand is for full livery in that area so can't really say!!!
 
Ditto not being happy not having my own instructor I'm afraid. There is no way I would want lessons with anyone else.
If you are concerned it may be an issue I would have it that you can't book the school in the peak times, say between 5 - 7 weekdays or you share. Our yard has this so I take the time off to have lessons on a thursday afternoon when I can have it for myself. Otherwise I would have to share which personally I'd prefer not to.
 
re: work experience, i have been yard manager on three top equestrian centers. From dressage yards to riding schools. I started working at a riding school as a volunteer from a very young age, until i was old enough to work, i then progressed to sole charge and manager of a well know dressage stables of 20+ horses.

Working with horses costing a minimum of double figures certaining requires around the clock care and attention to detail. so i would say im more than capable of the task ahead especially with a friend who has alot of experience too. This venture has been in the pipe line for about a year, but the yard we were going to take over last year just didnt meet our requirements or standards we would like, the main issue of course being the fact, it didnt have an arena, which is essential.

We have sat down and put together a business plan before, with an exprienced person in that field, and are well aware of the costs involved and the planning structure needed.

As i said i would recomend bedding be kept to roughly 2 bales of shavings, i did say it depends on horse, if more than average were required then obviously it would be chargeable. Perhaps i should have explained myself better.

As you have said and i agree i do need to sit down again and go over plans, as this is all a rough idea from the last plan, times and prices have changed since.

But im on here to mainly gather helpful ideas, points of veiw and general help, so keep them coming
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I still notice people saying about not having there own instructor, i have said i could recommend others i know for people who arnt able to bring theres with them, but i know people like to bring there own so i have no problem with this as long as its booked in advance and not in peak hours unless they are willing to share the arena.

I have just been to see mendip trekking center, and i agree, it would be a money pitt, there is of course potential but probally only if you knocked it down and started again lol!

It is in total diss-repair!

So it looks like the search continues...................
 
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