Opinions on Hunter Livery

[Squirrel3]

Hello, New to the forum.

I was hoping to get a few opinions regarding Hunter Livery.

What would people expect on Hunter Livery and at what price.

Location Oxfordshire -M40 10 minute Drive.

Thank you.

 

[Clodagh]

I can't help for Oxfordshire but a local yard does it and horse is fittened up, plaited, prepared, delivered to meet and your girth checked. You then hand it back at the end of the day and go home. Sounds fab to me! It was, five years ago, about £150 a week locally, more now I expect.

 

[Squirrel3]

Thank you for your reply.

trying to get some feedback from hunting folk with regards to what is expected.

 

[The wife]

I would expect in excess of £200 a week, maybe £220/£240 if transport is included. We used to do 'self drive' hunter livery in the North for £140 a week, 4 years ago. Down in Oxfordshire stuff is obviously much more expensive.

If you take into consideration that on the average none hunting morning said horse will need a minimum of an hour and half dedicated to it for riding, mucking out, turning out (if offered) This can easily increase to 3 hours if clipping and trimming is involved and considering my liveries were clipped every 3 weeks, sometimes fortnighly during the season for some hairy beasts, this time adds up.

Hunting days are usually around 2hours per horse, plus transport time and cost both ways. Once home said horse needs dealing with, this in itself can take a very good hour if a hard and grotty day. We never used to wash off either so was alot of elbow grease, then tack to clean, final checks and rug changes before evening time and at the beginning of the season with young horses, they could break out at random hours of the night, so a last thing check was needed. If one had broken it out it could be 1,2,3am before I would get to bed as I refuse to leave an animal sweating in a rug overnight after a days hunting.

What would I expect for say £240 mark:

Transport to and from meets twice a week up to 20 miles away. Further than this charge £1.00 a mile
All bedding, feed, fodder
Mucking out daily and additional skipping out
Exercise including fittening work and maybe a schooling session or jumping during autumn hunting
Clipping, trimming, pulling
Hunt prep before meet
Horse arrives tacked up and plaited ready for mounting at meet
Horse handed over to groom after meet while owner can go for tea
After hunt care

Basically everything!

 

[Starzaan]

I used to have a yard in Gloucestershire, close to the Oxfordshire border, and I charged £250 a week for hunting livery.

This included EVERYTHING - bedding (shavings, paper or straw), feed, ad lib forage, tack cleaning every day, full care of the horse - mucking out, turnout, skipping out at 10pm late checks, grooming, clipping trimming, pulling and plaiting, exercise, and transport to and from the meet and second horses. If a client was doing second horses, my hunters took up my whole day. They are A LOT of work, so I would expect to pay for that if someone else was doing it. There were times when I was out on the yard at 4am to feed and start plaiting, and then still out on the yard at 9pm washing off hunters and cleaning tack. (I would always clean hunt tack as soon as the horses were washed off and in their boxes - much quicker, and better for the tack - stops it drying out and cracking).

I would expect to pay a fair whack in the area you're in. Hunters are a lot of work and take up a lot of time if done properly.

 

[Squirrel3]

I would expect in excess of £200 a week, maybe £220/£240 if transport is included. We used to do 'self drive' hunter livery in the North for £140 a week, 4 years ago. Down in Oxfordshire stuff is obviously much more expensive.

If you take into consideration that on the average none hunting morning said horse will need a minimum of an hour and half dedicated to it for riding, mucking out, turning out (if offered) This can easily increase to 3 hours if clipping and trimming is involved and considering my liveries were clipped every 3 weeks, sometimes fortnighly during the season for some hairy beasts, this time adds up.

Hunting days are usually around 2hours per horse, plus transport time and cost both ways. Once home said horse needs dealing with, this in itself can take a very good hour if a hard and grotty day. We never used to wash off either so was alot of elbow grease, then tack to clean, final checks and rug changes before evening time and at the beginning of the season with young horses, they could break out at random hours of the night, so a last thing check was needed. If one had broken it out it could be 1,2,3am before I would get to bed as I refuse to leave an animal sweating in a rug overnight after a days hunting.

What would I expect for say £240 mark:

Transport to and from meets twice a week up to 20 miles away. Further than this charge £1.00 a mile
All bedding, feed, fodder
Mucking out daily and additional skipping out
Exercise including fittening work and maybe a schooling session or jumping during autumn hunting
Clipping, trimming, pulling
Hunt prep before meet
Horse arrives tacked up and plaited ready for mounting at meet
Horse handed over to groom after meet while owner can go for tea
After hunt care

Basically everything!

Thank you, that's very interesting and helpful

I would be offering 'self drive' hunter livery and everything you mentioned will be compulsory for each horse including year round turnout.

Out of interest are you a livery yard offering hunter livery or a family/hunting yard offering it, and how many stables did you have and what occupancy.

Thank you.

 

[Squirrel3]

I used to have a yard in Gloucestershire, close to the Oxfordshire border, and I charged £250 a week for hunting livery.

This included EVERYTHING - bedding (shavings, paper or straw), feed, ad lib forage, tack cleaning every day, full care of the horse - mucking out, turnout, skipping out at 10pm late checks, grooming, clipping trimming, pulling and plaiting, exercise, and transport to and from the meet and second horses. If a client was doing second horses, my hunters took up my whole day. They are A LOT of work, so I would expect to pay for that if someone else was doing it. There were times when I was out on the yard at 4am to feed and start plaiting, and then still out on the yard at 9pm washing off hunters and cleaning tack. (I would always clean hunt tack as soon as the horses were washed off and in their boxes - much quicker, and better for the tack - stops it drying out and cracking).

I would expect to pay a fair whack in the area you're in. Hunters are a lot of work and take up a lot of time if done properly.

Thank you for your reply. Super interesting.

How many hunter liveries did you have in roughly.

In terms of owners did you have much time with them or was it solely hunt days?

Thank you.

 

[The wife]

Thank you, that's very interesting and helpful

I would be offering 'self drive' hunter livery and everything you mentioned will be compulsory for each horse including year round turnout.

Out of interest are you a livery yard offering hunter livery or a family/hunting yard offering it, and how many stables did you have and what occupancy.

Thank you.

We were a livery yard (Rented stables and land from a DIY livery yard and hunter liveries alongside breakers and schoolers) Quit in 2014 as it didn't make any money in this area.

We had 4 in maximum as there was only myself and sister and our own. We felt any more than this we could not give enough attention and care to as at the time we had 4 or 5 in of our own and usually a (or a couple of) breakers/schoolers in also. I can't remember having more than 4 anyway!

I would say you wouldn't be far off with £200 then as it would potentially leave the afternoons free for you once horse(s) had been taken off hunting for clipping/freelance stuff or sleep! People don't realise how much work hunters are and only see the pretty meet picture, they often don't see the grim and dirt afterwards or the riding work in a howling gale. As Starzaan has said, it's the 4am starts to feed up and the late nights changing rugs. I remember in my first season as head girl down in East Anglia for a MFH, we often had 8-10 out as offered hirelings as well. This was a yard of 15 horses with just 3 members of staff. I don't know how I did it back then, we would often start at 4 and still be cleaning tack at gone 10 and would do last sweep and skip, rug changes and night feeds at 11 on hunt days. Over Christmas we did this for 14 days solid with just Xmas day as a half day (We rode and led 2 each) and the Sundays as not hunting days. It got to the end and I thought I was going to die! I had never been so tired. Mind you, every horse looked immaculate - chalked socks, show plaits and gleaming tack and well fed for their workload. My god they were fit (As were we!) and looked very well for it (We didn't) I even had someone comment on one horse who had done 50 odd days that season - Might have been even more, at whether it was a youngster coming out for a jolly as it looked so well! This was maybe 8-10 years ago - You would struggle to find young groom to do it now!

All worth it. Sorry I am reminiscing now! I do sometimes miss those days until winter comes until I look out of my window in my nice warm conservatory office

ETA: I actually found the further into the season you got with them the easier it gets actually. You kind of get into a routine of just doing things automatically without thinking and also the fitter the animals are and the more they hunt, the less work they need. To me it's this time of year that is time consuming. Hours and hours of walk work, all of ours did a minimum of 4 weeks walking, this was the same as yard above where I were head girl. It's goddam boring and hurts you bum and takes so much time. Riding and leading more than 1 these days isn't safe unless you can get off the roads and so it becomes monotonous - I actually prefer to be in the thick of the season, plus having to get 6-8 horses ready for cubbing isn't fun as I used to panic my alarm wouldn't go off and so not sleep a wink!

 

[Starzaan]

Thank you for your reply. Super interesting.

How many hunter liveries did you have in roughly.

In terms of owners did you have much time with them or was it solely hunt days?

Thank you.

No problem, I had six in total and then other full and part liveries as well. I only ever saw my hunting owners on the days they were hunting. Only one would ever come and ride his horse during the summer, the others only met me at the meet and then handed the horse back at the end of the day. To be honest, that's the way I liked it.

It is the same on the yard I work at now. We have just finished our last season doing hirelings and hunter liveries, with up to thirty horses going out on any one day. Now that was incredibly hard work!

ETA - one thing to remember is that you will have money coming in, but absolutely NO LIFE in the season, and no money at all but all the time in the world during the summer.

 

[The wife]

No problem, I had six in total and then other full and part liveries as well. I only ever saw my hunting owners on the days they were hunting. Only one would ever come and ride his horse during the summer, the others only met me at the meet and then handed the horse back at the end of the day. To be honest, that's the way I liked it.

It is the same on the yard I work at now. We have just finished our last season doing hirelings and hunter liveries, with up to thirty horses going out on any one day. Now that was incredibly hard work!

Ouch! All credit to you for this. That is some quantity.

Regarding owners, I did too and even more so from breakers! I know it sounds really bad but the less I had to do with them the better as they too are time consuming as I always felt obliged to make some form of chit chat and I don't do that well.

 

[Starzaan]

Ouch! All credit to you for this. That is some quantity.

Regarding owners, I did too and even more so from breakers! I know it sounds really bad but the less I had to do with them the better as they too are time consuming as I always felt obliged to make some form of chit chat and I don't do that well.

I loved my owners but it does make life easier when they aren't around. You can crack on with your day to day routine as normal. For instance, where I am now I am assistant manager on a very large riding school, livery and polo yard. We have an hour for lunch between 1 and 2pm which is usually desperately needed after a morning of mucking out and riding and before an afternoon teaching until late. An owner called the other day at 1pm to say he would be there in twenty minutes to ride his horse. We hadn't heard from this particular owner for about two months, and his horse was out in the field having his day off. So we had to scrabble some staff out of their lunch break to catch in, groom and tack him up, only for said owner to then call at 2pm to say he was stuck in traffic and wouldn't be with us until 3pm. ARGH!

 

[Squirrel3]

The wife, I'm glad your reminiscing. Thank you.

I would be offering 4 stables, for the reasons you have listed. Im meticulous about standards so the intention is to offer the best possible services.

What did owners do with horses out of season? And did you use word of mouth for advertising?

Thanks

 

[Starzaan]

Most of my owners took their horses home for the summer. Only two stayed with me, but they had their shoes pulled off and were on just £30 a week grass livery.

I used word of mouth, adverts in local feed and tack shops, and had my car sign wrapped and clothing made up with details on it. I was a walking driving advert for my yard!