Part/full livery yards - keeping organised!

[Horses24-7]

I'm lucky that my yard is doing great increasing from a small set up to what has somewhat grown steadily to a full time management roll and I'm needing to expand with more staff- the help so far has been local freelance help as and when I need cover but going forward I'm looking into more permanent rolls as I cant work long term doing it all !

The yard is middle sized (15horses) so likely to work on part time staff with am and PM shifts but would mean staff working independently

Anyone with similar set ups that can offer any advice as to numbers of staff/shift patterns and ways on the yard to keep everyone informed with changes to horses etc - I'm so used to doing it myself I've become a bit of a control freak and dreading trusting others to work to my same standards. The yard has become somewhat my baby!

The yard is all full livery (no riding/exercising by staff- just ins/outs normal jobs for all 15)

Many thanks for any advice offered

 

[humblepie]

I have seen yards where each horse has a white board outside its stable, so that would be used to write on it things such as leave in being ridden first thing or if medication was needed or standing special instructions such as wears over reach boots in field We have each horse has its own coloured buckets though you may have to go multi patterned with 15!

 

[Littlebear]

My previous yard was around 15 stables, they did a minimum of part livery so had around 10 on part and 5 on full, they had one weekday full time person 8 till 4 and separate weekend staff, often some of the liveries would work the odd weekend days for them for some cash in hand money. I did a few days when they were stuck and to be honest a full day with only 15 to do i found myself trying to fill the time in the middle of the day, i would have everything out, mucked out, hays done, yard swept etc by around 11:30 and then had not alot to do till 2;30pm again so i would do extra bits like clean the loos, de-cobweb take rubbish to the tip etc. So with that size it would be better to have someone say 8 to 11 and someone else 2 to 5 or something like that but its much, much harder to find people for shifts as opposed to a full days work. Unless you would like the extra jobs covered in the middle of each day. They set an hour for lunch but i wouldn't know what to do with myself for a whole hour, i would have a sandwich, sit down for 10mins and then feel bored.
There was a communal long table where feeds were made up for am/pm so it made life easier and everyone had to use the exact same buckets so they could all be stacked easily for the feeding rounds, there was a communal diary so that if there was anything extra that liveries wanted they would just write in, or if they wanted to ride at a certain time for their horses to be left in or bought in a certain time. That place ran like clockwork to a really good standard.

 

[chaps89]

Number each stable and give allocated storage etc for that stable that is also numbered - then each occupant is always that number. Makes it easier if you have multiple staff/staff who aren't regular to say go fetch number 1s rug (from the corresponding number 1 shelf/rack/hook), anyone can do that, rather than go fetch Barneys rug. Same with the field, the horse in stable 1, goes in field 1 (though that only really works if you have individual turnout)
Likewise number feed bowls etc and you know number 1 always goes in stable 1.
Whiteboards in the feed room, again stables 1-15 and what they have, and outside each stable to advise any quirks/special requirements etc for each occupant.

Set your yard up to be as efficient as possible.
Big bins of water can be left to fill up whilst you do a stable with minimum risk of overflowing and making a mess/wasting water but on a reasonable sized yard the water will get used enough that it doesn't stagnate, plus so much easier to then just dunk and fill the water buckets up.
Horses in fields in the order they need to come in and out. So maybe the ones that need to come in first are at the back then you work your way forwards bringing the rest in (so last ones in aren't too far away from everything and likely to get upset) if horses always come in in the same order and it's left to right or back to front it's easy to describe rather than bay horse, red rug 3rd field along on the right.

Personally I'd have someone in to do mornings then someone for the afternoon - fits around other jobs freelancers might have but removes the long days 7-5 that come with full time work but then mean people end up tired, over worked, ill.
If you're employing people rather than using freelancers don't forget to have employers liability insurance, paye, pension and holiday etc set up.

 

[TheMule]

We use OneNote to communicate everything, it's a very easy and flexible system that everyone can access and it updates live. You can then monitor remotely, and keep in touch very easily. We keep a central iPad in the staff room with it on

 

[Jango]

I'm on a similar yard at the moment, each horse has a white board outside its stable with their bedding, feed, boots etc. All bucket feeds are also on a whiteboard in the feed room. We also have a yard WhatsApp and the weekend staff are on there so any requests from us e.g. Leave in this morning can be picked up whichever member of staff is working.

 

[ponyparty]

We use OneNote to communicate everything, it's a very easy and flexible system that everyone can access and it updates live. You can then monitor remotely, and keep in touch very easily. We keep a central iPad in the staff room with it on

No helpful input from me, apart from I bloody love OneNote ?