People who work at the yard where they keep a horse..

[ginatina]

If you keep your horse at the yard where you also work, I'm really interested to hear your experiences?

How do you balance your time between paid work/looking after your own horse? Do you only look after your horse before/after work, or is there some kind of agreement built into your day? Do you pay any livery bills, or do you do a straight swap of sacrificing some salary for your horse's expenses?

Are there ever an issues that come up where the owner is annoyed because you're spending time on your own horse, and not theirs/liveries?

I'm considering offering this to a staff member at my yard, and am interested to see how it works for others?

Grateful for any shared advice, thank you

 

[Rowreach]

I worked at a large equestrian centre where free livery was offered as part of the package to staff members who had completed a 6 month induction period. It included stable/bedding/haylage/basic feed and any or all extras were paid by the owner. Staff horses were all mucked out and fed and put on the walker along with the other liveries and centre horses, but all other jobs like riding, clipping and so on happened after work.

We found that including staff horses with all the others made for more efficient running of the yard and prevented that thing of people seemingly spending too much work time with their horse - often they didn’t even muck out their own as we worked in blocks.

 

[Flowerofthefen]

I worked at an equestrian centre years ago and had my 3 horses there. Had to pay livery. They were done before and after work. Unfortunately after doing other horses all day I didn't want to do my own so I had to change jobs.

 

[adamntitch]

Same as above mine was just treated like every other horse and done with the rest did pay if I wanted a stable but grass livery was free

 

[Zoeypxo]

I keep mine at work for free but she lives out with the others, use of stable if i need it. I buy my own feed but use yard haylage.
If working i bring her in at the same time as livery horses and turn out at same time as livery horses go out so im not making a special trip just for mine in work time.
Also i ride at lunch break time
Liveries get priority over school bookings so staff just fit in around them.

 

[Birker2020]

If you keep your horse at the yard where you also work, I'm really interested to hear your experiences?

How do you balance your time between paid work/looking after your own horse? Do you only look after your horse before/after work, or is there some kind of agreement built into your day? Do you pay any livery bills, or do you do a straight swap of sacrificing some salary for your horse's expenses?

Are there ever an issues that come up where the owner is annoyed because you're spending time on your own horse, and not theirs/liveries?

I'm considering offering this to a staff member at my yard, and am interested to see how it works for others?

Grateful for any shared advice, thank you

I worked at my livery yard years ago when I was in between temp contracts, I did about 6 weeks of week days. I loved it but it was hard work.
The only thing the YO said was to make sure that turning your own horse in/out or mucking it out didn't take up time meant to be working for her so I was always careful about this and that was fair enough.

 

[dogatemysalad]

On our yard, staff members pay livery like everyone else and do their horses outside of working hours.

 

[hottoddy]

We have an apprentice with a horse on our yard. Horse is done during work hours and turned out, brought in, mucked out with the others. She works 8-1 and 3.30-5.30 so has time to ride in the middle of the day but does have 2 lessons per week during work time.
Horse is done for her on days off and holidays. She pays a reduced livery rate.

 

[Fieldlife]

The issues can be the other way round, I was at a yard where three members of staff shared livery horses. They would be there to ride their share horse after work / on days off, and other liveries would all assume they could ask for assistance / have a moan about something / talk about their own horse's needs. It wasnt very relaxing for staff.

 

[humblepie]

I am sure you know, but you can't set horse livery off against paying the National Minimum Wage. The doing their horse in with the others seems to make sense with riding in their own time.

 

[AandK]

I worked at a yard full/part livery yard for about 18months, about 21yrs ago. I had my horse (my late mare) there on livery, I did get a reduced fee and it was taken out of my wage packet. She was fed/turned out/mucked out (by me) with all the other horses on the yard, and also done for me on my day off (Sunday). I would usually ride in my lunch break, which was 2hrs, so plenty. It was a really good job, and well paid! Had to leave as I moved and it was too far to drive in the end, got a 'proper job' (my parents words!) about 2yrs later.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I worked in a full livery yard years ago and kept my horse there I did my own horse during the week along with my other horses I had to do but riding had to be done in my own time, I only worked Monday to Friday so she was done by the weekend staff when I wasn't there, I actually really loved working there I didn't earn loads of money but the people I worked for were so lovely everyone got on and it was probably the best place I ever worked.

 

[Otherwise]

When I had mine at work I paid the diy rate, on my day off he'd be turned out and brought in but I had to muck out and groom him, on holidays he was looked after at no extra cost. Staff horses were all done during work hours including riding. We worked long hours though with only 30 mins for lunch, if I had had to ride after working for 12 hours I wouldn't have had a horse. If I hadn't had the horse there I wouldn't have stayed for so long, I put up with a lot because I was getting 5 lessons a week on my horse. If someone was taking too long with their horse they got told to hurry up, same as if they took too long on any other job.

 

[Roasted Chestnuts]

Have done and I’d never do it again. Did all my work then go ride my own to then have people moaning that I wasn’t on the yard if I went for a hack. There was one vindictive cow that wasn’t even a livery that complained I wasn’t on the yard at bringing in time in the summer at exactly 5pm. It was a glorious night and I got back to the yard at 5.10pm and untacked and had the horses in by 5.40pm. Ten min after the usual end time of 5.30 as I had 15 to fetch in. Told them if there was going to be an issue with ten mins then I was gone. I worked there for about 10 yrs so it wasn’t like I was new or untrustworthy. I ended up moving my horse and leaving as that twat was jealous I think and just kept grinding that I was putting my horse before the full liveries by not being there at exactly 5pm that day.

 

[ihatework]

It’s a question that will get a variety of answers and there is no set way.

I’ve seen it done a few ways.

To have it transparent and beneficial to both parties then I’d generally say that if staff horses are part of a big yard system then they just get incorporated into that system in terms of mucking out/feeding etc. With/without a surcharge for consumables depending on the package you wish to offer. Any specific horse time (grooming/trimming/riding etc) is done outside of core paid working hours.

If it’s not a big yard system it can sometimes just be better to effectively offer a DIY stable with all horse interaction in staff own time.

 

[Leandy]

It seems to me the question is how big is the benefit you want to provide to the staff member? So decide what type of livery arrangement you are offering either free or subsidised and then that service should be provided to the horse during usual working hours - whether it is the owner staff member or another staff member who does it. Then anything in addition to the livery service should be done outside working hours. So if you want to provide free DIY, then they would not be entitled to do their own horse in work time at all and should pay for feed, bedding etc. On the other hand, if you want to provide full livery, then everything should be provided as for other full liveries and so they should be able to provide normal full livery service to their own horse during work time and all bedding, hay, feed etc provided. I would think of it that way.

 

[teapot]

If you keep your horse at the yard where you also work, I'm really interested to hear your experiences?

How do you balance your time between paid work/looking after your own horse? Do you only look after your horse before/after work, or is there some kind of agreement built into your day? Do you pay any livery bills, or do you do a straight swap of sacrificing some salary for your horse's expenses?

Are there ever an issues that come up where the owner is annoyed because you're spending time on your own horse, and not theirs/liveries?

I'm considering offering this to a staff member at my yard, and am interested to see how it works for others?

Grateful for any shared advice, thank you

The staff in one of my last jobs paid a staff livery price and were invoiced like the rest of the liveries. They were too busy with the job for any time on their own horses though so I vividly remember walking in pre 8am to find them schooling before their shift started. Please please consider the work life balance because certainly in my old job, they never ever got a break from the place, or indeed clients.