people wiv there own yard!!

It totally depends on, whereabouts in the country you are (rates seem to vary a lot), what facilities you have, and if you can offer any services. Also if it's a friend you might want to charge them a bit less than the standard local rate? You might want to work out a deal where they turnout or muck out yours once a week to allow you to have a lie in, either for a reduced rate, or you do the same for them once a week?

Find out what local liveries with similar facilities charge, and base it on that.

It's definitely very handy having a trustworthy livery on your yard for company and who can help you out in an emergency.
 
I think you would have to be quite careful if you charged someone less even if it was a friend. If the other liveries found out they were paying more than the friend it could possibly be a cause for an 'us and them' scenario.
 
We used to do livery for two friends. We charged £30/ week to include stable, all year turnout, rubber mats and tack lockers plus ad-lib haylage. They could also park trailers, and use out XC and SJs in the summer. We were 5 mins away from two arenas. We didn't draw up an agreement as we knew them, and were quite badly mucked around by them, so would definately recommend doing so. We had so many problems with their horses trashing fences, or bullying our ponies and ripping rugs etc that it was actually starting to cost us money. We have since stopped doing livery full stop! Just changing from shavings to straw saved us more than we were making in livery. Be very sure of what you're letting yourself into!
 
I charge the same rates, for the same service, as I do everyone else.

Friends horse or not, it still costs me to feed and care for it, I still take the same time to do hers as the others in my care.
 
I have 2 friends at mine for livery.

The first one is charged £40 a month, for grass, a shelter, water of course, and poo-picking once a week whenever the weather allows......

The second one is charged £50 a month for the same. The reason the first one pays a tenner less is that she wanted my old boy in with her mare for company (even though they were next to each other) and she feeds him for me once a day when she feeds hers.....food for my boy bought by me of course..she just gives him the bucket!

The arrangement works well for all concerned! :D
 
I rent my yard and shared with a friend at first which worked well. She paid £50 a month for stable, storage and grazing. She has now put her horse into livery due to work commitments but I'm very dubious about taking on someone else. I don't want to end up looking after someone else's horse although sharing visits would be better. However the real thing that puts me off is the fact I could be classed as providing livery and need to be insured etc for that. I'm looking at putting mine into livery too now.
 
enfys said:
I charge the same rates, for the same service, as I do everyone else.

Friends horse or not, it still costs me to feed and care for it, I still take the same time to do hers as the others in my care.
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Agree. I used to keep my horse on a friend's yard (have my own place now - yeah!!) and expected to pay the same as everyone else. In fact, we were very particular to be scrupulously fair. If I did any favours for her, like working for her if she was away or needed a day off, then she would reduce my bill, but otherwise we both preferred it to be on business terms. That way neither of us ever felt in an awkward position and many years later we are still the best of friends.
 
My parents have three like that! They don't run a livery business, the house just has some fields and stables. They charge £15 per week, that's for field and a stable.
 
Um, dare I say this ..... beware of having a "friend" as a livery; personally I would want to keep the two relationships separate.

I had a "friend of a friend" as a livery (I have my own place and have room for two liveries); and it was awful, just really bad. She was paying for DIY livery but basically took the p**s and started expecting me to look after hers when she was away (which was quite a lot), and then went on to upset both my vet and my farrier.

So I would make sure that if I had a "friend", that we would both take the precaution of sitting down and going through a livery agreement.

How much? Difficult one this. I live in Devon, we're easily accessible from major roads plus on bus route. Riding is OK'ish - tho' could be much better as bridleways are very thin on the ground and so you have to hack on the road quite a lot ..... but it could be worse. I charge £15 per week per horse on a strictly DIY arrangement. For that they get their own loosebox, 3 acres of year-round turnout, their own space to store feed, and I live on the premises 24/7. In an emergency I could be available to attend the vet and/or farrier, and if I did that I would charge £10 per incident. They would have to supply their own hay and feed.
 
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