Running a Livery Yard

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Kate_13

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An opportunity has arisen to rent a yard with 8 acres split into 6 fields plus one smaller paddock with post and rail. 12 Stables in an indoor barn. There is however no school. There is access to good hacking, but is on country roads for about a mile to get to. She is looking for £1500 a month to rent. The yard doesn't come with accomodation.

Is this a good offer? Would I need a sand school? Do I need insurance? Do I need to have to pay tax and vat e.t.c ? I have run a small yard of 6 stables but not a big ish yard.

What would you charge for Full livery and part livery. What would be your assumption on hay and bedding costs? My horse goes through loads, especially in winter, just added it up, it's scary!!!

Thanks for your help.
 
It sounds a bit pricey to me... though I guess you are in an expensive county. But with no school I think you might struggle to get full liveries and without full liveries you might struggle to make any profits. We rent 4 stables, full sized school and 7 acres for a quarter of what you've been quoted.

The overheads of livery yards are high... insurance yes... business rates yes... tax yes - if you make a profit... VAT probably not as I unless you fill your 12 boxes with very very rich people's horses I doubt you'd bring in enough income to take you over the threshold.

Making any money out of livery yards is very hard unfortunately.
 
I thought that might be the case, I have always wanted to do it and the little 6 box yard was a private thing, so doesn't count as a business.

Shame, sounded such an opportunity.
 
Agree with what gedenskis_girl said. I wouldnt be paying that for a yard with no school. Furthermore Id never livery anywhere without a school and while this wont be the case for everyone, it will be for a lot of people.

I dont see how you can make much money on that because you're limiting yourself so much by having no school.
 
Sounds a bit pricey and TBH most full/part liveries want a big floodlit arena at least, most want an indoor! Plus other facilities. TBH i think you'd only get DIY liveries prehaps some Part.

Plus thats not a lot of land for 12 horses, especially in the winter unless they are in a lot, which again puts a lot of liveries off a yard.

Anyway thats just my opinion, theres some yards around me with just turnout and stabling for DIY and people don't want to go there! I'm afraid livery is becoming more competitive and livery yards need good facilities (again just my opinion).

Good Luck anyway
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I did question the school thing and she may be tempted to put one in, but I am guessing at the expensive of a school she won't.

Nice dream I suppose. Back to reality for me
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Very quick maths shows me that £1500 per month is equal to £28.85 per box per week. You would need to add you profit margin on to this basic price. Even just for DIY I would guess that even in an expensive area that would price you out of the market.

Sorry but IMO not viable to rent to do livery, especially when you have to add on liability insurance etc.
 
Thats right it isn't viable to rent a yard to do livery, thats why when people say there is in no money in livery yards its when you have to rent a yard. If you have your own land/buildings then thats when the money comes in. No not huge amounts but to make a living.
 
Ok believe me to take on a yard takes a lot .without a school you dont have a hope of being able to charge a livery that will cover your costs. you will need insurance ,not cheap. you will need staff at least one ,minimum wage and thats before you've fed and bedded them' D.I.Y is a nightmare to manage and not have petty squabbling you will never please all of the people all of the time. that is of coarse assuming you can fill all the boxes all the time. Unless you are a trainer or you have a second line of buisness then DONT DO IT!!!!!Sorry to be negative but i pay about £500 more for my yard but i have a school i have staff accomodation great hacking and exellent landlords who are fab with paddock management muck removaland general odd jobs.and i am a trainer end competition rider so i can charge prenium rates for full livery and i STILL struggle. So if you want to avoid stress take my advise!!!!oh and i have 22 boxes so more income potential and im full!!!
 
If you are charging £300 per horse for full livery then you would be earning £3600 per month. You would have to exclude your own horses from this equation and you would have to factor in the cost of hay and feed for these horses.

If you are buying hay for £2.50 per bale and each horse eats 1 bale of hay per day then you are looking at £900 per month on hay.

No idea what your feed bill will be as this is dependant on what you feed but I'd expect it to be no less than £200 per month.

Business insurance is around £300-£400 per year, so roughly £30 a month.

You won't have nearly enough grazing for the horses so you will possibly have to supplement their grazing with hay all year round. And what will you do with the people who only want Full livery over the winter and then want their horses on Grass livery throughout the summer?

So just basic and very approximate costs you are looking at: £1,130 going out each month and £3,600 coming in, with a profit of £2,470 each month and that is without bedding and without paying yourself anything and without your own horses there.

Doesn't sound that lucrative to me, sorry. Whereabouts in Hampshire are you?
 
I would rather look after 15 competition horses than 5 liveries! They are so demanding and to be competitive you need to be able to offer the little extras like washbox indoor/all weather arena etc... Don't rent a yard to do liveries unless you have a bottomless pit of money to live off!!
Sorry to be negative but I have seen so many try and fail. xx
 
Turnout wise you really need 1 ½ acres for the first horse & an acre for each horse after that. You would have 8 acres ( enough for 7 horses) but 12 stables. There really isn’t enough grazing, & you would certainly never be able to rest any pasture. Your paddocks would get parched very quickly.

The rental is way too high, you will be working extremely hard all hours of the day & night & I doubt if you could make a living out of it. I had a friend who had a yard with the same number of stables, more turnout though & a large outdoor school with floodlights & paid significantly less in rent but still couldn’t make a decent living….was permanently knackered as well. After about 18 months gave it up, lost a lot of money.

Really work out the sums with this. You can’t work every day & as soon as you pay someone to cover for you, you are really eating into the money. The hidden costs of Insurance for the yard + 3rd party liability. electricity, water, business rates, maintenance etc will also gobble up the cash. Good luck but be careful
 
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Thats right it isn't viable to rent a yard to do livery, thats why when people say there is in no money in livery yards its when you have to rent a yard. If you have your own land/buildings then thats when the money comes in. No not huge amounts but to make a living.

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Nope, you wont even make a living at it with your own place, better off working at Macdonalds
 
What i mean is i'll let you know in 12 months time.

but i will say i have a relation who has his own livery yard (diversified farm, like mine will be) and hes made quite a lot of money! And yes i know i know it depends on a lot of factors but i've already got about 20 stables filled out of 30, (and nothing has been started yet) without advertising just through word of mouth. But yep we'll see! lol and its not just about money its what i've always wanted to do, for 8 years now and i will have my degree as a back up
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That's really pricey I think. I wouldn't go to a yard for full or part livery - as a client, which hadn't got an outdoor school at least. I would also want lots of hard standing for my lorry, plenty of turnout, really good security and a good tack room.
If you fill all the stables you'll have to have very restricted turn out, so the stables will be considerably more work. 12 horses will be a full time job for you (all in most of the time) they'll eat loads of forage and use up lots of bedding.....
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I owuld want very different circumstances if I were going to run a yard as a business.
I would want that yard for at least half what she's charging for a start.
 
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