Starting from scratch - stables / yard

[Jellymoon]

If she’s not at all horsey, the kindest thing you can do is advise her NOT under any circumstances to have a livery yard at her home!! Seriously!

Just wait until the daughter gets properly horsey. If they really need to make it pay, I would encourage her to look at other options...

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I have to agree people don't really get rich having a livery yard, I would be inclined to put up a few stables and rent a few just so the daughter has some company.

 

[Muddywellies]

That makes a lot of sense! I was thinking of a mounting block as I have giants, you always base these things on your own experience don’t you.

I had a look today and told her she really needs to think about whether they want the disruption. It’s down a single track lane (that they own) and there are two other houses that have access. They need to be sure their neighbours (one in particular would be quite close) are ready for quite a few cars to be arriving and leaving, potentially very early in the morning. She also said she’d like the stables overlooking the house as she’d like to see the horses tucked up for the night but when I pointed out that would also mean liveries being able to see in (her house is very open) she realised it might not be a great idea. There’s plenty of room to have them tucked out of the way though.

The land is great, although a there’s a fairly busy (thanks to lockdown) public footpath through one of the fields. It would probably be ok in winter with fewer walkers but it’s also closest to the river so might be too wet in winter. I’ve walked the dog through it quite a lot and never really noticed it being wet but I wasn’t looking at it with these eyes then! The other three fields are great though, decent, well established hedges all the way round. I think she’d want to rent it as a whole rather than having individual liveries, more to limit the number of people there than anything so I’m thinking 4 or 5 stables would be plenty and that would mean not having to use that river field. My only concern at the moment is access to the main field from the yard at the moment is effectively through their (albeit large) garden. I think they’ll need to put another gateway in to avoid disruption and keep their kids and dogs safe. I’m going to write it all up so she has time to read it properly and think about it.

I think she’s a long way off the specifics of what to have at the moment and really needs to focus on whether to do it at all first.

I'm not sure it's ideal to be let out, for all the reasons stated. Plus, with other properties close by, she'd need a very experienced planning agent as it would be very tricky to get PP for a commercial yard. Sounds like a none starter to me tbh, and much better kept for private use.

 

[Annagain]

I'm not sure it's ideal to be let out, for all the reasons stated. Plus, with other properties close by, she'd need a very experienced planning agent as it would be very tricky to get PP for a commercial yard. Sounds like a none starter to me tbh, and much better kept for private use.

I'm coming to the same conclusion although I don't think commercial yard is the best description in that sense that she wouldn't be actively managing it. It would be more a small yard to rent to one or two people. I think I'd put in a bit of a hardcore yard, some storage and a mobile field shelter and leave it at that.

I've promised to write it all down so she can consider all the pros and cons so I'm doing that at the moment. Those of you who rent sole use yards, who is responsible for rolling / harrowing and muck heap removal - the landowner or the renter? Anything else along those lines I need to think about? I'm used to livery where it's all done for you without you really thinking about it! I assume this would be part of the contract either way (along with frequency or remove when it reaches a certain size requirements) but just wondered what the norm is.

I've said as the landowner it would be best if she was responsible for all hedges and fences as that way she'd know everything was secure rather than relying on renters to do that - most would want it to be secure but you can't guarantee that.