Starting up DIY/Assisted DIY Yard

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Hi All,

Would like a bit of advice. My family are thinking about diversifying their farm and starting up a DIY/Assisted DIY livery yard - I would help run the yard (being the only horsey one in the family). I would like some advice re grants/livery prices/pitfalls etc. Just any constructive comments (including all the positives). I haven't run a yard before, hence why we would be offering DIY and assisted as I am not qualified to run a Full livery yard.

Thanks in advance :)
 
It may be worth contacting you chamber of commerce as they would be able to point in correct direction with a lot of business related stuff (it's what we did for our IT business).
You'd also need to look into Insurance, livery contracts, livery prices depend on where you are.
Do you have stabling? Schoolng area? Will it be individual paddocks? Is fencing horse friendly?
What about storage for feed/hay/ secure tackroom?
Think about how many horses you can support on the land? Will it get overly muddy? Will there be winter/summer fields?

I don't run a yard and these are just some of the things that I would be considering in your position.
Bear in mind, maintenance etc. Muckheap removal.
 
Thanks for your advice.

We will be building all from scratch, about 8-10 stables and an all weather school. We will also be putting fencing up around the field and then probably using electric fencing to divide the fields. Im not sure about summer/winter fields, it depends on how many horses we get in, but it would be lovely to provide that. Muckheap removal will be by the farm and used on the farm and any maintenance will be by farm workers!
 
I would never run a DIY yard when I had so few stables. Your business rates will be the same as if you were charging full livery and be around £150 per stable whether it is filled or not. The school will be between £1 and £2 per square metre in business rates. So a standard school will be between £800 and £1600 rateable value per year. You will pay around half of that with the possibility of small business relief halving it again. You will need public liability insurance which is a further £500 ish a year. If you are on a water meter, prepare for the horses to cost you around £700 in water a year. Your electricity will also be a significant cost. Then you have the maintenance costs ofthe land which may not be too bad if it is part of a farm. So what I am saying is think carefully about it. I made a small loss last year and I offer full livery so I have a larger profit margin per horse. I would have made a massive loss if it had been DIY. My friend recently closed down her DIY yard after 7 years of making a loss. She charged £25 per week but the liveries cost her more in electric, water and business rates that that. Sorry to be so down on it but only do it if you love it. Not to make money.
 
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Agree with Wagtail, although with farm diversification do you still get three years' grace from business rates on stables?

In any case, for what you can charge for DIY/assisted DIY it would take you forever to recoup your capital expenditure on the stables and school, never mind make any profit.
 
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IF you're gonna do it, prepare to be a dragon coz if you get a rotten apple in the barrell (i.e. you're unlucky) you'll need to be. I've been doing DIY with just two other horses here and we started when we moved here in 1992 - during that time we've always had super liveries, lovely people and fantastic horses.

Then one came along who basically wanted assisted/full livery but wasn't prepared to pay for it, and left her pony in the stable for nearly 24 hrs without any hay, water, or mucking out, THEN the daughter came out to the yard and tried to tack it up and ride it out!!! Result: total carnage - pony barged the door and nearly flattened the child.

Thank gawd this one left after a month - suddenly, without telling me she'd gone, and I went out to the yard as it was getting dark and lo and behold no pony there, and I hadn't a clue she was going. But she did, and I was pretty damned glad she did coz she was a thoroughly bad livery, but I say this to warn of what can happen.

I think you have to be very fussy about who you have on the place, especially if its a farm and more particularly if you live there; don't let anyone on the yard without a livery agreement and a months' deposit first. If you do get a wrong'un then give them notice and send them up the road quick coz one rotten apple will set the whole barrell rotten.

Have agreement on turnout, owner's responsibilities, all horses must have at least public liability insurance, worming/farriery, vet call-out etc etc. The BHS website has a very comprehensive livery yard agreement which you can use as a basis.

Also you need to include a clause that IF there is serious injury to any liveries' horse, you as YO have the right to call the vet out if after all reasonable efforts to contact the owner have failed, and to authorise euthanisia if the vet deems necessary to avoid suffering. Awful to think of, but you MUST have an agreed yard policy which all liveries sign, in place.

Having DIY liveries can be hugely rewarding; my current livery is a lovely sweet person and has two really nice ponies and is a pleasure to have on the yard, as well as providing company for mine. So if you get it right it does have immense rewards, and I'm not talking just about monetary.
 
In reply to OP - won't you also need planning permission for the yard? I know a farm who wanted to start up a DIY ivery yard in the same situation as you are quoting and they were refused pp on the grounds of the increased traffic in the lane :(
 
Thanks for all your replies, they've been really helpful!

Yes we will have to apply for planning permission, but we live down a 1.5 mile private road so would presume this wouldn't be a problem!

I think we really need to decide what we want to achieve and why we are doing it. For me, its just for the love of horses, but it's not actually me who will be paying the bills, so it's very easy for me to say all this! We may end up just building a few stables for my horses and perhaps rent a couple out privately to someone nice just for company! That would at least pay for my horses. 'MiJodsR2BlinkinTite' can i ask is it your yard and you rent to two other people, can i ask why you only rent to only two other horses, any further info on your situation would be great as this is something we might look at!

Thanks everyone! :)
 
We have a livery yard and take in all types of livery. I'd agree with everything said above re rates, water, electric, we definitely don't break even with that side of things. If you are putting in a school and building stables it would take forever to break even so if you're doing it for profit you should think very carefully. However, if you'd like to put the facilities in anyway, maybe for your own horses, it is a good way of topping up your income and paying towards things.

About five years ago there were a lot of grants about but not so many now, they also take a long time to apply for, up to a year sometimes, and you can't do any building work before receiving a decision. We decided the process was too long and with no gaurentee at the end of it but definitely worth looking into as the can be up to 50%. I believe you would only get a grant on the stables though for converting existing farm buildings as opposed to putting up new ones, that could have changed though.

Location is very important to think about too, are there other good yards in your area already? Do you know of a shortage of yards? If you're up a 1.5 mile private lane people are going to be driving 3 miles there and back guarenteed before they start so if you're in a remote area anyway just check and make sure there are horse owners local enough. Time is very important to people and an extra 10 minutes a day in the car can make all the difference between which yard is chosen if they both have similar facilites.
 
Can't really advise on the financial side of things but on the more practical:

Make sure you have a good fair set of rules - keeping the yard tidy, children not to be left unattended, No smoking, use litter bins provided, last person to leave switches of all lights and closes / locks gate, dogs to be kept on leads etc etc.

Make sure you provide adequate storage space for each livery and that it is limited so that they don't sprawl everywhere and take up other peoples storage space.

Is all hay and straw going to be provided by the farm? If so, specify this in your contract and dish everyones hay and straw requirements out once a week so you don't get sticky fingers in your haybarn and YOU know exactly what everyone owes you each month.

Provide safe boundary fencing IMO Stock fencing is safe IF there is electric fencing run just inside it (About 1m) but barbed wire is a BIG NO NO!

Find out what other yards in your area are charging and what facilities they have and charge accordingly.

What sized boxes are you going for? IMO 12x12 is a nice size but is obviously massive for small ponies so maybe a couple of 10x10s? Make sure roofs are high enough on all for bigger horses... Do you have a spare barn so instead of building stables completely from scratch you could build internal / american barn style stables with either breeze blocks or using prefab pannels loddon style? this is highly practical on a number of levels but may not be possible for you.
 
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