The future of livery yards

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Barlow

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Idle musing really….

There are several full/part/diy livery yards near me that have shut down, or are in the process of shutting down due to ever increasing costs. The livery yards that I know of that are staying open all have spaces, in some cases, almost half their stables are empty. They aren’t yards with a bad reputation either.

Another professional who visits many yards has told me of their surprise when they arrived at a yard to find two thirds of the horses they were booked to see were no longer on the yard or wanted to cancel their appointment because they couldn’t afford it.

So where are all the horses (and their owners) going? I had thought the cost of living crisis would mean more people switching from full/part to diy, but it seems even the diy yards are struggling. Are people selling their horses? Putting them in a field for the winter (not that there is much grazing only to be had round by me). What does this means for the future of yards and the professionals that support them? Is anyone else seeing this or this is just the pocket of the country that I’m in?
 
There is 2 yards closed in the last few months in my area. There is no dly livery in my area as the only one yard that offered it closed down. So there is certainly a high demand of people looking for livery as the 2 years that closed down were were big medium yards . There is currently a waiting list for my current yard. Edit they didn’t close down due to money and not having enough livery’s it’s was due to people dying .
 
Most yards I know around here are either full with a waiting list or with just the odd empty box and vacancy.

We still have a range of DIY through to full livery.

Instructor, physiotherapist and farrier report to be as busy as ever!
 
Decent DIY has always been a problem where I am. In Essex groups I'm part of though I'm seeing a lot of DIY and part yards offering spaces.

I too am confused where all the horses have gone!
 
I noticed a decline in horses around here after the banking crisis in 2008. I think it's been steadily happening for years now.
We've lost 2 equine vets over the past few years, multiple tack shops, livery yards, riding schools and show venues.
I've been wondering where all the horses have gone for a long time now. I suspect either people haven't replaced their horses or have moved to cheaper areas.
 
Bit of a crunch on livery here....a few smaller yards have closed due to increasing costs which has meant that the bigger ones are bursting at the seams. I think with the smaller ones it must be harder to invest in infrastructure, arena surfaces, new fencing etc. when fewer people are paying the bills where as the bigger yards churn through enough each month to safely be able to keep the lights on etc. So spaces are once again at a premium here and there are waiting lists at several yards.
 
I have noticed more livery yards advertising spaces. "Rare opportunity" or "unexpected vacancy" more more than in the past. I haven't heard of any closing down due to lack of clients, in that case it is either the yard is being re-developed as houses, or the owners are retiring or there are more profitable things to do with the yard.

I just think its a combination of things.
 
cobgoblin said:
I noticed a decline in horses around here after the banking crisis in 2008. I think it's been steadily happening for years now.
We've lost 2 equine vets over the past few years, multiple tack shops, livery yards, riding schools and show venues.
I've been wondering where all the horses have gone for a long time now. I suspect either people haven't replaced their horses or have moved to cheaper areas.
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Yes, I remember putting up a post on the lines of "have we reached a peak of horse owning?" in the late 90s I think. And it was. Many owners had more than one horse, there was a point to point yard in the village and a couple of livery yards as well as numerous private owners. I wrote to my MP about places for horse to be ridden away from the roads ............... Much good that did.

Yes, people are definitely cutting back. There are always going to be some that can and will afford it no matter what. Incidentally the point to point yard and one livery yard are no longer operating and there are fewer private owners.
 
I'm not aware of any yards closing down in my area but from what I can tell a lot of the part/full yards have spaces on an ongoing basis whereas the DIY yards seem to be struggling less. My yard is part and full only and a few people have left recently to go back to DIY. I think it's good value for what you get but that doesn't matter if you can't afford it due to the cost of everything else in your life going up. I don't think my yard owner makes a great living from it either so it is in the back of my mind to wonder what will happen in the long term.

I have wondered for a few years if we will reach a crossroads where yards have to offer part and full livery to remain viable but lots of people can only afford DIY. I don't know what will happen then, maynbe horse ownership will go back to only being possible for people with more money, as was the case in the past. I think things will definitely change in the coming years but whether that will be for better or worse I don't know.
 
Most yards round me have spaces if they are full or part. DIY yards seem to be doing better, but even our local big competition yard has been advertising recently. They’ve always been full with a waiting list in the 30 years I’ve been here.
 
My area has always been more associated with breeding & trekking. I'd need to travel about a 6 hour round trip for an indoor school! 2 or 3 horses on a rented field with zero facilities but fantastic hacking would be the commonest type of "yard". I only know of places that do DIY. I've seen a couple of wanted ads recently where someone is looking for grazing-only rental.

Trend wise though I think more people are riding at RSs & trekking centres rather than owning. My nearest RS is absolutely rammed. Far busier than a few years ago, with long waits for lessons and hacking. They appear to have a lot of long term riders who don't intend to move on to ownership.

There's a new thing I haven't noticed before on my share's yard which also does trekking. People pretending (or really believing?) they own a hired horse. Adults I mean, not little kids. There are two regular adult riders who both post about "their" horse on SM. One in particular is downright scarey! Middle aged man, seems normal in that he lives independently & holds down a fairly intellectual job. Books an hour's ride but spends 3 hours brushing and photographing the horse for his FB, hanging about the tack room and pottering round the boxes where only owners are meant to be. Doesn't speak to other people who ride "his" horse. Reminds me of those vox pops when they interview neighbours after a murder & they always say "he seemed very quiet"!:eek:
 
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There certainly seems to be more vacancies being advertised locally of late and for all types from DIY to full. One I saw recently advertising I had taken 2 years to get to the top of the waiting list previously.

From people that I know some have downsized the numbers that they own to reduce costs and also oldies and the long term unsound seem to be being PTS more frequently rather than being kept as pasture ornaments too.
 
meleeka said:
Most yards round me have spaces if they are full or part. DIY yards seem to be doing better, but even our local big competition yard has been advertising recently. They’ve always been full with a waiting list in the 30 years I’ve been here.
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Funnily enough, a big EC near me has just started offering DIY for the first time.
 
I've seen more adverts looking for grass livery/grazing recently.

A friend has a DIY yard and always has a waiting list.

Several yards are diversifying, going from livery to breaking and schooling livery, offering young stock livery etc.
A riding school stopped trading through lockdown and rebranded as a DIY livery yard. A big yard (for our area)has been empty for ages and will probably be developed as very close to current developments.

I've also noticed a track livery start up too. A local hay supplier come sheep farmer has built a small yard and arena and doing well out of DIY/assisted livery.

A local dealer/breaker (with a few full liveries) has stopped trading. She stated she'd be better off cleaning and teaching on the weekends.

On the other side of the coin I've seen a few people who already keep their ponies on a tight budget (rent a cheap field with tatty fencing etc) having to give up there ponies to charities etc. I know of one local 'charity' rehoming centre that closed it's doors for a few weeks as they couldn't cope the workload. I suppose this opens up spaces for the people the next level up to find cheaper alternatives to keep their ponies and so on.

I took my companion pony back in May as the loaner found grazing with company for her ridden horse. This allowed her to keep him and save some money. But I noticed at the weekend that her old field still hadn't been rented out. Usually there are people crying out for grazing in our area as it's only a few minutes drive from town, but rural.
 
Most round near us are full/part livery only (depending on what you call full!), not economical to run a yard for any less it seems. Little to no DIY options with decent facilities...and I live in rural Herefordshire! Lots of farmers finding other ways to make money, livery isn't worth the hassle
 
Barlow said:
Idle musing really….

There are several full/part/diy livery yards near me that have shut down, or are in the process of shutting down due to ever increasing costs. The livery yards that I know of that are staying open all have spaces, in some cases, almost half their stables are empty. They aren’t yards with a bad reputation either.

Another professional who visits many yards has told me of their surprise when they arrived at a yard to find two thirds of the horses they were booked to see were no longer on the yard or wanted to cancel their appointment because they couldn’t afford it.

So where are all the horses (and their owners) going? I had thought the cost of living crisis would mean more people switching from full/part to diy, but it seems even the diy yards are struggling. Are people selling their horses? Putting them in a field for the winter (not that there is much grazing only to be had round by me). What does this means for the future of yards and the professionals that support them? Is anyone else seeing this or this is just the pocket of the country that I’m in?
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Our YO has often said that she would make more money by turning the yard into a dog boarding kennels. She's probably right too!
We have around 42 stables and apart from mine (I'm paying to hold it) they are all full with a mixture of assisted DIY and full livery.
 
In the last 5 years we have lost 5 decent sized yards the largest being a 40 box yard in the area - all have gone for building, as soon as the southdowns was given national park status every scrap of land south of it was developed...There's a few adverts for DIY livery but it#s expensive with no decent hacking.

Luckily I gave up horses before covid and I couldn't afford one now anyway, and many people I know from the horse world have either sold up or have oldies that won't be replaced when they go. I think Covid brought a small boom of people having a horse but even those have sold up as the prices rise and people have to go to work insted of sitting on furlogh...

I think the days of keeping a horse at a little basic yard on a shoestring in this area have well and truly gone and horse owning is back to being for the wealthy/landowners.
 
meleeka said:
Most yards round me have spaces if they are full or part. DIY yards seem to be doing better, but even our local big competition yard has been advertising recently. They’ve always been full with a waiting list in the 30 years I’ve been here.
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Very similar here too - in the next county along.
A couple of bigger local yards have closed this year, another has gone from a mix of livery to part & full only (thats a bigger yard).
Seems a daily occurrence on the local faceache pages of people looking for livery though - and equally, yards advertising spaces - those yards that used to have wait lists till recently.
 
I started offering DIY livery 30 years ago now. Back then you could hardly give livery away; you'd put an ad in the local paper (like you did back then without the internet!) and you'd be lucky to get mebbe one or two people enquiring.

Now more recently when I've advertised livery vacancies (happens rarely here, fortunately) I have had to literally fend people off in tears because they are desperate to find somewhere and there's just this huge dearth in this area. We have in the last 15yrs had a new town built near us on the outskirts of Exeter (I'm East Devon) and that has meant that not only have a few liveries been displaced perhaps but also people who want to keep horses on DIY have moved to the area. My two liveries currently have both come from other places where for various reasons they were either not happy with the set-up and were messed around (things like fencing being moved & water difficulties) and/or the land was being sold for development and they had to move ASAP.

The other problem is "costs". What seems to be happening nationwide is that everyone's costs are going up. Contractors are putting up their fees because of not only materials but the difficulty in finding skilled & reliable labour; and insurance premiums are going through the roof - these fees YO's then have to pass on to liveries. There is also the problem of some liveries (not all) expecting Champagne livery for coca-cola prices, and/or not being fully aware that they may need assisted livery rather than DIY if they are working away for instance.

I don't make a huge profit and never have done; I live on-site and a good pleasant atmosphere is what I most want and to have people around the place that won't squabble and make life unpleasant when I go out into the yard. Yes I know I could get more £££ but frankly I'd rather have nice people and nice horses around the place simply because it is "home". It has been fun! Has been great to see owners - and little families too - progress with their horses & ponies from Pony Club into going off to study as an equine vet! - over the years and then sadly they decide they need to move on to somewhere with more facilities and/or give up horses entirely which I always find rather sad. Then we've shared too in each others' losses and said goodbye to some damn nice horses over the years when the time was right and cried about it together. But yes, I'm happy, and my liveries & their horses are happy, and that's what matters to me.
 
I will be a very different scenario if Defra get round to writing and implementing legislation for the licensing of livery yards. It was looked at in 2018.

I doubt they will revisit it for a while as they need to, and are working on, legislating dog walkers and the XL situation following the recent awful incidents.
 
Lost loads to housing around here. One of the local farmers was asked if he'd do it but he said he makes more renting out his big sheds for storage and the land for sheep. Decent DIY or part livery is hard to find.

I'm also seeing a lot of adverts for people looking for a field with a shelter so the cost of living is beginning to bite although you don't see it so much in commuter-zone.

I've known a fair few owners who have lost horses due to old age, colic etc and have remained horse less. Its not all for financial reasons but I think that does become part of the equation along with the risk of losing your stable if the yard goes up for planning.
 
Interesting you say this about a field with shelter though....I was wondering if demand is increasing not just due to CoL but due to a move towards more 'natural' ways of keeping horses. Yards are almost by definition based on the assumption that most horses spend at least some of their time in a 12ft x 12ft square stable, and I wonder if that will change over time. Obviously we are seeing track liveries sprout up and there has always been grass livery, but the notion of each horse having its own stable in which it spends a good chunk of its time....? Maybe that will in the future seem rather old hat? And perhaps yards will evolve to have different kinds of accommodation? I wonder if there are a lot of people on yards who need the riding facilities but would rather not bother with the actual stable bit?
 
When I first moved to where I'm currently living, I couldn't find a single space on any yard within a 10 mile radius. It took me 2 years to find a space and I had tough competition the whole time. Recently, I've been looking again and there's multiple options who have now been advertising for several weeks if not longer. So there's definitely been a change here within that time.

All of that is DIY.
 
I've also noticed an increase in livery advertising in South northants/North bucks. Also a few yards to rent which would usually have been snapped up. I don't understand where all the horses have gone either. Maybe people putting down horses with long term issues instead of keeping them?

@DeliaRides that is an interesting point. I have avoided traditional livery as I want my horses to live out with others. It wasn't really a cost thing but I'm not going to complain at saving probably 800 a month at the same time!
 
Three large DIY yards have shut down in my part of East Sussex, over the past two years or so.

My current DIY yard is full and rarely has vacancies :(.
 
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