Those hidden costs..

squiz22

squiz22

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15 December 2009
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Binfield, Berkshire
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Hi All,

I've been putting a business plan together for a yard that we can adapt pretty easily for different potential sites we find. Me and the OH are geting married in the summer and we have both decided that it would be good to have a place of our own. He will continue to work whilst I will run a small yard where I can keep my horses and a few others to help pay for it.
I am not ruling out going for a bigger place and we are investigating a number of different yards which have come up near us.. some big, some small, some in desperate need of some tlc..

What are poeples biggest out goings each month at the yard and are you able to give an estimate of it per stable or horse?
I want to be sure I have covered everything..

Always happy to hear peoples hints and tips etc.. Thanks :)
 
I don't have my own yard but when looking at it briefly my costs would have been on muck removal, water rates, fertilising/weed killing/harrowing fields and maintenance of fences/stables.
 
Thanks. I'm trying to put a spreadsheet together so I can use it for the various possible yards we have ben looking at. I am (nerdily) trying to calculate a factor per horse/stable so that I can just type each sites credentials in and have a quick compairson of costs..
I know its fairly crude but its quite handy to have..
 
I've just bought my own place and even as a private yard there have been plenty of hidden/things I didn't calculate accurately which would add to your initial outlay or would make one site better than another.
The main things were
-piped water to all fields/suitable troughs
-properly built and accessible muck heap
-security
-electricity/lighting to storage areas, external lighting
-electric fencing to protect existing post and rail from horse damage plus replacing broken rails etc which occur even with electric tape/wire
-clearance and maintenance of areas outside paddocks/yard
-equipment ie quad plus leveller for school, field maintenance equipment, heavy duty strimmer, fencing tools
-public liability insurance

The only monthly costs I wildly underestimated was the time/hourly cost of poo picking fields with horses living out 24/7 and water rates have been hard to calculate.
 
Worth looking into what business rates are, also factor in freelance costs incase you need emergency help - girl that runs my yard has just broken her arm, it needed pinning and she has had to fork out for someone else to do the work
 
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