Very DIY yard - anyone else on a yard like this?

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LizScott

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Hello! I was just wondering whether anyone else is on a livery yard where the liveries are expected to basically run and maintain it?

ie we have to repair any fences (even if they break through old age), rake the school, show potential new liveries around, if we want to split a huge field (as there's now so many horses in it) we have to pay for fencing ourselves, the school surface is worn out but we're told we have to pay for a new one.... it goes on!! oh and to top it off we pay £40 a week diy!
 
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Nope, very lucky as the YO is very obliging and it is half that price
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Sounds awful to me. Dont know where you are in the country, but £40 diy seems steep.

I can understand the YO getting a bit miffed if there is horse which constantly trashes fences, however, that is what electric fence is for - keep them away from the dangers!

As for the school, if YO doesnt have a leveller, and they can be quite costly, I can again understand this to a certain extent. We roll our school regularly, but a couple of times a year it needs raking in from the side of the track. We all get together and have a bbq, a few drinks and music and it only takes half an hour to do.

The YO is responsible for the fencing by law (the upkeep). If he/she refuses to divide paddocks, why dont you invest in an electric fence. You can take it with you when you move
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We charge £45pcm for grass livery and a stable. We provide the basics but, as we are so reasonable, we expect the liveries(one horse per field) to maintain fencing at their expense. We get on well and help each other with holidays cover etc.
 
Ours is sadly rather like this - YO is lazy anyway but especially can't be bothered with the DIYs as we don't bring in as much money as the full liveries, and as we're on a separate yard to the fulls he can pretty much ignore us. I re-concreted the floor of my stable (it had a giant hole in), our school has an atrocious surface that he can't be bothered to replace and I've just shelled out for electric fencing to divide our field myself, he refused to do it. Argh! Will be reconcreting the yard this year as the drainage is awful and some stables flooded this winter.
 
ours is exactly like this, except its kind of acceptable as i only pay £13 week. but then again i dont have an arena, and have too cope with cows everywhere as well which makes it hell in the winter, but i quite like it because the people are lovely and i can just do my own thing
 
i used to be on a yard like that - but left because no one was in charge and it was soooo bitchy - am on a fab yard now lovely fields, fences stables and schools - brilliant help when you need it and a good social side as well we also have dressage and jumping shows there - we re very lucky x
 
Mine is like that, the farmer is just too busy with farm stuff to do fencing etc (or it does get done, just a month late!). TBH I prefer it, I can have everything done how I like it, although I just spent a fortune on fencing! Mine is only £15 a week though (or £30 in winter including all haylage and straw). They're building the school though, its putting value on their property after all!
 
The owner of your yard is being quite irresponsible not maintaining the property. If a horse or rider injured themselves as a result of his negligence he could find himself in serious trouble. He has a duty of care and must comply with current Health and Safety Legislation which requires a regular documented risk assesement audit.
 
I was going to say "You don't tack where I was do you?" but we only paid six pounds a week. Yard was leased by a Pony Club from the Council, liveries raised funds for arena and new fencing, if a fence broke then you were exp[ected to mend it. Some people did, we had Work parties every few weeks but the same old people would do the work whilst others would stand around yakking and doing sod all. I, well, OH, even built my own stable. We threatened to take it down when we left. It was the best one on the yard because we'd paid for clear roofing ourselves so it was always lovely and light, I believe there were squabbles when i left as to whom would grab it. That was par for the course.
It sounds bad, but in reality it was a good little yard, there was always someone to do your horse for you if you needed it and on the whole a good bunch of people and no yard owner at all. We had a Committee who ran it, not always easy.

Oooooooops, burning dinner
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got to dash!
 
No way would I pay 40 quid per week for that!!(but then I am a canny Aberdonian!!We're famous for been stingy
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)I pay 25 per week per horse (outdoor 15 per week)for grazing/stable/straw use of basic lit outdoor sand school,costs approx 40 for hay/haylage per month for 3 horse less in summer as only 2 indoors.It is totally DIY.Oh and farmer purchased a set of 12-15 show jumps with poles fillers and cups last yr at own expenseand he repairs and provides all electric fencing.But he is a nice man
Its a bit much having to maintain value to his property at your expense.
 
In some respects it is good that you are able to have free rein about what goes on there. If the owners were to take more of an interest then they may not give you such an easy ride......however! not for £40 per week!
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If you were paying something like £10 per week then it would be good - for £40 per week I would expect everything to be done around the place.

Sorry to say it but you are being totally ripped off.
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I was paying £40 per week for a similar arrangement last year, had to fence it, paint and maintain stables, organise water to the paddocks, pay to have muck removed, have hay and straw delivered, or collect it, top the paddocks..

a bad deal?

No, in my case i was paying this for the whole yard..

...3 stables and 6 acres so I was quids in..but had to give it up as it was simply too much work with a full time job as well
 
Do you mean £40 a month?!?! Then it would be reasonable! That's what the liveries at my stables pay for DIY, including bedding, hay, occasional services and (I believe) 100% upkeep of the land, fencing and schools.
 
i'm on a similar-ish deal BUT i just have to maintain my stables and i only get one field for all my grazing needs so it's up to me what i do (no arena). For £40 a week you should be in five star DIY place, some is taking you for a ride.
As i pay nearly the same amount for a month!
 
Our yard owners nearly as bad, our barn burnt down in November, he hasn't built a new one just pocketed the money some of which was to cover our hay, straw (we had brought in a whole years supply and showjumps (he brought us £200 worth of hay and straw out of the goodness of his heart he says) the fences in two of the three fields are broken, he says he will repair them but it's been 6 weeks now, luckily we are using another field but it's bald and we need to swap but can't, two of the stable roofs are leaking so badly the horses have to keep their new zealands on inside, we have to pull up the ragwort ourselves, rake the school ourselves even buy our own light bulbs. But saying that we do have a floodlit school, there is a bridleway that runs through the YO's land, we have turnout all year that is well drained with natural shelter and the horses seem very happy. We pay £18 per week and the yard owner usually does the maintainance jobs eventually, even if they are often just bodge-its....
 
Woah, that is a lot of money for DIY, I hope that includes hay and straw.

My YO can take his time to get a job done but he does take responbility and doesn't expect the liveries to maintain fencing or anything like that. His attitude would be that the liveries would probably do it 'wrong' anyway, better to do it himself and know it has been done correctly LOL

We have to keep our DIY barn clean ourselves... ditto tack room/feed room but the overall upkeep of the yard is down to him.
 
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