What do you think to these livery prices?

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flyingfeet

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Ok we've always charged an all inclusive livery price, but people generally bulk at it and I was wondering whether we are expensive or whether we just need to present a broken down cost?

So its basically £40 per week
This includes:
Unlimited Hay & Straw
Stable and possibly a bigger pen for bad weather
Use of wash off room
Use of tack room
Use of feed room
Use of arena and jumps
Use of farm
Use of cross country course
Use of SJs on grass in summer

Also we do everything - all fencing all maintenance, all the owners have to do is look after their own horse and take their own poos out of the arena.

We don't make people poo pick unless they have a fat horse in a tiny paddock.

So are we expensive???
 
I think that is reasonable. I pay 15 a week per stable for mine with no tack room, limited grazing, extra for hay & straw and I have to do all the field/stable maintenance. Where abouts are you based? I need a stable with school for my dressage horse!
 
no i wouldnt say so, sounds pretty good to me
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i pay £30 a week, which includes stable, grass and school (but not school lights)
that is it...
we have to pay to keep the trailers there
do all our own poopicking, carry water to fields, there are no jumps in the school, or letters come to think of it!
have to buy in own hay, bedding etc.
so i think your £40 all inclusive sounds very reasonable
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Sounds reasonable to me, I was paying £30 a week per horse for a stable ok grazing, an indoor school plus £3.50 to park my trailer, hay was costing me at least another £15 a week and you offer more facillities.
 
I think thats an absolute bargain!!! I pay £28 a week for my stable (inc my own tack room) and grazing, £15 for hay a week, £10 facility charge and £2 a week to keep my trailer there! I pay for bedding and feed on top of that which takes my bill to about £250 a month and Im on DIY!!!!
 
Well despite having a post town of Cheltenham in our address, we are a good 19 miles away down the A40!

People always seem to not like the price and then say "well I'm not going to use the cross country so can I reduce the price".
 
Sounds fine to me.

I charge £35 per week for-

60 x 40 floodlit arena
50ft horse walker
round pen
miles of off road riding around a farm ride
internal stables with auto drinkers
feed room
tack room with individual cupboards
toilet/shower
wash room (token system)
solarium (token system)
clients lounge with kitchen

We were going to do an all inclusive but people take the mick, so they have to buy bedding and forage off us, so they pay for what they use.
 
I pay 31.50 for stable, use of fields all year round, indoor, outdoor, SJ's, cross country cource in summer, gallops all year round, haylage/hay (straw would be a pound a week more, but I use shavings), small private tack/feed room

I think things are more expensive where you are generally? I think I get quite a good deal, although I could get full livery for 70 - 80 quid a week, so when I take into account what I pay for feed, shavings and paying someone to turn out, I would probably be better off on full livery, but love my yard!
 
When I started having people interested a LOT of people were put off the all inclusive! Said that they didn't use that much (yeh right!!!!!) so they are a bit stupid as they are paying more now
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I even had a lady say she only used £3 of haylage per week.............whatever. Anyway, it's working well what we are doing now.
 
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We were going to do an all inclusive but people take the mick, so they have to buy bedding and forage off us, so they pay for what they use.

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That is the problem - we had one lady that kept using loads of everything and chucked out clean hay and straw to the point where our muck heap stopped steaming!!!
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I can imagine.

Can you not do what we're doing........just charge them livery for the stable, turnout and facilities and then they pay for bedding/forage seperately. They have to buy it from the yard and it's in their contract?!
 
Well we could do, but that's a pain in the ar*e to manage and control who's had what!

I guess you'd need a lot of barn space to give you enough space to give everyone their own heap?

Mine in the winter will eat almost a bale per day so I guess if the yard charges £3 oer bale that's £21 per week we are missing!!
 
Exactly, it's a lot of money from the livery price! At least when they pay for the bedding/forage it isn't coming from what they pay you.

I don't find it difficult to manage. I have a book in the client's lounge for them to write in what they want. I then put it outside their stable. Most are having flax and haylage so they have 1 flax a week and then a few haylage, which they put outside their stable. The ones with big bales have them in another barn.

TBTH there is no perfect solution and it's a pain. We had to think about it for a loooooooong time, but I'm glad we didn't do an all inclusive. You make a lot less money that way too. Like you said over 50% of the £40 is going on their bedding/forage!
 
I've been paying £25 pw DIY which seems about standard around here (Midlands) for similar facilities, but no forage or bedding included. There's a yard down the road that does an inclusive DIY for £40 pw which includes ad lib shavings and haylage - god knows how they do it! I'd be there like a shot but they only have a small arena and don't offfer cover for holidays etc.

Its possible that in summer people will baulk at an inclusive price if their horses are living out 24/7 but over the year it probably balances out. Personally though I would prefer a non inclusive deal so that I can choose my own bedding and forage. It probably doesnt save any money as prices seem to have gone through the roof

I may relocating oop north shortly though, and hoping things may be cheaper up there
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I'd say you were too cheap.

I pay £20 per week diy
up to £18 a week on shavings (3 bales)
£7 a week for adlib haylage.

That's already £45.

Acess to the areas such as feed rooms, tack rooms I would expect. As too maintenance - it's livery after all.
 
I'd say that's a good price, especially as you do the maintenance and there's no poo-picking! On my yard, it was £25, plus maintenance costs, had to poo pick, no school, no x-country or other frills. Literally just field and stable.
 
I think that people need to be clear though what is being charged for.

DIY Livery - is a livery yard. So maintenance should not be done by liveries.

Yard Rental - either indivdually or collectively is a differnet matter, and maintenance is usually carried out by the rentees.
 
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up to £18 a week on shavings (3 bales)


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OMG your beds must be really fluffy white. I am a real skinflint and only use 1 bale a week apart from if they are in all the time in winter when I might begrudginly use 2.

My beds do look a bit brown tho
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OMG your beds must be really fluffy white

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No he's a stinking pig!

Just invested in rubber matting - so hope it will be significantly cheaper next winter.
 
you are very reasonable!! i pay £30 per horse for stable and grazing, use of school and xc, feed, hay and bedding are on top!!
 
I pay £40 a week in winter for all hay and straw, stable, paddock.
Sometimes fields are too wet so have to keep horses in, but has a walker to use, plus arena.
£25 a week in summer with stable - but have to pay extra for hay and straw. Poo pick field.
 
I think you probably need to compare with other yards locally. I think it is a good deal as I pay £160 a month for stable and grazing - though we do have a large indoor school and two outdoors.

In addition in the winter if you turn out you pay £3 a day for hay in the field as there is no grass.

It suits me as my pony does not do stabling.

I think though the problem with all inclusive is that you might miss out on people who want to use shavings due to allergies and also those who want to use hayledge. Also you would need to make sure that the hay you provide is good quality.

My yard sells hay and straw and TBH most people buy off them as it is easier and also we do not have masses of space to store hay and straw - could only really store a week's worth in our sheds. We have an honesty system and just write in the livery diary what we have taken from the barn. We also write in the diary if we need extras' doing. There are only 7 DIY liveries and we are all really honest - the rest are full or working liveries.
 
Sounds ok to me

I was paying £40/week for
Stable, good grazing,
use of school, jumps and all the farmland to ride around
All hay and straw included
Morning feed, rug change and turnout included
 
I pay £20/week for DIY. I get a stable, exclusive grazing, water and my own feed/store room and water.

No
Electric
Arena & jumps
Washdown box
XC Course
Inclusive hay/straw

With 2 bales shavings/week and about 1 1/2 bales hay per pony/week, I calculate I'm paying around £37.50/week total.

I think your clients are getting a bargain.
I would suggest you reduce the price by making them pay for hay and straw separately. I think you might even make a bit more that way!
 
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