What equipment does your livery yard suppy?

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Littlegem

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I am just curious as to what equipment is provided by other 'serviced' livery yards, ie where we are all on part livery.

The yard is under new ownership who want everyone to either provide their own mucking out equipment or to pay a maintenance charge for the yard to supply wheelbarrows, forks, shovels, brushes etc. This has created a stir on the yard, and I just wondered what the norm' is? In the past I've always had it provided by yards such as this, but have I just been lucky?!
 
For Full Livery I would obviously provide the basic mucking out equipment however for Part (i.e mucking out not included every day) or DIY I would expect someone to provide their own however if someone didnt have their own we wouldnt charge them to use ours but we dont provide barrows etc specifically for the liveries as would cost a fortune.
 
For DIY i would expect to have my own stuff - if the yard has a few extras barrows etc they don't mind people using then that's great, but in my mind DIY is do it yourself with your own stuff.
 
I am on part livery (there are about 25 horses on the yard) and the YO supplies all mucking out tools, including wheelbarrows, and recently bought loads more to replace inevitable breakages etc . Some people have their own, but there are usually plenty of tools available on the yard anyway.
 
One DIY yard I was at supplied all tools and barrows etc's, for as long i can remember (years) Someone then took over the business and said buy your own ! The yard i am at now supplies nothing. I always had my own forks and brooms etc anyhow, but had to go out and buy wheel barrows, which cost me alot of money.
 
On my yard there is always a fork at the muck heap and a communal brush in the haylage several wheel barrows for everyone to use all in one area but you will find that most people have there own stuff anyway but we dont in general supply it.
 
Our yard offers DIY, part livery and the occasional full livery.
All owners are expected to have their own mucking out tools but as we all have our own tack room at the back of the stable you are expected to store your own tools there - it also prevents anyone else using them.
There are some yard wheelbarrows but they have seen better days so most people buy their own barrows.

There are tools at the muck heap though so there is no excuse not to skip up and keep it tidy :D

There is also a yard ragfork that everyone uses.
 
Well if the yard staff are doing the horses as part of the livery service I would expect the yard to have their own equipment. However I am on DIY and have all my own equipment, as do other owners.
 
I am on DIY and all tools are supplied. I dont think there is a norm, as all yards have different rules, but i think the new YO is very foolish. unless he has a captive market, and there are no other yards locally, this is a sure fire way of P*****g people off. Not good for business. This does raise another question though. Yard owners often give the impression that they feel they are doing us a favour. They seem to forget that we are the customers.

If i treated my customers with this attitude, i would soon be out of business.
 
sprite1978 said:
. Yard owners often give the impression that they feel they are doing us a favour. They seem to forget that we are the customers.

QUOTE]

here we go again

...and as a YO I disagree

I AM doing them a favour, just as you undoubtedly do for your customers. I offer a service, offer being the operative word here, clients get above and beyond what they pay for, with a smile, because I like them, but that doesn't make me their slave.

I look after their horses in snow and cold weather (warm this week at just -8C during the day) whilst they stay at home secure in the knowledge that if they don't turn up for days/a week/a month or so, their horse will be fine.

Funny, but I have a waiting list, and no-one is in a hurry to leave. Fortunately for me none of them have your attitude, it REALLY hacks me off when I read comments like yours which tar everyone with the same brush:mad:

Oh, and by the way, if it was a DIY yard, which it isn't, then Yes, clients would be welcome to provide their own barrows, isn't that expected? If I had a spare barrow then people could use that, but I wouldn't provide them, or tools, as a matter of course.

DIY is, as it says on the can, Do It Yourself, all of it. As kayfm said barrows are expensive, but then, so are horses, it is just another item of equipment that a horse owner who intends to muck out a stall on a regular basis should have. So much more convenient, no waiting for a barrow, no having to empty a full one abandoned on the heap etc, etc.

...................................

Back to the original question, "What equipment does your livery yard supply?"
I don't supply any tools because I don't expect my clients to lift a finger (they pay not to) My tools are in the corner, if they want to use them to clear the aisle/their stall then they can, most choose not to.
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My livery yard supplies everything - wheelbarrow/skip/tools/feed buckets/generic headcollars/generic grooming kit. The staff aren't supposed to use livery owners stuff, even for their horses, as otherwise it tends to go walkabout!
 
I too am a YO and offer DIY/Part and have 1 full livery. I do not supply any equiptment for mucking out at all apart from a fork at the muck heap and a hay fork in the barn. I expect DIY and part liveries to have their own and I obviously use my own for the full livery. However I do not mind people using mine if I am not using them.

Before I ran my own yard I kept my horses at livery the yard never provided mucking out equiptment and I never expected them to.
 
We have DIY and they just use the uard equipment. If they break it, they sort it out or get nothing. I won't replace anything. I have a secret wheelbarrow in my shed for the full liveries and general yard duties.
 
What do you mean by part livery? It seems to vary so much from what I would call assisted DIY with someone either turning out or bringing in for you to what is effectively Full livery without the exercise. So I think you need to clarify what part livery means on your yard.

My opinion is that if you are mucking out your own stable, then you use your own equipment to do it, not someone elses stuff. Yard staff when mucking out livery's stables should use the yard equipment unless there are good reasons otherwise.
 
sprite1978 said:
I am on DIY and all tools are supplied. I dont think there is a norm, as all yards have different rules, but i think the new YO is very foolish. unless he has a captive market, and there are no other yards locally, this is a sure fire way of P*****g people off. Not good for business. This does raise another question though. Yard owners often give the impression that they feel they are doing us a favour. They seem to forget that we are the customers.

If i treated my customers with this attitude, i would soon be out of business.
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So the new YO has asked DIY liveries to provide their own tools? Where's the problem in that?

As for slating your YO you couldn't pay me to be a YO, they often get far too much grief from people with attitudes like you.
 
Having been on yards that offered a mixture if DIY, part and full livery, the norm has tended to be that owners provided their own tools and barrows.
When on DIY, I always keep my stables, kit and tools clean, I'd much prefer the YO use my tools for doing full livery when I'm away on holiday. Ugh, wouldn't want some of the stinky brushes being used in my stables when I feed hay from the floor.
 
But the OP is talking about part livery, i.e., serviced livery.

At my husband's livery stables, we provide full/ part livery only and therefore we provide the mucking out tools as part of the serivce - we also supply the person using them. If a client wants to do an additional skip out or their horse leaves droppings on the yard, they would use our equipment.

As for arguments over 'favours' - the YO provides a service, the client is a consumer of that service. It's not a question of doing anyone a favour - the yard is a business. I wonder whether the confusion comes because so many of us view our horses as a hobby, pleasure/ leisure activity and have a good relationship with the YO. A livery stables is and should be a business, and there should be a clear contract between the supplier and the consumer stating who is responsible for what. Any grey areas should be discussed between the two parties and an agreement reached and documented (can you tell I'm a lawyer?).
 
Any yard in Surrey that i've been on that offers full or part livery (by this I mean full without the riding) the yard has provided the tools. Never heard of owners providing tools unless DIY or assisted DIY.

Edited to add as a grass livery on a mixed livery yard I get to use yard tools to pick up any droppings she does on the yard, but field maintenance and poo picking is included in my grass livery as is feed.
 
I have to say, on DIY Livery, I think liveries should provide their own tools. Whilst i'd like to think they are few and far between, there are minor thieves in the horse world who seem to "forget" that something isn't theres, and tools or other things seem to leave the yard when they do! Why should the livery yard owners pick up the bill for these thieves? It is easier to allow liveries to provide their own tools to take with them when they leave rather than try to keep track of the yard tools.

I'm not tarring everybody with the same brush obviously, but in my experience a few horse people(only a very small proportion), usually ones who move around a lot, like to take something as a little reminder of their ex yard 8-) and if I was a yard owner, I wouldn't want to supply sc*m like these with a leaving present.
 
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paddy said:
But the OP is talking about part livery, i.e., serviced livery.

At my husband's livery stables, we provide full/ part livery only and therefore we provide the mucking out tools as part of the serivce - we also supply the person using them. If a client wants to do an additional skip out or their horse leaves droppings on the yard, they would use our equipment.

As for arguments over 'favours' - the YO provides a service, the client is a consumer of that service. It's not a question of doing anyone a favour - the yard is a business. I wonder whether the confusion comes because so many of us view our horses as a hobby, pleasure/ leisure activity and have a good relationship with the YO. A livery stables is and should be a business, and there should be a clear contract between the supplier and the consumer stating who is responsible for what. Any grey areas should be discussed between the two parties and an agreement reached and documented (can you tell I'm a lawyer?).
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I am a YO but have also been a livery client so understand the perspectives of both. I used to think YO's must be coining it in. How wrong was I? Just done my tax return. I made less than £3k last year for looking after 4 full liveries. Working 7 days a week 365 days a year. I don't do it for the money. It is my home. The livery is 5* luxury for horses. I am very easy going and friendly, but I view my clients as guests who are welcome so long as they are easy company. If any one had the view that I was providing a service for money and therefore that they were the boss then it would not work out. They are guests at my home and I choose who is welcome.
 
The 2 yards I have been to, you have to supply your own everything, from mucking out tools to water buckets for the fields, and also your own mounting block
 
For our liveries (DIY and part) we provide - mucking out tools (brooms, forks, wheelbarrows etc) and rubber matting in all stables. They provide any other equipment such as water buckets/feed buckets. We replace tools as necessary, unless the breakage is the fault of the livery rather than wear and tear, for example...one of them reversed over a barrow and cruched it so replaced it!
 
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