What should I charge?!

[[69117]]

I have been asked to take a pony on full livery, and as the pony is the cutest thing I've ever seen, and beautifully behaved, I'll be saying yes. However, I have no idea what to charge for him.

I don't want to charge my usual full livery price of £150, because he's only 12hh and won't exactly be eating me out of house and home, and exercise wise he'll be ridden by another livery's daughter, and long reined and led out by my OH and I.

I was thinking of around £90 or £100 a week, does that sound ludicrous? Bare in mind that I'm in the Cotswolds, and the yard is stunning, so prices are quite high around here anyway.

Just thought I'd pick your lovely brains before I put a number out there and give the poor man a heart attack!

 

[Princess Jess]

I don't really know about pony prices or prices near you but I think the fact that you're giving a discount of at least £50 is probably fair and presumably he had some idea of your prices before he asked you to take the pony on, so about £90-100 seems reasonable
And I thought I'd just add that your yard is indeed stunning and that I'm coming to move in with you soon

 

[Honey08]

Compared to your usual price, £90/100 sounds fair. Its only feed and bedding you'll save a bit on - the labour and the stable is still as normal... If he has asked for full livery, hopefully he will have looked at your website and seen your usual prices so it shouldn't be such a shock..

 

[Capriole]

If he is using a box/facilities that a regular full fee paying horse would normally be in, Id charge full price as hes filling a box
Maybe knock a bit off for the feed I suppose, but then my 16hh horse gets no hard feed at all, so he'd cost nowt extra in feed either

(Ive never been anywhere that charges different by size )

 

[Charlie Bucket]

I'd say £100 is fair

 

[Mongoose11]

Well you have to bear in mind that in terms of labour he will be costing you the same amount as any other livery - muck out, nets, feeds, turn out, bring in etc. Yes the poos will be smaller but still . So you need to deduct the cost of hay/feed according to how much he will eat in comparison to a horse and then you will be at the right figure. Also how many times do you exercise the other full liveries - if it is 3 times a week and this little guy will also be 3 times a week then no reduction here. It is long lining rather than riding though actually so perhaps take a fiver off for each exercise session.... does that make £100 about right?

Link to your website please?

 

[[69117]]

Thank you everyone - you've been massively helpful! I think I'll go with £100 a week, he'll be being exercised six days a week like the other full liveries, and will be taking up a box as you say. He's a fatty, so will be in the starvation paddock year round by day, and won't eat much hay at all.

I only thought about it as I know a few local yards who charge less for ponies than they do for horses, mostly due to the bedding and hay they're saving, so thought I'd get in there first and offer him a good deal.

We're also being particularly nice to him as he has very kindly donated his old quad bike to us. It was sitting in a barn rotting, so he said "ah, you have it, if you can get it working it's yours", so we love him rather a lot and want to repay him by saving him a bit of money.

Thank you all! Princess Jess, you're most welcome. We've cleared out our spare room at last so you'd even have the luxury of a bed!

Our proper website is still under construction (slightly annoyed that I spent soooo much money on the website for the last yard, only to close it down two years later, but this yard is much nicer so I need to woosaah) but here is a link to our facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/AbbeyBarnEquestrian

 

[JustMe22]

No idea about prices, not being in the UK and all - just wanted to say the yard is gorgeous

 

[hoggedmane]

A large well known yard near us charges £170 full livery and £125 for under 14.2. That's near Basingstoke.

 

[ReggieP]

Yes the poos will be smaller but still . So you need to deduct the cost of hay/feed according to how much he will eat in comparison to a horse

The size of the poo has little to do with the amount of time required to muck out. We have 17hh horses that take a few minutes to muck out and some very messy ponies that are expert in fully blending their deposits with the bedding that can take 10-15 minutes to muck out ! Similarly for feed. Do not assume that a pony will consume proportionally less food that a horse. Each is different. Again we have some horses that get the same as some ponies. We charge around 15% less for ponies compared to horses.