What would be your perfect yard??

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Jinx94

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Waaaaaaaay into the future, I plan to have my own yard primarily for breaking/schooling, but also part and full livery (and DIY/grass if I can manage it).

Now this is probably near on impossible to manage all of this - but a girl can dream, right? :o

So, what would make a yard "perfect" for you? I really want to be able to cater for individual needs, rather than the "one size fits all" which seems to be the case at a few livery yards I've heard about recently.

What would you want on offer? What should be avoided? What would you expect of staff, and what would your ideal groom/stable person/ YO/ YM be like?

Please no replies like "Not gonna happen, setting yourself up to fail" this is purely hypothetical and a bit of fun :)
 
Well my dream is to open a livery that is specifically for rehabilitation but also caters to general livery aswell.
I'm going to train to be a physio so will run my physiotherapy business from the yard.
I would love to have therapy options such as solarium and hydrotherapy on site that can be used by clients on a contract basis (I.e within the livery contact) or on a as and when basis for liveries on normal livery.
Love to have the stables in an indoor barn setting - big & airy with lots of light - with both an indoor and outdoor menage.
Id like to live on site too to give 24hr service, especially to the rehab clients :)
A girl can dream!
 
Already there (minus 2 people i dont get on with, but you cant have everything.)
Indoor school, outdoor school, riding field, jumps, ditches, steps, banks. Beautiful outdoor stables, clean tidy and wonderful staff who always go the extra mile and do what you ask them, when you ask them. Most importantly everyone is friends and team spirit! :)
 
where I am but with post and rail fences where its not hedges! a school in my riding field but otherwise I love where I am, I'm on my own but people hack through so don't feel totally alone!
 
The yard where I am now is pretty damn near perfection. If they added an indoor school and a teeadmill it would be perfection!
 
Firstly, a place where the paddocks aren't individual prairie style postage stamps open to all weathers with no shelters allowed!
Nice people who are helpful without interfering, don't borrow your stuff without asking, and know what they're doing with a horse - and are kind to the neds.
A school, safe & roomy stables, secure tack room (with kettle of course!) bridle paths off or quiet lanes leading to tracks, lots of hardstanding so MF victims can go out in winter, and you can turn up any time of the day or night (I'm thinking of the 1am jeans-over-pyjamas-cos-a-storm's-arrived type yard visits!)
 
if i was building my own yard i would love to have: barn with indoor stables, solarium, wash area (hot and cold water), walker, lunge pen, would love an indoor and an outdoor arena with a full set of spooky jumps (wall, water etc), obviously fields for turnout and if possible off road hacking with a few XC jumps. now that is my dream but if we where to add a few more things (which would be pretty cool but not exactly essential :rolleyes: ) including, equine swimming pool, treadmill, some gallops would be nice ;) of course these last few things are pretty imaginary and not really needed but we can all dream ;)

my yard is pretty much my dream yard just without a few things :)
 
Competent, knowledgeable YO/YM who leaves you alone to get on with it and who you can trust to do what they say they're doing, off road hacking, nice large airy boxes, all year turn out and paddocks for fatties, decent menage, lovely people on yard who also leave you alone to get on with it, hot water shower and 24 hour security.
 
Ideally a private yard on the back of my house but for a livery yard...
Not too big and busy, 15 stables probably, Nice roomy and light stables, big tack room with own space, seperate feed room an somewhere under cover for hay.
Lots and lots of grazing, as much as possible! Group turnout too, post and rail fence.
Floodlit school, indoor would be a great bonus, range of jumps and fillers. Wash down area too. Either good access to XC or a small course on site would be great!

I think having a horse box on site would be great, everyone pay for their own petrol, has to be booked in advance, split maitenance costs with every person who wants it (give option upon joining yard maybe?).. Would work nice on a friendly yard, id love a set up like this!!
 
Sounds brilliant guys - loving reading all these responses :)

for those that would choose a smaller yard, what about if it was a larger yard that had stable blocks/small barns in different areas of the property so you didn't have to be around all of the craziness?

I'm thinking that I'd have 15-20 liveries tops, but I don't think I'd necessarily want the boxes to be with the horses that I had in for breaking and schooling? That way I'd still be on hand if needed, but we'd all stay out of each others hair - must admit, I don't always do well with people requiring personal assistance 24/7......
 
littlemare_ said:
I think having a horse box on site would be great, everyone pay for their own petrol, has to be booked in advance, split maitenance costs with every person who wants it (give option upon joining yard maybe?).. Would work nice on a friendly yard, id love a set up like this!!
Click to expand...

That sounds fantastic! Have you heard of other yards that do this? My horsey friends always have to try and blag the use of a trailer from someone else and I've heard too many stories about trailer-owners plans changing at the last minute :rolleyes:
 
My current yard is pretty much my ideal yard, 4 arenas, 2 indoor, 2 outdoor, plus 2 grass arenas for show classes and derby/ eventers challenge events. Lunge pen, good turnout. Competitions weekly, show jumping course always set up ready to be used. Small selection of xc style fences, good hacking and only 5/6 other liveries. Would love a horse walker, a proper xc course, bigger fields, all year turnout, bigger stables that are indoors and a solarium, but that would be in an ideal world! I love being on a relaxed yard with so many facilities it's perfect for my youngster.
 
My perfect yard doesn't exist i don't think. I think it does but only in part/full livery sense.

My perfect yard would be DIY (it can be DIy as well as offering full/part but I want DIY lol) but offes services.

Excellent turnout with safe fencing and automatic turnout - with options of out at night over winter and 24/7 if you want it (for when my horses have holidays) which isn't restricted due to weather.

I'd like it to be competition orientated pref eventin so lots of people out doing stuff, going to events together but not bitchy 'my horse is better than yours' (does this exist?)

Good storeage for equipment + hay/bedding.

Good facilities - decent sized school (bigger than 20 x 40 as hard to jump courses + practise long arena tests), pref with floodlights and IDEALLY an indoor too.

Horse walker

Access to excellent off road and a bit of safe on road hacking.

IDEALLY an all weather canter track although if hacking allows for good fitness work it's fine...but then again would be very good for when ground is hard ect.

Good area for bathing.

Somewhere to sit with a cup of coffee to natter and warm up when is freezing!

Well managed.


In short the essentials would be;

- All year round safe turnout with no restrictions due to weather. I..e I don't need 24/7 but don't want to have to stable 24/7 if it rains a lot.
- Good sized school
- good hacking

The rest are my dream list!

Oh if only..
 
Wow I could make a huge list! But my top things would be an indoor school (preferably heated! ;)), wash down area with hot water, solarium, walker, nice grazing and indoor stables.

Oh and I am a stickler for a tidy yard, can't stand straw and poo left everywhere.
 
Develop your people skills as best you can so that you can keep a widely ranging group of people and yourself happy. A friend of mind has a business where she has a rule that none of her staff are allowed to talk about each other! I wonder if you could impose that on liveries?!:)
 
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