What would you expect to pay for Part Livery Service?

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Rosieripples

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Hi All,


What would you expect to pay for the following package on a small private yard near West Malling, Kent? (Anyone who knows this area will know that livery yards are very limited and full).

Yard;

Small Private yard of 10 horses, two of which are the owners.
6 Court yard style stables, 12x12 rubber matted
4 Internal Barn 12x12 stables rubber matted
Secure room for storage/tack
Feed Room
Wash Room with Hot water and heat lamps
40x20 Equi Bound Surface School with Floodlights with use of jumps
Under Cover Tie up area
Toilet/Tea Room
Good Grazing either individual or paired.
Good Hacking.
Secure with CCTV, Alarms, Gates.

Package;
Part Livery to include the following services Monday to Friday;
AM Feed
Turn out with Rug Change
Muck Out
Hay
Water
Bring In with Rug Change and basic groom
1 Bale Shavings per Week
All Field maintenance covers (poo picking etc)

Saturday and Sunday to be covered by the owner but can be covered as an extra.

Owner to Provide any extra required bedding and provide hay/haylage/hard feed.

YO experienced, kind and approachable.

Extras will be available such as exercising, packages can be tailored to the customers requirements but what would people expect to be paying for the above package and use of all facilities per week?

Thank you
 
Hmm initially I thought £500-550 per month but then I read it's 5 day livery, therefore I would say £450-£490. You may find there are a large number of people who work weekends or at least one weekend day, I certainly do and would not be able to put my horse on a yard where Saturdays aren't covered routinely.
 
Thank you for your reply Ella, packages could be tailored to cover weekends routinely when required.
Does anyone else have any other views?
Is there any 'must haves' or extras people would like available on their livery yard?
 
£10 a day for services plus some rent for stables and grazing say £35 + £50 = £85 a week then if you are supplying bedding say £10 a week for that and hay about £3 a day depending on how much hay they need so £21 a week for hay, round it up a bit to make it easy so about £110 a week if not supplying hard feed.

As 7 day part livery customer myself and knowing quite a few people with similar arrangements, it is not the facilities that are the "must haves" it is the peace of mind of knowing that those who are caring for your horse when you are at work or whatever it is that you are up to, are kind and knowledgeable so it is the standard of care that is important to most part livery customers not just the facilities.

Having said that my extras would be all year turnout, nice big stable and friendly liveries and good hacking. I also need cover over xmas for a few days as this is the only time I get to see all my family and I travel to see them.
 
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Thank you for your reply, the above it the figures I had in mind. As a small yard we can offer individual one to one high standard of care.
If your on a 5 day or a 7 day livery packages what is the usual agreement over bank holidays/Christmas etc? Some yards around the area cover the bank holidays but not Christmas and some do not cover bank holidays at all.
As a customer I think I would expect bank holidays to be included but would be willing to pay an extra charge for cover on Christmas day, boxing day and new years day.
 
Rosieripples said:
Thank you for your reply, the above it the figures I had in mind. As a small yard we can offer individual one to one high standard of care.
If your on a 5 day or a 7 day livery packages what is the usual agreement over bank holidays/Christmas etc? Some yards around the area cover the bank holidays but not Christmas and some do not cover bank holidays at all.
As a customer I think I would expect bank holidays to be included but would be willing to pay an extra charge for cover on Christmas day, boxing day and new years day.
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If you offer 7 day part livery, it normally means 365 days a year. Those services should include all public holidays and Christmas. Never seen additional charges for these. Though some yards offer a lower level of service over Christmas e.g. no turnout etc. And some yards liveries come in and help out over Christmas.

If offer a 5 day service excluding weekends, then normally dont include Bank Holidays, Christmas etc. And are possibly available by negotiation.
 
If you are providing a service, keep it simple, if anything costs you more then you charge more.
You are there to make a profit not fill your stables, nice to have nice clients, so bear this in mind when you start, there may be "not good" clients looking for livery.
Make sure you are paid a months in advance, and that there is a mutually signed contract.

Invoice extras straight away with a short payment date,
It is usual for a horse to be sold if no payment for three months, in the contract that is.
Invoice extras straight away with a short payment date.

Keep a day book a hardback diary, write down any thing relevant in this diary.

I got invoiced for £1000, extra, as my YM had not kept records. Fortunately I had, first I knew of it was I was told my horses were to stay in their stables, and a bill for £2,500 when £1,500 was due. I had my cheque book with me, but had forgotten what our original agreement was, she had messed me about for so long, and had yet to fulfill our agreements, like minor repairs to stables and drainage.
 
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Rosieripples said:
Thank you for your reply, the above it the figures I had in mind. As a small yard we can offer individual one to one high standard of care.
If your on a 5 day or a 7 day livery packages what is the usual agreement over bank holidays/Christmas etc? Some yards around the area cover the bank holidays but not Christmas and some do not cover bank holidays at all.
As a customer I think I would expect bank holidays to be included but would be willing to pay an extra charge for cover on Christmas day, boxing day and new years day.
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Mine is 7 days a week every day regardless of bank holiday's, when I have a day off or go on holiday I pay my livery's to cover the yard. So Christmas etc is not a problem when you do 7 days a week it is noon negotiation unless prior arrange with livery or other person to cover you on those day's Y/O for yo

We offer facilities + bedding and certain feeds and labour + hay for £ 98 per week
 
You will need consent to call vet and to take his advice if owner is not available, it is your call to get a vet if you are worried, if owner does not accept this she is not suitable. You are the keeper of the horse so have some liability for horse welfare.
 
Bonkers2 said:
You will need consent to call vet and to take his advice if owner is not available, it is your call to get a vet if you are worried, if owner does not accept this she is not suitable. You are the keeper of the horse so have some liability for horse welfare.
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We have this in our terms and conditions - each owner has the vet they want they organise vet visits. On those rare occasions that something happens I always call owner first.

Then -



In case of emergency, if the owner cannot be contacted or the owners vet, is unavailable, then the yard vet will be called to treat the horse and the owner will be responsible for the payment.
 
Thank you for the above advice.
I agree bank holidays should be covered within 7 day livery.

All extras will be diarised and invoiced. On previous yards extras have been invoiced onto the monthly bill but I can see the benefits of invoicing these weekly.

A full contract will be put in place with firm rules and agreements such as consent to call the vet etc.
 
Rosieripples said:
Owner to Provide any extra required bedding and provide hay/haylage/hard feed.
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Just to clarify - do the owners have to buy all their own hay or haylage or did you just mean extra above the allowance.

Round where I am 5 day livery as yours but including hay starts at about £400 but many are much more. However if it does not include hay/haylage then I would take £100 off that price for a big horse.
 
criso said:
Just to clarify - do the owners have to buy all their own hay or haylage or did you just mean extra above the allowance.

Round where I am 5 day livery as yours but including hay starts at about £400 but many are much more. However if it does not include hay/haylage then I would take £100 off that price for a big horse.
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Owner to provide all hay/hard feed. 1 bale of shavings a week included. The reason behind having an option to supply your own hay/hard feed is I've found many people may compare ie what a 15hh may eat to a 17hh and not wanting to pay the same as someone else who's horse required double the amount.
Also hard feed is often very varied from horse to horse.
Personally I would rather pay a basic rate for all my services and provide what my horse needs.
Although hard feed/hay/haylage can be ordered in on owners behalf, so no need to go out to the feed shop & arrange hay deliveries yourself.
 
There's no right or wrong, I've always been on 5 day but have had various approaches from everything included ad lib to basic livery, services and feed/bed/forage packages being provided separately and everything inbetween. I could list lots of pros and cons for both owner and livery both ways.

Reason I was asking was from a cost point of view as you were asking about pricing. If I was comparing 5 day livery including hay at £400 pcm then I wouldn't want to pay more than £300 without. Especially as buying from feed shops can be expensive.

Only other thing I would mention is possibly a choice of bedding - I have a horse that is allergic to shavings or any wood based bedding so choice is good.
 
If you are not including hay then it would probably be around £90 a week then for 5 day and £110 for 7 day. If you are not including hay then you are going to need enough storage space for all the liveries to store their own hay. It would probably be easier for you to include hay for your part liveries as then you are not having to go to each individuals hay store to make up haynets or collect hay. At the yard I on they have large bale hay for the part liveries and they can stuff loads of haynets in advance in the same area of the hay barn.

Making up the feeds is also easier when you don't have to go to 10 individual feed bins to make up the feeds for all the horses. Our yard has 3 feed options all molasses free and high fiber; low energy, medium energy and high energy and then has shelves in the feed room for any supplements the horses have.

I am on 7 day and it includes all feed/hay and bedding as well as services. Hay is as much as you want your horse to have and they will also offer soaked hay for those that need it and do a late night check at 10pm to put in any extra hay or feeds for horses that need it.

It is cheaper and easier for me for my pony to be on the "meal deal". However I am lucky as the the feed options are molasses free high fiber and they offer the lower energy feeds. I don't need to worry about anything running out and it means that the yard can be flexible with regard to the amounts he is fed, for example if he needs to come in a bit earlier than normal so needs a bit of extra hay. However I am on a yard where they are very generous with the hay and feed so no-one on the "meal deal" should need to buy any extra hay or feed even those with big horses or poor doers.

Most 7 day livery customers will have chosen 7 day as they want the security of having their horse cared for every day including bank holidays, Christmas and New Year. I would expect to pay a set amount each month and that amount should be calculated in order to ensure 365 day care.

5 day livery is different as that presumes that the owner is able to provide care two days a week. It could be the traditional Monday-Friday or it could be a on a different schedule for example if the owner had children and a non horsey partner they may want the weekends covered to spend time with them whilst the kids are out of school. I think in that scenario if xmas day falls on a day they would normally look after the horse then you could opt to charge more to provide services if they needed them or not provide them if you wanted. If however xmas falls on a day when you would normally look after the horse then that is more tricky - if the only really require services on days they are working and they are not working on xmas day then may come and help anyway, but really it would be fairer to offer them the option of having that day covered as if it was a normal day or swapping the cover to another day if they can come up so they are not paying for a day when they are having to cover.

You will probably find many part liveries if they are around will catch their own horses in and groom and feed, skip out if they can even if they are paying for you to do it!. Even though I am on 7 day I like to be able to help out with anything that needs doing if I have time when I am at the yard as I enjoy doing that.
 
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With bank holidays of the 5 yards I have been a livery on none covered christmas or easter as standard for either 5 day or 7 day liveries.
3 allowed you to pay for cover on these days as extra, 2 didn't cover at all and you had to work it out amongst yourselves
Other bank holidays 1 didn't cover at all, 2 covered these days as standard for both 5 and 7 days, 1 covered for 7 day but not for 5 day and one offered cover at double usually rate.

None offered the option to alter which 5 days, probably because most charge a different rate for 1 days livery on the weekends to weekdays.
 
Thank you for all your useful advice. I've been on both full livery and part livery yards myself and as others say it differs yard to yard.
Luckily being a small yard it will be able to offer tailored packages but would like to have a standard option in place.
I can see benefits in including the hay in the package as SO1 mentions it will save on storage space.
Although we will have an area for this to be stored, so could offer both packages with or without.

Regarding the bank holidays, as a 5 day Part livery I think it should cover the normal Monday bank holidays included in the price and offer cover at an extra rate for Christmas.
 
5 day livery at ours doesnt cover bank holidays its extra. Also we all pay same for hard feed and hay. I have 2 ponies and lose out to the 17hh tb's who eat twice as much.
 
minimex2 said:
5 day livery at ours doesnt cover bank holidays its extra. Also we all pay same for hard feed and hay. I have 2 ponies and lose out to the 17hh tb's who eat twice as much.
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Hi Minimex2,

This is something I don't want to be a problem at the yard, would you prefer an option to have 5 day livery and be able to supply your own hard feed/hay? Therefore only paying for what you use and being able to choose what to feed.
 
I do 5 day livery at a yard that sounds similar facilities wise, we're Surrey/Hants border near main roads and show centres.

5 day part livery is £450 a month, that includes adlib hay, 2 bags of bedding a week, hard feed (yo buys ours in especially or our horses), and at the weekend YO will still turn out, bring in, change rugs, make feeds and feed and put hay in. Really all we need to do is muck out. Weekend cover can be provided at £10 per day if required, however if you need the weekend covered you can do a weekday instead - the 5 days that YO does are flexible. YO will deal with farriers, vets, instructors etc at no extra cost. Riding/luging can be arranged for a small fee billed at the end of the month. YO deals with worm counts/worming too and it's billed at the end of the month. All we need to do is provide any supplements we want them to be fed.
 
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