Why is DIY livery so scarce...?

Mrs B said:
As others said, they are out there but often don't need to advertise.

Don't know what area of Oxfordshire you are but I DIY-d at a yard in North Oxon for 14 years until 2014. All year turnout in big fields, cross-country course, good boxes, good school with jumps and poles; a canteen and loo, automatic troughs ... great hay and hayledge made by the owners for you to buy etc

It was £27.50 a week.

Oh, and a bridle path through the farm itself.

But no - there is no money in it for the owners and often plenty of grief so I can understand less and less folk wanting to offer it!
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Which yard? I'm nosy enough to see if its still there!
 
I only know of a couple of yards round here that offer part/full livery, most are DIY. I suspect it is to do both with money, and that DIY liveries can be a PITA, as can DIY YO's to be fair. Full livery most likely makes a better profit, but also allows the YO control over the animals under their duty of care
 
Speaking as YO, DIY is a bit of a nightmare, for not a lot of money. I have 3 stabled horses here, all of whom are on assisted DIY, but I do everything except muck out. I wouldn't have it any other way, as I don't want the yard routine messed with. If everything is fed, hayed, turned out and brought in at the same time, there is much less chance of horses getting upset, and shenanigans happening. I buy in all the hay and feed, which is included in the price, so that storage isn't an issue, and I don't have 10 horses, all eating something different. I'm also a bit OCD about my yard, and I would hate it if people weren't looking after the place to my standards. I'd rather charge more, and do more myself, so that I know every horse is happy, and the place is spick and span.
 
stormox said:
What a strange thing to say - am happy to fill up buckets myself' - surely you dont get DIY liverys insisting on automatic drinkers??
Its just that a yard of horses you do yourself is so much neater and easier than having people turning up at different times of the day however clean tidy and responsible they are. You also seem to get a lot less livery bickering as people just turn up to ride. None of this 'who took my broom/wheelbarrow/feed' etc.
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I took this to mean that she would like a water supply but it doesn’t necessarily need to feed directly into a trough?
 
hihosilver said:
yes I would say if a decent DIY yard they will have a waiting list and ever have to advertise! mine is on a private estate and is immaculate with amazing facilities but I found through word of mouth and never even knew there was a yard on the private estate! I had to wait a long time for a stable and am hanging on to it! We have to keep the yard immaculate and you would never know it was a DIY yard. Perhaps try driving around the area and asking around x
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I’m on something similar with good facilities. They don’t advertise and usually it’s on recommendation only.
 
talking of water if its metered its very expensive. I know of someone who had cattle on their place, they received £250 in grazing fees for the winter , standard amount apparently for the number of cattle but the water bill came to £1000. So that was the end of that!. trouble with DIY is theres no money in it and there can be lots of hassle.
 
Downton Dame said:
talking of water if its metered its very expensive. I know of someone who had cattle on their place, they received £250 in grazing fees for the winter , standard amount apparently for the number of cattle but the water bill came to £1000. So that was the end of that!. trouble with DIY is theres no money in it and there can be lots of hassle.
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That sounds like it could have been a leak or overflowing water trough. I did some research on here a month or so ago and worked out that our bill for about 12 horses would be around £600 a year and that’s with a fair bit of use, bathing washing buckets, automatic waterers, hay-soaking, toilet etc., not just water troughs.
 
I am in the North and find DIY very scarce here too, when I was looking for a yard for my mare it was either full/part livery and restricted or no winter turn out.

I asked around and found a small yard on a private road who had a space free. YO lives in Scotland and has little to no input (by choice) as to how the yard is run, there are 3 of us on the yard, 5 acres split into two, horses turned out all year with open access to stables - it's perfect for me and my mare. We compromise with lack riding facilities but the field is good enough to ride in during the summer and we are close to a country park for hacking which is fab.

One livery is a pain in the a**e in terms of pulling her weight but that's her choice and doesn't affect me or my horse. For £20 a week and a happy horse I cant complain
 
SussexbytheChristmasTree said:
That sounds like it could have been a leak or overflowing water trough. I did some research on here a month or so ago and worked out that our bill for about 12 horses would be around £600 a year and that’s with a fair bit of use, bathing washing buckets, automatic waterers, hay-soaking, toilet etc., not just water troughs.
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could have been I think there were 30 or 40 cows.
 
I had been on DIY for my entire horse owning existence before moving to current yard. As much I loved having more control over my horses' care (their beds were beautiful lol) I wouldn't go back to it if I could avoid it now. I love that I can go to the yard and no-one is there! Cos there's no essential jobs to do the yard is quiet. People turn up to groom and ride then go. You don't get that core of people who hang around all day judging everyone else that have been on all the yards I've been on. I like that for the most part I'm able to get on with no comments about anything.

And if I was ever in the position to run my own yard (lottery win time) it'd be part or full livery too. Just to save on livery drama that seems to be sadly inevitable when you get a bunch of people together and expose their differing horse care ideals.
 
Reading this thread, I've just calculated up that on my patch, just in the last 10 years, there have been 3 yards close completely - losing about 21/22 liveries in total, 1 yard has stopped taking any diys thus losing (just converting to full only) 17 places for diys.
Six of us with private yards have stopped taking liveries altogether, losing about 10 places, this is all within under 2 miles from my yard.
It was a very horsey area, but now there are far less out and about locally.

I can't be bothered with potential hassle, tho I appreciate there are good diy people out there, i just don't want to discover IF they are good or not these days. I'll still take temp summer liveries, but that's it.
Its much cheaper to actually pay farmer to top my spare paddocks at the end of the summer, than carry out repairs, pay extra for muck heap to go more often and pay extra on water bill, let alone have all the inconvenience of others coming and going at random times.
Apologies to all nice diy folk out there!
 
Interesting. The yard where I keep my horse has 5 empty stables at the moment. DIY available or assisted, your choice, and price includes herd turnout (mares and geldings separate) which can be 24/7 if you want, within reason, and all hay and straw included. Floodlit arena, excellent off road hacking... no one seems very interested.
 
HeresHoping said:
Interesting. The yard where I keep my horse has 5 empty stables at the moment. DIY available or assisted, your choice, and price includes herd turnout (mares and geldings separate) which can be 24/7 if you want, within reason, and all hay and straw included. Floodlit arena, excellent off road hacking... no one seems very interested.
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That sounds amazing to me!
 
HeresHoping said:
Interesting. The yard where I keep my horse has 5 empty stables at the moment. DIY available or assisted, your choice, and price includes herd turnout (mares and geldings separate) which can be 24/7 if you want, within reason, and all hay and straw included. Floodlit arena, excellent off road hacking... no one seems very interested.
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Yes there is a couple of spaces on my yard at the moment too. Can’t quite understand it as it is by far the best DIY yard I’ve ever been on. I’ve used part/full in recent years mainly because the right DIY is virtually impossible to find.
 
My thoughts are that because of the DIY cost generally being lower, some DIY liveries being untidy and having no respect for other peoples equipment, or generally thoughtless (e.g. failing to poo pick, leaving their horses without hay or not coming back in time so giving the YO a late can you just phonecall) yard owners are deciding to offer part or full livery only sso that the property does not look like a tip, and they are able to make a better living from the horses. It is a shame for those who do look after things and respect the rules, but the few are spoiling it for the majority, and with the YO needing to make some sort of a living the cost of DIY will need to start rising to make it worthwhile. I would gess the empty spaces at what sound to be good yards are possibly because they expect liveries on DIY to behave like adults, respect the property and horses, and pay on time which will not suit some people.
 
Speaking personally, it’s because diy liveries don’t pay much and the yearlyoutgoings as a yard owner come to way more than what you gain in livery fees when it comes to maintenance, wear and tear of yard, land compaction and recovery, machinery outlay and running costs. . I prefer my seven empty stables than what I’d get in livery fees. The other thing is that your place isn’t your own anymore and liveries bring too many other people on the yard, which is where you live ....boyfriends, friends, kids, parents, grans, cousins ... you can’t monitor the safety of your belongings. Just not worth the hassle.
 
Our small private yard is DIY, I love it. Ive been there 5 years and the other liveries have been there longer. Our YO is very careful about who she takes in, so I'm quite proud of being allowed !
 
Echo above. With diy yards you tend to have the same hassle as other types of yard but without the profit. You get owners who have very different ideas of proper horsemanship, i.e only coming up once a day and not doing their share of poo picking. Us for example, our rent is so high that when charging the acceptable rate for diy ( £120 per month) that we make no profit. I am a lease holder with one other lady and we both pay the same amount - £120 per month as our liveries to cover the rent but we have to maintain stuff and pick up any slack.

We have a lovely yard but have had our fair share of bad eggs, we only do diy to share the cost of leasing and if we had a choice we would just have a yard with us two or have mansions with our horses at home.
 
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