Working livery

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Maydele

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I'm moving house and money will be tight so thinking of putting my horse on working livery when i move, so just some quick questions for those who have their horses on working livery already.

Is there usually a limit as to how much work the horse does a day? As i don't want to turn up and find out i can't ride that night as my horse has already been worked for hours.

Whos responsibility is the tack? Eg if something snaps or breaks during a lesson, who has to replace it?

If i'm riding and someone turns up for a lesson, do i have to get off or do they use a different horse?

Any other comments or tips would be really helpful, cos i'm a bit aprehensive since someone said to me, working livery would be the worst thing to do unless i want a load of novices yanking my horses mouth and undoing all the work i've put in.
 
It really depends on the establishment but there are usually restrictions around when you can ride/visit your horse.

Some RS match more advanced clients to more sensitive horses but given they have many riders of different shapes and sizes all booking in at different times to accommodate sometimes this works better than others.

The hours your horse works will depend on the school.

It can work very well (horse exercised, fussed over, well-schooled) and it can be horrible (horse stressed and 'ruined'). I'd certainly recommend observing a few lessons to gauge if the style/standard of riding would suit your horse.
 
The way I have seen it work is that there is an agreement that the horse will be used for x number of hours per week on specified days at specified times. Obviously he will be "unavailable" to you at these times. However as someone else said you need to be sure what kind of person will be riding him. Also will it be flatwork or jumping lessons, group or individual? How hard will he be worked.
Usually you provide and repair the tack as needed.
If your horse cannot be used due to lameness you may be charged full livery.
If you can make other arrangements then it might be better for you and your horse. The working livery I have seen and heard about involved lots of different riders of different levels all riding your horse. Also the school may dictate how much/what kind of feed they give as they will not want your horse too "hot". Get everything in writing and check your insurance covers you for working livery.
 
I tried this for a short time. I had to tell them when I would be wanting my horse - kind of had to book him out if you see what I mean? I thought it would be ideal as my daughter is at boarding school so they could have him all week all through the term time.

I was restricted as to how much I could do this, but had pretty free rein as long as I gave them notice. I agreed to tell them at the beginning of one month when I would want exclusive access the following month. They looked after him and my tack very well, but did ask if I had cheaper stuff in case it got damaged....! If I had left him there I think I would have got him a cheaper set and kept my tack for when we rode.

It didn't work out for us as unfortunately they just didn't have enough riders that were good enough to ride him and they couldn't guarantee him enough suitable work or enough turnout. They were very good in not putting novices on him - they really did appreciate him, but he was just too good and there's only so many really good riders in riding schools. They said that they couldn't find enough weight carrying cobs or steady ponies.

So I suppose it depends on what your horse is like really?
 
Be careful.

It really depends on the temperament of your horse and the individual riding establishment.

My mare hated being on WL (she is wary of strangers and it turned out that although she knew the RS staff, she knew that she didn't like them :( ). I got fed up when they (the staff) started to treat me like an inconveniance and would say 'can you not hack her the day before a lesson'. That's right even on 'my' days they wanted to dictate what I could do with my own horse.

It did not suit me or the mare and we were both much happier on DIY. :)
 
Where I work the liveries let us know when they want their horse, we don't use it! Simple as that! Some liveries text at 9am to say they want horse for 10am, if we were using that horse, we have to go get another! My boss will assess any new horses to see if they are suitable for working livery, some are on working and we only use them once or twice a month!

None of our horses work more than 3 hours a day, if we know owner is coming, the maximum we'll use the horse for is 1 hour other side of the day to the owner.

Hope this helps.
 
Hi!

We've had Dolly in working livery for over 6 months now, at a lovely riding school.

It's worked out fantastic for us - perfect.

Dolly is used by the RS, 1 hour per day, 6 days per week, although I'm happy for them to use her more as it's helped us with her weight and training, and I trust them to judge how much she does and they've helped us so much.

Dolly has many regular, and very good, riders. So I'm happy knowing that the people handling her, care about her, and I know the riding school wouldn't put up with anything less.

I think it must all depend on the place that a horse is on working livery. We're very lucky as we don't need to plan ahead or "book out" time with Dolly. If she's scheduled on a lesson and we turn up, we've always been offered to have her pulled out of that and replaced by another pony.

Our tack is used by the school, but we have special items for our daughter (different browbands, numnahs etc...) and we're soon to get new stirrups and leathers just for daughter. It all makes my daughter feel more important as the "owner".

Dolly is insured by us, and by the RS, as is her tack. I think that's an important point to keep in mind.

Hope that gives another, perhaps more positive, opinion of working livery.
:)
 
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