Youngstock livery: what is expected of the horse, and provided by the yard?

[Poingsettia]

Toying with this for my cob x yearling, as I feel like I need a break from horses at the moment. Is there a requirement for potential liveries to be at a certain level in terms of handling? Eg ok to catch, tie up, farrier. What would be provided in terms of care?

I’ve not looked for one as yet, and it may be that nothing is available in my region (Highlands) but it would be interesting to hear of others experiences, thanks.

 

[lme]

Our yearling is in at youngstock livery a herd with other yearlings ( mostly competition bred). Minimal handling done or expected. Other than for feet.

 

[ihatework]

Anyone offering youngstock livery should be competent enough to sort out basics like leading and feet pretty quickly.

If the horse isn’t catchable then I’d advise you get that sorted before you send the horse off. Or check they have the facilities to sort that out for you before yearling goes into youngstock herd.

Mine don’t tie until they are 3. Others might be different but taught wrong it can be lethal.

Care - daily checks. Hay as required. Handling for farrier. Minor wound attendance.
Anything else extra

 

[twobearsarthur]

My now 2 year old has been on young stock livery for 18 months now.
He wasn’t catchable and had minimal handling. This they assured me was normal and nothing to worry about.
The yard has between 30-50 colts and geldings at any one time. They’re regularly caught, lead and handled, have the farrier and vaccines/worming included in their care/the price.
The yard also do trailer training, go on the horse walker, bathing and tidying up (trimming etc) if that’s what you want all also included in the price.
Between March and October they all live out in over 30 acres. In the winter they’re split into two large barns (yearlings in one 2/3 year olds in the other) checked numerous times throughout the day and also spend time stabled to get used to that as well.
It was the best thing I ever did for my youngster who’ll be going to his first show in a fortnight!
Cost was £250 a month but has recently been increased to £280 due to rising costs. But still worth every penny.

 

[Leandy]

I kept a (warmblood) youngster at a small TB stud a number of years ago. I wouldn't be choosing somewhere I didn't think was competent to handle feisty youngstock! Babies are babies. Mine was good to handle ie catch, lead, trim feet, brush but I don't recall any discussions about them having particular requirements. The whole point of youngstock livery is for them to live in a herd having a childhood with little but essential handling. They don't need any more than that until later. I'd expect the yard to be familiar with essentially treating youngsters as a herd. Sort of follow the leader style ie, save for accident or emergency, one in, all in, farrier to trim all, etc so that level of handling is not too important as they aren't expected to do things on their own eg be caught on their own, taken away from the herd on their own etc. I wouldn't expect a yearling to tie up at all. They just don't have the patience for that sort of thing! The yard kept them is small groups of 4 or 5 I seem to recall, so they got plenty of human contact just from day to day management.

It being a TB stud where they prepared horses for racing, they were also very happy to include mine in the loading lessons when it came time for that. Again done follow the leader style, round and through a rear and side loading lorry no fuss. Perfect start to it. I wasn't even charged extra for that. Lovely yard and always happy to help.

As a basic though, I'd expect youngstock livery to include grazing, any extra feed required esp. in winter (largely hay, nothing fancy - fed loose in the field), routine daily/twice daily checks, routine trimming of feet every few months (farrier charged extra), worming as necessary, handling for annual vaccs (vets fees charged extra) and handling and treatment of routine minor injuries. Basically everything so your youngster is routinely cared for at grass without needing you to turn up at all or do extra. A good yard will welcome you to come and see your youngster whenever you want but will probably take a dim view of you wanting to catch, groom and generally mess around with them on a daily basis because if everyone did that it would be pretty disruptive for the herd.

 

[tb gal]

I would be interested in others experiences of this. I have semi impulse bought a 2 year old welsh cob filly as I was looking for a 7 + year old Fell. She is very lovely, in fact I would say amazing quality but lived in a field for 1 1.2 years and is a bit overwhelmed at the yard I am on which is busy, lots of horses coming and going and would be on very restricted turnout in winter. She will be moving to a youngstock livery yard in a few weeks and I am very excited to see how she progresses. I have an older horse and quickly realised working full time and bringing on a youngster and keeping current horse in work also wasnt viable.