Horse livery

[Janovich]

LOL ....love your 'theory' @Glass half full and pretty spot on that!

Hence why I'm now on a very small yard with only 6 liveries in situ and who come from very different 'job worlds'. We have a training Nurse, a PA/farmer's helper (me!), a lady with her own dog walking business, an accounts assistant, a lady with her own business geared to the cycling/fitness world and a lass who works in the Spa world. We all get on really well, which is unheard of really where horses/liveries are concerned.

I am very very lucky to have found the place and our little happy family will be together I think for quite some time!

Likewise the owners are bloody great and good old fashioned horsey folk,...so it's a win win situation for us all round.

 

[Grassman]

LOL ....love your 'theory' @Glass half full and pretty spot on that!

Hence why I'm now on a very small yard with only 6 liveries in situ and who come from very different 'job worlds'. We have a training Nurse, a PA/farmer's helper (me!), a lady with her own dog walking business, an accounts assistant, a lady with her own business geared to the cycling/fitness world and a lass who works in the Spa world. We all get on really well, which is unheard of really where horses/liveries are concerned.

I am very very lucky to have found the place and our little happy family will be together I think for quite some time!

Likewise the owners are bloody great and good old fashioned horsey folk,...so it's a win win situation for us all round.

Oh dear. I think you have been in that dream long enough. Wake up time!

 

[Janovich]

LOL....honestly Grassman,...I sometimes think the same myself but I've been there now long enough to know it ain't no dream!!! They do their homework when prospective liveries come a calling and there's been quite a few over the past few months that haven't got any further than a visit! . We have one spare stable and it will NOT be let to just any old Tom, Dick or Harry and the owners are more than happy for it to be vacant, than upset their resident liveries as they don't want anyone on the place that will upset the equilibrium of the yard. Lovely place to be

 

[Grassman]

Sounds good. I get to a lot of livery yards and most have a continuous flow of clients.
Nowadays the old style livery yards are struggling with competition from farmers setting up.
They can offer the complete package with feed and straw provided. Better land and the machinery to manage it.
Not much good for me selling hay and haylage though!

 

[Janovich]

It is a good setup and they're not greedy, so they keep their little 'niche' of good paying customers happy. They have their own fields that are for haylage and hay and wilsons come in to do the work (owner's daughter works in the finance office for Harry & he's only 5 mins away). Any spraying/topping that needs doing is also done by them too as and when needed, so a good relationship all round really. They have a guy that comes in and does 2/3 mornings a week on the yard and helps out with any heavier tasks if needed, so they've got it sorted . Plenty of land for the horses with all year turnout, an arena, good off road hacking, a horse walker and a Summer grass arena with a set of jumps in if you want to use that too. Land isn't too rich for the neddies either, so suits everyone perfectly....oh and 'fat paddocks' for those hardy types that need to be restricted in the summer, grass wise.

Straw comes in from next doors farm in big bales as and when needed. We do get our own bedding, but we all deal with our own when it comes on.

 

[Janovich]

Sounds good. I get to a lot of livery yards and most have a continuous flow of clients.
Nowadays the old style livery yards are struggling with competition from farmers setting up.
They can offer the complete package with feed and straw provided. Better land and the machinery to manage it.
Not much good for me selling hay and haylage though!

Trouble for me is with the above type of yard is the grass is too rich, I don't use straw (my boy has feather and it makes him itch the hell out his legs), I don't use haylage as he can't cope with it (so get my own in, which is allowed and I'm NOT charged for not using their own haylage!, which a lot of them do). I don't get charged for parking my trailers up either. Feed wise he's on very little, so again,...waste of money to be included for me really. But,...each to their own I guess. I have landed on my feet/hooves it seems!

 

[Grassman]

Nowadays haylage seems to be going out of fashion. 90% of my customers want hay or slightly moist wrapped hay. Five years ago I would think it was 50/50 hay or haylage

 

[Janovich]

Yup,.. because the horse of today is getting too much of the rich stuff and they can't cope with it!! Good quality hay will be wanted more and more me thinks in the future! Horses digestive systems (and feet!) will and do seem to cope alot better on the good old fashioned hay types and yes, the haylage that is pretty much what you would call hay!

 

[Grassman]

Yup,.. because the horse of today is getting too much of the rich stuff and they can't cope with it!! Good quality hay will be wanted more and more me thinks in the future! Horses digestive systems (and feet!) will and do seem to cope alot better on the good old fashioned hay types and yes, the haylage that is pretty much what you would call hay!

It does make me wonder how they go on grazing grass in fields if haylage causes them problems. They seem to eat all day when out at grass.

 

[Janovich]

They will and do have rest breaks from munching,...but some just don't know when to stop eating! Depends on the breed of horse too. Your natives will usually not stop munching until they're off their own feet, on the other hand some Thoroughbred types are fine,...you can't fill 'em up! I put my boy out at night during the spring/summer/autumn periods when the grass is apt to flushes of the good stuff with sugar spikes during the day. He comes in off the grass for a few hours.

The way in which haylage is made (fermented) can and does cause a lot of problems (too rich causing foot and laminitic issues, too acidic upsetting their guts, too wet causing scouring etc) in some horses and they just can't cope with it, so often hay is the way to go for them. I soak my hay too and much prefer to get last year's bales too.

When they're shut up in stables for hours on end munching away at a net of haylage, they don't move about either like they can when they're out (movement helps alot especially keeping the hoof/feet healthy and the blood flowing). They can't naturally move about and work some of the calories and energy off that they're putting into the system....if that makes sense!

 

[Glass half full]

we don't offer hay, straw or any feeds and i will tell a true story to illustrate why!

10 years ago i grew 50 acres of grass for haulage as we where buying in loads to sell on to our liveries.

we made the haylage and they moaned like hell about it, they wasted loads of bales and i got totally fed up with it. so i telephoned my haulage dealer and arranged for them to send an empty trailer to my haylage store (away from the farm) and load it up then deliver it to my own yard on a saturday morning when all the liveries where there to see.

not one bale was wasted. they all commented on how good it was. purely because the perception was that bought in haylage was better than anything 'homemade'

i realised that to a horsey person i (the farmer/yard owner) is the devil. they feel they do us a favour by keeping there horses with us and that what ever i did would be wrong!

 

[Dry Rot]

There is only one thing to remember with liveries. Have them sign an agreement. And the most important term in the agreement is, "This licence (not lease, please note) may be terminated at any time by either party on seven days notice with no reason being given". Never had to use it but the solicitor of the biggest trouble maker paid me a big compliment by advising his client, "You never should have signed it!"!

 

[MaisiesDad]

I wouldn't have a livery yard for all the tea in China! She's got fuller haynets than me, she hasn't as much dust in the shavings, she uses twice as much water as me............... Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhh!

 

[Wheyibuggermair]

NIghtmare, nightmare, nightmare - be aware diversification comes with warnings up the length of your arm. Firstly if you dont have a menage, or any facilities you are limited on the rent. We did £25pw. This attracts the lower end. They arrive all lovely full of enthusiasm, willing to help and totally approachable. then you realise they havent a pot to p%ss in - as the saying goes up to their thighs in leather up to their necks in debt and they are, no teeth, banger of car, lie endlessly and dont pay.

You must have insurance - your Indemnity must show DIY livery. You must have a full BHS contract, you must get references (absolutely worthless I'm afraid), Collecting money thats another laugh these women are rude and full of sh@t. You can get Direct Debit but that can be stopped.

You must have grassland management and many dont understand that either. OH banned them going on waterlogged fields and told them to either walk them or ride them, they moaned like mad because horse cant stand being trapped indoors day after day. Tough sh@t, leaving horses out in wet fields will ruin the fields, poach the f out of them.
There were some badly behaved horses and while being walked to fields broke off and the owners were happy to see them jumping all over my flower beds, totally bad mannered horses. To be quite frank I have never met should a horrible bunch of women in my life (being a woman I have met a lot) Bar the one or two that is,

Really for a few its not cost effective, there is no money in it. The time you spend keeping them happy, getting hay, bedding, electric fence, refencing barbed wire etc. The fields you need to do it properly, sheep tack is better. My husband talked me into it, I gave it a go and it was truely one of the worse ventures we have ever done and we've done loads.

Was about to venture into it, had a taste of what you experienced and have now gone off it completely, couldn't believe the weirdos to be found in the horsey lot!
Are sheep herders as bad
Just looking to have me bit grazed down!

 

[Dry Rot]

"Sorry, I can't pay you this week as I just got out of prison".
"I want to pay three months in advance". She did too. Then after the three months went back into the mental institution.
Abandoned horse finally rehomed. Then the original owner reappears demanding, "The balance of proceeds of sale". Fortunately, that one turned out to be an entire (owner did not know that!) for which he had contracted to pay £400/week. I'm still waiting for my money.

I could write a book. Like any enterprise involving direct contact with the public, you start off getting everyone else's rubbish.

 

[The Son]

We have had "trailer wars", where one lady returned from a day out to find another lady had parked in the space she always used, (I say parked, but it probably landed there more by luck than judgement) they argued for days and didn't speak for weeks.
We are currently enduring "shavings wars" where one lady has accused another of nicking her bale of shavings, they now all write there names on the bales, and the canny ones number them and use them in number order, but the resentment is simmering!
They have all been here long enough now that I can stand back and chuckle about it to myself, and when they inevitably come to me to complain my stock answer is if you don't sort it out between yourselves I will get rid of the lot of you!
But despite it all I enjoy having them here, and they can very often brighten up a dull day with their antics, oh and also if they fall off they bake me a cake!

 

[Glass half full]

I do agree, they can be a little fun at times. and if I'm honest i don't mind them too much. especially one girl we had who used to wear a bikini top and jodphurs in the hot weather, i remember one day she was struggling to tip a heavy wheelbarrow on the muck heap, i watched her struggling and bouncing for a few minutes before offering her a hand. a few weeks ago i caught one in the hay barn with the delivery driver. was embarrassing for all! however my comment of two company, threes a party was not as well received as i hoped!

 

[Suffolk Serf]

What GHF is failing to say is that he once shot a horse at his yard!
That taught them not to mess with him.

 

[Chasingmytail]

once we locked a horse up for non payment - she came up thrumps on that day seeing that she promised me to pay for 4 weeks (awaiting comp - says it all). As for contracts they are really worthless, we had another one that did a bunk (said she was going to a show didnt return) went through the small claims with fees, papers sent out and returned as 'no longer at address', tried twice. As for solicitors again time you spend a few hours those outstanding fees have been spent again. I found that once they rented there was a few that thought they owned the place and were at constant battle with us made our farm impossible. Having said this there were for few that were an absolute delight. Most livery yards around here are a dump and I mean a dump, there is no grassland management its just a mud bath and dread to think the amount of work needed to put the land back.

 

[Dry Rot]

I don't think anyone has mentioned the tax implications. Providing livery is not farming, so may attract local business rates, change of use under planning, death duties, horses are considered to be pets in the UK so feed is VAT-able, and that lot will bring with a load of red tape, rules and regulations, and clip board merchants.

Have fun!