Working livery to DIY help!

[Mrsmuppethead]

My DD has owned a horse for the last 2 years and been riding for 3. She loves it all and will happily get her hands dirty and give up her time for him...however, we are a busy family and she goes to senior school and has important homework so he has so far been on working livery at a riding school, so is pretty much looked after by them and she goes in whenever she can and rides him (though he is not available as often as she would like!). Trouble is he has sustained a couple of injuries recently and the riders at the school aren't always the most careful..often due to inexperience..and she would like to do a bit more with him. Is there such as thing as DIY livery, but where there is help available for when we can't get in? In truth, how many hours a day does it take to care properly for a horse, I have no idea and want to make sure he is properly loked after? And does anyone have any idea how much it costs?!! Thank you.

If you find a nice yard then yes -help is usually available but on many different basis. Best thing to do is to visit all the local yards and find out exactly what they offer.

There are so many permutations. Costs again vary depending on where you are, what is on offer and how posh the yard is

Could you afford for the horse to be on full livery where he is (ie not used in the school at all?)

Assisted DIY is what you want. Basically you do it yourself but you can pay for extra add ons, e.g. turn out on days when you can't make it.

For DIY livery you need to be able to go up to the yard twice a day, every day of the week. Once early morning to turn out and once afternoon to bring in (times will vary with the time of year, e.g. in the winter you need to bring in before it gets dark and with the yard's policy, some yards do not open till 7am, so you need to ask). At either the morning or afternoon visit you need to fit in mucking out, grooming and riding. Depending on yard policy you may need to poo pick fields or do some maintenance (clarify all this well in advance so that you have a good idea of what is involved. "Maintenance" could be repairing fences your horse has broken, getting water to the field, sorting out the muck-heap, it really depends on the situation). One major difference from workign livery to DIY is that the horse will go from being ridden a couple of times a day to being ridden as often as your DD can get there which in the winter may not be a lot and this may lead to a massive temperament change so beware! You also need to be available for the farrier, dentist, vet, physio, saddle-fitter, etc. and make your own arrangements re feed, hay and bedding.

Also if you end up paying for a lot of extras in DIY it may actually turn out cheaper to keep the horse on part livery, where someone else does everything bar riding and grooming. You just need to do your sums carefully.

Really helpful thanks. He wasn't ridden for 7 months due to a leg injury and was a bit frisky when started back...but I think that would be the extreme. I'll start asking around..seems like there could be a lot of variation.

We rent a private yard,and it works well for us,because it is at the back of our house and I am self employed part time,so can go down twice or more a day and be there for the farrier,dentist,back person ect.However,if the yard was any distance from us and I worked full time for someone,it would be a lot harder to fit it all in and to arrange time off for appointments.

I used to have my horse on DIY at a yard 15mins from home, it was hard, very hard, especially in winter with 2 children and a full time job. In the end my family got on my case to move her to livery, which I did and I just can't settle, I want to do her myself and see her every day.

We have now taken on the lease of a private yard 3minutes from our house and I have reduced my hours to part time (this was done to allow more time with the children/so I can do housework etc in the week while they're at school and free up our weekends as a family - the fact that it gives me extra horse time is just a massive bonus!).

DIY is tough, you will need soem reliabel help to call upon for holidays etc, a yard that offers assisted DIY would probably be your best bet.

I find organisation is the key, one day a week I spend a good couple of hours making up haynets/poo picking etc so that things are more manageable the rest of the week.

The other thing to bear in mins about DIY is that you need to be fairly knowledgable, or be sure that other people who are well clued up about horse health etc are around and willing to help

Oh another thought: vacations are much more difficult when you have your horse on DIY as you need to pay someone to cover for you and the same goes for anytimes when you may be ill or have ill children.