Livery and prices

[3SteaksPam]

Hiya!
I'm new to the area I live in and I'm about to buy my first horse. I'm an experienced rider and have been riding for nearly 30 years and my previous career centred around horses and travelling hence never owning.
I'm bringing one of my previous horses home from work, I needed 24 turnout really, Can I find it? No chance.

So I'm now looking at assisted diy, I can't work out if the yards I've found/been reccomend are expensive or if in my past area we were lucky,

Could I ask what you pay for assisted diy, what's included, and how much your hay and shavings cost you a month please?

Sorry if I'm being cheeky, just told dh I was sure it would be less than it is he's not so keen now, although He won't admit he's a bit scared of horses!

Yards near me (mid Suffolk)

DIY - £143 a month, includes stable and straw (buy your own shavings from wherever) 24/7 turn out, use of standard sized outdoor school, lunge arena, horse walker, jumping field, secure tack room, space to store feeds rugs hay shavings etc.

Assistance/extra services: feeding 80p, turn out/bring in £1.20, muck out £6.50, skip out £3.50, everything (eg on holiday) £11 a day, hunting £50 a day, mane pull £10, tail pull £10, clipping £10-£40, mane plait £8, clean tack £5, full groom £5, exclusive use of school £2, walker £2.50-£5.00, hack £15, schooling £20.

Full livery starts at around £100 a week.

Thank you, and can I ask how much you pay for your hay and shavings per month so I can work out a monThly cost? Thank you

Hiya,

You will find it varies massively from area to area. Im in Essex.

DIY: £130 pm - stable, field, school with lights, tea room, lockable tack room, toilet and area to store stuff. Have to buy everything ourselves.

ASSISTED LIVERY is not available at our stables however another yard in the area offers it for: £364 pm

I offer services at our yard for the following: turn out/in: £1.50, muck out: £5, hay, feed, water, rug changes, hoof pick etc all 50p each.

I buy shavings and other bedding like rapabsorb etc at trade price then sell them on at just below retail - they vary hugely, off the top of my head something like softchip would be about £6 a bale? Hay, large round wrapped bale around £35

Thank you.

I've just been quoted anything from £119 to £130 for basic diy which I thought was great.

To assisted diy £250-£295- with the top end of that covering hay, feed and bedding ( I now think this is good!)

Hya would depend on how much your horse is in, how good the grazing is - we never need to hay in the field for example, and how much your horse eats or needs to eat - but at about £40/large bale, we use an average 9-10 per year with 500kg horse in overnight in winter and out 24/7 in summer.

Shavings again depends on how economical your horse is, when ours was on shavings (about £7 a bale) we used 3 or4+ to make a deep bed, then took out and replaced only 1 bale a month simply because she is a very neat and tidy horse, poos and wees in one spot. Also we taught her to wee in a bucket on command, knowing she preferred to wee on coming in we always caught and poured away 1 wee or more a day - she now asks to wee in a bucket out of preference to the bed.
We have friends need to use 2-3 shavings a week, it all depends on the horse. I'd say most people seem to use one shavings or more a week though.

My better half budgets £850 a month all in for her horse. Part livery, feed, shavings, insurance, running an extra car and trailer, competing affiliation and entries, bhs, farrier, vet, lessons, tack maintenance, etc...

I think the part livery is less than a quarter of the total cost (Northern Ireland).

you can train a horse to wee in a bucket? you learn something new on mumsnet everyday!

What area are you looking at? costs vary hugely.

I'm in the south east and it's looking between £295 and £340

I live in Kent and DIY livery starts at around £40 a week here 😱😱😱

Full livery about £120

I'm in the Midlands and used to pay £215 a month for stable, bedding and hay assisted DIY (only had morning turnout though) but now I have my horse 24/7 out DIY it's £120 pm in summer and £142 in winter (extra hay). He's stabled on a riding school/livery yard so have a lot of facilities.

Hi

I'm in south bucks. I pay £140 a month DIY, that's stable and 24 hour turn out in summer and around 12 hours in winter, flood lit all weather large school, and small sandy school, also off road riding tracks on site. lockable tack rooms, and a barn or pallet storage. I buy my own hay and straw in, or can buy it off the yard at £30-35 large bales of straw and hay.

not sure how much assisted/part livery is as they are tailored to each person.

I’m in Scotland (generally cheap!) but the riding school we use is £80 per week DIY. There are 2 indoor schools, but no off-road riding and very limited turn-out. From what I can tell, there’s no turn-out during the winter.

@AJPTaylor
Yes, it's quite easy to do, you'll have to get your horse used to the bucket you use as when you bring it in to 'catch' they often are worried about what you're doing with this bucket till they twig.
Many horses simply don't like weeing on hard ground as it splashes so out of preference choose the bed, and tend to wee shortly after being brought in. So it's just a case of hanging round with the bucket for a couple of minutes and catching it. We whistle while catching, so now if I think the mare wants a week - say she's fidgety while stood at the lorry , I'll produce the bucket, whistle and she'll spread her legs and wee. If she wants me to catch one when in the stable, then she'll get my attention then shuffle her back legs till I bring in the bucket. I'm sure she prefers a dry bed if possible, and it certainly saved mucking out/bedding.

Well today I found ' the yard'
Perfect for us and so surprised for assisted diy, and bedding included it comes in at £205 a month, £240 with hay.
I am thrilled!

Happy days !

£155 pcm inc hay and straw. Turnout whenever you wan, hacking directly into woodland (Hertfordshire). Very cheap but no assistance and no lights in ménage. I have opted for scruffy yard to get decent hacking and turnout, against fancy yard with no turnout and hacking. Horse is happier = happy owner