Would you recommend your Livery Yard?

[Wallpaperontheceilings]

There is no such thing as a perfect Livery Yard. Where I live, there are 5 livery yards within a 1 mile radius, but none of them is perfect.
Only one has Winter Turnout - that one is run by a controlling tyrant and has haylage that I wouldn’t even feed to cows.
The yards run by lovely people have no Winter turnout at all and horses are in 24/7 from the end of September to mid May.
and on it goes…. I ended up buying my own place so I could turn out in Winter, but of course that is a very expensive option.

I will be selling up in a couple of years and will be moving house once I have retired. We could live almost anywhere in UK due to very few ties. I would be looking to move horses back onto Livery.
The Livery yard would be picked before the house, and would dictate where we move to. (Light hearted).

So, what would you recommend about your yard and should I move nearby? 😂😂

We moved from a yard I had a whole thread about some months ago (it was super identifiable 🫣so I let it drop down the pages 😂)

Anyway, we're very happy with our new yard and most importantly our pony is very happy. The good points:

1. the yard owner is one of the loveliest and kindest people you could meet;
2. It has year-round turnout;
3. the staff are super helpful and nice;
4. it has good hacking;
5. you have complete freedom to do what you want with your own horse;
6. our pony has settled in from day 1 and her skin and well-being improved significantly;
7. the fields are very well-maintained.

No yard is perfect of course 😂and it's a bit disorganised and the yard can get messy and there's no indoor arena (we've been spoiled with indoor schools at previous yards). But overall we're very happy with our move 😊

(We're in North London/Herts)

As far as I can see it seems to be a choice between rough and ready but with turnout or better facilities with limited turnout.

My share horse is on a yard which is run by the most fabulous instructor, the staff are helpful and supportive and there’s a huge indoor arena. However winter turnout is limited, they’re on individual turnout in fairly small paddocks and some days they will only get to go on the walker. Turnout is better in the summer but still not 24/7.

One of the yards my daughter’s first horse was on was a really friendly place but facilities were scruffy and the arena was very small - turnout fields were fabulous although the paths to them got Somme-like levels of mud in winter.

Actually one of the yards we had her mare at before she moved to start her apprenticeship was pretty close to perfect - all year round turnout in small herds but in lovely big fields, fabulous large outdoor arena, small but serviceable indoor, lovely yard owner who was also an instructor but expensive (Surrey) and probably as a result of that dd was the only teenager so it wasn’t as friendly an atmosphere in general. If you’re looking at Surrey though I would thoroughly recommend it 👍

Well I've liveried there on and off for the best part of 20 years now (despite occasionally flirting with a move elsewhere) so I guess so 😂seriously though it depends on context and what you're looking for, like you turnout is important to me and my yard has amongst the best in the area, not 24/7/365 which would be the dream, they're in overnight in winter but there's usually only a few days of the year where they can't go out at all. Plus the people are mostly nice, I've known the owner a long time and she's a gem, yard manager is good, other staff come and go but by and large they're ok and well supervised, and the other liveries are alright too (obviously we have our dramas and petty issues like every yard). And there's a lot going on, clinics, visiting instructors, yard competitions and leagues etc which is nice, and it's only a mile from my house which is a big, big plus in my book.

I do have some gripes of course, like you say nowhere's perfect, our facilities are pretty good with 4 good surfaced arenas (one huge indoor, one huge outdoor and 2 smaller outdoors) plus lunge pen, walker etc. but because the yard's attached to a busy riding school it is a constant battle for space to ride in, there's no reservation or booking system so you take your chances if you want to ride at the busier times. Plus the hacking off the yard is quite poor, really only one circular route and that involves a stretch of busy road, so that would be annoying if you're used to lots of lovely off road hacking in your doorstep or had a non traffic safe horse (we do have some excellent rides about 20 mins drive away if you don't mind boxing up to it). And the main beef I have is price, it's so expensive, even within the context that's I'm in a pricey part of the world (home counties) its still shockingly expensive, I'm amazed when people post on these threads what they pay for livery elsewhere in the country, I feel like for what I pay I should be on a swanky glossy yard with full bells and whistles care which I'm very much not (it's very much rough around the edges stuff)... But in the end my horse is happy, he's well looked after and I have good friends there so probably even if there was a cheaper comparable option locally I doubt I'd move at this stage...

I do think the more rough and ready yards tend to be much better in terms of welfare, it’s just getting the balance right between that and places that are just downright neglected… it’s a minefield.

I know it's not the point of the thread but I find it mind boggling that there are so many yards that have no winter turnout. I find the idea of horses in 24/7 for half the year utterly depressing and upsetting. There are two dressage horses at our yard who are barely allowed out by their owner. They spend their whole days staring wistfully at the fields, it's one of the saddest things ever. All round turnover would be and absolute essential requirement for me.

I’d recommend mine. Good standard of care, proper beds, large school with a decent surface, genuinely ad-lib hay and well maintained fields (not tiny turnout paddocks) with year round individual or small group turnout.

Turnout is a deal breaker for me. Most important thing.

To answer your question. It's not a livery yard. More a cooperative. Works well but only because the people are lovely and the ponies come first. With lots of turnout (despite the mud. Going to be interesting getting the grass growing properly in some places).

That's how our previous yard used to be. Horses not allowed out at all during the winter and only maybe once a week for an hour or so (if that) during the summer. Some of the horses have forgotten what grass looks like. It made me very sad for the horses and was the reason we moved (even though the facilities were much better).

We were always told that show jumpers don't go out, but I don't believe that's right at all.

@XelaM I find owners who would accept that to be very strange- it's like they have forgotten horses are animals. No-one would keep a dog in a crate for 24 hours a day but for some reason lots of horse owners seem to be able to justify the same to themselves when it comes to horses.

I totally agree. I was telling my daughter before we moved that our tiny breed dog [who is never crated] gets much more turn out than her pony - how can that be right?! Some of the horses they have at that yard were fab jumpers when they were bought, but many developed behavioural issues and I'm sure it's to do with the insane lack of turn-out.

How old will your horses be when you retire? I ask because my basic plan is to sell my land and retire once my horses pass away. They are nearly 16, but hopefully I will have them until they are well into their twenties. It is possible I will need to move for work before then and depending on how soon that is, they could be back on livery. If it is soon, I will buy more land. If a bit further down the line, I would consider retirement livery.

I love my yard. Lovely big school (no indoor but there’s one close by I can hire), easy access to competition venues, care is amazing and incredibly knowledgeable staff and owners and with the exception of this winter they have turnout all year if necessary. They have all weather pens so horses have still had access to turnout areas every single day. My 2 can go out together and run about. Summer they can be 24/7, daytime or overnight - owners choice. If I can help it I won’t leave! Haha

The horses will be around 14 and 16 when I plan to retire.

It’s lovely to read that a lot of you won’t compromise on turnout. That was the deciding factor in buying my own place.
The Winter fields are trashed now and I would normally have started to use Summer fields by now, but it is still too wet and muddy to turn out,

I have buried so much money in the field over the past few years trying to improve drainage. The horses are permanently muddy. But they are happy, so I am too.

Its also nice to read that a lot of you have found good livery yards, gives me hope for finding something suitable if I need to.

I have recently moved to my yard, and was thinking just tonight how glad I am about the decision we made. We have winter turn out, all be it more mud than grass at this point, but I have the option whether I want to turn her out or keep her in. Then we have a summer paddock where she'll be out 24-7. We have 3 arenas including one indoor, farm rides, x country course and lovely hacking from the yard. Staff and other liveries are all super helpful and lovely. It's not the cheapest but it's worth the money for sure.

Ours has basic but adequate facilities. Winter turnout is standard. It’s the people who are vicious - there are actually occasional physical altercations…the way some of the adults bully each other is terrifying. We need to leave.

What?! 😳 Physical altercations? That's crazy.

Yard bullies are horrendous when they get going unfortunately, land really is the most expensive and scarce factor and many well maintained otherwise yards just don't have enough of it. I have been on some lovely yards and as you say none are perfect, I agree @Lastqueenofscotland2 lower down the pecking scale there are yards with enough land, not recently acquired so not having to earn its keep but 2 of those that I was at and the nicest ones were then sold for housing..

Up here in Scotland, I guess because there is more empty space, turnout is generally available for anyone that wants it. Even the posher yards with good facilities. At our yard the horses all live out 24/7 although there are stables if we need them, for example to keep in to keep clean the night before a show, extreme weather or box rest. We also have a decent school. It's not a commercial yard though. The commercial yards locally almost all offer grass livery and stables with turnout, usually in a group but I know one of the very fancy ones is individual. Even the racing yards I know of round here give daily turn out. Come to Scotland OP 🙂

Our local swanky yard with arenas (indoor and outdoor), lunge pit and walker has no turnout.. we were at another yard which was super rough and ready but ultimately the level of mud got to me (lost a wellies twice)..

Now we are in a farm close by. All year round turn out and a spacious barn to come in to when the weather is bad. No arena but we have one a 15 mini country lane away. Amazing off road hacking

You never get every thing but turnout is important to me!

We are pretty happy where we are. We have a large indoor and a 20x40 outdoor, both with excellent surfaces, and are 30 mins from 3-4 really good large equestrian centres and there are high quality competition venues within 10-15 mins. We have all year round turnout, theoretically, although it can depend a little on what the rest of your field group want to do if you aren't able to turn out alone. We have had to keep pony in maybe 5 individual days over winter.

Hacking is mostly road and although rural is not particularly quiet so that's not as good as having off road hacking.

One of the best things is a really flexible and fab team of livery services, it's more or less pay as you go, as much or as little as you want depending on work, weather, riding plans etc. This is a complete godsend to be honest.

It's also 5 mins from home which is amazing.

What would I move for? I wouldn't sacrifice anything we currently have to move, but if I could have all of that plus any of the following it would tempt me:

• All weather turnout pen or free range barn type thing for dreadful weather
• Off road hacking
• Farm ride or XC schooling
• Permanent surfaced jump paddock

DD competes quite a bit so we would need to keep at least the training/riding facilities we've got, and would move to add more, but not at the expense of the livery services or turnout for example.

What was interesting is that there was a threat of our yard closing towards the end of last year (turned out to just be rumours!), and although all our gang of pals are all happy where we are and it works for us all, when looking at moving, we each prioritised different combinations of things. For us it was livery services, facilities for DD and turnout, for others it was price, location, and other people, for some they are fully DIY and happy hackers and could have been very happy with one stable and a field. Despite us all being happy where we are, we would literally have scattered to 6-7 different places had we had to move.

We’re on a bit of a rough and ready yard and I love it and would def recommend it.

The fields are ace, and have held up well all winter, stables are big, dry with no damp or leaky roofs and owners are lovely.

The school is a bit shit and could do with a new surface but it does the job, and hacking involves crossing a busy road, but once you’ve crossed there’s miles of lovely off road hacking. 24/7 turnout in summer and we can put hay out in the field if we need to

It’s a tiny yard and could do with a bloody good tidy up, but it’s 2 minutes from home and not run by a tyrant who complains if you don’t pick up a poo/speck of hay within 2.5 seconds. As it’s tiny, there’s only a couple of us who get on well so no gossipy bitchiness. The owners let us get on with it but are ok with maintenance - broken fences, broken water pipes, etc.

We moved from an all singing, all dancing yard with fab facilities, but DD never really used them, was horrible and gossipy/bitchy. The owners got a yard manager in who was an unpleasant bully - would be on the phone ranting at you for a million and one little things and generally made it all uncomfortable. DD had terrible anxiety about going up there. Had about a million rules that changed on a daily basis and at one point tried to dictate which farrier/hay man/equine dentist/vet we used.

Horses cost way too much time and money for that shit so we left pretty sharpish for our current yard.

I rent a couple of fields from a very small livery yard up the road, which definitely falls into the rough and ready category! No facilities to speak of and hacking is questionable BUT they all live out 24/7 with very good shelters. There is a stable for everyone's use but no-one uses them except for storage. We have to source our own hay/haylage but all muck in together in that respect to buy collectively. There are no rules except use your common sense and any prospective new liveries are vetted first so that they fit in - everyone looks after their own horse to a high standard. Everyone gets on (there are only a handful of us). Everyone helps everyone else. The farmer who owns it all simply cannot do enough for you and we all love him to bits! I simply cannot imagine going back to a livery yard with limited turnout and lots of rules. Would I recommend it to anyone? Only if I really really liked them!!