Its a very exciting opportunity! I'd love to have a livery yard some day. I have looked into it so here's my 2pennies worth...
Look into the tax implications of running a yard. Also the insurance you'll need. The BHS website I think still has a lot of info on this. You'll need public liability insurance at least and possibly some form of theft related insurance in case things go missing and an owner tries to claim off you. This is an essential thing if everyone shares 1 tack room.
Full livery is best as the owners are out of the way most of the time and you can do things the way you want, when you want and you tend to find you will get a bigger return on your investment. Lets face it, in the mornings you change rugs, turnout, muck out. With 12 horses that'll only take couple of hours. Then at night you bring in having already mucked out and made the stables ready in the morning. If you ride or lunge then thats done throughout the day. In the winter they tend to be in bed by dark so 4:30pm leaving you the rest of the day and between morning and evening work to yourself. I watched a place this winter where I had 1 of my foals. She fed them at 8:30am. Changed rugs whilst they were eating, turned out, mucked out and made up the evening feeds. All finished by 11am at the latest. She went off to do whatever she wanted and came back about 4pm and brought the horses in, fed them and changed rugs. All finished by 6pm at the latest! Though as she lived on site she did also do a late check about 11pm.
DIY yards always end up more hassle than they are worth. In just 2 summers of offering livery... I had 1 person staying at my place on DIY livery and it was more hassle than it was worth. Whilst 1 full livery person was a pain due to still owing me money from last summer I did have 1 horse on full livery and I had no problems at all. I found out the hard way that "friends" on livery often take the p!ss and if its left to DIY people you'll alway have someone who doesn't look after their horse properly and you'll be powerless to do anything about it or it'll have to come out of your own pocket. That will reflect badly on you. I went to school with a girl who was getting kicked out of livery yards every few months because she didn't look after her horse properly and the yards kept having the RSPCA out to them because of her yet new yards never asked for references and when told about it all they seemed to not care as long as they were getting their money.
The more you offer the less you see the owners. I do have 1 friend who's horses are on sort of full livery. Mon - Fri its full livery and at the weekend the people have to look after their own horses.
Look into the tax implications of running a yard. Also the insurance you'll need. The BHS website I think still has a lot of info on this. You'll need public liability insurance at least and possibly some form of theft related insurance in case things go missing and an owner tries to claim off you. This is an essential thing if everyone shares 1 tack room.
Full livery is best as the owners are out of the way most of the time and you can do things the way you want, when you want and you tend to find you will get a bigger return on your investment. Lets face it, in the mornings you change rugs, turnout, muck out. With 12 horses that'll only take couple of hours. Then at night you bring in having already mucked out and made the stables ready in the morning. If you ride or lunge then thats done throughout the day. In the winter they tend to be in bed by dark so 4:30pm leaving you the rest of the day and between morning and evening work to yourself. I watched a place this winter where I had 1 of my foals. She fed them at 8:30am. Changed rugs whilst they were eating, turned out, mucked out and made up the evening feeds. All finished by 11am at the latest. She went off to do whatever she wanted and came back about 4pm and brought the horses in, fed them and changed rugs. All finished by 6pm at the latest! Though as she lived on site she did also do a late check about 11pm.
DIY yards always end up more hassle than they are worth. In just 2 summers of offering livery... I had 1 person staying at my place on DIY livery and it was more hassle than it was worth. Whilst 1 full livery person was a pain due to still owing me money from last summer I did have 1 horse on full livery and I had no problems at all. I found out the hard way that "friends" on livery often take the p!ss and if its left to DIY people you'll alway have someone who doesn't look after their horse properly and you'll be powerless to do anything about it or it'll have to come out of your own pocket. That will reflect badly on you. I went to school with a girl who was getting kicked out of livery yards every few months because she didn't look after her horse properly and the yards kept having the RSPCA out to them because of her yet new yards never asked for references and when told about it all they seemed to not care as long as they were getting their money.
The more you offer the less you see the owners. I do have 1 friend who's horses are on sort of full livery. Mon - Fri its full livery and at the weekend the people have to look after their own horses.
It is a very exciting prospect though!
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