How much should I charge for livery?

[Jon Peters]

Hi all

Well, subject to nothing falling through I will be moving to Devon and we're planning to open a livery yard and B&B.

Facilities as below.

Up to 3 liveries. Secure yard (owner on site 24/7), floodlight (20mx40m) indoor school, parking for cars, trucks etc. 6 acres of turnout for 3 horses so 24/7 if wanted. Indoor stables. Secure storage for tack etc.

How much should I charge?

I was thinking 25pw DIY with services if required or full livery at 85pw (inc hay)

Is this a bargain or expensive? PS This is Crediton in Devon. 3miles from Dartmoor/10miles from Exeter.

[black crow]

I'd charge a bit more for DIY - i was charged £30 a week at my old livery for DIY - stable and 1.5 acres [and it was a seriously crap yard] and £15 for just grass

Im guessing your going to be renting the yard - are the current owners ok with you doing this? on 6 acre's you'd probably get 4 horses on it comfortably, will you be taking any horses with you?

[Jess&polo]

I live near plymouth & the going rate varies for £20-£30 per week DIY. It sounds like you have a lot of facilitys/extras so about £25-£30 sounds about right. I know of 1 yard near me who have leaky stables including some rather big holes in roof, boggy outdoor school that doesn't drain & bad fencing in all the fields & they charge £30 pw & are full. Seeing as your so near dartmoor you could proberly get away with £30 pw for grass & stable & £20 pw for grass keep.

[Jon Peters]

Looks like I was about right then about the livery costs.

We'll be owning the yard and land, it comes with the house!

I'll also hopefully be offering natural horsemanship training (leading, loading, behaviour issues, de-spooking etc) and may link this with a B&B room so people would come down for a week and do stuff with me etc. The indoor school is a real bonus.

My wife will be running 2 rooms as B&B so it'll be all go.

Much better than my current, IT job :)

[CDR]

I'll PM you my livery yards website address, they've got all their prices listed on there so they might be of interest. It's a totally different area though so I imagine you should charge more where you'll be.

I would have thought you could have 3 stabled liveries and 2 or 3 on grass too if you wanted to.

[Twizzel]

Similar yards around here charge £25/wk DIY not including bedding or hay.

£17.50 grass keep.

Don't forget to factor in insurance costs to your profit margins... you may find that profit isn't a lot when you have insurance, field maintenance etc to pay.