I get a few questions about what life is like on a DIY livery yard. I'm not exactly the most experienced person to give a well rounded view as I've been incredibly lucky to only ever experienced one yard for the last 9 years and it's been wonderful. Before that we had our own stables and grazing at home where my parents live.
When I moved away from home my prerequisite was 24/7 365days a year turnout, which I'm now aware I was very very lucky to find as most yards, although they do have 365day a year turnout do restrict grazing and stabling at night over winter is compulsory.
So at the yard I'm at we have both winter and summer turnout fields which gives the grazing that much needed recovery and allows us to have unrestricted turnout all year. I've heard many a story of strict rules and routines at livery yards but mine is very laid back, we get to care for our horses exactly how we want and the only input the yard owner has is to say when we move from summer to winter grazing.
We also get to do as much maintenance on our fields as we like and care for it as if it was our own, which I quite enjoy but also if you didn't want to do that then you don't have to either. We only have 12 horses at the livery and we're super lucky that everyone gets on well, are very friendly and we all care for each others horses if needed. For me, especially when I moved away from home it was like having another family.
Now we don't have fancy facilities like individual tack lockers, a solarium, horsewalker, wash bay, hot water, tea station and all the other amazing wish list items that you see on so many yards on social media but we do have a good all weather school, which because there are so few of us you rarely have to share, enough space for all our individual equipment, hay and bedding, alongside trailer/lorry parking.
We never have to pay extra for turnout or checking haynets etc as everyone just mucks in and helps out and everything is included in our monthly fee.
I do miss having my own yard and turnout, getting up in the morning and being able to see your horses out the window is a real privilege I didn't appreciate growing up and I really miss good hacking. But knowing that several pairs of eyes would have noticed something wrong in a field or that there's always someone willing to look after them while you're on holiday is definitely a bonus.
Thanks for watching,
Beth