11/02/2025
*‼️Edited to add: I've turned comments off now except from established followers. It's sad how many people resonated with this, but also the reason I wrote it. Thank you for all your kind words. This post was spurred after recent conversations with fellow livery yard owners, liveries/clients themselves and some track consultancy clients, and recently having a hard time myself.
I've personally found the last few months of AVL to be quite difficult and challenging physically and emotionally, and I'm sure part of this is made worse by SAD hitting too with winter fast approaching, but sometimes this spurs a good bit of writing so I run with it and let it flow.
I'll always be open and honest on here, within a professional capacity, and sometimes that can come across quite negative. It's not all sunshine and rainbows and I feel it's important to be brave and authentic and also use my following to highlight issues not only for horse welfare which is my main concern, but also within my industry.
I absolutely love my job MOST of the time, and I'm not going anywhere 🙏
P.s. It also doesn't mean I'm looking for any business running advice, as this post in particular is a generalized summary of what's wrong in the industry, not just my business personally but thank you for any thoughts as they may help others.
P.p.s I also can't control what posts go viral, and to that livery who somehow secretly follows me even though they've blocked me (so odd) and copies all my popular posts, or writes indirect posts directed at me without even commenting on my content, my allies see you and frankly, it's embarrassing 👀.
Have a lovely weekend everyone! **‼️
Original post:
The livery world is a dying industry.
Why is it that because horses are people's hobby/choice that livery yards and grooms are expected to do everything for 'nothing'?
Picture this; A vet that works a night shift on call is called out to a colicing horse. They turn up, diagnose, administer drugs and an action plan and go home, and writely so the owner receives a vet bill with an out of hours surcharge.
Yet the livery owner, who found the horse colicing, made the call, stood with the vet, implements the action plan, and stays up with the horse all night is paid nothing on top of the standard monthly livery fee. And if they do charge, it's a fraction of the vet's out of hours fee.
Maybe sometimes we're given a gift by a generous client, but only twice in my 9 years have I been kindly reimbursed for emergency care and had a notice period paid for a horse who died suddenly.
But when we want to cover our costs, we are often met with animosity and questions. I've previously had a mere £20-50 pcm price rise met with a barrel of complaints, notices handed in and manipulation techniques. That's not even the equivalent to one takeaway a month these days.
If your hairdresser/nail technician/physio etc. says they're putting their prices up £5 a time that's no issue, but if you worked that out as a pcm increase that would be way way more than the equivalent livery increase.
In the past 9 years I've seen and heard it all and I now totally understand why you see these old horse women with thick skin and attitudes hard as nails.
I understand it's often naivety, most horse owners who keep horses at livery are employed people who don't understand what it takes to run a business and/or be self-employed. I really encourage clients to ask me to explain why something costs what it costs if they feel hard done by, because I have the reasons and spreadsheet to break it down and tell you why!
The livery yard is a dying business, because so many people expect everything for nothing.
A "can you just?" here and "would you mind?" there and an expectation to get everything included in the lump sum livery cost, that when divided down only covers the basics.
Why is it we, as an industry, are expected to work overtime for free? If your horse needs something extra that me or staff have to do, why is our time expected to be at no cost? If I have to pay grooms to do it, then that cost has to come from somewhere, and if I have to do it, why should I work for free?
Don't get me wrong, I have some absolutely AMAZING clients but it's taken me a while to get here. Clients who see how hard me and staff work and are extremely appreciative; We're out there in all weathers and I personally often work 12 hours straight when it's needed, and those are the same clients who know I spend weeks if not months doing the sums over a spreadsheet before any price rises are implemented, to make sure I've got it right down to the penny.
Over the years I've added things into my contract to protect my business, myself, my staff and my liveries too. More often than not people don't realise that when I suddenly lose a livery client or have a big unexpected bill that the money comes directly out of my pocket. There is no AVL pot. It affects no-one else but me personally.
There's been some months this year I've taken no wage at all from AVL because my costs have been too high or I've used a few months income to invest into the business (normally hardstandings or maintenance!). But I'll never ever let it affect my staff or affect the standard of care that the horses receive.
At only £20 a day for full care for your horse it's no wonder that livery yards are closing left right and centre. A cattery or kennel charges on average £20-40 a day and a cat or dog are far less expensive to look after. The maintenance of a field, stable or track is thousands more than a kennel or cattery pen.
At almost 10 years in, my body is tired, and my brain is regularly emotionally drained. I don't have time anymore for people who quibble my prices, or who don't respect the hard labour and high costs this takes to run, yet I still find myself not charging enough for things, because I feel guilty, and I'm kind. I find it offensive when people quibble about the costs. It's so easy to do the maths and think that because I have 16 livery horses and my full livery is £620pcm that I'm absolutely raking it in. Then why is my salary quite a way under the UK average for working often 7 days a week most of the year? Because the costs of running this sort of business are astronomically high.
I knew when I got into this that I'd never be well-off, and I'm content with earning enough to live a happy life and enjoy it. But when you don't feel appreciated by all, and when you hit burnt out multiple times a year, it's hard to stay positive.
I can't just call in sick, or "take an afternoon off" when I feel unwell or burnt out. Any time away has to be planned in advance and costs money in staff cover, and it's never a clean break because you have to keep managing it from afar. I've worked every Christmas and boxing day for 10 years straight and I'd never ever expect my girls to do it, but am very grateful if they offer to help.
But I'll keep going, I will keep reviewing, and keep raising the prices where needed, because if livery yards don't start clubbing together and charging properly for the service they provide, we're going to see more and more closing. I'm hearing of it all the time, all over the country.
Yet the ones who don't struggle are the ones who are done as a side job, or as a small "on-the-side" venture to fund the costs of their own horses. But for those of us that this is our main or only income, it means we can't compete with their cheap prices.
AVL might not have a fancy indoor arena and solarium, but all the facilities we do have are created with your horses needs at the centre, and are kept to an incredibly high standard. More and MOST importantly, your horses are kept to the highest standard of all. And I'm incredibly proud of that.
Owning horses is a luxury and if you want them cared for properly, it costs money and with the Government making self-employment even harder, and the cost of living going up all the time, livery costs are going to keep rising.
