Livery yard management: a week-to-week guide for UK yards
Sunday, 9:15pm. You are trying to work out who is on the yard tomorrow morning. The answer is spread across five WhatsApp chats: the staff group, the full livery owners, the DIY group, the farrier, and a thread with one owner who is away until Wednesday. Someone has asked if the top field is open. Someone else has said their mare is off her feed. Nobody has said who is doing the 6am feeds.
Most yards do not have a care problem. They have a picture problem. The work gets done, but the information about it lives in heads, chats, a whiteboard and a diary in the tack room. This guide lays out the livery yard week as four rhythms (daily, weekly, monthly and yearly) and the record each job should leave behind, so everyone works from one shared picture.
It is written for UK yard owners and managers running anything from a handful of DIY liveries to a busy full livery yard.
What does livery yard management involve?
Livery yard management is the routine work of keeping horses fed, turned out, checked and cared for, while keeping owners informed and the yard paid. Daily jobs cover feeds, turnout, stabling and health checks. Weekly jobs cover rotas, land, arena care, extras and owner updates. Monthly jobs cover invoicing and rounds such as the farrier and worming. Yearly jobs cover vaccinations, agreement and price reviews and insurance. Each job should produce a short written record so the next person on shift knows what happened.
Start the week with one shared picture
Before anyone picks up a fork on Monday, the yard should be able to answer four questions in one place:
- Which horses are in, out, away or on box rest?
- Who is on duty, and who is covering?
- What is booked this week: farrier, vet, dentist, physio, lessons?
- What notices are open: a closed field, a broken water trough, a change to turnout?
If that takes three phone calls to answer, the week starts behind. A whiteboard in the feed room works for the people standing in front of it. It does not work for the owner on a train or the groom who starts at 2pm. Whatever you use, the test is simple: could someone who has never worked a shift on your yard read it and know what to do?
Daily rhythm: rota, feeds, turnout, checks
The daily routine is where most mistakes happen, because it is the most repeated and the least written down.
Morning. Feeds and medication first, from a feed board that lists each horse, what it gets and any supplements or meds. Then turnout or stabling, following the agreed turnout plan for each horse and the state of the fields that day. Every horse gets a quick look on the way past: legs, eyes, droppings, appetite, rugs.
Through the day. Mucking out, hay and water, arena slots, and any extras an owner has asked for. If you hold a horse for the farrier or bring one in early, write it down at the time. Not at the end of the day.
Evening. Bring in, check again, evening feeds, rugs for the night, and a handover note for whoever is on next.
The handover note is the most useful habit on a yard. Three lines is enough: anything unusual, anything still to do, anything an owner needs to hear about. It means the morning person is not guessing.
| Daily task | Record it leaves |
|---|---|
| Feeds and meds | Fed and medicated, by whom, any refusals |
| Turnout and stabling | Who went out, which field, who stayed in and why |
| Health check | Anything off: heat, swelling, lameness, off feed |
| Extras done | Horse, job, time, who did it |
| Evening handover | Short note for the next shift |
For more detail on what is worth writing down about each horse, see horse health logging: what to record.
Weekly rhythm: rotas, land, arena and owner updates
Staff rota and cover. Set the rota for the following week by the weekend, and name the cover for each shift in advance. A rota that only exists in one person's head fails the first time they are ill.
Farrier, vet and dentist. Check the bookings for the week and confirm who is holding which horse. Owners on part or DIY livery often assume the yard will hold for the farrier. Agree it before the day, not on the day.
Fields and muck heap. Poo picking, fencing checks, water troughs, gates, rotating paddocks, and keeping the muck heap under control. Note which fields are resting so nobody turns out in the wrong one.
Arena care. Harrowing, levelling and topping up the surface. If owners book slots, publish the week so lessons and schooling do not clash.
Extras log. Review the week's extras while they are fresh. Anything not logged by Friday is unlikely to make it onto an invoice.
Owner updates. A short weekly note to owners about yard news, field changes or upcoming visits saves a lot of individual messages.
Monthly rhythm: invoicing, farrier and worming rounds
Month end is where the daily records pay off. If extras have been logged as they happened, invoicing is a matter of checking the list. If not, it is a matter of memory, and memory loses money. We cover this in detail in how UK livery yards invoice extras without a second spreadsheet.
Monthly is also a good point to:
- Check the farrier cycle for each horse and book the next round.
- Plan worming or worm egg counts in line with your vet's advice.
- Reorder feed, bedding and hay before you run short.
- Look back at incidents and near misses and decide whether anything needs changing.
Yearly rhythm: vaccinations, reviews and insurance
Some jobs come round once a year and are easy to miss because of it.
Vaccinations. Keep a list of every horse's vaccination due dates and check passports are up to date. Many yards require proof of vaccination before a horse arrives.
Agreement and price review. Review your livery agreements and prices once a year. If prices or terms are changing, put it in writing and give owners fair notice under your agreement. Many yards aim for at least 30 days' written notice as a working habit. That is not a legal minimum for every change. The free LiveryList Yard Owner Hub is a useful starting point; have anything material checked before you rely on it. For the wider picture on what is driving fees, see UK livery yard costs in 2026.
Insurance. Check your yard insurance renews on time and still covers what the yard actually does, especially if you have added services, staff or lessons.
Land and buildings. Fencing, drainage, field rotation for the year ahead, and winter preparation before the ground turns.
What to agree before a horse arrives (a checklist, not a contract)
Most livery disputes start with something nobody agreed. Before a horse moves in, go through these points with the owner and get the answers in writing. This is a checklist of topics to cover. It is not a contract and it is not legal advice. Have your livery agreement checked by a solicitor or a professional body before you rely on it. The LiveryList Yard Owner Hub lists free resources, including agreement templates, as a starting point.
- Package type. Full, part, DIY or something in between, and exactly what that means on your yard.
- What is included and what is extra. Hay, bedding, rugging, turnout, holding for the farrier or vet, holiday cover.
- Turnout. Individual or group, summer and winter arrangements, and what happens when fields are closed.
- Feed. Who supplies it, who makes it up, and how changes are agreed.
- Emergency contacts. The owner, a backup, and who can make decisions if neither can be reached.
- Vet spend. Who can authorise treatment, and up to what point, if the owner is not available.
- Farrier, vet and dentist preferences. Named professionals, or the yard's usual ones.
- Vaccinations and passport. What the yard needs to see on arrival.
- Insurance. What the owner is expected to hold.
- Yard rules. Opening hours, arena use, visitors, dogs, parking, safety.
- Notice period. For leaving, and for changes to prices or terms.
- How invoicing works. When invoices go out, how extras are charged and when payment is due.
Full, part and DIY: what "included" usually means
Package names vary from yard to yard, which is exactly why they cause arguments. This table shows what is often included and what is often extra on UK yards. Your yard may differ, so write your own version into your agreement.
| Package | Often included | Often extra |
|---|---|---|
| Full livery | Feeding, mucking out, turnout and bringing in, rugging, daily checks, holding for the farrier and vet | Exercising, clipping, show preparation, supplements |
| Part livery | Some daily care, often turnout and bringing in, sometimes one feed, agreed days covered | Mucking out on owner days, holding for the farrier, holiday cover |
| DIY livery | Stable, grazing, use of facilities | Any care done by yard staff, such as turnout, feeds, rugging or holding |
For how these packages compare on cost, see UK livery yard costs in 2026.
Owner communication without the WhatsApp spiral
Group chats are fine for chat. They are poor for anything that needs to be found again. A field closure posted at 7am is buried by 9am under photos and replies.
A few habits help:
- One place for notices. Field closures, farrier dates, rule changes. Pin them somewhere owners can always find them.
- Writing for anything formal. Price changes, notice periods, incidents and agreement changes go in writing, not in a chat.
- Phone for anything urgent about a horse. If a horse is lame, colicking or injured, ring the owner. Do not wait for them to read a message.
- Check people have seen it. For important notices, ask owners to confirm they have read them.
Records that save you on a busy morning
Good records are what let you answer a question in seconds instead of searching the tack room. The basics:
- Passports and vaccination records for every horse.
- Owner and emergency contacts, kept securely and only for as long as you need them, in line with UK GDPR.
- Care notes for feeds, meds, box rest and turnout restrictions.
- Farrier, vet, dentist and worming logs, with dates and what was done.
- Vet authorisation for each horse: who can approve treatment.
- Incident and accident records, including near misses.
- Extras log, ready for month end.
For a list of what to move off paper first, see our livery yard digital management checklist.
Putting it in one system
The four rhythms only work if the information sits in one place that staff and owners can both see. That can be a well kept diary and a noticeboard, a shared spreadsheet, or yard software. What matters is that the Sunday night question (who is on, who is out, what is due) has one answer.
YardForge brings rotas, horse records, notices and extras together for UK yards. Yard management is free during beta if you want to try running your week from one shared picture.