Lightwood Livery, Stabling/Arena Hire/Riding Lessons

Feb 6th, 2022

Critical: Communication, Professionalism
Jan 15th, 2022

Oct 21st, 2021

Sep 13th, 2021

Lightwood Livery, also known as mansion House farm is unfortunately poorly managed. The location is really good and both the indoor and outdoor arena are really well kept. The outdoor arena is floodlit (you will need make sure you are aware of what time they are turned off at night), The indoor arena lights are metered and charged with 1 for 20min (this is not included in the livery fee). There is an old horse walker that has been extended with heras fencing to act as a make shift round pen, although can be occupied for days at a time by horses for isolation purposes. The stables are various sizes and most come with automatic water feeders but the ceilings and floors can be leaky. It has been promised that the stables will be rebuilt at some point although this has yet to happen and many DIY liveries have been known to do their own repairs. Stables getting allocated at the initial viewing/ arrival can be changed at the yard owners digression without discussing with the DIY liveries first (even if a livery has spent time and money repairing one). In winter the lights for the stables and tack rooms are switched off at 7pm. The horses are kept in small herds, geldings and mares are separated, except for one of the yard owners geldings, who is kept with the mares and is known to often bite other horses, more so when the grass is low. The quality of the fencing varies from adequate to poor (some on mains electric and some on batteries) and is a lot of times left to the liveries to repair or move if needed to manage grass. The owner, although doesn't live far away, does not live on site and there are often periods where there is no-one on site other than the liveries. On occasion it has been observed that horses on full liveries have run out of feed and water. The communication from the owner is poor and any changes from the management are often only communicate via a bulletin on the Facebook group. Due to the above mentioned and other issues there have recently been a high turnover of liveries. If you consider this livery for your Horse, I would recommend you ensure a good written and accurate livery contract is in place that details the particulars of agreements discussed at viewing, and describes all responsibilities in detail including all fees, whats included and what the extras are (such as repair costs, fencing, hay, bedding, storage and which fields your horses will be allocated to and how many they will share with etc.). Talk to the current and past liveries about their experience to ensure it is suitable for yourself and your horse.
Jul 15th, 2021