How much should full livery cost?
Work out a price that pays every hour of yard work at a stable hand's rate, covers feed, bedding, bills and buildings, and leaves a profit. Free, with no sign-up.
Horses that pay livery, not boxes.
Yours and your staff's together, weekends included. Usually about 20 minutes a horse.
What a stable hand costs you, with employer's costs, holiday and sick pay. Your own hour is worth at least that.
Costs other than work: $477 a horse
Feed and bedding$250 a horse
What you buy for the whole yard, and what you pay for it.
- = $122perat$1 small bale ≈ 20 kg · that is about 10 kg a horse a day
- = $28perat$1 bag = 25 kg · that is about 1 kg a horse a day
- = $100perat$1 pack ≈ 20 kg · that is about 5.3 kg a horse a day
Bills for the whole yard$105 a horse
As you pay them, monthly or yearly. We divide by 12 horses.
- = $25$per
- = $35$per
- = $21$per
- = $24$per
Depreciation: buildings and equipment$122 a horse
What it cost, or would cost today, and how many years it lasts. Paying a lease, or have a figure from your accountant? Enter the amount. Renting the yard? Untick it and put the rent under bills.
- = $58$overyears
- = $24$overyears
- = $12$overyears
- = $28$overyears
Your own itemsadd your own
Something missing? Rugging, the walker, muck removal: add an amount, or the minutes of work at $26/h.
Starting values for a yard with 12 horses in the US. Change them to yours.
Know your bills? Open this and enter hay, power, insurance and machinery the way you pay for them.
How we work out the price
We use the full-cost method that the state agricultural institutes of Baden-Württemberg (LEL) and Bavaria (LfL) publish for livery yards.
The price covers everything a livery horse costs you: hay, hard feed, bedding, the yard's bills and every hour of work. Your own hours count at a stable hand's rate, because that is what you would pay someone to cover for you.
The stables, arena and machines go in as depreciation: their cost spread over the years they last. Then we add profit, VAT if you charge it, and round up.
What the numbers mean
Under the price you see how much of it is your work. It is often the biggest part of the price.
Next to it is the price without your work, as if every hour in the yard were unpaid. If your price is close to that, you are working partly for free.
For some countries we also show what owners usually pay, taken from yard price lists and surveys. It is not a price you have to charge. Where the data is thin, we show no range.
When to raise the price
Costs rise every year: hay, power, wages. Review your price every year or two and raise it at least every three years. LEL suggests about 2% a year.
Tell all your owners at once, in writing, with the reasons. Run the calculator again and attach its PDF: it shows what the price is made of.
Price extras separately
The calculator prices full livery: the daily care of a stabled horse. Rugging, the horse walker and holding horses for the farrier or the vet are extras. Price them separately.
Work them out the same way: the minutes a job takes, times your hourly rate. Then only the owners who use them pay.
Common questions
Because they are a cost too. When you are ill or need a break, someone has to cover for you, and they need paying. A price without your work only looks fine until that day.
Count everyone who works with the horses, you included, weekends too. LEL and LfL assume about 20 minutes a day per stabled horse: feeding, mucking out, bedding, water and turnout. Office work and extras don't count.
Enter your costs without VAT. With VAT switched on, the calculator adds it at the end and shows the price you quote to owners.
Switch VAT off. That is normal below the VAT registration threshold: you pay your taxes as usual but add no VAT to the price. Enter your costs with VAT, because you can't reclaim it.
Enter the horses that pay, not your boxes. An empty box still costs money, and that cost falls on the horses you have. So the price is higher when the yard isn't full.
It prices full livery. For less service, lower the hours of work a day and switch off the costs your owners cover themselves.
No. The calculator works in your browser and doesn't send us your numbers. They stay on this device, and the main ones in the page address, so you can come back or share the link.
From our research for your country: hay, feed and bedding prices from adverts, stable hands' pay from job ads, building costs and bills. Some are estimates, so change them to yours.
Sources
- LEL Baden-Württemberg: ‘Wie kalkuliere ich den Pensionspreis?’, slides of 17 March 2026
- LfL Bayern: ‘Pensionspferdehaltung’ calculator (IDB), 2026 values
- Stable hands' pay: National Living Wage 2026 (GOV.UK) and groom job adverts (Yard and Groom)
- Hay prices: AHDB and BHSMA hay and straw prices, October 2026
- Feed and bedding: retailer prices for 20 kg feed bags and shavings bales, October 2026
- VAT on livery: HMRC VAT Food manual, VFOOD3140
- Typical livery prices: Livery List 2025 survey (Your Horse, March 2026) and liveryprices.co.uk
- Other countries: local job adverts, feed adverts, yard price lists and VAT rates
This is a guide to your price, not tax or business advice.
You have your price. Nose charges it for you.
Nose charges each horse's livery on its own billing day. It works out part months pro rata and adds extras to that horse's charges.