Livery
Our livery stables and yard
Livery arrangements
We have 12 stables for students’ horses subject to availability, early booking is essential as demand is great. Stabling must be rebooked every year as it is allocated on a first-come first-served basis across all six years of the Vet School.
Apply for livery here: Livery Application.
Students are able to bring their own horse to the Vet School on the understanding that all horses must be available for occasional teaching purposes (including weekends) within formal teaching classes and that livery is provided on a DIY basis. However please note we cannot accommodate stallions, difficult or dangerous horses, nor horses that cannot be used for teaching. If you intend to bring a higher value horse (e.g. over £30,000) please discuss with the School before completing the attached reservation form.
- September cohort livery runs from Monday 23 September 2024 to Sunday 6 April 2025
- April cohort livery runs from Monday 7 April 2025 to Sunday 21 September 2025
Livery costs
DIY livery costs £22 per week, throughout the year, payable termly in advance and includes provision of:
- 3.6m x 3.6m loose box with 28mm rubber matting
- Grass turnout (dependent on ground conditions) for all 12 horses at a rate of approximately 1 acre per liveried horse
- 30m x 20m ménage
- Use of shared tack room
- Use of shared feed room
- Use of buckets and yard tools
- Trailer parking ar26
- CCTV
- Water, lighting and power
Bedding and haylage can be purchased from the school at cost price as required.
The Students’ Union and the Sutton Bonington Guild both have riding clubs; these undertake a variety of activities including show jumping and cross-country. The area is covered by the Quorn hunt; other local hunts are the South Notts, Meynell and Belvoir.
Please note, the school can only provide storage for a maximum of 6 bales of bedding and/or haylage per stable at any given time.
Payment will be made a term in advance on the following dates for 2024/25:
September cohort:
- 23 September 2024: £330 (15 weeks to 5 January 2025)
- 6 January 2025: £286 (9 weeks to 6 April 2025)
April cohort:
- 7 April 2025: £330 (15 weeks to 21 July 2025)
- 21 July 2025: £198 (9 weeks to 21 September 2025)
A deposit of £10 (refundable at the end of your contract) will be payable for the security of keys to the yard/tack lockers.
Holidays are included in this 26 week agreement. Additional shavings or haylage can be bought from the School if required (at cost).
Yard procedures
These are the procedures that will be in place. We require all owners to comply.
1. Feed and care instructions
Our rates are based on DIY Livery only. We shall be happy to discuss your horses requirements with you, but we do charge for cost price for haylage and bedding. Any specific instructions to us must be in writing to Emily Gill or Rachel Brown.
2. Parking
Please park in the allocated area and ensure that your visitors to do likewise.
3. Grazing
Grazing is available in the field on the opposite side of Landcroft Lane and around the Vet School buildings. Please take care when walking your horse or pony to the fields. You may only graze horses in designated areas of these paddocks. You must not graze your horse or pony elsewhere on campus, nor should you ride in the paddocks. Grazing restrictions may be imposed during periods of adverse weather conditions; all liveries will be expected to observe these restrictions. Please report any problems with the fields to Emily Gill or Rachel Brown.
4. Mucking out
All muck must be moved to the designated area on a daily basis; it will then be cleared away by the school.
5. Use of shared areas
Please ensure that you keep the shared tack room and feedstore areas tidy – leave them as you would expect to find them.
6. Use of ménage
The ménage may be booked by completing the booking sheet in the tack room or the time tree app. Once booked, you may cancel only on at least 24 hours notice, as your booking may have prevented some other person from using it.
7. Use of other facilities
All of the other equine facilities around our establishment are available for your use, subject to any School events and the state of the land, and of course use by others. We will post details of these, so far as we can, on the notice board in the tack room.
8. Security
Please look out for yourself and others on all questions of security. In particular, please shut the tack room door on leaving and do not disclose the code to anyone else.
9. Personal safety
A hard hat must be worn at all times you are mounted anywhere on our establishment.
10. Stable review meetings
A termly meeting will be held between students and relevant staff to ensure any news, information or concerns are addressed.
11. Weekly duties
You will be provided with a list of duties (e.g. cleaning rota, pasture management etc) which you will undertake with the other livery tenants. A failure to undertake these duties will result in a written warning, any repeated offence will result in the individual being required to meet with the School Manager and Technical and Facilities Manager. Persistent failure to undertake these duties may result in termination of your contract.
To reserve a stable please complete the online application form below.
All applications will be considered and you will be contacted via email if successful, at which stage you will be asked to provide a deposit of £100 – details of how to pay the deposit will be sent via email.
Please note: no confirmation of booking will be made until after 15 August 2024.
Any questions about this contract can be sent Emily Gill or Rachel Brown:
Emily.gill@nottingham.ac.uk
Rachel.brown@nottingham.ac.uk
Submit my livery reservation form
Terms of Agreement for livery of horse or pony
By signing a Reservation Form, you agree to the following terms.
1 The livery
1.1 Subject to your compliance with this agreement, you may keep one horse or pony at the Nottingham Vet School Yard.
1.2 The services and facilities provided under these terms are set out with current prices, in Schedule 1.
1.3 We will change our prices from time to time. When we do so, new prices apply from the beginning of the next academic year after we publish the change.
2 Your use of Yard
2.1 You must comply with the requirements shown in Schedule 2. You are also responsible for full compliance by any person who comes onto the yard in connection with your affairs, even if you did not invite them.
You must:
2.2 use the Box only to secure one horse;
2.3 comply with the procedures we have set out for safe and efficient running of the yard, a copy of which is attached to this agreement. We may change the procedures at any time and will notify you immediately;
2.4 comply with our reasonable suggestions in respect of the health of your horse;
2.5 accept full responsibility for the personal safety of yourself and any person brought to the Yard by you;
2.6 take out insurance against all claims with a reputable company to cover all usual or reasonable risks and show to us proof that the insurance is in place when you first bring your horse or pony onto our yard. If you fail to do this, then you may not bring your horse onto our yard;
2.7 have your horse vaccinated against equine influenza following FEI regulations (with annual boosters) and against tetanus. If you are unable to show proof of vaccination and a valid horse passport, you may not bring your horse onto our yard;
2.8 follow the school approved anthelmintic regime and purchase and administer these anthelmintics as instructed to do so, and keep a record of such treatments;
2.9 graze and ride only in areas specified by the School;
2.10 make good any damage caused by you or your horse, to the Box, or any of our tools, equipment or facilities, using professional tradesmen or buying replacements, as the case may be;
2.11 keep tack, feed and any other possessions we may allow you to bring on the yard, in the places designated for them;
2.12 look after all walls, fences, gates, locks, and other fixtures or installations at all times.
2.13 contribute to the general cleanliness of the yard
2.14 graze only specified areas and move your horse to alternative grazing areas on request
You must not:
2.15 ride in the grazing paddocks
2.16 bring other animals onto the yard;
2.17 do, or allow anyone else to do, anything which might invalidate any insurance policy covering the yard or which increases the premium we must pay;
2.18 leave any rubbish on the yard;
2.19 bring onto or allow to remain on the yard any animal infected with a contagious or notifiable disease;
2.20 waste water.
3 Use of Facilities
3.1 You may use a facility (e.g. ménage) free “as available”, so that you may not use it when occasionally booked by us for an event. We will give you a minimum of one weeks notice of when it is booked or required by us;
3.2 Whether paid or free, you use the facilities entirely at your own risk. You agree that you will inspect any facility immediately before you use it and that you will not use it if you are not happy with its safe condition;
3.3 You will be responsible for pasture management on a rota basis with other livery tenants;
3.4 If you move any equipment for your use, you agree to return it to where you found it unless we have agreed that it may be left where you used it.
4 Use of services
You may use a reasonable amount of electricity and water, but we may charge you if we consider your use to have been excessive.
5 Use of your horse for teaching
5.1 The School will require to use your horse or pony for teaching demonstration purposes, on average this may be up to 8 hours per week, including weekends.
5.2 We will provide you with 1 weeks notice and discuss with you the details of the class.
5.3 Teaching demonstration will include basic horse handling (fitting head collar, tack, rugs, etc), live anatomy, physical examination (including gait analysis, ophthalmology), non-invasive diagnostic procedures (e.g. ECG, ultrasound) and bandaging. It will not include rectal palpation, dental work, farriery, endoscopy or clipping or any medical intervention without your agreement.
6 Care of your horse
You undertake:
6.1 to deal with your horse or pony at all times with consideration for the safety of other horses and clients;
6.2 not to leave your horse or pony tied up when you leave the yard;
6.3 not act in any way that causes a nuisance to others;
6.4 to provide necessary veterinary, farriery and dental care for your horse or pony. If we make any arrangement for these services on your behalf we act only as your administrative agent. We are not responsible for any aspect of the services provided. The Veterinary School will not provide veterinary services for your horse; therefore you should register with a local practice when you arrive.
7 Limit of our responsibility
7.1 Our arrangement is for DIY livery, so you are responsible for the care of your horse or pony, which must include: twice daily attendance for full and adequate care for the health of your horse, including feeding, watering, mucking out, grooming, exercise, rugging up and general health care;
7.2 You may delegate the care of your horse to some other knowledgeable person; however you remain fully responsible for your horse;
7.3 If you fail to provide an acceptable level of care, and we believe it is in the best interest of your horse that we should provide care or professional services of any type, then we shall do so and the cost at normal market rates will be a debt payable by you immediately;
7.4 We are not responsible for the careless or negligent or intentional act of any other person who may cause you damage or inconvenience.
8 Veterinary call out
8.1 If in our absolute discretion, it is necessary to call a vet to attend on your horse, then we may do so, even if you are not available to give your consent. If we regard the circumstances as an emergency, we may do this even if you do not agree. You irrevocably agree to pay the vet’s fees if we do this.
8.2 You should inform the School of the limitations of any veterinary insurance cover you have in place. You must also provide contact details of a relative who is authorised to take medical decisions regarding your horse if you cannot be contacted.
9 Dangerous horses
If in our absolute discretion we consider that your horse is a danger to students, staff or other horses we may terminate the agreement immediately.
10 Failure to pay our fees
10.1 All livery bills are payable a term in advance;
10.2 Any unpaid bill becomes a debt to the university. No student who is in debt to the university is permitted to graduate from the university.
11 Horse Owner’s indemnity
You agree to indemnify us against all costs claims and expenses arising from any act or omission of yours in connection with your use of the yard whether or not it is in breach of this agreement.
12 Termination
12.1 Either you or we may terminate this agreement upon one months’ notice given at any time, without giving a reason. If we terminate before the expiry of a period for which you have paid, then we will refund that unexpired portion;
12.2 The termination of this agreement does not cancel any outstanding obligations between us;
12.3 When this agreement terminates, for whatever reason, you will take your horse and leave the yard in the state and condition in which this agreement requires. In particular, you will leave no rubbish of any sort;
12.4 You agree that we may take and sell for ourselves tack or other equipment or materials left behind by you one term after you have left the yard.
13 Insurance
You must insure your horse on the yard. We are under no obligation to insure anything and shall not be held responsible for any loss or damage to your horse, property or goods.