Equestrian Supplies Delivery Across the UK

A livery yard is rarely where the satnav says it is. It is down a track, behind a farm, with a gate that may or may not be open, and the person expecting the delivery is halfway across a field with a horse.

T&C Logistics delivers for equestrian retailers, saddlers, feed merchants and yards. Companies House records over 1,600 active UK companies in equestrian, saddlery and equine supply. We have run rural and trade distribution since 2020 with more than 3,000 vetted driver-partners nationwide. Quotes from £50 (ex VAT), quoted in full upfront before you book.

What does an equestrian order actually contain?

Three groups that behave nothing alike: heavy feed and bedding, bulky soft goods, and small high-value fitted items.

Feed is the weight and bedding is the volume, and an order containing both fills a vehicle twice over on different measures. See our Luton van and dropside van pages.

Why is finding the yard the hard part?

Because yards are named rather than numbered and sit off unmarked tracks. A postcode covers a wide rural area, and the delivery point may be several hundred metres from the road it belongs to.

A what3words location or a grid reference is worth more than an address here, and a mobile number for someone actually on site is worth more than either. That is a booking detail rather than a driver problem.

Ground conditions are the second half. A track that carries a 4x4 in August will not carry a loaded vehicle in February, and a driver who commits to a soft track has a recovery problem rather than a delivery.

How is fitted saddlery handled?

As a made-to-measure item, because that is exactly what it is. A saddle is fitted to a specific horse's back and a specific rider, and there is no substitute on a shelf.

Saddles travel in a bag or box, never compressed, never stacked under weight, and never against anything that can mark leather. A saddle with a pressure mark or a scuffed panel is a saddle that has lost value it will not recover.

Saddle fitting also generates a two-way flow: saddles go out on trial, come back for adjustment, and return again reflocked or reflapped. That is a repeat circuit rather than a one-off delivery.

Does feed need weather protection?

Absolutely, and it is the most common avoidable loss in the trade. Feed that gets wet on an unloading spoils, and mouldy feed is not a cosmetic problem — it is a genuine health risk to a horse.

The same applies to bedding and to haylage. Wrapped haylage relies on an intact seal to stay preserved, and a puncture from rough handling starts spoilage that the yard discovers when it opens the bale weeks later.

Covered transport and a dry unloading point are the requirement. Where a yard has nowhere dry, delivering into a stable rather than onto a yard surface is worth the extra two minutes.

Is there a season?

A pronounced one. Rugs sell from late summer into autumn, bedding and hard feed volumes rise sharply once horses come in for winter, and the whole trade quietens through high summer when horses live out.

The autumn switch is the sharp event, and like every weather-driven trade it arrives with the weather rather than the calendar. A cold snap in October empties rug stock across a region in a week.

Competition season adds a separate rhythm: events, shows and championships concentrate retail demand into specific weekends at specific venues. See our exhibition and events logistics service.

Can you deliver to shows and events?

Yes, and trade stands at equestrian events are a real strand of the business. County shows, championships and regional events run trade villages with fixed build-up and breakdown windows.

The constraints are the venue's rather than ours: a vehicle access time, a stand location on grass, and a breakdown at an hour when the ground is being cleared. Missing the window is missing the show.

Ground is the equestrian-specific complication. Trade stands sit on grass, and a wet week turns a showground into somewhere a loaded vehicle should not go without a tractor on standby.

What about veterinary medicines?

Those are outside what we carry. Veterinary medicines classified POM-V and POM-VPS are supplied under veterinary and pharmacy controls, and their distribution is not a general courier's business.

Feed supplements, balancers and complementary feeds are a different matter entirely and travel as ordinary goods. The line between the two is the supplier's to draw, not ours.

Where a customer's range crosses into licensed veterinary medicines, that moves through partners holding the relevant authorisations. See our veterinary sample courier service for the kind of work we do handle in this sector.

How much feed does a yard order at a time?

More than a car boot and less than a lorry, which is exactly the awkward middle. A livery yard of twenty horses gets through a pallet of hard feed in a matter of weeks.

A pallet of 20 kilogram feed sacks is around 40 to 50 bags and close to a tonne, which is real payload in a vehicle that also has to reach the yard down a track.

Bedding inverts it. Shavings bales are compressed but still bulky, and a delivery of thirty bales fills a Luton at a fraction of the payload. Ordering both together is what makes the vehicle decision genuinely difficult.

Do you deliver to competition yards and studs?

Yes, and they are a different customer from a livery yard. Competition and stud operations run to a schedule of events and breeding seasons, with tighter requirements and higher-value stock.

Their timing is less flexible. A yard travelling to a competition on Saturday needs supplies before it leaves, not on the Monday after, and the horses go whether the delivery arrived or not.

Studs add a seasonal concentration around the breeding season, with feed and bedding demand rising sharply when mares and foals are stabled. That is a predictable peak worth planning capacity against.

What about rug washing and repair collections?

Those are a genuine two-way flow that most people outside the trade never see. Turnout rugs are collected at the end of winter, cleaned and reproofed, and returned before the next one.

The volume is concentrated. A yard sends its whole rug wardrobe at once in spring, and the same yard wants it all back in autumn, which makes it a seasonal bulk movement rather than a trickle.

Rugs come back dirty, wet and heavy on the outbound leg, which is worth knowing before loading them against anything clean. A washed rug returning is a different proposition entirely.

Can you move tack and equipment for a yard relocation?

Yes, and yard moves are more involved than they look. A tack room holds saddles, bridles, rugs, feed bins and equipment for every horse on the yard, most of it individually owned by different people.

Ownership is the complication rather than the volume. Tack belongs to individual owners rather than to the yard, so an itemised record by owner matters far more than a box count.

Saddles in particular are the high-value items and each belongs to one horse. Keeping them identified and separated through a move is what prevents a very awkward conversation at the far end.

Do you serve equestrian retailers as well as yards?

Yes, and shops are the routed part of the business. An equestrian retailer takes stock from several wholesalers and sells to yards and riders across a rural catchment.

Their problem is the same small-drop arithmetic every independent faces: modest orders, no goods-in area, and a shop where bulky rugs and bagged feed compete for the same floor space as the display.

Rural retailers also serve customers who drive a long way to reach them, which makes stock availability worth more than price. A shop that is out of a common rug size on the first cold weekend loses the sale permanently.

What does equestrian supplies delivery cost?

A rate per drop on a routed round, or one fixed price for a dedicated job, quoted upfront with fuel and goods-in-transit insurance included.

From £50 (ex VAT). Final price depends on distance, vehicle, urgency and time — quoted in full upfront. Related: seed delivery and nursery and garden centre delivery. Call 0121 720 3841 or use our contact page.