Recent content by Marcomacellaio

Dubsie- I'm really sorry to hear about your boiler, I know how that feels. I used to live in a country cottage in Scotland and our oil boiler packed in. Our landlord fixed it but it was costing an absolute fortune to run, cottage had no insulation, double glazing etc. We had no choice but to try...

Tiny - ah ok, so of it's their responsibility, the plan just has to show an area that is safe to store it and the liveries would dispose of it. An ex girlfriend of mine had a horse, she used to complain all the time about the 'yard politics' at play. She made horsey people sound like bit#?!s...

Thanks Boo - I had actually forgotten to consider a muck heap area when I started this topic, now realised I need to consider a way to get rid of it, I thought spread it on fields, but just found that that can be a worm problem. Plus, the ideas gross! I wouldn't want pooh spread all over my dinner!

Tiny - £200 sounds reasonable to me. Just wondering though, would the income generated be £200 per month or would you be able to rent to more than one owner who pays £200pm. Perhaps that would ruin the dream, sharing with someone else?

Thanks for that, I'm gonna write a generic email questioning planning criteria and send it to all local authorities and see if I can come up with some sort of general rule of thumb for the purposes of my essay. Thanks for the info regarding solar, I'm going to re-look at that. Maybe also have...

Thank you 'Rot' for the book suggestion, I will definately look into that. I actually visited the slaughterhouse (part of farm visit for course) at Laverstoke Park Farm. Classical music playing, small numbers of animals going through at once. Was actually really interesting and very calm, which...

I really like the sound of the 'natural' setup, involving the barn with open access to the horses. I'm going to do a lot more research into that now, just sat down with a copy of paddock paradise which I picked up from the library this afternoon. Guess I'm going to end up designing and...

Thank you Roo, I suppose you're right, people would probably prefer the flexibility. As a non horsey person I was just thinking that from an aesthetic point of view, nice post and rail fencing would fit in more with peoples dreams of the perfect paddock. I went all black beauty! A post...

Since the purpose of writing this essay was to focus on the 'business' aspect of developing this paddock design I am starting to feel that there are two different markets which 'perfect paddock' would appeal to. To sum up 'perfect paddock' (for 2); 3-4 acres with field shelters, post and rail...

Llewelyn - The original idea was that they would be isolated, but after all of the helpful advice here I am wondering if a better model would be to suggest buying a larger parcel of land to keep costs lower and then divide the area into a little 'perfect paddock' village! Possibly would help...

Thanks for all of the wonderful suggestions so far. I am intrigued by the 'Paddock Paradise' suggestion, I have just found a copy of the book in the library, so have had it reserved and will pick it up later. Does anybody else have experience of the pros and cons of 'Paddock Paradise'...

Thanks for your reply Brandy, If I increase the design to be 2 acres per horse, and keep in all original fencing (unfortunately, not every paddock might have lovely hedgerow) do you think the 4 acres would have to be individually fenced, post and rail in 1 or 2 acre paddocks so you can rotate...

Thankyou so much for the quick reply 'Bosworth'. I'm not so sure I'd be able to budget into my design the building of a tractor/equipment shed, however, if I left adequate room on the design, this is something the owner could add if they required. Some people may use a contractor for that...

Hello everyone :o) I would be really grateful for some advice and opinion on the purchase price or livery cost for a 2.5 acre 'perfect paddock'. I am a university business management student and am writing an essay which shows the link between good equine facilities and countryside...