Another yard dilemma!!

Traks

Traks

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Hi all,

So I’ve had my fair share of frustrating livery yards and managed to escape a pretty toxic one in late May. We are now at a nice private yard that a friend owns (it’s their home) and we are basically DIY there now (switched form part livery). It’s great in that my daughter has company her age to ride with at the weekends, another livery and the owners daughter..when they are at school she doesn’t really see them after school as we go up earlier than they do. Facilities are ok, very small arena but big enough to pop a small jump, hacking is nice and the fields are pretty good..tree cover for shelter. It does apparently get very boggy over winter…not ideal for arthritic legs (pony has hock oa). But the biggest downside is the distance, it’s 16 miles or 30 mins from us. It’s fine now as we go once a day most days, the other livery keeps an eye on ours as she goes twice a day.

A friend has just found a yard 6 minutes from mine and she has space for us if we wanted it. It would be the same sort of cost, biggest downside is no arena and no kids my daughter’s age. But loads and loads of decent grazing, lovely stables etc and access to great hacking. Field shelter and I know my pony gets on with the other horses already as they’ve been at livery together before. There is a private school we can hire 2 minutes trailer ride away if we wished.

We do go to pony club lessons and events weekly pretty much so im less concerned about the children element but ive never been anywhere without an arena! I’m just not sure if its feasible?

The local one is so much more appealing because of its proximity to us, easier to pop down multiple times a day and it’s on the drive to school so literally can pop in etc. I’m really tempted to move again or even just try it over winter?

I’m really worried about the distance of our current yard come winter, I plan to stable overnight for the worst of winter so I’ll need to go twice a day then…and I’m already hating the drive, twice a day will be rubbish. I also have anxiety about managing around the school run and my job. My plan was to get some freelance help for the turnout etc and I’ll do the other end of the day but I’m not sure how realistic this is.

I also don’t want to keep moving yards…this one would basically be mine and my friends to share and manage as we wish which is also very appealing!

Thanks
 
The money you'll save on fuel, you can use to hire the local school. Even hiring the school twice a week will probably take you less time overall than driving 64 miles a day.

The question is whether you will have the motivation to do it on a wet Wednesday in December. Hitching up the trailer, loading the car and the horses up and actually doing it requires that extra level of commitment. Will you really want to do it and if you don't, will it matter? Do the horses need the extra work midweek to stay sane / be fit enough for something specific? Realistically, it's probably only November, December (half of which is holidays anyway) and January when it's too dark to do any hacking after school. By the end of January the nights are surprisingly light until later than you think so you'd be able to squeeze a quick hack in a couple of nights a week by then if you're there fairly early.

I'd go for it unless you really need to keep them in a fair bit of ridden work over the whole winter.
 
Annagain said:
The money you'll save on fuel, you can use to hire the local school. Even hiring the school twice a week will probably take you less time overall than driving 64 miles a day.

The question is whether you will have the motivation to do it on a wet Wednesday in December. Hitching up the trailer, loading the car and the horses up and actually doing it requires that extra level of commitment. Will you really want to do it and if you don't, will it matter? Do the horses need the extra work midweek to stay sane / be fit enough for something specific? Realistically, it's probably only November, December (half of which is holidays anyway) and January when it's too dark to do any hacking after school. By the end of January the nights are surprisingly light until later than you think so you'd be able to squeeze a quick hack in a couple of nights a week by then if you're there fairly early.

I'd go for it unless you really need to keep them in a fair bit of ridden work over the whole winter.
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I know this is the thing!! Thankfully the pony doesn’t need a lot of work to keep sane but we do use the arena a lot over winter as our hacking was non-existent last winter at the old yard. I suppose if I book a lesson every week somewhere it will force me to hitch up over losing the money 🤣
 
I haven't got an arena - I've marked out a 20x40 in the field. It's manageable over winter unless it's non stop rain and I've mainly missed having a surface this summer with concrete ground. If you have good hacking I think you just have to alter your exercise regime tho
 
SEL said:
I haven't got an arena - I've marked out a 20x40 in the field. It's manageable over winter unless it's non stop rain and I've mainly missed having a surface this summer with concrete ground. If you have good hacking I think you just have to alter your exercise regime tho
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Yes we would definitely have space! Far more grazing than we need but some does get a big wet in winter so that bit is just not used and they tend to use the top paddocks by the stables. I’m really tempted to try it for winter and we can always go back to the one further away if it doesn’t work out in spring…

I also like the idea of having co use of our own place rather than livery or someone’s home…me and my friend can do it all as we like and no yard politics!

It’s so tricky isn’t it there is never the perfect yard (well not in my part of the world!)
 
I don't think either are perfect. I can give you our experiences with kids and ponies and school/no school though. Might help you decide?

School/no school.
- Fine if you can hack before school in the winter (if you're down south so have light and not frozen roads). If you can't, it's riding at weekends only for most of the winter. Would that suit you better? Would it not? Does pony need regular work to help with the OA?
- You'll likely only be able to trot unless out at arena hire from when it starts raining in earnest to March sometime. That hugely impacts fitness. If you can get out twice a week it helps.
- Can you ride in the field in the summer? Is there a flat enough area to school?
- 3x a week in the arena if child or pony need to improve rather than maintain schooling/fitness. 2x a week to maintain and very slowly improve. If you can ride in the field in the summer it's not so bad.
- Bad school surface is much worse than no school.

We had an arena for a while, then not. It was fine as riding in the field was possible in summer and the children were young. I focused on them learning to back young ponies, we went out to arena hire and shows. Now my son is 12, has his first proper SJ pony and it's not so easy to do without an arena anymore. It's time consuming to always trailer somewhere and if we don't, they don't progress.

Doing it yourself can also be overrated. Huge time commitment to keep on top of weeds, spray, harrow etc. Fencing maintenance. Maintaining stables and shelters.
 
maya2008 said:
I don't think either are perfect. I can give you our experiences with kids and ponies and school/no school though. Might help you decide?

School/no school.
- Fine if you can hack before school in the winter (if you're down south so have light and not frozen roads). If you can't, it's riding at weekends only for most of the winter. Would that suit you better? Would it not? Does pony need regular work to help with the OA?
- You'll likely only be able to trot unless out at arena hire from when it starts raining in earnest to March sometime. That hugely impacts fitness. If you can get out twice a week it helps.
- Can you ride in the field in the summer? Is there a flat enough area to school?
- 3x a week in the arena if child or pony need to improve rather than maintain schooling/fitness. 2x a week to maintain and very slowly improve. If you can ride in the field in the summer it's not so bad.
- Bad school surface is much worse than no school.

We had an arena for a while, then not. It was fine as riding in the field was possible in summer and the children were young. I focused on them learning to back young ponies, we went out to arena hire and shows. Now my son is 12, has his first proper SJ pony and it's not so easy to do without an arena anymore. It's time consuming to always trailer somewhere and if we don't, they don't progress.

Doing it yourself can also be overrated. Huge time commitment to keep on top of weeds, spray, harrow etc. Fencing maintenance. Maintaining stables and shelters.
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Thank you! Yep I totally understand about doing yourself etc that is also a consideration!

Mine is 11 so we are out most weeks at events and lessons etc, the current arena is fine for a walk trot canter and pop a pole but the surface is not great, stones in places and it’s small, 20x25/30 max…over summer we’ve barely used to to be honest it’s winter we’d probably have to use it more.

Thanks for your thoughts x
 
Oh and I forgot to say to check your new yard/hacking for the hunt and shooting and off road bikes. A lethal combination of all three can make your hacking unusable for much of the year after 10am, and your pony lame from running in the field due to the excitement next door (been there, done that…).
 
maya2008 said:
Oh and I forgot to say to check your new yard/hacking for the hunt and shooting and off road bikes. A lethal combination of all three can make your hacking unusable for much of the year after 10am, and your pony lame from running in the field due to the excitement next door (been there, done that…).
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Oh goodness yes thank you! I will ask my friend, she knows the area very well x
 
Admittedly it was a few years ago but we kept ours at home with no arena and daughter kept her pony and horse fit enough to hunt and compete all the year round with just hacking, and the occasional school and pop over a jump in the field.
As for going out hacking with your daughter, get a bike, I kept very fit when my daughter was younger doing this.
 
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