maya2008
Well-Known Member
Relevant background:
- we are planning a permanent move to West Wales in a year or so. A very good friend who is basically family (decades long friend, kids call her auntie and her parents grandma and grandpa - that kind of friend) went first. We have loose ends to tie up here but feel she has a point in terms of land and house etc.
- 3 of our ponies need an arena twice a week. The rest bar two young ones need riding but not necessarily anything beyond hacking now.
- We need to move mid December.
- I can work wherever there is Wi-Fi and am self employed so make my own rules.
Option 1:
Our owned land which is 50min and 33 miles away.
- Well draining, long rich grass.
- Bridleways extensive if you go down the road first.
- Shared access with the neighbour who can be irritating but we could park down the road and use the human sized gap in the hedge and that would mostly fix that.
- Would need new vet/farrier/dentist.
- Fuel to go there once a day would be about £340 per month.
- I have a camera so could keep an eye from a distance (and the bonus of nosy neighbour is that she would too). Would need to find local sharers and make friends who could be there in two seconds rather than our 50min in an emergency. Couldn’t stable but would have field shelters to do dentist/vaccs/storage.
- £550 ish per month in fuel, water, wear and tear on the car (which will be far more than the easy motorway journey to Wales ironically). Plus £200 ish per month in arena hire. I doubt we would need hay at all this winter.
- Might make the land easier to sell when we are ready if it currently has horses and everything looks nice?
- Will undoubtedly involve buying some more mats/maybe another shelter.
Option 2:
- Move ponies to Wales ahead of us, stay at friend’s three nights a week.
- Could buy land or just use hers. She would do checks when we were not there.
- Stables for emergencies and someone to do care if one of them ends up on box rest.
- Company ready made - if something goes wrong there are people around.
- She has a barn full of much more haylage than she will ever need (she only has a few horses) which we could buy off her.
- When we move we may well have them at hers for a bit anyway and will definitely use her arena, coordinate to go to shows together (longer trips from her new house!) as we have always done.
- Kids can do pony chores and ride the easy ones while I work.
- I worked out costs for having them there on land we own and having them at hers and either way it’s not much different given that we would need arena hire more due to the wetter hacking. I reckon about £1-1.2k for this option.
Friend is arguing strongly for option 2.
Husband is thinking option 1.
I…don’t know!
- we are planning a permanent move to West Wales in a year or so. A very good friend who is basically family (decades long friend, kids call her auntie and her parents grandma and grandpa - that kind of friend) went first. We have loose ends to tie up here but feel she has a point in terms of land and house etc.
- 3 of our ponies need an arena twice a week. The rest bar two young ones need riding but not necessarily anything beyond hacking now.
- We need to move mid December.
- I can work wherever there is Wi-Fi and am self employed so make my own rules.
Option 1:
Our owned land which is 50min and 33 miles away.
- Well draining, long rich grass.
- Bridleways extensive if you go down the road first.
- Shared access with the neighbour who can be irritating but we could park down the road and use the human sized gap in the hedge and that would mostly fix that.
- Would need new vet/farrier/dentist.
- Fuel to go there once a day would be about £340 per month.
- I have a camera so could keep an eye from a distance (and the bonus of nosy neighbour is that she would too). Would need to find local sharers and make friends who could be there in two seconds rather than our 50min in an emergency. Couldn’t stable but would have field shelters to do dentist/vaccs/storage.
- £550 ish per month in fuel, water, wear and tear on the car (which will be far more than the easy motorway journey to Wales ironically). Plus £200 ish per month in arena hire. I doubt we would need hay at all this winter.
- Might make the land easier to sell when we are ready if it currently has horses and everything looks nice?
- Will undoubtedly involve buying some more mats/maybe another shelter.
Option 2:
- Move ponies to Wales ahead of us, stay at friend’s three nights a week.
- Could buy land or just use hers. She would do checks when we were not there.
- Stables for emergencies and someone to do care if one of them ends up on box rest.
- Company ready made - if something goes wrong there are people around.
- She has a barn full of much more haylage than she will ever need (she only has a few horses) which we could buy off her.
- When we move we may well have them at hers for a bit anyway and will definitely use her arena, coordinate to go to shows together (longer trips from her new house!) as we have always done.
- Kids can do pony chores and ride the easy ones while I work.
- I worked out costs for having them there on land we own and having them at hers and either way it’s not much different given that we would need arena hire more due to the wetter hacking. I reckon about £1-1.2k for this option.
Friend is arguing strongly for option 2.
Husband is thinking option 1.
I…don’t know!
!