Do horses mind moving yards????

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Kate_13

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Just a tought. Do you think horses mind moving yards or is it just keeping their routine that is important?

Is there any limit to how many times horses move for them to become unsettled?

Just wondered what they think, or if it is like us moving house.

What would you prefer - A yar that is small and very friendly but not so quite easy on the eye or a big yard which is immaculate but potentially rife with bitching?

What are your veiws on yards? Personally I am waiting for my numbers to come up so I can afford a house with land an indoor and outdoor school and a new Oakley horsebox!
 
small yards which minimises the amount of people that can bitch!!! also some horses settke better on some yards than others. the yard i'm at seems to make horses settle a lot slower than some yards so horses have left after not settling in 6monthes!! also horses that have moved around a few times and been sold on several times eg we had one that had been sold twice in a year took much longer to settle than others.
 
My riding school had ended up moving their horses 3 times in the last 4months because of various reasons and the horses don't seem to mind it much. They're unsettled for the first few hours but soon settle in.

If I ever get my own horse I would rather keep him/her on a smaller yard or rent my own with a few others that I know. I love to hear the bitching (don't participate, but I'm nosey and have to know) I don't think I'd like to be on a bitchy yard as I've been on the end of it far to much!
 
Small and friendly everytime, it's a no brainer for me.

As for do horses mind then I think thats down the horse. My mare doesn't mind at all, she steps off the lorry and is settled straight away. I counted she's lived at 10 different yards since I've had her!
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Mine wasn't bothered when I moved him and he's much happier where he is now. That could be because i'm happier where I am now.

I'm on a yard with around 20 horses but all the liveries are really friendly and everyone helps each other out.
 
I moved my horse 5 weeks ago.

She was at a 2 horse yard now at a 30 horse yard.

The first 2 days she ate and drank nothing, she stayed alone in the field and whinnied a bit.

Now, she is in her element. Eating like a horse! she's joined the herd (which is, after all what they perfer!) and really happy.

Its the best thing I could ever have done. Many people at my current yard say horses are very adaptable creatures and it doesn't take them long at all.

Don't worry.
 
i am on a small yard that was supposed to be friendly but not so easy on the eye (and i mean not easy on the eye, imagine broken fences etc) and it wasn't friendly at all, there were punch ups and slagg*ng matches and all sorts
moving to a slightly bigger yard but is a lot friendlier and with the right amount of busyness
hopefully my horsey won't mind, lot less injuries for him too.
It all depends on the horse but i think if a similar routine is kept then i think they can settle quite quickly.
 
Good point Mosh, small doesn't necessarily equal friendly but as someone else said less chance for tittle-tattling I guess.
 
Clearly it depends on the horse - some are totally chilled about moving and settle straight away, but then at the other extreme some freak out and take ages to settle. And all the various shades in between...

Re yards: small doesn't necessarily mean friendly, and can be a bit claustrophobic; 'less easy on the eye' can mean anything from just a bit scruffy to broken fences, dilapidated stables, mess everywhere and other indicators of poor or careless management...

Any chance of talking to some of the liveries at both yards, to get their views on the atmosphere, etc?
 
This question always amuses me slightly. If you think about the 1000's of competition horses that are often in different stables every single week, year after year. Some of them travel hrs by box & even plane. I think horses can get used to most things providing they are kept in a routine.
 
my lad used to stress when he was younger but takes it in his stride now,lol,poor bugger been moved alot,now at a permanent home,1st day he moved,i waited till he settled and went home for a couple of hours,when i went back couple of hours later,shouted him and he came galloping across the field screaming to me as if to say "yeh she hasnt left me",it was soo touching,i do believe it affects them to a certain degree,but my boy has always had me with him,so something has stayed the same!I hate bitchy yards which is why i have moved around alot,now at a place were everybody sees everybody as an equal which is lovely
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I just moved for the second time in 6 months - back to the first yard. My young mare has spent the winter being stressy, not holding weight well and generally naughtier than she used to be, back at first (smaller) yard, she has bloomed in 4 weeks, and is back to her normal self - well behaved and looking a picture.

The mare I took on just before Christmas, she hasn't appeared to change behaviour wise, but has also bloomed and looks fabulous (they are on exactly the same hay and rations, and the cow pasture at the big yard was far better than the poorer grazing they are now on)

The mare I just took on has gone from being a real stress head with seperation anxiety to much much better and whilst she's not looking great, she is improving.

Salad is just happy to have all of his girls to himself lol
 
I agree with Freshman, think of all those competition horses! Often travelling all over the world...
I recently moved my horse twice in as many weeks. It wasn't intentional, I had moved her to her intended new home and then an opportunity came along that I just couldn't turn down (she's now within walking distance
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) Maiden settled well in the last place, she didn't stress at all over leaving the 4yo and 3yo she had been out with since August, and she made a really strong bond with one of the mares. She was slightly bewildered when we dumped her in her current home just over a week later, but soon settled. She is a bit stressy in the stable at the moment, I can't decide though if that's actual "I don't want to be stabled" stress or if it may just be that she has been getting a bit gassy the last week or so (she was colicky last night, had eaten too much by the look of her - think beached whale!) On the whole she didn't mind much, but then she is a very very laid back sort. My share horse on the other hand is Anglo Arab, over-sensitive, he hates change anyway (still doesn't like Maiden after three weeks!) so I can't see him settling anywhere new particularly quickly.
 
PF doesn't mind moving at all. I'm sure it's completely different for a horse to have to settle into a new home with new owners and a new routine, than just a different yard with the same mum/dad/groom who might well keep the same routine they had before.
 
Now that's funny Freshman because you and I tend to normally agree on replies!
I sort of agree with you, provided a horse has the same food and people it knows well yes, they cope fine.
But the top competition horses don't face what the poster is talking about, there is no way you are going to turn a Grade A out with 20 assorted horses in a strange environment.
I watch the new ones settle in here, and it does take time.
like a kid at a new school they are wary and worried and we try to graze them with one or two others out of the main herd for around three days, then put that gang back into the main one.
Most times the newbie sticks like glue to their companion, learns who to avoid by watching their body language and within a couple of weeks looks less worried.
By three months they are totally chilled and part of the smaller herd, but still get bullied by the top few horses.
The secret of moving any horse is to allow enough space grazing when introducing them to the rest to get out of range if they don't get on.
If you watch how they integrate they actually approach various horses and see if they get rebuffed, eventually they find someone they really like and then settle properly.
Having run a DIY yard for more years than I care to remember it's the people there that make the yard, not the facilities.
If you have people who bitch/steal/constantly pull you down you won't be happy.
If you move do as Freshman says, keep to the routine to start with, ask if you can intgrate slowly with other horses, and your horse will settle fine.
 
In the past 32 years I have been on 3 farms where I've been the only livery and 3 yards - give me the run-down dairy farm every time!

I moved my old boy twice in the 19 yrs I had him. The first time he moved from a yard onto another yard, and took about 3 months to settle (he was 25). The second time we moved from a yard onto a farm, but by then I also had a mare who moved with him, so he had someone he knew, which I think helped a lot.

He was 30 at the time of the second move and settled much more quickly. He was also turned out with mares only - no geldings, which probably helped, as he just went straight into stallion mode, so was in charge of everybody!

I moved my 8 yr old mare a couple of years ago and she didn't even know she'd moved 'cos it was only to the farm next door and we already rode with the horse in the next stable!
 
I've only moved mine twice and I know that Flyer was really upset at the move, both had been at our first yard since babies.

It was easier having the two as they kept each other company and kept out of trouble. I think it must be hard to be introduced into a new herd and the pecking order. Apart form one yard where my boys were out together in a small paddock, they have always been in a mixed herd in a huge field.

I personnally dont like to move horses too often, I dont like the stress and upset myself......
 
Both of mine are not fussed by moving at all. It is me that gets all stressed about it and throws a hissy fit.
As for the yard system, you will ALWAYS get bitching on any yard, I was on a smallish one with only about 20 of us and it was horrid, really nasty people and cr@p fencing too. The yard I am on now is huge, about 100 horses and it was fine til we got strangles, now that has shown peoples true colours! Whereever you go you get bitching, I just think it is a bit worse with horses as 90% of horse people are bloody mental! LOL
 
Some horses do mind changing yards. A friend of mine with two Arab mares moved to another lovely yard in the middle of the Forest but one of them absolutely hated it there, fo some unknown reason; she stood in the stable sweating like mad and shaking (nothing physically wrong according to the vet). When it got to the stage that they could only get her back through the gate with the aid of two lunge lines round her backside, they gave up and went back to their original yard!
 
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