Do you keep horses within commuting distance of London? Help please!!

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I am a bit of a lurker, don't post much, but I could really do with a bit of help now from you lovely people...

My OH moved to London, from Cardiff where we met at Uni, for work. I am selfish and hate London, and like my job, so we agreed that I would stay in south Wales with my horse and the cat...

But we've now found out I'm pregnant, so I'm having to swallow my prejudices and head east. OH has said we're definitely not going to sell the horse (no [****]... the man listens after all
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) which is very nice of him, but it does mean we have to somehow find a compromise between my village-dwelling horsey-rural choice of lifestyle, and his nice but non-horse-or-baby-friendly shared flat between the Young Vic and the Thames from which he can walk to work.

In an ideal world, we will find somewhere:
*An easy commute to central London
*An area with plenty of cheap nice rental housing
*Friendly horsey area with lots of active amateur riders and reasonable (read cheap as possible) livery. Might be looking for a loaner or sharer at some point, that may need to be a factor, but not sure yet.
*Maybe a friendly, active riding club and local competitions.
*Nice sociable area to live with plenty of opportunity to socialise and to go and get muddy.

So, with that list of ideals, (we ARE prepared to compromise 0 those really are ideals) and a better idea of the south east than I have at the moment, where would you look for places to live? Anywhere to avoid due to prices/likelihood of getting murdered in our beds? What IS a reasonable price for renting a 2 bed property? How much for DIY or part livery is a sensible estimate?

Sorry for being so vague, all my ideas are a bit vague at the moment!
 
Hello

London isnt as bad as you think I promise
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I come from darkest Dorset (village that had more cows than people) and I LOVE living in London nowadays. Think mine is a different set up though to what you want - I live in central London but keep my horse near Windsor. I commute out 4 times a week to go and ride either after work or at the weekends. If you are looking to live though areas I like (and are good commuting wise) are - Windsor & Maidenhead (lovely area and cant go wrong anywhere out on the M4), round Epsom, and West Sussex. But then I am a bit biased when it comes to the West of London - not really sure what happens on the East side! Good luck
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I live down in Kent, Tunbridge wells and commute into the CIty for work. Train is 45 mins to Cannon street. The south east isn't that cheap anywhere i'm afraid, commuting distance to London makes everything expensive BUT is cheaper than central London. To give you an idea. A 2 bedroom flat in my building (i'm right by station) is about £900 per month and my yard does assisted DIY for £40 but there is cheaper around. Have lived in South East forever so let me know if you have any other questions
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Second the Kent option. We moved out of London 2 years ago and it is soooooo very horsey round here. Loads of livery yards proced from around £80 for full to £25 for DIY.

I rent a field for my 2 and have put stables on for £200 a month. I'm pregnant too but pay someone to do them for me between £10 and £15 an hour depending on if riding or not so effectively get full livery for two (without feed etc) for about £120 a week.

ETA we both commute to London Bridge station daily - takes about 4O mins.
 
I live in Essex just outside the M25 and it is a fast line into London which is only 20mins into Liverpool Street. I keep George about 10mins drive from home on full livery for £370 a month, but there are heaps of yards, DIY, part and full and of course the lure of Ingatestone Saddlery just down the road - although this isn't always a good thing!
 
I am in Bedfordshire. Its roughly £25 per week DIY here, sometimes less & 40 mins on the train to London. Keysoe EC and MKEC are not far away either!
 
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I pay £85 per stable per month for DIY in Croydon if that helps!

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Ooh where are you????

I pay £370 PCM for part livery in Woldingham on a lovely yard
 
I live in West Finchley there are loads of yards round there but I think a two bed flat might be very expensive as I pay £753 for my tiny one bed.

I have just moved my pony to a yard in Chorleywood - very horsey area on the met line £125 a month - but he lives out all year and is effectively on full grass livery so I dont go up every day.

I am looking at moving to Harrow which is about 45 mins into kings cross and that would be about 20 minutes from yard.

However lots of these commuter countryside places are not cheap to live as they are popular places for people who want to live in countryside but do not have horses as well.

Wellyn Garden City in herts again very commutable into London and very horsey as are part of Surrey and Kent - lots of yards in Bexley Kent which is straight into London Bridge. Yards up in Epping too on Central Line.
 
The train from where I am in North Hertfordshire is 40 mins into Kings X. Renting a 2 bed flat is around £650 a month, not much more for a small 2 bed house. DIY livery is £100 a month. I can't tell you much about the horsey community as I just hack at the moment but there are some local riding clubs and plenty of local shows.
 
Thank you all so much for your suggestions - I need to do some research on Googlemaps and find out where they all are now!

We're painfully aware of how not-cheap lots of areas are, (going to be losing my salary at least for a while as well) but trying to balance everyones' needs without actually knowing much about the area at all is proving virtually impossible!

Very appreciative of all the input, thanks!
 
all of a muchness in London from what I can see, but you'd get nice DIY in Esher/Epsom for about £100 a month (not with loads of facilities though) and you could rent in Chessington/Tolworth - not Chelsea by any stretch but I've lived in Crystal palace and croydon and SW is MUCH nicer! If you can stretch to Surbiton trains take 15/20 mins direct to london x
 
Bedfordshire - the Thameslink line is good (and avoids the tube if you're working in the city. A lot cheaper than places closer in as well. Commuting will be pricey - but somewhat less pricey than living and livery closer in.
 
hertfordshire or bedfordshire - house rentals are cheaper here - you can get a nice cottage for 875 a month - which tube stop does he need - you can get into kings x in 25 mins from harpenden - 20 mins from st albans - have a look on the thameslink website and its proper country here (i have lived in essex and surrey and is cheaper here!) theres good resturants in st albans and everyone is horsey - theres even a horsey college. You are only outnumbered by mums as it seems that loads of people move from london here when they have kids. Good luck if you look at this area more i can help you so let me know - i know the names of some private country estates that have cottages on (with livery available at 90pcm) that are only a mile from the station.
 
I commute into London to work (full time) and have a horse on DIY Grass.

I work in SW london zone 2, so obvious choice was to move to Surrey as it is has the best access roads to work - I commute by motorbike so, my door to door time is about 40 minutes. Boyfriend works in Covent Garden and he was using the train, door to door time of 1hr1/2, but the train itself was only 40 mins - just walking to/from station and waiting for trains etc. - you can see why I love the motorbike option - cheaper too
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We pay £750/month to rent a large one bed bungalow with own garden - it would be a two bed, it just has a double size lounge which is perfect really.

Horse is £200/month grass livery (includes feed and ad lib hay and good facilities) near Dorking.

There are yards in London, but most are a compromise in hacking and turnout. Surrey is pricier than other areas, but has some fantastic hacking (from my yard I *could* hack all the way to brighton without riding on a road, and have thousands of acres of woodland to ride through) there are also lots of events, riding clubs, cross country courses etc. Kent is cheaper, but not as well connected by train, unless working in the city. Epping forest is a good option IF you don't need huge amounts of turnout - hacking is great, and you can live on the tube line and still be in close proximity to horses.

I think main thing is to work out where in london OH will be working, how he plans to commute, and ruling it down that way for convenience - as I said, Surrey is pricey, but very convenient for me, so is worth the cost.

Oh and...

Nightlife around London's commuter towns is ABYSMAL... just go out for the night IN london
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Thanks again everyone. OH says east or south for his work, but we do have the option to stay with his mum for a little while so we can work out what we want to do and where we want to be - she's lovely and lives alone in a bg house, so might be a good stop-gap for us to visit some of the areas suggested.

I'm sure I'll have lots more questions soon, you'll all get really bored!!
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Forgot to add the further out you are the more your commuting costs into central london will be so you may get cheaper rents but might be offset by cost of travel card!
 
I'm in Warlingham which has a massive horse population. It has a 2 local Riding Clubs and through the summer there is nearly an unaffiliated show on every weekend hackable from where my horse is. I now live in Warlingham itself which is 15 minute drive from East Croydon station but used to live near South Croydon station which was only 10 mins drive from the horse. Its does have high rental prices but then that is anywhere near London. Hope that is some help. Good luck.
 
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