Do you keep your horse(s) at home or livery?

Where do you keep your horse?

  • At home

    Votes: 45 45.5%

  • Full livery

    Votes: 11 11.1%

  • Part livery

    Votes: 5 5.1%

  • DIY

    Votes: 31 31.3%

  • At a relatives place

    Votes: 1 1.0%

  • Riding school

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Competition centre

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Own yard but not at home 😀

    Votes: 6 6.1%
  • Total voters
    99
G

gallopingby

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Following on from the question regarding acreage required when buying a house to keep ponies or horses at home, there are some very ‘entitled’ comments. So, who keeps their horse at livery, at home or by some other means.
 
I've had own yard till 6 months ago, though it was 3 miles away from home, so doesn't have a choice in the poll.
I know there are others on here with similar 'not at home' either as a yard or grazing, owned or rented.

Could have ticked at home, but it wasn't, just 'own private yard not at home'
 
Currently none of these as my 2 boys are at a friends house, although I do pay her “livery” for hay, straw and her help in the weekday morning when o can’t get there before work. I rent a field but it’s currently under water!
 
gallopingby said:
Following on from the question regarding acreage required when buying a house to keep ponies or horses at home, there are some very ‘entitled’ comments. So, who keeps their horse at livery, at home or by some other means.
Click to expand...

I haven't seen the original thread so I don't know what was entitled about the responses but I will say that one of my pet peeves is people underestimating how much land they need to properly manage horses. Livery or home.
 
Ours are at home. We were previously on DIY livery.
I wouldn't go back to livery, if someone offered to pay all the associated costs.

We kept our first horse on a farm, with the farmer's daughter's pony, doing everything ourselves, including mending the stable roof, as a condition of being able to use the stable. Which was the next best thing to keeping them at home and was only short walk from home. That worked perfectly at the time but I was much younger then.
 
LadyGascoyne said:
I haven't seen the original thread so I don't know what was entitled about the responses but I will say that one of my pet peeves is people underestimating how much land they need to properly manage horses. Livery or home.
Click to expand...
From what I recall there was a post asking about minimum/ideal acreage per horse, and the replies varied from the traditional ‘one acre per horse’ or variants, to saying it depends on the land, to comments that many livery yards are unviable businesses if the strict acreage rule applies. All of these are true.

Not sure that entitled is the right word but yes in some cases unrealistic if running a profit making business, or as a non-rich person trying to afford a number of horses on own land. That brings into question the keeping of horses if their welfare is compromised by tiny paddocks, insufficient turnout or high densities.
 
I keep mine on a neighbour's rented field, with some dilapidated farm buildings. We keep the rooves patched and have piped water to one trough in the fold yard. No electric and shocking fencing that we fence inside of to keep safe, but it means the horses can be out 24/7 on nice sloping old grazing and wander in and out whenever they feel like it. So it's not smart, but it's lovely for the horses and only half a mile from home.
 
Our three are all at DIY livery - 10 minutes drive from home, massive 20 acre plus fields with gelding and mare herds, mixture of yearlings right up to senior citizens so a lovely natural life for them and we can hack straight out onto the open Forest. Downside is crappy fencing and a year round battle to keep weight off the fatties. However, I have been there since 1990 and wouldn't want (couldn't afford) anywhere smarter.
 
Way back I had a couple of acres and a field shelter. It was perfect.

Been on DIY for very many years now.

I dream of my own place but do wonder if it'd be so great. I'd like to keep my horses exactly as I want to but might struggle for help.

There's a house near me of the 'set in 1/3 acre' type, they've fenced off the front garden and put a large horse in it, initially just using loopy electric fencing right next to the main road which was terrifying. I'm imagining it'll be a mud bath in a month or two.
 
gallopingby said:
Following on from the question regarding acreage required when buying a house to keep ponies or horses at home, there are some very ‘entitled’ comments. So, who keeps their horse at livery, at home or by some other means.
Click to expand...
I have my horses at home and I am very lucky, call it entitled if you will. I also have 2 on retirement livery as I don't have sufficient acreage. i was a 'corporate slave' for years to be able to afford this, I gave up alot to be where I am
 
Lady Jane said:
I have my horses at home and I am very lucky, call it entitled if you will. I also have 2 on retirement livery as I don't have sufficient acreage. i was a 'corporate slave' for years to be able to afford this, I gave up alot to be where I am
Click to expand...
Not sure that i would have called any of the posts that I saw 'entitled'. Posters were just giving their opinions, as requested, about the land, with some extra comments about the best way to go about getting experience of looking after a first horse/pony.
 
I've only ever agisted any horse I have owned in large or even huge paddocks (by some peoples' standards). I am lucky enough to live in a place where this is possible - at least it's possible at the moment. One day it won't be.

A 'paddock' here is what you lot would call a field. A 'yard' here is what you lot would call a paddock (a small enclosure for feeding).

(E-again-TA: One only pays per horse that is agisted. It's not a case of renting the whole paddock/field.)

If I kept a horse at home, I would have to have a lot of land available or I wouldn't feel comfortable with the arrangement, and the horse would have to have company (which would be no problem as I'm sure I would collect others).

ETA: There was one exception. It was with a horse I bought that I shouldn't have bought. Kicked myself for a long time over that decision.
 
Widgeon said:
I keep mine on a neighbour's rented field, with some dilapidated farm buildings. We keep the rooves patched and have piped water to one trough in the fold yard. No electric and shocking fencing that we fence inside of to keep safe, but it means the horses can be out 24/7 on nice sloping old grazing and wander in and out whenever they feel like it. So it's not smart, but it's lovely for the horses and only half a mile from home.
Click to expand...
Smart? Who wants smart? Your place sounds like it has a wonderful atmosphere.
 
I've put at home, as that's where they all are normally, but Little Madam is currently in livery at the RS for weaning her foal. I will admit that on a dark winter evening, it is lovely to turn up, get horse in from the field and ride in a lit (option of covered) arena.
To be fair, in winter I would be doing the same if she was at home, but with the trailering to RS step added in.

At home is great and there is no way I could afford 4 on livery, but it's not always easy and definitely not cheap (Stables/shelter, fencing,mud control mats,etc). Also, while you do get to use the set up as you want, it doesn't necessarily mean you get to keep your horses as you want because you are still dependant on weather, soil type, the set up you can afford, whatever your horses decide to throw at you...
My fields are spread around the village, so bringing in or changing field involves leading horses two by two down the roads and can take the best part of an hour. If I want to ride, it's either drive to the field with tack and prep in the field (no artificial shelter), spend forty minutes bringing in and the turning out around riding, or trailer from the field to the RS.
 
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