Equestrian Property

Lisamd

Lisamd

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In need of inspiration please!!!
On a daily basis i daydream of having a yard of my own yard to keep my 4 horses on. I don't want a massive house or posh stables, just something small that needs TLC to make it mine, i wouldn't even mind living in a caravan as long as i can have my horses just outside.

I come from a normal background, i work full time and have a nice house - but would give up my suburban comfortable life to live in the middle of nowhere with a few horses/dogs for company...oh and the longsuffering OH

How many of you have managed to do this?
And whats your story?

If no one has i will stop daydreaming and move on, but if anyone has...up goes the For Sale sign!
 
Yes, dreamed on it for years. Was born, lived and worked in London's east end until I was 42. An insurance policy matured (they were good in those days) and decided to invest it in a small cottage in Lincs. I lived there alone for several years, husband only traveling up at weekends. Once he retired we sold our house in London and bought a larger place here. Now have an old farmhouse, three acres and four stables. Wild horses would not drag us back to London. Big change in lifestyle but we haven't regretted it for one second.

My only 'if' is that I had a well paid job in London and could always do a bit of extra work if we needed the money. The sort of work I did isn't available here and that does frustrate me at times, all I could do would be to pick brussels or cabbages.
 
im in the same position as you, would love to sell up n have something with land,

I wouldnt care if I had to downsize house, its land/stables thats important to me.(they dont have to be posh either just safe)

Id say depending on what your budget is and if you are prepared to move across country then there may be something out there for us.

I just havent had the guts to really look at doing it.
Know I would fall in love with a property and wouldnt be able to afford it.
 
We did! 14/15 years ago my sister and I sold our two houses and bought this place. We had four horses on a livery yeard at the time, between us we had fve dogs and got two JRT pups six months laer (don't ask why
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) At that time I was with now ex OH. Within two years we had also taken on unofficial foster daughter, her BF who lived with us on and off, and having moved with 4 cats ended up with 9 at one point! We also got a ewe and two lambs. The house was a bit of a mess, as were the buildings outside. The stables took priority and we lived with falling out windows and decor that looked like early Indian Restaurant for a good while
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We now are: sister and me, 3 horses one sheep one dog and 3 cats. Foster daughter lives near by and we see her a lot, ex OH long gone
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cats dogs horses and sheep have passed on ( animals don't leave on their feet). The house is repaired and mainly decorated and I put the horses out this morning before I got dressed
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Both sister and I work full time in demanding jobs and there are times when we could fall out, BUT no way could I go back to livery yard. It is hard work and we have to do all maintenance ourselves (our elderly father still helps out
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) but worth the sacrifice. Give it a go if you can. We are also fortunate in that we live on a private lane with about a dozen houses and four of them are occupied by people with horses, so we help each other as a community. We are also active members of our local RC, (both on the committee) so lots of horsey contact. We are also involved with a local RDA group (were before we moved here) so more contacts that way too, which is essential we find.
 
We gave up hope of ever being able to afford to have horses at home. Then this property came up, house was in a terrible state but it had 3 acres with it. House needed complete renovation, which we had to do whilst living in it, roughed it for a time living with just a sink and a table for a kitchen until new kitchen was done, but have lovely stables, paddocks for horses and loads of off road hacking. Absolutely love it here. If you are prepared to compromise it is possible. May be an option to look for a farm cottage or such like for sale and approach owner of adjoining land to see if you could buy a few acres, but the art is to tie the two up together.
Hope you find what you are looking for, it is definately worth the effort in the end.
 
we're in devon and have a 4 stable yard to let, was thinking of putting a caravan there as well or maybe part of the house, just thinking aloud
 
No chance - it has my name on it! You can next week though...or as it's so much i am willing to share!

I was wondering this morning though whilst mucking out - years ago (victorian era) it was the posh people who live in towns and cities and the poor folk who lived in ruined shacks in the country...at what point did this change?!
 
We did it but took a long time. My oh and I have been together since I was 16. Married at 21. Now 57. Bought our first cottage for £7000 when I was 21. It had a demolition order on it! Sold it 11 years later for £129000. Bought another cottage with 3/4 acre for £135000. Sold that 9 years later for around £275000. Bought a disused barn with 102 acres for £160000. Sold off 80 acres to the farmer next door for £82000. The barn is now mostly converted, although there is still a fair bit to do. My Husband has worked every week-end on property since he was 22. All our money has been ploughed into the properties and trust me it is really hard work. However we now have a 5 bedroomed barn, with 9 stables, and 22 acres which is worth in excess of £1 mil. It depends how much of your life you want to spend working. If I was honest I think if we had our lives again, we may have done things differently. When you are young, you are enthusiastic and full of energy. Let's hope we make old bones to reap the benifit in our retirement.
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We did - both work full time in 'normal' jobs - not silly money earners.

OH bought an ex council semi years ago before I met him as a repo' we sold that and used the 'profit' to put down deposit on our current bungalow with 5 acres, rest of the 'profit' from old house paid for yard, 4 stables, fencing and arena.

1 year later had floodlights up.

Bungalow was livable when we bought it but needed new kitchen, bathroom, double glazing and decorating throughout (oh and alot of the radiators replacing/replumbing.

Next job is to build a workshop and haybarn (only had 2 horses when we moved in so haylage lived in spare box - now got 4 horses and halyage lives under a tarp!) Feed currently in garage with tractor, ride-on mower etc and you can move.

Then we need to reroof conservatory (more holes than a colander)

BUT - it's ours, horses are at home and we LOVE it - wouldn't go back

It is possible but it's a hard slog and we never have any spare cash
 
It can be done, but like harrytom its taken us many many years!
We have gone without so many things that our friends have had; holidays, nice clothes, nights out; but to us it has been worth it.

We have a farmhouse with lovely stone stables and 6 acres. Unfortunately the kids have all left now and its too big!!

Its now up for sale, and we're looking to downsize
 
Hi Coolrunnings - is there a secret formula for kids to leave home! Ours is like a boomerang, he keeps coming back again.
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I know what you mean though. We rattle around in ours now and there is still a big chunk to do. Never mind, when we are sitting on the patio in the med somewhere, clutching a gin and tonic, it will all have been worth it. Do you think we will do downsizing well though? When you get used to no neighbours and lots of room, may be hard.
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I can just never seem to find the properties with some land etc they are all snapped up by developers and same goes for anything that is in need of renovating, they all get sold off at auction.

only things available around here have already been done up and are for sale at a price we just could not afford.

Maybe I should sell all my horses and save the livery money and vets bills and compertition fees then I could get a bigger deposit in a few years lol
 
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