Finding a livery yard for multiple horses

[GG13]

For various reasons I’m looking at potentially moving yards. However, it’s proving even trickier than usual as I currently have four horses. The few places that do have vacancies only have 1 or 2 spaces, and going on a waitlist isn’t really viable as, understandably, once a space comes up the yard expects you to take it and not wait for 4 spaces at once.

For those of you with multiple horses on livery, how do you manage yard moves?

 

[Ali27]

Maybe looking for a private yard to rent would be best idea?

 

[Midlifecrisis]

It’s hard enough to find places for two let alone four , I don’t envy you the challenge.. A friend with four has only found spaces at either new yards...yards with rather poor reputations or farm with few facilities. I think huge compromises have to be made unless you could rent a place just for yourself.

 

[Littlebear]

To be honest, its likely to have to be split for a while if you really want to do it. Either going to 2 places until you get enough spaces (I had 3 all in different places for a while when i moved house to another area) or turning a couple away for a bit while you wait but getting 4 is not easy.

 

[ihatework]

To be honest I’d be concerned about any livery yard that had 4 free stables, good livery is so hard to come by that it would raise suspicions!!

For 4 horses I’d advertise for either a sole use yard or a yard share. Sometimes private competition yards have little blocks they sublet

 

[Gingerwitch]

Feel your pain lol. Only new yards or grass livery whilst waiting on stables to come free. Having them spread at different yards.its not great x

 

[Tiddlypom]

Many livery owners are reluctant to have too many horses belonging to a single owner. Livery decides to up sticks at short notice or gets into financial strife of some sort, and that's a lot of boxes to fill/income to make up.

There's a serial yard hopper round here with a lot of horses, they are good payers, but seem to keep moving about. It had left yard owners in a bit of a pickle at times.

A yard sub let seems like the best option.

 

[eggs]

In the past I had four horses on three different yards as each one was more suitable for a particular horse. However they were all within just over a mile of each other.

 

[Leandy]

I've split mine up in the past and kept at separate yards. I've tended to find that one yard doesn't suit all all the time anyway eg retired v. competition horse in work v youngstock so tend to mix and match yards as needs. The best option I found that worked well was to rent a block of stables on a larger yard with all facilities and then have a regular part time groom to do the bits I couldn't do. Then i could keep them flexibly to suit the needs of each one at the time.

 

[TheHairyOne]

My sister and I have had between 4 and 7 and have moved yards very few times, both times due to the land owner sadly passing away.

Weve been very lucky and have moved onto just opening yards with very few facilities ready (neither had a school built for example), but the last time we were desperate until where we are now came up. Summer is the best time...some YO's (including mine) like multiple horse owners and will allow grass until stables come up.

Call everywhere. Hope you get lucky.

 

[Spirit2021]

Most places won’t allow you bring multiple horses even when they have space because of you leave you are a big income loss could you Afford to rant.

 

[GG13]

Maybe looking for a private yard to rent would be best idea?

Yes, this would be the ideal solution. I am looking for any yards for rent, unfortunately they are even more rare than livery spaces

 

[Melody Grey]

Is there anywhere that has a couple of spaces but is willing to offer you grass livery until more come available? This is what I’m thinking I’m going to try for to manage a move for three!

 

[GG13]

To be honest I’d be concerned about any livery yard that had 4 free stables, good livery is so hard to come by that it would raise suspicions!!

For 4 horses I’d advertise for either a sole use yard or a yard share. Sometimes private competition yards have little blocks they sublet

That’s a very good point! I’ve been looking for a yard to rent but haven’t yet actively advertised for one. Will have to draft one up over the weekend

Many livery owners are reluctant to have too many horses belonging to a single owner. Livery decides to up sticks at short notice or gets into financial strife of some sort, and that's a lot of boxes to fill/income to make up.

There's a serial yard hopper round here with a lot of horses, they are good payers, but seem to keep moving about. It had left yard owners in a bit of a pickle at times.

A yard sub let seems like the best option.

I completely understand the worry for YO of having one livery with a large proportion of the boxes. I was hoping for larger yards it might not be such an issue but maybe that was a bit of wishful thinking on my part.

I wouldn’t want to put undue stress on a YO with them worrying I’d leave them in the lurch, however in the 20 or so years I’ve had horses I’ve only been on 2 yards. If I do manage to find somewhere I would hope it to be for a long time. Though i know there are no guarantees - especially when it comes to horses

 

[Foxaunt]

To be honest I’d be concerned about any livery yard that had 4 free stables, good livery is so hard to come by that it would raise suspicions!!

This is so true!! Please be careful, there are some troubling yards out there that look lovely at first glance, this can be a big red flag.

For me, my wonderful current yard made me a stable out of a tackroom, so that I could have mine together. Worked out great as my gelding now has a 17ft stable.

Maybe you could offer to provide demountable/temporary stables in the meantime... Worth a shot!

 

[katastrophykat]

I moved four at the start of December... when I moved them, it was back to a yard that I’d been at before, and had left on good terms with the owners, so they kindly slotted two into a spare field for grass livery, I had one official stable of my own plus a borrowed one for the two DIYs.

It’s been 6 months now, one of my four is on loan and another for sale but I do have (as of next weekend) three stables together now on the yard.

It wasn’t how I wanted to winter the ponies, but they’ve been fine, and been worth the wait to have them back ‘home’ ?

 

[Frumpoon]

For various reasons I’m looking at potentially moving yards. However, it’s proving even trickier than usual as I currently have four horses. The few places that do have vacancies only have 1 or 2 spaces, and going on a waitlist isn’t really viable as, understandably, once a space comes up the yard expects you to take it and not wait for 4 spaces at once.

For those of you with multiple horses on livery, how do you manage yard moves?

which part of the country are you?

 

[GG13]

I’m in the SE in the Hants/Berks area

 

[wispagold]

We managed to move with 5 horses all in one go to a DIY yard. We were lucky. We had had our name down for a place for a few years. We knew the YO and we had a good reputation locally. It worked out as 2 stables became free and they had just finished building another 3 boxes. I think the YO actually preferred having our mini herd as it made the turn out situation easy as we had our own field and they had fewer people to deal with.

 

[Frumpoon]

I’m in the SE in the Hants/Berks area

Keep an eye on Churchill Property and Pilgrim Bond...they often have small yards to let in that rough sort of area