For those who think that having their own yard..

YorksG

Over the hill and far awa
Joined
14 September 2006
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West Yorkshire
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...will slove all their problems and make life so much better, here is a quick run down of our day.
This morning went to buy new fencing for the part of the field which is alongside the yard. Called for lunch at garden centre.
From 2pm replaced fencing and made sure it was horse safe and dog proof, horse proof from one side, dog proof from yard side. Re-fenced gate, also now horse and dog proof. Fed horses, washed retired mares cut leg (we think she must have cut it on the sheep, as other mares in stable to avoid assistants
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). Take away delivered at 7:40. Decided that we must replace wire on gate between fields, as assume that that is what the mare has cut her leg on. All finished, horses turned back out. Sister and I ate our cold take-aways at 9pm. Sometimes I wish that there was a yard owner to do it for us! Back to the day jobs tomorrow.
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I have to do all my own as well, as sometimes you feel that there are days that you did not even 'see' your horse(s) as you are up to your eyes in Poo/fence posts & tape/puncture repair kits/leaky roofs/leaky taps/treating the field shelter/cleaning the water tank/jet washing the stables/sweeping the yard ........ the list goes on
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oh and mucking out is the easy thing
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Oh yes - the weekends are often nothing more than a list of things to do... so many jobs, so little time. And no w'end is complete without a visit to the builders' merchants... And you just think you're winning the battle when someone decides to carry out an act of mindless vandalism such as gnawing a hole in their field shelter...
 
I am on a rented private yard and I am soooo lucky that they have a handy man to do lots of jobs for their house and yard...one thing they don't get involved with is the electric fencing...I have spent far too many hours putting it up and moving fields...even at 11pm the night before we went on holiday one cold rainy Easter night as we just ran out of time!
 
would love a handyman! weve had to re fence the field by hand (all 4 acres of it) and might have to completley refence 7 more acres of field. the field shelter needs replaceing because my thug of a pony decided to rub his tail on the main supporting beam of course lard arse managed to break said beam! the yard needs re concreateing as it has so many cracks its unreal. the automatic waterers froze in winter so exploded when par of them tawed and part didnt. Ponies seem to have take it upon themsleves to poo on the new gravel yard i had put down but havent found the time to fence off!

i have a nice man though who comes with his quadbike and funny attachment every 2 weeks and poo picks for £10 a time (with 4 ponies it is worth every penny).
 
We bought a brilliant field vac, but don't use it as often as we should! Probably because we don't have any time between all the other stuff. We are lucky that three sides of our land has dry stone walling and the field is split by a dry stone wall. Sisters fella is a drystone waller (how lucky is that?) otherwise that would be yet another skill I would have to try and acquire.
 
I have been tackling the docks and buttercups with Forefront and a knapsack sprayer, the hedges and brambles with my secateurs and re-done all my electric fencing. Our tractor-mounted sprayer needs some re-furbishment before it is operational to any degree of usefulness. My back can hardly wait and my right shoulder is killing me from all that handle-pumping. Oh and we have just rolled the top field.

The horses have had two days off!
 
had my own yard from march 07 to jan 08 , and it was unbearable, used to work part time OH worked full time, would be there at 6am before work and then at 4pm to8pm after work, always replacing fencing, putting water in field, harowing the school, unblocking the drain from hay, sweeping the yard, clearing up the mess in tea/tack room. they were all diy and i earned about £3. a week from them after i paid the rent, nearly made me skint. never again, when i wantedto spend time with my horses they needed me to look at a little bite or graze on there horse, check what rug to wear to bed etc etc
 
Yup - we have 4 on our own yard, and whilst others have been onjoying their horses in the lovely weatherthe OH and I repaired post and rail fencing, moved electric tape, ragworted an acre by hand, knapsacked sprayed another acre, hacked back bramles from fence line, emptied and swept out he hay bar and cleaned all the water troughs. I rode on Monday evening but was so knackered all I could manage was a sedate hack!
 
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Oh but isn't nice to not have your stuff boorrowed (nicked). Do what you want when you want without onlookers to bitch about you etc. I love it.

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Guess I'm lucky then...my three are on a very large, busy yard, but I've yet to have one hoofpick pinched. On the other hand, I've had people offering to pop rugs on at night, checking my horses when they've seen them lying inert (a common trait in my three
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) and so on.
I try to repay the favour by catching loose horses, etc
S
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There are benefits of having horses at home, check on them when I want etc. etc.BUT I now know why when we were talking about buying this place a farmer friend of ours looked aghast at us and said "what the bl@@dy hell do you want to do that for!" We are lucky as well as two of the neihbours have horses and will keep an eye on things for us, as well as sometimes going on group hacks that call at the pub.
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I rented and ran a small yard for a while - all I can say is - never again, unless I can get something with a house attached. I spent far more time repairing, maintaining and otherwise messing about than I did riding.
 
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