Having horses at home for the first time...advice please?

[myheartinahoofbeat]

It's been a lifelong dream to have horses at home and I'm delighted to say it's going to happen.I'm so excited but wish I was 20 years younger. It's a do it now or you never will and if it doesn't work, atlas I've tried. We are relocating and I feel I have 1001 things to think about. We have secured a rental property with 4 stables and 10 acres in Leicestershire. It's a dream scenario but I am aware of the hard work it will be. Initially, I will have my riding two horses move in. I'm thinking of getting a companion pony from Blue Cross or somewhere, as I'd like to compete one of the horses and wouldn't want to leave the other home alone. I also have a retiree living happy in a retirement herd and bringing him home at a later stage could be an option but I'm not sure if thats just for me and not best for him. I am going to divide the field up and will also need to use part of it to school in. Any thoughts, experiences, do's and dont's would be greatly received.... Thank you in advance

 

[TGM]

Unless you have amazingly well-drained soil I would say you need to plan for winter wet and mud! Make sure you have hard standing of some sort where you need it - path to muck heap and fields, gateways etc. Also it is best to use temporary electric fencing to divide the area up to begin so you can see how it is all going to work. Hope you enjoy it, have had ours at home now for over 20 years and wouldn't go back to livery, even if it is a hard slog in the winter!

 

[Polos Mum]

You'll love it but spend lots of time on jobs you didn't know existed before.
As it's a rental there's a limit as to what you can (or should) do - I'd certainly get a clear agreement as to who's responsible for what right at the outset (smashed fences, muck heap removal, weed kiliing etc.) If it's you find out who local farmers / contractors are.
Don't rush into anything - see how the set up and current layout work for you and over at lease one year with all the seasons.
Take a good assessment of the land now and think through how much time / £££'s you'll be prepared to put into someone else's property.
If you have storage buy hay and bedding in bulk so you're not faffing in winter
Many friends with the neighbours - especially as you're not on site. Someone who can spot horses stuck in rugs or rogue helium balloons causing chaos is invaluable!
Is there water and electric? If not start making plans now - winter comes around pretty quickly.

 

[HeyMich]

We moved the horses home about 18 months ago, and it's truly amazing, but very hard work. OH doesn't go running every weekend now, but instead he repairs fencing on a weekly basis - it's just as good a workout, but more expensive!

The first winter I really struggled with filling up water troughs with buckets and wheelbarrows, absolutely back breaking. We now have automatic troughs linked directly to water butts. These improvements take time though, so don't rush.

As other have said above, find a good local hay supplier, a few options for vets/farriers, a couple of options for house/animal sitters for holidays and you'll be sorted.

A word of warning - In 18 months, we have gone from owning 1 horse and 1 dog quite quickly to 2 dogs, a cat, 4 horses, 4 chickens... the herd grows without you noticing!

 

[Carrottom]

If you are relocating to a new area it would be a good idea to research things like vet, farrier, hay and feed supply in advance. If there are horsey neighbours it would be worth investing some time to get to know them for local information, also for bridlewa6s etc.

 

[eggs]

As others have already said, you will be kept very busy with all the jobs that are needed in order to maintain stables and land. As you are new to the area it would be worth getting in touch with a local riding club to get to know riders in the area as they will be a good source of information as to vets, farriers, hay suppliers, muck heap removals, etc.

I would also recommend finding a local free lance groom for if you are unwell, away on holiday, etc.

 

[myheartinahoofbeat]

Thank you for all your replies, lots to think about and plan. It is a long term let so we will be there for a minimum of 4 years so yes, I agree that there's no rush to get it set up so I will take my time. The stable yard is all paved and there is a tack room and hay store and brick barn for storage and its all just next to the house. I have already looked up Riding clubs and bridelways etc. the neighbour is a farmer who sells hay and straw so hopefully I can get that sorted.So excited

 

[Nicnac]

It sounds a wonderful setup!

What TGM said - I'm on my 26th year and wouldn't change it for the world but it is bloody hard work. You need to be ready to repair fencing at a moment's notice so keep a good stock of wood, nails, tape, gate handles etc. Chucking out before work in the winter and then worrying about rugs/weather etc. all day has been a stress. My husband retires today so that's one huge worry off my shoulders!

Definitely do plastic poles and tape first year brilliant for quick fixes, rehab and making weather dependent smaller areas/strip grazing etc. - hopefully you'll already have fencing around perimeter and maybe some paddocks ready made. If you can run the electricity from the house/yard and the mains it's far stronger and far easier rather than having to faff around with separate batteries/chargers etc. I also have it on a timer so the buggers never know when it's on but it does run all night during the summer when they're out 24/7. It's surprisingly cheap to run too.

We have one big field for winter and rest it from clock change to as long as possible. They're out 12 hours a day in winter and I don't care if they trash it as it always recovers really well.

Make friends with your local farmers for field maintenance, hay etc. A lot of jobs you can do yourself but you'll never do as good a job rolling and harrowing as the huge tractors can.

I have an aged shetland companion and would definitely recommend unless you bring your other one back - seems like a waste of money paying for livery when you have all that land.

Enjoy!!

 

[meleeka]

I’m envious. I have my own land but it’s a mile from my house. Horses in the back garden is my dream too.

my only advice is don’t ever put off riding because there’s jobs to do. The jobs will always be there and you will find it easy to fill your days doing them. It’s easy not to have time to ride, so make that as important as the list of other things to do.

 

[sharni]

just enjoy muchly

 

[Lintel]

Get hard standing and cover your pipes for the winter ?

 

[saalsk]

We are on year 6 on our own land, and echo the warnings of hard work ! If fields are already fenced, then make note of where shelter is, where it gets wet etc, and where they choose to stand during various weather ( hot, windy, rain and so on ) so you can then rotate fields to fit in. I fenced off a small section with trees on 2 sides, that I thought would be fab in summer with shelter, and it was in reach of hosepipe to fill trough. But - the flies are awful in it, and I now don't use it in apart from the occasional day here and there when it isn't going to be fly'd - or when it is winter and solid ground, and I can feed hay in it.

One of the best bits of advice I was given on moving in was to keep a diary of the basic weather, and how the fields look, wet patches, mud areas, flies, location of any ragwort (obv dealt with, but so you can go back and check for the smallest of new rosettes without having to search the whole area ) and where the horses tend to toilet. I am lucky mine have patches, so poo picking is easy.

The other thing I was told, was not to rush in with hard fixed plans - take a bit of time and be prepared to change. I put in a front garden ( think double parking spot sized area - nothing huge ) only to find that in winter, it was exactly the part of the yard that developed a large area of standing water. I moved the garden. We put in hundreds of treated wooden posts for fencing, only to find that they rotted very quickly, as we have very peaty soil that eats through the wood. We now have ClipEx fence (easier to put in ! ) as our first choice, and have accepted we are going to have to replace a lot of wooden posts far sooner than expected.

Get a garden trolley / wheelbarrow or similar, that is dedicated to *mending stuff* - to keep all the electric rope, baler twine, nails, hammer, knife, cable ties, ragwort fork, bag for ragwort, gloves, horse treats etc etc. Then you simply grab trolley and go.

Good luck, and enjoy it

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

I can't think why your retired horse shouldn't move to your new place with you, unless he has some extra special needs that you won't be able to meet. You might not even need another companion.

Enjoy!

 

[Honey08]

My two top tips are have a freelance groom one day a week, so you’re a regular on their books and they’re more likely to add days for you in an emergency. My other is have a hard standing turnout area off the yard if the ground is clay or likely to be muddy (although not sure if you can if rented, obviously check!)

 

[GinaGeo]

Echoing everybody else really.

I have found that four horses is the right number for us as it means I can take two out hacking at a time and not have anybody having a breakdown at home.

A freelancer is a good plan. We’re lucky that me and mum do the horses, but it does mean we don’t get to go on Holiday. When I was at Uni, mum had a freelancer cover Saturday’s as it meant there was somebody else that knew the routine and the horses left at home in case of anything untoward.



You will spend too much time repairing fencing and painting stables. And then doing it all over again. You will agonise about land management, and realise that you need all sorts of machinery and equipment to keep it well maintained. My minimum is a ride on mower and small set of harrows so you can top and Harrow when the ground dictates.

Its more work than I knew it would be. But I love being able to make all the decisions and there’s something about being able to tootle outside in your pyjamas to give them

 

[laura_nash]

10 acres for two horses is likely to be far too much grass (except in winter). Its a nice problem to have, but you will need to plan for that. I have 8 acres for a horse and a pony and its way too much for them to eat. Initially we cut hay on the largest field and rented some grazing to a neighbour for short periods when it got on top of us. We've now got a small herd of Dexter cattle to eat it for us so its all under our control and the horses can benefit from the eaten down fields more and get more space without ballooning. If your neighbour is a farmer hopefully he can help you out with this whether you cut hay or get it grazed.

If you want to ride in the field you will likely want to have some way of keeping it short where you ride, personally I prefer to ride in a fenced off area or rested field rather than the field they are currently turned out in so I need to top it regularly (or put the cows in it) otherwise the grass is really too long to ride in easily.

As everyone has already said, hold off on any permanent decisions management-wise till you've had at least 12 months living with the land. The original planned site for our field shelter, for instance, soon proved totally wrong once we had more knowledge of the ground and weather.

I don't ride anything like as much now mine are at home, but I am much happier and less stressed even though I was on good yards with no real problems. Its just so much nicer when you can set things up exactly how you want and watch them grazing through the window.

 

[myheartinahoofbeat]

thank you everyone for for really useful suggestions and experienced views. I feel inspired and can't wait.

 

[Nudibranch]

Maybe it's just me but I don't find it had work at all.
For 10 acres I would use a track in summer and take hay off the middle. Divide in winter and rotate for mud management. The biggest help I find is cross grazing with sheep. They keep the pasture really healthy and obviously are a huge benefit for worm control. But not your own sheep!!

 

[oldie48]

Unless you have amazingly well-drained soil I would say you need to plan for winter wet and mud! Make sure you have hard standing of some sort where you need it - path to muck heap and fields, gateways etc. Also it is best to use temporary electric fencing to divide the area up to begin so you can see how it is all going to work. Hope you enjoy it, have had ours at home now for over 20 years and wouldn't go back to livery, even if it is a hard slog in the winter!

Totally agree with this, we've stoned the gateways and the paths to the stables are all stoned too. I've got over 11 acres for just Rose and Fatty but there are two paddocks of one and half acres each and the rest is across a lane. I try to ensure that the paddock nearest to the stables has enough coverage so I can use it when the weather is very bad, otherwise the big field is used in winter and I take a cut off it in spring/summer. I also use electric fencing to divide paddocks and OH has ensured that I have power nearby so they can go on the mains. I don't have troughs in the two smaller paddocks so he's put in taps so I don't have to lug water around and insulated any pipes that might be prone to freezing.