Hmm lovely house, but wet land..?

Dogstar

Dogstar

Well-Known Member
Joined
7 August 2005
Messages
1,337
Location
Devon
Visit site
I have fallen for a lovely house which is perfect in many ways. However the big 'if or but' is that the land seems really wet. There is a borehole with generator near the house (so-a high water table), a well by the front door; there used to be a duck pond right by the back door. The land is clay with loam on top and has 'impeded drainage' according to Soilscape. To top it off, there is an underground stream under the land and several places where the land lies wet because the water comes up from the stream. It seemed quite wet when we looked round even though its been a dry Winter. Though to be fair it had rained there heavily the day before. So my head is telling me to run away fast as I don't want to keep my horses on a boggy swamp! But my heart loves it! What would you do? Are there any experts around I could consult about it? Thanks :-)
 
if you can get another house with dry land then I would steer clear, but if everything else is right it depends on how you want to keep the horses - my land is clay and fairly wet (unfortunately not by house) and I keep nags on hardstanding which has a large field shelter on it (matted inside) which joins arena - they have to be shut on this each night through the winter and sometimes during the day but it saves the land for rest of year (and at least they can roam around and are not shut in).

Also, how many acres have you got ? I struggled with 2 horses on 2 acres but now have 4 acres and it is a godsend (had to hire additional land each summer b4 to rest mine)
 
I'd walk away.
We moved here from the Pennines where the land was clay. I can't tell you how deep the mud used to get but I lost a few wellies plenty of times.
Even in high summer we got the baler stuck in a boggy patch and in winter any field you atempted to use for turn out ended up a deep mud patch.
Since moving here we get similar rain but being on granite it disappears in minutes.
You rarely need wellies just muckers and only the gateways and hay areas get muddy, the rest stays dry.
With the set up you describe it's obvious this farm is above averagely wet; unless you are prepared to make dry turn out areas for winter artificially it will be a problem grazing..Or spend a few thousands putting in extensive drainage and that will solve a lot of the problem.
 
Thanks for the thoughts, really helpful. Meesha, it's 13 acres so quite a lot, but then I have 4 horses and wanted to have liveries. I wouldn't really fancy having to keep them in all Winter...henryhorn, you have said it like it is, thank you; I am on clay at the moment and the gateways are really bad, it isn't really something I really want to repeat! May I ask what area of Devon you are in as I am looking for places around there too, but the land seemed poor around Dartmoor- I am wondering where would be a good draining area as you describe, or somewhere with that lovely red soil?? Thanks!
 
Also, I had thought of draining it, but apparently these 'issues' which come from the underground stream can move about so might be hard to drain? :-0
 
We are on the slopes of the approaches to Dartmoor, about 15 miles from Exeter, that red soil is as bad as you can get. You get orange legs, orange sheep etc, thank goodness this is granite here. The grass grown isn't anywhere near as much as Lancashire but because it's so much drier you don't lose it, we used to have to reseed most years Up North.
If you are looking round here the clay finishes just past Exeter, is all round Crediton, avoid past Okehampton because that's even worse (Lucy Weigersma swears her yard is the wettest area in the whole of the UK!) . If you find anywhere you like pm me and I will tell you whether it's a good idea...
 
We have 20 acres of very wet land in the Pennines. The underground springs that you talk about are probably drains, and where they bubble out is where they have collapsed.. It would cost thousands to drain the land properly. We have a borehole - they're common in remote spots where people have well water not mains. They dig down a long way with them, so it doesn't mean the water table is there at all - I know people much higher up the hill than us that have them. We even had one put in on top of a mountain in Tuscany when I worked out there.

Our ponies were always fine on it, but the big horses seem to be prone to mudrash, so we too have a hardcore/chippings area that the horses go out in over winter.

We tried having liveries for a while, but six horses on 20 acres soon left it a muddy mess. You were always worried about someone twisting an ankle or something in the fields too.

We manage, but I do often dream of selling up and buying something with dry land! The flip side is that we live in a wonderful spot and it would be hard to match the location! If it was a choice between our farm and another dry one with less land I would pick the other farm. If it was a choice between our farm and a house with no land and horses at a livery yard with dry fields I would pick home! Its harder work than normal land, but can be done..
 
Last edited:
Thank you very much for these opinions and the information, very interesting and useful indeed. It has made my mind up; good land is more important than a nice house to me. I am not at all restricted as to where I move in the country so I may as well try to get all the boxes ticked. I did look at several places around Okehampton and one in particular was very wet and reedy even though it was on a hill and in Summer. I will take you up on the kind offer henryhorn many thanks. What would I do without this forum? :-)
 
I would run for the hills..I have just moved my horses from a field that is heavy clay and has a spring at the top and stream at the bottom..I can honestly say that has been the worst winter of my life.I have been very near to given up..My horses (only two of them) have been bloody fed up and pulled shoes off left right and centre.I only had mobile stables and they got churned up,so i had no where to get the horses clean and treat their feet properly,but thankfully they never came down with Thrush or mud fever.I have now just completed on my own flat land.I would never put horses in that situation again.
 
I think the same way as you, I'm looking for a property with land and the land and location is more important than the house. Having kept mine on badly draining clay soil, it was utterly miserable. Too slippery to turnout after rain and churned up and rock hard in summer. Couldn't put electric fence poles in without bending the spikes, unless I made a hole first.
I think you viewed the house at a good time when you saw it wet.
 
I think you've made the right decision, especially as you plan to take on paying liveries! I know some people really arent bothered about what turnout their horses get but to many, unrestricted, semi decent turnout is a real selling point and TBH knee deep mud would really put me off!
 
We are on red clay and have spent a small fortune draining the land, it is much better now and with this dry winter wellies were not needed until it snowed.

The high water table comment on op post made me think about the possiblity of the house flooding if it rained like it did in 2007. Survey would show it up I would think.
 
Our land is clay and you can work round it if you are completing / using your horses a lot .ours was a pain when we where breeding horses land was not up to it so it depends what you do.
You need enough acreage I have a sacrifice pasture for winter 3 sumner paddocks and a large area not sure the size buts it's bigger than 100m 80m because you can get a full sized arena for driving dressage in it and have space round it ,this area is never grazed its mown during summer and it has made the most marvellous work surface its never compacted and I do work it keep it right but it's worth it I also have a surface.
If the rest of it is perfect don't discount completly but you will need to budget for care of the land and the time to do it.
If I get the chance I will build standings for the worse weather wish I had thought of it when we bought it and did the work.
 
Thanks for all the further comments, appreciated. I have really been doubting myself and my decision but I think I would be very uneasy if I bought it for various reasons to do with the wet. It's a shame it's a dry Winter in a way as it would be easier if I could view places at their worst! At my current place, in previous Winters, the mud has been so deep the horses have been up to their hocks and the electric fence posts just flop over as its so wet. It is very miserable, as is trying to get the huge thick balls of clay out of manes where they have rolled. Just out of interest, horserider where are you looking and how are you ruling out areas of wet land? Thanks
 
Dogstar said:
Thanks for all the further comments, appreciated. I have really been doubting myself and my decision but I think I would be very uneasy if I bought it for various reasons to do with the wet. It's a shame it's a dry Winter in a way as it would be easier if I could view places at their worst! At my current place, in previous Winters, the mud has been so deep the horses have been up to their hocks and the electric fence posts just flop over as its so wet. It is very miserable, as is trying to get the huge thick balls of clay out of manes where they have rolled. Just out of interest, horserider where are you looking and how are you ruling out areas of wet land? Thanks
Click to expand...

We're looking near Keele in Staffordshire and its a pretty rainy part of the country. Currently live just an hour away in what seems like a totally different climate. Good draining soil is a priority, as is location, no point in having them at home if its too dangerous to ever ride them off the property etc.
Fortunately OH has good local knowledge and a network of friends/farmers who are familiar with problem areas as a rough guide, once we are at the stage of making an offer, we'll be having all the surveys done.
However, because we are limited to a specific locality, I'm open to having the horses at livery instead if the right property doesn't appear fairly soon.

In one place I lived, I knew exactly where flooding occurred every year. Some fields were fine, others could be submerged. A piece of land was rented out to horse owners who had no local knowledge. The rains came and I knew a caravan in the field had previously been covered completely by flooding. Kept an eye on them, but never saw the owners. One night, the water had risen leaving the horses standing on a small mound. I drove over to check them, ready to alert an ILPH (WHW) friend, so we could do an emergency evaccuation, but happily, saw the owners with a horsebox in the dark and rain, getting them out.
 
Oh good grief horserider that's what I am worried about, how unpleasant for them; as a naive incomer it's easy to get caught out.. That's good that you have lots of contacts..I emailed the local hunt actually to ask about the house I mentioned before and they were very helpful and confirmed that it was a wet area. I have the luxury of being able to buy anywhere at all, but its still hard to tick all the boxes of good land, good outriding, decent acreage etc. Good luck with your search, I would be interested to hear how you get on.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top