Horse ownership in West Wales

[SkewbyTwo]

Hi all, need to pick your brains! I currently live in Gloucestershire but am in love with West Wales and doing my research on upping sticks and getting a place here.

So, what is it like to own horses here? Obviously in Glos we have a ton of events going on, foxhunts and draghunts. My common sense tells me that Wales, with its horsey heritage, must also have loads going on - am I right?!

Also, any particular areas people can recommend for great riding/good choice of livery yards/good few events going on?

Your thoughts, experience, and advice much appreciated!

 

[AmyMay]

It might be worth you joining the West Wales Horse group on FB.

 

[Meredith]

Remember wherever you need to go to a hill gets in the way!😀

Calculate journey times. I know of a rider who travels from near Aberystwyth to Shropshire for lessons. That’s too far for me.

 

[DirectorFury]

Roughly where to do you class as 'west' Wales? I know for some it's Swansea onwards, for others it's Laugharne onwards!
There are a fair few fox hunting packs, only one drag hunting that I know of (Three Counties Bloodhounds) and they hunt between Pyle and Carmarthen.

There are very few competition centres and no BE at all. If you're an eventer I wouldn't even consider moving down here tbh. The nearest events are Chepstow and Howick which could be over 3hrs each way if you live really far west.

 

[HelenBack]

I'm in South Wales as opposed to West Wales and I find the standard of livery yards and venues to be frustratingly poor. That might just be where I am though.

 

[cremedemonthe]

I'm in West Wales near Newcastle Emlyn out in the sticks but there's no bridlepaths here at all other than the horsetrail about 3-4 miles away. Few events further out though

 

[SkewbyTwo]

Thank you guys, this is all really helpful!

Amymay - done! Very little going on there though, in comparison to Glos. We have equine groups about equine groups in Glos...

DirectorFury - I was leaning more towards your "Swansea onwards" definition. I don't BE. I would be happy with a draghunt pack and some super hacking, I suppose.

Perhaps not being a million miles away from England might do the trick? (Meredith, I agree with you about that being too far for lessons. Might be doable to meet up with friends to do a fun ride or somesuch though.)

HelenBack whereabouts? I have to say, the bit of investigating I've done thus far seems to throw up not as many yards as I expected...maybe things are more word of mouth? And lots, and lots, of yards with no arena. I'm not really a happy hacker.

Cremedementhe I hear what you're saying. I'm very aware that miles and miles of countryside does not equals being allowed (or able) to get on it. I grew up somewhere a lot like that!

I'm also wary about finding replacements for my utterly fabulous farrier, dentist, vet, and instructor.

I'm only really remotely familiar with West Wales, I suppose. North Wales scares me a bit and I'm not sure why! Maybe, if as you say DirectorFury, there are events going on in Chepstow and Howick, I should consider nearer there? Is that a type of "equine civilisation"? (And of course, near enough to England to get to more things, I suppose?)

You are all stars, thank you if it were just me and the dogs I think I'd head there without a backwards glance. But if I couldn't do what I wanted with my horse, there would be absolutely no point and I'm better off just sticking to frequent holidaying there!

I do just hate coming back over the bridge to England though. I can't even explain why really. I just seem to miss it. My teensy Cotswold town feels like London afterwards.

 

[DirectorFury]

What are your main horsey interests ST? I can point you to some fab yards with great facilities and hacking around Swansea (mainly Gower based) and there's a lot of BD and BS within about an hour. There is also masses of unaff stuff going on, it just eventing that's lacking .

 

[Archangel]

Also worth mentioning; in Wales it rains every day of the week and twice on Sundays.
Bring lots of waterproofs, preferably designed for fishermen.

 

[JillA]

I lived near Aberystwyth for 10 years and horse ownership in West Wales was the reason I no longer do! No proper competitions (I did get an annual fun show going one year but no-one was willing to take it forward). The local Riding Club has died (I think) and most of the people who own and ride in the area don't really want competition in any shape or form. Added to which I used to breed a foal most years and there was all but no market for youngstock locally. Might have changed as the University has an equine centre and there are more clinics and demos, mainly in natural horsemanship. Depends what your interests are

 

[[118739]]

Really depends on what you want - don't want to expose where I live too much so am going to use Aberyswyth because thats slap bang-centre of West Wales & tell you whats local to there:

Aber uni - has livery yard w/ very good facilities (only offers full livery in holiday time bc students with horses go home) bit pricey. They offer affiliated & non affiliated dressage, non affiliated sj (not sure if they ever have affiliated its been a while since I've been but still follow the groups etc.) & offer a winter league sj comp...
Pony club - if you've got kids there are a fair few pony clubs in ceredigion (not sure how active - can't comment)
Riding Club - close to Aber there is 1 riding club - Dyffryn Paith. Pretty busy regularly hold clinics (sj & dressage, xc in summer) do team events & also hire out lluest indoor school (aber uni) facilities for discounted rates on some weekday evenings, also host summer show (fun classes + non affiliated dressage).
Local Riding school - Rheidol does livery, has indoor & outdoor for hire and holds small fun xc, working hunter and ODE events in the summer as well as dressage, sj & xc lessons (xc is good for building experience etc. not a set the world on fire event course!) xc can be hired for lessons too
Celaeron (spelling?) is near Aberaeron holds clinics, dressage & sj comps & does weekend adult "camps" in the summer
Nearest xc courses: Talsarn - nice course set over a few fields w/ slopes & water features etc. well maintained & used by riding & pc clubs for training
Pembrey - moving further south: good xc course hosts riding club competitions
(there are others if you look hard but these are the most popular I'd say local to Aber)

Livery varies: a rough boggy field with a shelter for £10/week you could probs find it, a livery with indoor & outdoor & horse walker - you can find that too!

Land is expensive round here but you'd find decent "horse land" (brushy grassland no good for much else) out in the sticks for much less...

Travelling anywhere is hard virtually everything is a b road, getting out of mid wales is even harder

Hacking - if you can find somewhere to house near hacking its outstanding - miles of open hillside & forestry are available to me from my door (and have been in both places i've lived & i haven't had to be MEGA out on a hillside to get it)

pleasure rides & endurance rides go on in the summer as well as lots of small agricultural shows (some have unaffiliated sj, some just have showing classes)

Make of it what you will if you want to do anything higher level its not an ideal base location everything round here is relatively low level unaffiliated stuff though BD comps are v popular. If you want the hacking and scenery & a bit of fun competition its p good (the weather not so much!! but that doesn't put me off!) I'd just make sure you check out access to bridleways & routes before deciding on somewhere - you don't want to end up hacking down a main road to get there bc there are so few big roads they are fast & busy.

There are loads (too many imo) groups on fb so it can be hard to track down whats going on sometimes but once you do its all good and the local to Aber RC posts events onto its page which is handy there are other RCs around in Ceredigion I've just focussed on the middle for you!

 

[JillA]

That's good to hear mmwwdd, looks as though the uni has had a really good effect

 

[Annagain]

The Vale of Glamorgan could suit you but it's quite expensive for Wales due to its proximity to Cardiff and being a desirable area. There are lots of yards, plenty with arenas and options for DIY to full livery. Not every yard will have good hacking but there are ones out there with nice hacking through forestry and plenty of beaches. There's a good selection of vets and the area is well served with riding clubs and feed/tack shops.

You're about an hour from Chepstow, Monmouth, Howick and Mount Ballan for BE. Very few XC courses - Alps near Cardiff has an ok course especially for lower levels, Leyland Court at the M4 /M5 junction has a better one and is about an hour away as is Ynysymond in Swansea. Sunnybank in Caerphilly has one too but only uses it for their competitions, they don't hire it out. There are very few competitions involving XC in the area but plenty of dressage and SJ - mainly unaffiliated but some affiliated. Smugglers Equestrian in Blackwood has just a had a ££££ revamp and has excellent arenas, they're planning on putting an XC course in too I hear. I doubt it will be BE standard but judging by the job they've done of the arenas I think it will be good.

 

[awelshandawarmblood]

The Vale of Glamorgan could suit you but it's quite expensive for Wales due to its proximity to Cardiff and being a desirable area. There are lots of yards, plenty with arenas and options for DIY to full livery. Not every yard will have good hacking but there are ones out there with nice hacking through forestry and plenty of beaches. There's a good selection of vets and the area is well served with riding clubs and feed/tack shops.

You're about an hour from Chepstow, Monmouth, Howick and Mount Ballan for BE. Very few XC courses - Alps near Cardiff has an ok course especially for lower levels, Leyland Court at the M4 /M5 junction has a better one and is about an hour away as is Ynysymond in Swansea. Sunnybank in Caerphilly has one too but only uses it for their competitions, they don't hire it out. There are very few competitions involving XC in the area but plenty of dressage and SJ - mainly unaffiliated but some affiliated. Smugglers Equestrian in Blackwood has just a had a ££££ revamp and has excellent arenas, they're planning on putting an XC course in too I hear. I doubt it will be BE standard but judging by the job they've done of the arenas I think it will be good.

Exactly this! I've lived in Bridgend for a few years & found the Vale great for riding clubs, Pencoed college has a lot on, the beaches are all easy to get to & close & of course access to the M4 is very good to get anywhere. General hacking I found poor unless you're close to the mountains though. Cardiff area also had loads of yards & theres some great hacking depending where you are, also lots of events going on at Alps etc.

I'm now in Monmouthshire again. Great for riding clubs & miles off off road hacking depending on your area. I'm only 20 mins from Howick, Chepstow, Ponderosa & Broomes/Cricklands. Just over an hour to the beach & around 50 minutes to Ace XC, Smugglers, Sunnybank etc plus there tends to be a lot of fun rides locally. Very very easy access to both the 449 & M4 to get anywhere either up towards Hereford or across the bridge.

I don't think you can go wrong anywhere South Wales way really, it just depends on exactly what your priorities are & researching that area really well.

 

[HelenBack]

Exactly this! I've lived in Bridgend for a few years & found the Vale great for riding clubs, Pencoed college has a lot on, the beaches are all easy to get to & close & of course access to the M4 is very good to get anywhere. General hacking I found poor unless you're close to the mountains though. Cardiff area also had loads of yards & theres some great hacking depending where you are, also lots of events going on at Alps etc.

I'm now in Monmouthshire again. Great for riding clubs & miles off off road hacking depending on your area. I'm only 20 mins from Howick, Chepstow, Ponderosa & Broomes/Cricklands. Just over an hour to the beach & around 50 minutes to Ace XC, Smugglers, Sunnybank etc plus there tends to be a lot of fun rides locally. Very very easy access to both the 449 & M4 to get anywhere either up towards Hereford or across the bridge.

I don't think you can go wrong anywhere South Wales way really, it just depends on exactly what your priorities are & researching that area really well.

If you don't mind would you be able to PM details of yards you were on or knew about while you were in the Bridgend area please? I'm just looking into the different options at the moment and it would be good to know if there are ones I don't know about and possibly get some further information.

I agree that where you are now is probably better all round from a horsey point of view but not sure either there or the Vale/Bridgend would satisfy the OP's requirement of wanting to get away from it all.

 

[Bradsmum]

Do your research well. Just because the OS map says there's a bridleways/right of way/footpath does not mean there is one

 

[[118739]]

Do your research well. Just because the OS map says there's a bridleways/right of way/footpath does not mean there is one

This is true - in Ceredigion there is a group called "Ceredigion Bridleways" they get the council on to opening up existing bridleways & improving access (gates etc.) they have a webiste:https://www.ceredigionbridlewaysgroup.co.uk/home.htm which shows which one's they know of being up and running. They also have a fb group which is regularly updated & host rides on routes they know are open/recently re-opened to encourage use!

 

[EMT1992]

Hi all, need to pick your brains! I currently live in Gloucestershire but am in love with West Wales and doing my research on upping sticks and getting a place here.

So, what is it like to own horses here? Obviously in Glos we have a ton of events going on, foxhunts and draghunts. My common sense tells me that Wales, with its horsey heritage, must also have loads going on - am I right?!

Also, any particular areas people can recommend for great riding/good choice of livery yards/good few events going on?

Your thoughts, experience, and advice much appreciated!

Hi, I am from Cardigan and kept horses there for 10 yrs (I now live in London). In all honesty it was a great place to have a horse, much cheaper, great community (Tivyside Pony Club, Tivyside Riding Club, Tivyside Hunt) and plenty of shows - Cardigan county show for example, Celaeron & Beacons for BD, plenty of local hunter trials.
The place where I kept my horses was absolute paradise and also had a massive outdoor school (40m x 50m) and indoor, with off-road hacking over about 100 acres of private lant and was so much cheaper and better value for money than livery around London. Also, the Thermatex factory is in Cardigan and their yearly 2nds sale is infamous!