Horses at home question

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sloulou

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I have - what may sound like a stupid question - but here we go...

I am planning to move out of London and have started looking at property pages etc (Yay - exciting
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But both OH and I work full time and some of the places I've looked at have some land & stables. Which I would love - but I'm wondering whether the fact that they would be alone in field or stable all day (maybe with a lunchtime check) would be a problem?

What do others do? Do you nearly always have someone around? Should I just look for a place without equestrian facilities and put horse in livery?

We would be talking about 3 horses left alone together, if they were at home.

Would be interested in opinions
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Mine are at home but my parents and groom are there during the day !! they may be left for an hour or so every now and then !!

How about taking on a livery and doing free livery for mucking out and doing your horses - then they will atleast be done in morning and afternoon x
 
I know I would love to have them at home - especially as it would mean I could take my two old retired ones with me as well as the rideable one...

See its good you can pop back often... I am just aware that at my current livery yard there is almost always someone around (other liveries or YO) in case something happened...
 
I had mine at home, and it was awful, especially since both OH and I work. Trying to get stuff done proved tricky and trying to be there for suppliers or the farrier was the stuff nightmares were made of.

I moved them back to a yard and facilities when the OH got badly injured .
 
We keep our 4 at home and we both work full-time. My OH fitted a camera in each stable and three cameras to cover the paddocks and we are able to log on from work and see what they are up (and see this cr@p weather!)
 
I keep mine at home and don't have anyone near me to keep an eye out but know i could have flexible working if i needed to be home for vet out or farrier etc. I take half days when the farrier is due!
 
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I had mine at home, and it was awful, especially since both OH and I work. Trying to get stuff done proved tricky and trying to be there for suppliers or the farrier was the stuff nightmares were made of.

I moved them back to a yard and facilities when the OH got badly injured .

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Ah good point... Farriers/ Vets would be hard... hmmm... Maybe we shouldn't rush it - as having a horse near enough to ride in the evenings will be a huge change anyway
 
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Mine are at home but my parents and groom are there during the day !! they may be left for an hour or so every now and then !!

How about taking on a livery and doing free livery for mucking out and doing your horses - then they will atleast be done in morning and afternoon x

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Stacey - would prefer to have my horses at your place as it looks so lovely
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Livery a good idea tho...
 
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I keep mine at home and don't have anyone near me to keep an eye out but know i could have flexible working if i needed to be home for vet out or farrier etc. I take half days when the farrier is due!

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The job i do is going to affect what happens I guess... I hate commuting - so would be looking for something near to wherever we move... If I can do flexi time that would make it easier I guess
 
Other option is to offer a free stable to someone local who can keep an eye on yours and also deal with farrier/vet through the day for you
 
there are always two sides...... I think if you have the flexibility built into your job, the facilities and family members that are willing and able then it is a good thing.

if you were like me, with limited facilities ( a field), an elderly MiL at home, an un experienced OH ( that doesn't think he is) and two 16hh opinionated TB, then i would seriously reconsider.

Actually reading that last paragraph, makes me wonder why I ever moved them from the livery yard in the first place..... it really was a recipe for disaster

if it is something that you want then i would write down the wish list, the fors and againsts and the contingency plans for supplier deliverys, vets and farriers and then see if it is "doable" when it is all in black and white.
 
Ours are home alone (at my parent's house) from about 7.30am to 6pm every day, longer sometimes! Never done them any harm. Farriers are pretty good, many will come at the weekend now, or I have to take half day etc. Vets I do have to take time off work, but would want to do that even if on livery as would want to be there when the vet came. It is fab having them at home, hard work sometimes and can mean some very early mornings, the fact that 2 live out makes things easier. But worth it to have them right there!
 
I keep one of mine at my Dad's house and although he does go out he is retired, so keeps an eye on her most of the time. Plus, there is a small factory next to the field and they have my contact details. If anything happens they always get in touch.
 
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there are always two sides...... I think if you have the flexibility built into your job, the facilities and family members that are willing and able then it is a good thing.

if you were like me, with limited facilities ( a field), an elderly MiL at home, an un experienced OH ( that doesn't think he is) and two 16hh opinionated TB, then i would seriously reconsider.

Actually reading that last paragraph, makes me wonder why I ever moved them from the livery yard in the first place..... it really was a recipe for disaster

if it is something that you want then i would write down the wish list, the fors and againsts and the contingency plans for supplier deliverys, vets and farriers and then see if it is "doable" when it is all in black and white.

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Yes - well OH is not into horses at all - so it would only be me, but I would only have one to ride - my other two are retired and not much trouble...

Think will make a list
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Ours are home alone (at my parent's house) from about 7.30am to 6pm every day, longer sometimes! Never done them any harm. Farriers are pretty good, many will come at the weekend now, or I have to take half day etc. Vets I do have to take time off work, but would want to do that even if on livery as would want to be there when the vet came. It is fab having them at home, hard work sometimes and can mean some very early mornings, the fact that 2 live out makes things easier. But worth it to have them right there!

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Does anyone else keep an eye on them at all? Just out of interest?
 
Our 2 are at home alone when we are at work - longest time 7:30am - 6pm and are fine, our 2 next door neighbours and local farmer have contact numbers if anything looks worrying.

For vet and farrier we arrange time off as flexi time (bosses ok with this) as OH is 25 mins away, I am 40 mins away. Our farrier is brilliant though - he comes at 7:30am and is on the dot or earlier every time and tbh we've only had the vet out twice (once jabs, once for OH's mare having mastitis) and arranged the jabs on a day off and mastitis at 2pm so we could just take a long lunch

Anything longer term I can work from home on dial in though.

We've been there a year now and have to say it's the best thing we ever did - would hate to go back to livery now .

We have floodlit arena though so everything is on hand
 
I've always had mine at home. When I was a child we had 13, mares, foals and stallions. The farrier used to shoe the two stallions without anyone there, he knew where everthing was kept and we trusted him to do the job (maybe he was like that because we'd used him for so long!) Now I have two in a field 5 min walk from my house. They only get done once a day in winter (due to lack of daylight but my boss lets me work 7am til 3pm so I can see to pick up the poo in winter!) and usually once or twice a day in summer when I'm working but anything up to 5 times a day when I'm at home
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just because I love to be with them as much as possible!!! Anyway, the neighbouring field has two horses where the owners are good friends and contact me or sort any problems for me. I hasten to add that my two are easy to sort out and rarely have any problems. There are also many other horsy knowlegable people around (within a few hundred yards) so I know that there are people watching them most of the day anyway. Plus its on a public footpath as well. I WOULD NEVER EVER go to livery yard given the choice - can't be doing with the bitching, backstabbing and rules. Been my own yard boss for far too long!!! And reading what people write about YO's on this forum - do you really want to go to a livery yard????
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I have my 4 at home, They are left from 8:30 to 4:30, they are out 24/7, 9 months of the year and in at night for the worst of the winter. never had any probs, I am on flexi time and get a 1/2 day for farrier vet etc. It is hard work because you have all the maintenace work and field care as well as the horse care.

I did try the free livery in return for help route - was thinking it would be useful in the winter months. I did all the early morning and late stuff, including mucking out every morning mon - fri in the winter, livery was suppposed to do mid -day checks, wash feed bowls and give mid day hay (in winter) and poo pick 3 days out of 7. It turned into free livery and me looking after her horse !!! So if you went down that route pick your livery carefully.

On the plus side its lovely to wander out in your PJ's to say hello, you can do every thing your way and there is no one to muck up your tidy yard and perfectly square poo pile (perhaps that just me being anal).
 
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