Horses in back garden

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DipseyDeb

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Ok, what if someone is keeping their horses (2) in their back garden......and we're talking a small 2 bedroom bungalow in a close....not even out in the sticks...garden is no bigger than your average 2 bedroom bungalow, in a quiet cu de sac type ( about 40 feet long) The lady in question has concreted the back garden and has had 2 stables built, she has moved horses in and intends to keep them there!!! No turnout at all!!! Then there's the question of where the muck heap will go!!! I'm quite speechless to be honest....poor neighbours and poor horses!!
 
How do you know they do not have access to additional grazing?

We used to have a house with a small garden - my mum put a stable block in it so the horse could come home for the farrier, or if needed stabling due to competing the next day etc. We rented a field a couple of miles away where the horse stayed most of the time, but on occasions he was turned out 'in the back garden'.

We combined the muck heap with the grass cuttings - our compost was very popular!
 
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On my drive through a certain Kent town, on my way to one of our school sites, I often see ponies, sometimes in gardens, sometimes pulling carts, tied to lamp posts, quite normal there. All look quite healthy, I just carry on.
 
L&M said:
How do you know they do not have access to additional grazing?

We used to have a house with a small garden - my mum put a stable block in it so the horse could come home for the farrier, or if needed stabling due to competing the next day etc. We rented a field a couple of miles away where the horse stayed most of the time, but on occasions he was turned out 'in the back garden'!
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Nope...no extra grazing!! And the horses will be there 24\7, not just for the farrier etc!
 
not that I think it is acceptable personally but if they are exercised and allowed access to the yard its not a great deal different to horses kept just in stable yards this winter with no access to grass. I suppose it technically is access to outside and fresh air which is denied to many others - the muck heap thing would worry me though
 
DipseyDeb said:
Nope...no extra grazing!! And the horses will be there 24\7, not just for the farrier etc!
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Many horses are kept stabled 24/7. Say the household guard. And in previous decades all urban horses, the major form of transport were kept stabled 24/7. In other countries with limited turnout (say spain) it's still considered quite normal.
It's not how I would keep a horse, and it might be judged to fall foul of the not allowed to express natural behaviors welfare guidelines but it's not necessarily cruel or unacceptable.
 
I bought my horse from a lady who had 4 stables and 4 horses at the bottom of her average sized back garden. His only turnout was in a small round pen - we couldn't leave him there so he came home with us.
 
Most of the racehorses in Newmarket trainers yards are never turned out, in fact some yards to not even have room for a muck heaps they use skips and the yard is smaller than a back garden. A lot of expensive competition horses are never turned out so their whole life practically is a 12x12 box. One winter I kept my horse in my garage in a suburban back garden , the yard I was at had no winter turnout so he would have been in anyway, he was ridden 5 days a week and walked out in hand the other two. The last house I had had a half acre garden and I had two at home over the winter, I find as long as they have plenty to eat and hopefully company they are fine.
 
So long as the manure/liquid waste is dealt with in accordance with environmental health regulations, then it's within the law/planning to keep a horse in a stable in your back garden, and as others have said, it's no different to the Newmarket racehorses or Household Cavalry, etc, if done properly.
 
Agree with others that so long as they have exercise and company it's no different from many traditional set ups. But, many residential properties, especially older ones have clauses in their deeds about what, if any livestock is permitted.
 
Driving down a street of small terraced houses in Ireland, I was amazed to see someone lunging their horse in a very tiny front garden! It barely had room to do a 360 degree circuit!

Yes, I think the foul drainage would be a problem.
 
You do not need planning for a stable in your back garden as long as it is so many meters away from house walls. I keep two in my garden they are exercised daily, are fed adlib hay and have access to the yard, to roam , they get regularly hand grazed, smell is kept to a minimum with appropriate bedding and manure is put straight onto a pickup truck and removed from the yard every 3 days.
myu horses are happy, healthy and very fit and they get more grass in winter than most horses i know turned out in muddy feilds, they are also checked all day long and last check with hay top up is about 12:00 before i go to bed
he is happiest at home i have had my old boy in livery where he was bullied and broke through fences to get back to his stable, if out in mud he will walk through the fence in search of dry ground no fence yet has kept him in , so its better for him to be at home and exercised daily.
It can work but you do have to keep the place clean, smells down and exercise them well.
oh and we live in a terrace the horses go under the alleyway with two bedrooms above in and out of the yard
 
curio said:
You do not need planning for a stable in your back garden as long as it is so many meters away from house walls. I keep two in my garden they are exercised daily, are fed adlib hay and have access to the yard, to roam , they get regularly hand grazed, smell is kept to a minimum with appropriate bedding and manure is put straight onto a pickup truck and removed from the yard every 3 days.
myu horses are happy, healthy and very fit and they get more grass in winter than most horses i know turned out in muddy feilds, they are also checked all day long and last check with hay top up is about 12:00 before i go to bed
he is happiest at home i have had my old boy in livery where he was bullied and broke through fences to get back to his stable, if out in mud he will walk through the fence in search of dry ground no fence yet has kept him in , so its better for him to be at home and exercised daily.
It can work but you do have to keep the place clean, smells down and exercise them well.
oh and we live in a terrace the horses go under the alleyway with two bedrooms above in and out of the yard
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wonderful. I'd love my horses at home, though entirely unfeasible where I live
 
We also kept our horses at home. We were lucky enough to have a stable in the front garden and did live in the country so a little different. At first i rented a field further into the village and had to walk each day to turn out and catch in, then i was lucky enough to rent the field behind the house, so close we could open the stable door and the horse and ponies could walk out themselves. Years ago we kept my nieces shetland ponies in a back garden, but they were turned out in a mini field up the lane and ridden regularly even used to do the school run lol. It is not easy and always a bed of roses keeping horses at home, but the joy of opening your bedroom window and have your horse nicker a welcome is worth all the late nights mucking out after a full day at work and struggling in the rain, snow and fog to do poo picking and yard sweeping etc.
 
We have a stable and small pen area in our garden, we brought our pony mare home to foal and she had a Shetland for company until she popped, made late night checks a lot easier. Unfortunately the Shetland was very elderly and he was pts, we do have a field a couple of miles away so now they just come home for cleaning before a show or to drive out from home, my boy quite happy to be spoilt for the day. The funniest thing was having our Chinese delivered in the evening, poor guy nearly had heart failure when the Shetland came to say hello.
 
I thought this was going to be one of my neighbours complaining about me clipping Fergus in the back garden yesterday! Needs must - I have no power on the yard :(
 
I know of two sisters (one now in her seventies) who have always kept big horses at the bottom of their garden. Very well looked after and competed at riding club events over the years, in fact the older sister is still eventing!
 
Mine are kept at home, I have two stables and half an acre but also rent two acres down the road so mostly out 24/7 but will start bringing in overnight soon as the fields are getting trashed with all this rain !
 
Interesting, of course I would love to have mine at home, but this is a really small garden, in a cul de sac, on an estate....there is no room for even a small yard area to let them wander...even grazing in hand is impossible as (unless they lead them a good couple of miles) there isn't anywhere safe (or not private land) for them to do that! When quizzed, she wasn't even sure what she would do with her muck!
 
Can you really keep them in your back garden just as long as waste is cared for? Presumably you would need planning for stables though? Can anyone share any links or suggestions to where I could find more info about this? I am hoping to buy a plot of land 0.2acres at the end of the garden to use as a hardstanding and shelter for my ponies, with more or less 24/7 grazing elsewhere. But it is a plot in the middle of houses although one side leads on to a farmers fields. I wasn't sure of the difficulties I might face but it seems there might not be a lot?
 
I understand winter stabling with no turn out to some degree but it really doesn't sit right with me keeping horses in a stable at home 24/7 with no turn out. I don't like the thought of horses not being able to be out having a stretch! Maybe I'm thinking in human terms but how mind numbingly boring and un healthy being stuck in all day!
 
It depends on your local by laws if they are have an extra stipulations, it must be in the curtilage of your property, so do not make a separate area as it supposed to be part of your garden. The buildings height must be below 2.5 metres, basically its a shed so the same rules for permitted development http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permission/commonprojects/outbuildings/
My 'stable' was in a garage in a 1930's semi in Sheffield, I did not have any problem with the neighbours and any waste was bagged and disposed of once a week. We kept the garage door which allowed storage for hay, and just put in an internal wall and stable door.
 
I know an old man who kept his horses in this type of situation. One died of a massive colic attack and the other went bonkers nearly killed him and he was forced to get it into livery. He now keeps shetlands in it. Its just muck and a stable and apparently the stink is horrendous.

I also know a lady who keeps a therapy miniature horse in her garden in the middle of an estate. Its well cared for, but treated like a dog not a horse. Goes for walks and wears clothes and boots etc. The only time it was allowed to roam free the wee thing went totally bonkers. And the owner is going to breed her cause she thinks she needs a friend because the last friend she got "kicked" her and "raped" her..it was a gelding thankfully...but TWO in a small estate house is going to result in fights!
 
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