horsey stuff around st ives, swavesey, all along the guided bus...

[mandwhy]

Hey everyone,

I am currently living very near to Cambridge with my horse and little loan pony on rented land a few minutes walk away. I was very fortunate to get both of these things in the same area for a decent price. However, I have realised that the guided bus may well be awesome as it comes under the day and weekly tickets so would cost the same for me and my BF to get into Cambridge, and it apparently only takes 25 minutes. Considering the rental prices for a 2 bed house (with garden and allowed pets) are about 2-300 pounds less than the 2 bed flat I live in, its a bit of a no brainer, plus the hacking round here involves a fair bit of road work which my horse is just not that good at yet.

So just wondering if anyone lives up that way and can tell me:

Is the guided bus awesome

Is the hacking round there good

Anywhere to avoid

How likely am I to find a place to keep my horse AND a house close to each other like*I have here? I do have a car so its not a problem to travel to here as I have the lease for a while anyway, just pondering whether it might be better for us all round. I would want the horses to be in walking/cycle/bus distance for my BF when I have to go away for a day or two so he can look after horseys

 

[vallin]

Finding land to rent around here is very rare so I'd say slim! Guided bus though is pretty good, though not particularly cheap. Hacking varies depending exactly where you are on the guided bus way but generally the further from Cambs you are, the better the hacking.

 

[mandwhy]

Thank you, I think we are quite keen on St Ives as I used to go there a lot to look at boats when I was little! There are more houses there for good prices than in the villages between, I guess because they are considered Cambridge commuter places now.

I'm pretty ok with brazenly approaching people to find land etc now, I know it is so worth it!

We are not wanting to up and leave straight away, just something to consider this year. Think we'd move ourselves first and I'd put feelers out to find somewhere.

Most of the houses available seem to be north in St Ives which I notice is quite near Houghton Hall kind of, would be great to be able to hack to shows there going to view a house tomorrow so will scout out the surrounding countryside!

 

[Princess P]

Houghton Hall is on a very busy 60 mph road, you wouldn't want to be hacking there!

 

[honetpot]

I would look at Fendrayton Swavesey Longstanton. A few yards and fields to rent and the guided bus pathway means you have access to the bridleways along the river

 

[mandwhy]

Haha oh dear hacking to comp plans scuppered! Although our roads are so busy here can it be much worse?!

I have been reading about the bridleways around the busway and it seems the swavesey bridleways people are rather active, I like that idea. We're a bit limited as OH has not passed his driving test yet, if he did that would open up many more village options, Saffron Walden looks nice!

 

[Suechoccy]

Hi,
Swavesey Bridleways were the peeps who got the guided busway bridleway. It's tarmac 18km with grass verges in places. Has totally opened up the hacking opportunities as you can now get from village to village without so much sharing roads with cars. Bus drivers are good too.

Several livery yards in the villages which do turnout, though whether it's 24/7 I don't know - put an add on horsepoo (facebook) and see what you get offered. I'll pm you some phone numbers in a mo.

Riding clubs - Over & District RC, CambridgeDRC and Huntingdon DRC. Cambs and Hunts are the bigger clubs, competitive, send teams to BRC stuff, use various venues in the county. ODRC is smaller, local-based (Over) so you can hack to their rallies and shows. All 3 are BRC-affiliated.

Most of the yards will rent their arenas out for individual hire too.

Tack/feed: Heather Lewins tack at St Ives, Highgate Farm Shop (tack and feed) at Willingham, Alfred French (tack and feed) in Cambridge.

Farriers: several cover the area

 

[vallin]

Hi,
Swavesey Bridleways were the peeps who got the guided busway bridleway. It's tarmac 18km with grass verges in places. Has totally opened up the hacking opportunities as you can now get from village to village without so much sharing roads with cars. Bus drivers are good too.

Several livery yards in the villages which do turnout, though whether it's 24/7 I don't know - put an add on horsepoo (facebook) and see what you get offered. I'll pm you some phone numbers in a mo.

Riding clubs - Over & District RC, CambridgeDRC and Huntingdon DRC. Cambs and Hunts are the bigger clubs, competitive, send teams to BRC stuff, use various venues in the county. ODRC is smaller, local-based (Over) so you can hack to their rallies and shows. All 3 are BRC-affiliated.

Most of the yards will rent their arenas out for individual hire too.

Tack/feed: Heather Lewins tack at St Ives, Highgate Farm Shop (tack and feed) at Willingham, Alfred French (tack and feed) in Cambridge.

Farriers: several cover the area

Hi could you possibly also PM me the details of livery yards? Thanks V

 

[Suechoccy]

That's really strange. I just composed a long message, pm'd it to mandwhy.

Then saw the message from Vallin asking for same info.

Went into my CP and Sent Items and the long message to mandwhy isn't there.

So .. did that message get to mandwhy or not?

I'll recompose it to both of you after lunch....

Sue

 

[vallin]

Thanks