House with horsey facilities is happening!

L

LHIS

Well-Known Member
Joined
8 April 2015
Messages
1,784
Location
East Lancashire
Visit site
Finally after 7 months of viewings, rubbish surveys and pushy estate agents we have found the perfect home - and it's survey report doesn't include anything awful or expensive (previous 2 properties we had surveyed needed new everything and one was on the move downhill!).
We are having to make quite a significant relocation from Cheshire back to Lancashire (I had lived here and loved it for 8 years) and I will have a slightly longer commute to work and it will be a completely different lifestyle (for the better!) and I can't wait.
There will be a degree of initial work to be done on the equestrian facilities it has, mostly treating wood and a bit of fencing repair, and clearing some overgrown pathways, but I can't wait to get stuck in (I wonder if I'll be saying that once I'm doing it?) haha.

This isn't just a woohoo! post though - I want to know from those of you who have made this move yourselves (i.e. Having your horses at home when they were previously on livery yards) what do you wish you'd known before hand - I'm thinking in terms of preparations to make life easier further down the line, odd jobs that could be done to save work further along, and general advice? Harsh realities also welcome please - I would rather know now if there's something I need to consider/ prepare for!

I know one big adjustment will be being alone - however I am used to this to a degree as due to having a FT job I am always first and last at the yard, and am often left to my own devices (and I'm hire happy with my own company).
Second pony purchase hunt is underway and there are 3 potentials that I am going to view soon (assuming they are not snapped up). If none are suitable I will probably apply to rehome a rescue so I have a companion for my ridden pony.
 
firstly, congratulations-and thank goodness you didnt nuy the one sliding down a hill-meep!

Sort out potential hay suppliers asap-there's nothing like knowing your hay is all in for the winter, same with bedding if you have the storgae space.

site your midden carefully!

look for potential boggy bits and sort them out now if you can.

I am sure there is more :)
 
Congratulations..... It will be the best thing ever. We have just done it.

... But get sourcing hay and good a farmer! Somewhere you can get cement and wood at a good price too! Weedkiller at a good price ... Our paddock was full of weeds.

Most of all get stuck in and enjoy. Trust me it's much more work than you think it will be but it's all worth it each step of the way!
 
Buy your OH a present......Assuming they are non horsey as you currently only have one horse .I got a tractor for mine which he loves (v old ,v secondhand) he now has lots of toys for it and spends many happy hours topping ,harrowing, moving muck heap etc. Local farmers always need to look after their own land when the weather is perfect. Try not to hate local liveries as they ride by when you are out slaving in your paddocks instead of riding :) Don't skimp on lighting in the stable area . Most of all enjoy the freedom and the satisfaction of knowing your broom/barrow/brushes will be exactly where you left them.
 
I wish I had known how miserable it would make my husband sometimes! I actually dont think I would have done the move if I'd known.

This was very much 'my' house (well barn conversion) move and he went along with it. The lifestyle you are after is NEVER ENDING chores/ jobs. If your OH isnt horsey now they have two options, either get horsey or learn how to stop moaning about you spending so much time with the horses .. because you will spend more time with them ... well not them per se you will spend more time poo picking/ fixing rails etc and it WILL drive a wedge between you! Hopefully your new place will be a nice home he can enjoy with a bit of land and a TINY garden becuase there is F all time for gardening!

You will learn how to spread yourself very thinly to keep everything ticking along, you will work before you go to work and you will work tirelessly after work when you get home .. and maybe get a ride in as well if you are lucky!

I LOVE my life, I love where I live, for me its the dream and sorry if I've put a downer on this exciting time but its bloody hard work, especially if you havent got money to just throw at people to get it all done for you. My relationship has and does suffer because no matter how hard i try and how thinly I try and spread myself I can NEVER get the balance right between home and horses and it causes no end of resentment? perhaps just no end of moaning?

Make sure this move is for BOTH of you because he will begrudge you it, hopefully not of course! ... and dont forget ... tiny damn garden, lol .. and for gods sake let him have the damn quad to play with! ;)
 
Definitely source hay and bedding suppliers.... also try to find someone to horse sit for you.... just in case you need to go away for whatever reason.
 
For me the most challenging part is land management. Decide if you want to do this yourself or employ someone to do it. But with farmers people like us are always at the back of the cue and have to be done when they are less busy, which isn't going to be the best and appropriate time. We invested in our own kit and love being self sufficient and not dependent on other people. If you can, put some money aside for this. What you need will depend on the land type and acreage but things like tractor or quad, harrows, roller, topper, weed sprayer, or look round to see if you can hire machinery in your area. Also somewhere to store said items.
The more storage the better as you will def collect things over time. As well as bedding and hay storage.
It's hard work but very rewarding.
 
tamsinkb said:
Definitely source hay and bedding suppliers.... also try to find someone to horse sit for you.... just in case you need to go away for whatever reason.
Click to expand...

yes, this is important for the holidays you need to take your partner on to keep him sweet ;)

maintenance is time consuming. this year for example, all the outbuildings need painting and the fencing creosoting. I live in a wet place, it has to be done in a weather window-one of those weather windows I'd rather be riding/playing horse/dogs in (and I loathe painting). And I can't afford to get someone else to do it as am still paying for my hardstanding area which had to wait until I'd finished paying for the stables and was delayed because I really needed horse transport. this weekend I need to attack some ground elder that has crept in and attack a bank of nettles and spot spray in the fields.

its worth making friends with a local farmer or two-just to pick their brains wrt suppliers, soil types etc etc and because ime they often have stuff lying around that they want rid of and that you could use (hardcore and a large cattle trough in my case-neither was asked for, they were offered to me). I supply his wife with duck eggs for baking :)
 
Antw23uk said:
I wish I had known how miserable it would make my husband sometimes! I actually dont think I would have done the move if I'd known.

This was very much 'my' house (well barn conversion) move and he went along with it. The lifestyle you are after is NEVER ENDING chores/ jobs. If your OH isnt horsey now they have two options, either get horsey or learn how to stop moaning about you spending so much time with the horses .. because you will spend more time with them ... well not them per se you will spend more time poo picking/ fixing rails etc and it WILL drive a wedge between you! Hopefully your new place will be a nice home he can enjoy with a bit of land and a TINY garden becuase there is F all time for gardening!

You will learn how to spread yourself very thinly to keep everything ticking along, you will work before you go to work and you will work tirelessly after work when you get home .. and maybe get a ride in as well if you are lucky!

I LOVE my life, I love where I live, for me its the dream and sorry if I've put a downer on this exciting time but its bloody hard work, especially if you havent got money to just throw at people to get it all done for you. My relationship has and does suffer because no matter how hard i try and how thinly I try and spread myself I can NEVER get the balance right between home and horses and it causes no end of resentment? perhaps just no end of moaning?

Make sure this move is for BOTH of you because he will begrudge you it, hopefully not of course! ... and dont forget ... tiny damn garden, lol .. and for gods sake let him have the damn quad to play with! ;)
Click to expand...

My husband says flat out wont do any maintenance. I figure I'd never have time to ride, with working full time. So its a no go!
 
wingedhorse said:
My husband says flat out wont do any maintenance. I figure I'd never have time to ride, with working full time. So its a no go!
Click to expand...

mine doesnt do any either-tbf he has very little spare time anyway atm and he also has no clue so probably better he didnt.

so its worth figuring out contingency plans for maintenance or horse sitting etc because if one of you is ill, or an elderly parent suddenly needs more of your time or your partners it can be very difficult as I've found out in the last year or so.

I am just about to send my younger horse away for three months schooling as he needs consistant work with someone who's not distracted/stressed/too busy/too tired to do him justice. at the end of that we'll see the horse he is and he'll probably be up for sale so I can get something I can ride when I can. saying that, I expect I am somewhat older than you and ache more! but I also work full time (and have a part-time job from home) and a 90min round commute daily. Its not easy. It is great having your own place though.

and no garden, put a pony on it.
 
MotherOfChickens said:
mine doesnt do any either-tbf he has very little spare time anyway atm and he also has no clue so probably better he didnt.

so its worth figuring out contingency plans for maintenance or horse sitting etc because if one of you is ill, or an elderly parent suddenly needs more of your time or your partners it can be very difficult as I've found out in the last year or so.

I am just about to send my younger horse away for three months schooling as he needs consistant work with someone who's not distracted/stressed/too busy/too tired to do him justice. at the end of that we'll see the horse he is and he'll probably be up for sale so I can get something I can ride when I can. saying that, I expect I am somewhat older than you and ache more! but I also work full time (and have a part-time job from home) and a 90min round commute daily. Its not easy. It is great having your own place though.

and no garden, put a pony on it.
Click to expand...

It’s all compromise. Just finding the one that works for you. I’ve two ridden horses, one competing, and one that needs regular work to stay muscled over his SI area.

I’ve a full time job that can be demanding. I ride both horses 4-5 times a week, and each have sharers. I also run / swim / cycle to stay fit.

I’d love horses at home, but realistically I have no time to maintain land / school / buildings or to do DIY again. Unless I stopped riding and competing.

If my husband was going to enjoy doing some of the jobs it would be possible.

I’ve managed to find a yard with good school, good turnout (mine are out nights), good hacking, good care, and all my fussy boxes ticked.

Downside is that it isn’t that close to home. Though is in work direction.
 
wingedhorse said:
It’s all compromise. Just finding the one that works for you. I’ve two ridden horses, one competing, and one that needs regular work to stay muscled over his SI area.

I’ve a full time job that can be demanding. I ride both horses 4-5 times a week, and each have sharers. I also run / swim / cycle to stay fit.

I’d love horses at home, but realistically I have no time to maintain land / school / buildings or to do DIY again. Unless I stopped riding and competing.

If my husband was going to enjoy doing some of the jobs it would be possible.

I’ve managed to find a yard with good school, good turnout (mine are out nights), good hacking, good care, and all my fussy boxes ticked.

Downside is that it isn’t that close to home. Though is in work direction.
Click to expand...

yeah, sorry-it wasnt meant as a criticism of anyone at all-just a reiteration of the fact that it can be much harder to have them at home when things go a bit pear shaped and thats in addition to it already being hard work. I'm not at all sure I wont be going back to livery at some point if I get to an age where I can't manage it all but still want to ride. I dont want to compete at all, just bomb about the countryside on my pony :p
 
Choose your companion pony with care - if you get one that is laminitic or likely to be prone to laminitis, you can spend more time looking after the companion than you do your ridden horse!
 
Congratulations, you will love it.

My OH wasn't horsey, hes still pretty scared of them, but he loves them all. He now enjoys having them around, and watching them progress. He doesn't do any maintenance either. But its no big deal, I do it.

What have I learnt ?

whatever budget you have , double it.
Check what type of soil you have, sand is great but it loves ragwort. Clay, nightmare in winter.
Put in land drains
Have plenty of spare fencing, ready for when the ******* break it
Find a good spot for your muck heap, that's accessible but far enough away from the house
Take your time to organise everything, move in first then see how it feels
Find good suppliers of bedding /hay
Check hacking routes
Install hardstanding if you haven't any
Make friends with the neighbours
Join a local RC
You can never have enough hooks, places to tie up, water troughs
Have a cat
Get some equipment - ideally tractor/quad
Leave enough room for storage of bedding /hay etc


Ive never regretted it, yes its hard. But nothing beats walking out your back door and being greeted with a whinny, or drinking a glass of champers in your PJ's toasting your horses
 
I'd also suggest you winter-proof your property, it might be lovely in the summer but you find out all the weaknesses when bad weather comes! As said above, make sure you have plenty of hard-standing and have hardcore or similar put down on your paths and gateways. Put drainage in if necessary. If soil is deep clay then think about having a hardcored pen for turnout when the weather is really bad. Ensure pipes and taps are insulated too.
 
Make sure you plan out how your going to manage grazing, ordering in feed and bedding and all those other jobs you never see happening at a livery yard :)
 
Lots of good advice. We are 2 1/2 years into having our own place, and when I look back I can't believe the amount of stuff we have done - and yet there is always much more to do. My OH enjoys DIY and will help with the horses if I ask, although he's totally non horsy. We have had times of feeling overwhelmed, we have spent our budget 3 times over (maybe 4!) and now have to do pretty much everything ourselves. So my best advice (which I try to follow myself) is to remember to take time to just enjoy it. Have the odd day off, sit down in the evening with a beer and just wallow in it. Ride your horse. And keep chipping away at the major projects, even if it means taking a week off work to do a week's hard graft on your property.
My OH and me (both wrong side of 50) re roofed a 4 stable block ourselves last year, I now know how to drive a digger and a dumper, and we just built an 8m greenhouse. You'll be amazed at what you can do if you have to, and how satisfying it is.
 
LHIS said:
Finally after 7 months of viewings, rubbish surveys and pushy estate agents we have found the perfect home - and it's survey report doesn't include anything awful or expensive (previous 2 properties we had surveyed needed new everything and one was on the move downhill!).
We are having to make quite a significant relocation from Cheshire back to Lancashire (I had lived here and loved it for 8 years) and I will have a slightly longer commute to work and it will be a completely different lifestyle (for the better!) and I can't wait.
There will be a degree of initial work to be done on the equestrian facilities it has, mostly treating wood and a bit of fencing repair, and clearing some overgrown pathways, but I can't wait to get stuck in (I wonder if I'll be saying that once I'm doing it?) haha.

This isn't just a woohoo! post though - I want to know from those of you who have made this move yourselves (i.e. Having your horses at home when they were previously on livery yards) what do you wish you'd known before hand - I'm thinking in terms of preparations to make life easier further down the line, odd jobs that could be done to save work further along, and general advice? Harsh realities also welcome please - I would rather know now if there's something I need to consider/ prepare for!

I know one big adjustment will be being alone - however I am used to this to a degree as due to having a FT job I am always first and last at the yard, and am often left to my own devices (and I'm hire happy with my own company).
Second pony purchase hunt is underway and there are 3 potentials that I am going to view soon (assuming they are not snapped up). If none are suitable I will probably apply to rehome a rescue so I have a companion for my ridden pony.
Click to expand...

I too went from a 4 bedroom house with 70 ft garden to a bungalow with land schools stables tackroom etc. We had and still do improvements daily, but there is nothing *I wish i had known before*.

Oh tell a lie, if we had known the price of land we would have fought more againts the other party to buy the neighbouring 25 acres land and increased our land.

Congrats at you first Equestrian property which I hope you got for a bargain like we did and increased dramaticaly in price.
 
Last edited:
Find cover for holidays/illness before they happen. (We employ someone one day a week all year round, so they often happily do extra days for us.

Make sure gateways are not going to churn - any mats or hardcore is best put down now.. You may get more mud on the Lancs side than Cheshire. I'm probably not a million miles away from you.

Ditto the others re finding suppliers. Including a local farmer perhaps for muck heap removal and fencing.

Estimate that everything will cost more to maintain than you think! But enjoy.
 
So much has been covered already. Taking a day off from the work at home can be difficult.
If you buy hay off the field pick it from the middle don't do the rookie mistake of following the farmers request of take what you want from the edge. As if it's not dry enough you will be throwing away a lot of hay over winter.
Enjoy it take at least ten minutes a day to be outside on your own and remember how amazing it is, so you don't forget
And congratulations:)
 
It's as much work as you make it. Mine is well organised so it's all easy. They all live out except 2. Big bales of adlib hay. Cattle and sheep for land management. Proper mains electric fencing on the post and rail so there are no fencing jobs to do. I look after 7 by myself 3 of which are fairly high maintenance competition horse/ponies. The rest are natives. I also work full time (and some!) and have a child to look after. My Dad helps with odd jobs but mostly I would pay someone to do it if it was going to cause me any issue. Next thing I am buying is a paddock sweeper.
 
I think we would have been better to buy some kit 13 years ago when we set up in hindsight, we did end up with a roller but nothing to tow it with currently! but jobs like harrowing and rolling work so much better when you can do it at just the right time regarding ground drying out etc and it is difficult to get someone to come at just that point, and adds up.

Don't be scared to change where you site some things, we did some daft things like walk up and then back down a fence line for a couple of years before we just put a person sized gap in the fence!

We struggle with barn space (planning was only for a double garage) and for years made our own hay and stuffed it in making everything else a pain to get to. Now local hay and straw man makes hay off our field, his wife uses some of it for sheep, and he brings our hay back as and when we need it which is definitely easier!
 
Don't be too precious. Unless you need 'free grass' to feed the horses, or are short of space, many fields don't actually need managing and rough grazing is really good for the horses. I've never harrowed, topped, rolled or poo picked in twenty five years.

Spot kill weeds immediately because it's a big job if they get out of control. Most thistles will die if you chop them off at the root with a back hoe. I take one with me when I go and catch the horses and do them as I see them.

Mains electric and you can forget the fences except for checking for rotten posts once a year. Use 100% metal wire, not filament wire in rope or tape, it breaks in the wind. Use eyes, not clips to hold it, clips break and need stapling or nailing on, eyes screw in. Don't pout the lowest lone too low or the brass will grow and ground it.

I love having the horses outside, enjoy your new home.
 
Last edited:
I forgot one major thing - you need a bench or chair at the end of your garden so that, on a nice sunny evening, you can sit there with a glass of wine watching your horses in the field and remember that it's wonderful to have them at home.
 
Wowzers thanks for all the replies everyone! I will read them all properly this afternoon (whilst watching Badminton on the red button) and reply :)
 
You won't regret it .
It costs more than you think to maintain the place and it takes loads of time so if I had one piece of advice it would be no matter what needs doing get up and ride the horse then get down to work it's very easy to spend all your time looking after the place .
Learn to work with your land I use mine completely differently than I did when we first moved here .
And invest in a hard standing if you can .
I love love having my horsy home I hope you will to .
 
I have just got round to reading all of your replies properly - thank you every some really good advice! So on the to-do list will be hard standing, we have an obvious place for it so I'll add that to the list. I think we will need to just live there for a while before i work out what does and doesn't work. I suspect the location of the stables could be improved, but i won't know until i've used the space for a while.
Land wise we've got 7 acres which is split into 3 fields, a small paddock, a medium field (which also houses the menage), and a large field. We are next door to a farmer who has cattle and sheep, and I have introduced myself already prior to the big move. I asked if they sold hay and straw - they don't - but they said they'd give me a list of people I could use.
Jobs wise I intend on doing as much as I can myself, OH isn't horsey but will help with jobs if asked - and yes I plan on getting him a quad to play with to encourage the help! I am lucky in that in my day job I know a lot of contractors and I could get help with bigger projects from people I know and trust.
First big job is going to be fence repairs, treating wood, and doing a small repair to one of the stables roof. My plan is to get as much of this done as I can before moving the horses in, I can put my gelding on grass livery with a friend for a couple of weeks, and will be buying the second.
I really can't wait, but I know it is going to be a lot of work.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top