How do people cope without stables?

[Ali27]

I bought a field in September and waiting for stables to be built within next few weeks! I’m currently am living out of my car boot with tack and then feed in a plastic storage shed. Poor pony gets groomed/ tacked up while she is eating her feed (chaff and speedi beet)! Poo picking now by head torch! I’m slowly losing motivation to ride and didn’t realise how much I depended on having a stable to groom/ tack up in! How on earth do people manage all year round?

 

[tda]

You have the winter off, unless it's good weather then you go for a hack ?

 

[w1bbler]

Determination & a sense of humour ?
Learn to love being wet & muddy

 

[TheHairyOne]

Ive had no stables for 4 years and have 6 between my sister and I. I do something with him 6 days a week. However i am on a yard with a school and hard standing tie up. Have a pen for any injuries and proper box rest is done at yo's other yard. Do have running water, dont have electric. Use a shipping container for a tack room that works really well and have a seperate undercover area for feed.

For appointments if its chucking it down we use the big barn to tie in for a short period of time, but the horses hate it in there so dont often bother.

I think Id find it a lot harder if I had to do everything in the field though so I hope your buildings arrive soon.

 

[TheMule]

I have a large wooden garden shed for feed/ stuff with solar lights inside, a good sized area of hard standing in a pen which I can split into 3 different sections and a double sized field shelter, again with solar lighting inside. I have a round bale feeder on the hard standing for the wettest weather and you can open the pen onto 3 different paddocks or onto the arena if needing to shut them off grass.

I have zero need for actual stables!

 

[I'm Dun]

I've got stables but dont use them. They are left open so the horses can wander in and out. What I couldnt cope without is my hay barn and tackroom!

 

[Ali27]

Luckily I have an arena 1 min up road but cancelled using it tonight as I couldn’t face tacking up in field ? Handstanding and concrete is down so think I will move trailer at weekend to use for storage and start tying up on yard. Think I will just ride at weekends for next few weeks! God, I’m going to be sooo appreciative of my stables! Ponies are totally happy being out 24/7 as 4.5 acres of grass so at least they are fine?

 

[WelshHoarder]

Determination & a sense of humour ?
Learn to love being wet & muddy

This in spades! Good wellies, a good head torch and a good sense of humour are definitely our essentials.

Last winter was the first time I really missed having a stable, as small person’s pony was in work throughout the winter rather than just pottering like the others when the weather was good. We electric fenced a small paddock to keep the others away from the tie-up area, and carted everything around in a wheelbarrow. We’re lucky in that the fields are at home, but the downside is that the downstairs bathroom is now a tack room, there are frequently rugs drying in odd places, and what isn’t in the bathroom is in the horse trailer. Husband caved and bought Mud Control slabs this winter, we’ve only done the main gate so far, but the difference they've already made - from bog as soon as there’s a tiny bit of rain to a lovely, dry, firm entrance is amazing. Think I’ll lay a few more where I normally tie up for grooming/tacking up to make everything a bit less slippery. The rest are destined for a small yard area outside the field shelters which we plan to add in the spring.

Oh, and definitely a relaxed approach to how neat and tidy pony looks for work - mud gets knocked off from under tack areas for lessons, everything else is something of a lost cause until spring unless it’s dry enough to come off easily. LOTS of coconut oil in a fluffy welshie mane and tail helps stop the mud clumps and witch knots. It does make things interesting on a rare winter competition day mind you. An early start and lots of prayers to the clean fairy ?

 

[SEL]

I don't use my stables but I value my concrete hard standing and under cover tie up area! I don't keep tack there because of local break ins but one of my stables is doing a grand job of storing "stuff".

I am also not fussy about mud on horses ?

 

[Cocorules]

My stables are really field shelters that convert to stables. I don't use them other than for vet visits. My farrier prefers to be outside. I prefer to tack up from my car so they stand next to that on some hard standing. I keep nothing at the field except the horses themselves.

They don't get fed additional food other than when there is snow on the ground and then only if it is snowing do I put it in their shelter.

 

[Sir barnaby]

I spent 5 years at a field with no stables. Parked next to gate put hay net on gate tacked up from car. I even hunted for that five years used generator to clip and took water up from my house to wash. However didn’t plait up. Horse was happiest she had ever been being out all the time, I bought two good rugs and she thrived. I had a shed at home and took my feed up. Kept a round hay bale under cover.
I do now have a place with barn stables and it’s lovely but horses stay out most of the time.

 

[MuddyMonster]

Mine lived out last year & we had hard standing but no stables. We had storage though, so thankfully my car wasn't *too* bad. I've got tub trugs in the boot of my car for boots & waterproofs & I'm tack went into the boot of the car to

I found sacrificial waterproof trousers and a sacrificial coat over everything helped. A good headtorch is a must too.

At the weekend, I'd try to get his legs a bit cleaner to put pig oil on but otherwise I subscribe to the theory that a muddy horse is a happy horse ? The worst part was when we bumped into the local hunt staff and eventing yard exercising their immaculately groomed horses!

I must admit though that being stabled overnight doesn't equate to cleaner. My OH asked if my boy had a skin condition as from a distance the chalk & mud apparently looked like he had odd spots over him ?? No, no, I've just not groomed where the tack doesn't go for three days now and he's unrugged...

 

[Sprig]

I don't have stables but mine live at home so I can see them in daylight. I just have a tie up post in the field for tacking up. I love it and don't want stables.

 

[teddypops]

I’ve only had stables in the last 8 years, so before that, I kept my ponies just in a field. There was hard standing around the gate, so I would tie them up there to groom/ tack up etc. I had a big shed where I kept feed, head collars and spare turnout rugs. Everything else was kept in boxes at home. It was fine as that’s what I was used to. I like my stables now although they don’t get a huge amount of use.

 

[ihatework]

I wouldn’t really wish to have ridden horses without some basic facilities!

A friend and I manage a group of broodmares & youngstock with limited facilities. Their summer field has nothing! It’s a good 40 acres of hills and natural shelter with a stream and the bottom for them to drink out of. Also no direct road access.
I’ve invested in a pick up! We keep a water container, vet kit and a trunk for storage outside the field. Also have emergency stabling available but would need to trailer them.

Our winter grazing is a little more civilised in that it has road access, some hard standing, flat & well drained. No water or electricity. We buy in big bale haylage that gets stored on the hard standing. We have a towable bowser/trailer that gets filled once a week. The fields all have a field shelter and one area has a pen area with tall fencing and a shelter in case something needs to be contained.

It’s more than sufficient (especially as we have access to emergency stabling) for non ridden horses. Our farrier is very good humoured about it plus friend and her Sil are vets so we can deal with most situations!

But I have no desire to manage a working horse like that!

 

[Asha]

when we bought our first yard, it was just a field with nothing. So for the first few months we coped with a small pen area to do stuff with them, and a shipping container for basic storage. For grooming etc i used to use my trailer. Id load one up and brush and tack up then ride around the fields. The novelty soon wore off. Hope your stables arrive soon.

 

[scruffyponies]

I have a stable at home, which is for emergencies, and tack is kept at home and taken down in the car. Horses are out 24/7.
I don't understand why OP's horse needs to be indoors to eat TBH. Same with tacking up. I feed (if I need to) a bucket on the ground outside the field, and attach bailing twine to the roof rails of the car and tack up whilst tied to that straight from the boot. If it's wet, I wear a coat, and if very wet maybe a hat.

 

[Gloi]

Must admit I have never poo picked a winter field , especially by torchlight. It got harrowed when they moved off in spring.

 

[fidleyspromise]

I dud have one place where it was simple tie up rail. Motivation to get ready quickly if it was raining.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

For several months a year, I dont have stables and have grown to hate it-its fine in the summer (to an extent-I have a corral) and its a lovely big field but end oct-end of dec its grim and I barely ride due to endless wet and no daylight, hate checking them with a head torch in a howling gale - I am too old for that ****. Might be alright right down south but we have days of high winds and rain. And I have a watertight trunk there for essentials and the car is a mobile tack store/feed shed + kennel. So have just built a sand school/turnout pen so I can have them at home more (stables at home, not enough grazing in winter) and I can't wait to get them home tomorrow.

I dont think how much I hated how I was keeping them until I started having riding lessons last year, found that I did actually want a clipped, clean, rugged pony rather than a constantly wet yak. I know that natives are quite happy yak like but if they are out in driving rain for days their coats set like concrete and am just fed up of it and lose motivation because there's just no point in trying to do anything.

 

[Nudibranch]

As a kid we didn't have stables. I remember riding bareback in wet weather (not a good look afterwards ?) and we just managed really.
The last 10 years we've had an open barn with small yard and one loose box, which currently stores logs as the horses never use it. Even when we had to do box rest we used the barn.
We are - hopefully - about to exchange on a property with 3 stables, tack room and field shelter plus hard standing which backs onto the garden. I won't know myself!
But as others have said, hard standing is a must and any kind of cover is a bonus.

 

[Ali27]

I have a stable at home, which is for emergencies, and tack is kept at home and taken down in the car. Horses are out 24/7.
I don't understand why OP's horse needs to be indoors to eat TBH. Same with tacking up. I feed (if I need to) a bucket on the ground outside the field, and attach bailing twine to the roof rails of the car and tack up whilst tied to that straight from the boot. If it's wet, I wear a coat, and if very wet maybe a hat.

I’m quite happy feeding in field and mine love being out 24/7! However I don’t love grooming/ tacking up in field with nowhere to tie so have to let her eat her feed to keep her still so I can tack up! And I absolutely hate it in the dark! Quite happy poo picking, feeding in dark though! I usually compete in Winter too and can’t face it until I have stables! I’m going to have to use my friend’s stables on Monday for farrier and she also desperately needs clipping! If I didn’t ride then I could happily cope without stables!

 

[Mule]

Must admit I have never poo picked a winter field , especially by torchlight. It got harrowed when they moved off in spring.

Me neither, nor a summer one.