How far do you travel to see your horse each day?

star

star

Well-Known Member
Joined
22 August 2001
Messages
6,781
Location
Woking, Surrey
Visit site
I'm considering moving my horse to a yard with better facilities in order to be able to train him better in the run up to Badminton but it's a fair bit further away and I already travel a fair way each day what with a 15mile each way commute to work and the horse being somewhere in the middle of work and home.

Just wondering how far everyone else travels and do you compromise facilities for having them closer to home or prefer to travel further and have the facilities you need.
 
Sorry I am one of the lucky ones I walk about 20 feet and through the garden gate to my stables. I used to keep my horses about 12 miles from home and traveled there every evening to see to them. That is one of the reasons for getting my own place, the cost of livery and traveling didn't seem worth it. I don't have a school unfortunately so have had to sacrifice facilities for convenience. Saying that I hate schooling so doesn't really bother me.
 
Bluergh! Too far! I'm a half hour drive and a huge 22 miles away. I only do it as I have a very good friend who can take care of horse incase I get caught up at work and in exchange I'm riding her youngster a few times a week. Most days I can do horse myself and I just need her help bringing him in at the end of the day. I have a one year old daughter and a seven year old step son who lives with us five days a week. Partner works 12 hour shifts so it's a all a huge juggling act Monday
To Friday!

Before I had my daughter horse was 25 miles away for the reasoning it had great facilities and super hacking and next door to my trainer who I was helping two mornings a week. Unfortunately where we live we have to stay for step son sschool and now grand parents help with childcare and I work in that area. I have tried the handful of yards near our house but none of them have winter turnout and I'd need full livery and not willing to pay the price as they are extortionate for what you get IMO and I like to have a say over horses feeding etc.

So yes I'd travel for facilities but I'm not willing to compromise on turnout. They need to have some time to be a horse and yards closer to us only do summer turnout and it's restricted then too. My current yard is pretty basic but horse is happy and so am I. Til I win the lotto and can buy my own place we are staying put :)
 
Turnout is also very important to me. Currently horse lives out 24/7 which has really chilled him out, although almost a bit too much and he really doesn't enjoy being out in the rain. However, current stables are small and dusty and make him cough lots if I bring him in. I'd like for him to be able to come in at night in the winter without it causing him breathing problems. Not sure I wan't him in at night all year round though and most yards don't offer 24/7 turnout. Yard I'm looking at on Friday has absolutely amazing hacking which would really help him as vet has said he needs to do more walking and hill work to strengthen his back. It has a 20x60m school with mirrors which would help our dressage so much and it has a jumping paddock and we need to practice jumping on grass more. It also has other competitive riders there including a good friend so could go to more things together. However it's much further away and I'm not sure about having him in at night all year round as I do think he really enjoys being out as long as the weather is ok.
 
10 min drive. I used to keep her closer to home (as in, max 5 min walk, albeit up an incredibly steep hill) which was lovely, especially in summer as I could see the fields from my bedroom window. But turnout there could be atrocious in winter so I moved her to a yard that has 24/7 all year round. I miss having her so close, but no way would I move back!
 
Ours are in at night over winter at current yard. But I do like him out as much as he can be but he's full TB and likes his home comforts. There is a good mix of people at this yard who event and some happy hackers. We have great hacking too which is important to me as i enjoy it and need encouraged into the school!

I think the yard you are looking at sounds great. There are only two things I'd change about the one I'm at and that is have an indoor school and not be so far away! I don't mind travelling as I enjoy it when I'm there :)
 
I've recently moved mine 18 miles away - 30min roughly - to find somewhere that could offer unlimited turnout and good facilities. I have stables I can use if I want through winter, xc jumps, sj paddock, floodlit outdoor with a superb surface and amazing hacking. I got fed up having to muck out all year round and feel its better for them to be out as much as possible, plus the price includes hay, bedding and YO feeding and turning out and the YO even puts hay out twice a day in winter, so if I have any issues getting there or want a night off I don't need to worry. I am hoping to move my other 2 there too, eventually, to make life easy. Currently they are out 24/7 a mile from my house but we have no facilities.

It seems you can either have turn out or facilities - finding both has been a mission!
 
wow - sounds like you've got it all there. Where have you gone to for all that? (Don't worry - no way I can travel that far but interested to know!) It is very difficult to find flexible turnout and facilities.
 
Mine is about 15 minutes drive away. I moved from a closer yard but for me its all about the right place and I'd go up to 20/30 mins for that. I am on part livery though so only need to go up when I'm riding.
 
We're in Haslemere now, it's 10 min off A3 at Milford so actually very easy to get too. Yard is a 'natural' livery yard so designed for having horses out but with good facilities - a very niche market!
 
I used to drive about 40 mins but he was on full livery and it had lovely facilities.

Now it's 6 minutes and no facilities but I love having them so close and looking after them myself. We have stables, water, electric etc but no school, walker, heat lamps etc. We do have a field with jumps we can use. It's just me and my friend there and it's lovely :) Plus the horses live out now and seem so much happier than when they got limited turnout in bad weather.
 
35 mins each way, but on part livery. I live in SW London - I could be at a yard closer to home, but I expect it would be more expensive and I would be compromising on turnout and hacking.
 
When I changed jobs I looked for a yard nearer work than home as I figured I spend more time at work than off! The yard is about 15 miles from home which I do in about 25mins on a normal day, it’s then another 5 mins on to work so I drive past the yard anyway. The yard is fab, good hacking, really good well drained fields, nice enough school, small jump paddock, fab people and a distinct lack of mud. The only issue is the turn out situation due to mine now having to be on his own after repeatedly being beaten up. I moved there from the last place so he could be with company but a year and a fractured knee later he will have to be on his own. That said the yo is pretty good and trying to accommodate me as much as possible so I can’t ask for more. After looking round it really is the best I can afford, its expensive for diy but I can’t afford the really good part livery yards and wouldn’t want to be on the ones I can. I can pay for extras as well so I know if I'm really stuck he will be ok.
I have to say on my days off or weekends it’s a bit of a pain going up twice a day and not cheap on fuel and i normally getup more or less the same time to avoid rush hour traffic but when he isn’t on box rest I can pay for turnout or a friend does it so that’s not so bad.

I'm hoping to move more the same way as the yard and work at some point which will make things a lot easier but for now it’s worth the silly o’clock starts, late evenings and long drive.
 
So i'm lucky now that they are onsite.

However even when the horses were at home, when I bought J i moved him to a local yard as I didn't have facilities at the time.

the yard was 7 miles away. I work 20 miles from home and its on the way to work.

to be honest that wasn't too bad, and I did it for a while. I think if I qualified for Badminton I'd probably put him back on livery if the winter weather got bad so I could ride indoors.

You could always move back to your current yard if it didn't work out couldn't you?
 
I don't usually answer these sorts of threads, but I think we've got some time-management issues in common!

I suspect you probably don't do any on-call work but you'll probably work late evenings. I do the opposite - lots of on-call (on-call 24/7 at the moment) but I can get away with only actually being at work from 8-5.30ish this time of year. If we're quiet or I have a call near home last thing I'm sometimes done for about 5pm.

My horses are at a yard about 3mins from my house and my house (and the yard) is less than 10mins from work. I don't think I could cope with things much further apart given the amount of to-ing and fro-ing I do. It means that if I get called out early morning I can usually manage to chuck the horses in the field on the way out and can generally get back at lunchtime and do the mucking out quickly on my lunch. I have managed to lunge one in my lunch break before now! Personally I think there's enough rushing about and stress in the job without eating up valuable time and daylight commuting. I'm also not the most motivated in winter so if I had to drive half an hour each way on an evening to do the horses I might end up not riding...

I'd bear that in mind, but I'd also consider your horse. From my point of view his most important need is a good (and I mean really decent) surface in order to keep his legs/feet right for Badminton. A good surface that it well maintained too (the two don't necessarily go hand in hand). I'd prioritise that then work out the distances and timings. I appreciate that there are other management issues to bear in mind too, but I'd put these further down the list. I think your best compromise would be somewhere where if the turnout isn't amazing then there are at least decent sized stables.

I appreciate that the chances of finding this wonder-yard 3 miles form home are probably a little slim but there may be yards that aren't on your radar yet, or something like a pro yard with good facilities that might rent you a box 'til after Badminton, rather than specifically a public livery yard.

Good luck!
 
Minimum of 45 minutes but that's because of London traffic. But he is on full livery and they have amazing facilities (two indoors, two outdoors, all off road hacking, walker, loads of show jumps, 10mins from competition venue which does BSJA, great surfaces, big stables, good turnout - horse has a big field which he shares with one other etc). So not a bad deal and I wouldn't move :)
 
Another on full livery here, I keep her 15 mins from home and then work is another 15 mins from there.

I only see her once a day, after work, and will struggle to ride midweek during winter as we don't have a floodlit school and I work 8.30-5.
 
My boy is 15 mins from my house and 40 mins from work (home is in the middle ish) (he is on full livery but I go 6 days a week to ride)

I have a relatively short commute to work (11 miles), then 22 miles from work to the yard and then about 7 from yard home again. Ideally I would have him between work and home but yards just aren't a patch on where I keep him. I'm sure I could move him closer but I would be sacrificing facilities and his care if i did.
 
mine is currently on part livery about 8miles away work is about 4 miles in the other direction. shes cared for compleetly mon-fri so i just go down after work and ride and faff usually 3/4 days of the week then on the weekend its DIY but can add services so i usually do 3 our of the four trips and ask them to bring her in/t/o depending on which end of the day it is - it workes really well:) facilities are good and hacking is nice aswell. but have had them 14 miles away before only left when i moved jobs, would travel that far again for the right yard :)
 
34 mile round trip a day for me, work or not. Work's on one side of a square, yard is on the other, but it's about 20 mins from home and isn't really too bad even in bad traffic. Price is competative for DIY!

There are yards closer, but my sister and I do them together, and she's a lot closer than me and drives past on the way to work to look them over, i'd not be able to do it doing both ends of the day.

There were closer options for both of us, but we took a gamble on a promise things would be done when we moved. There was only a field, stables and one other livery on arrival. The yard is now full, with a wait list and new people are interviewed before being allowed to come!

We have 24/7 turn out, hay dropped in the field for us, amazing private offroad hacking (and access to forestry commission land if we get bored with ours) and a lot of the tracks are surfaced so brilliant all year round. Outdoor floodlit school with a lovely surface, jump paddock, XC fences maintained by the hunt, and a rumour of even more to come.

Better than all that though is the freedom to do what we want with our own field and management of our horses and the assistance of the owner in sorting it. Just as an example, 1st year our gateways were kneedeep in mud in the winter and he then hardcored them all for us for the following one! We then had a problem with where the water was the 2nd winter, he hardcored that for us this spring. We've got another 10 acre's to graze for this winter as we'd had to feed so much hay in the last one (our field's by a river so very wet is not ideal).

Well worth the mileage and the petrol bill and no intentions of moving unless we can aquire out own place (which isn't likely in this part of the world!).
 
Only 5 mins away but it's our own yard so I don't think I could travel any further as you're always back and forth!

I would def move somewhere with better facilities in your run up to Badminton. You can always move again next summer to a yard that's nearer :)
 
Mine is 15 minutes away. It's probably the closest agistment property in the area, and by far has the best facilities. I do however pay through the nose! I had to decide between cheaper agistment, but with less facilities and further, or closer and with everything I need but with expense.

The Cruze boy is obviously happy there too, which has made the decision to stay easier, and with there being such a large number of agisters, I managed to pick up some work instructing, which helps pay the bill!!

It became a matter of convenience for me; everything is done from organizing the farrier, organising hay (the property cuts its own) to basic everyday care. If I had to drive further, say 25 minutes, I would!
 
Mine are at my mums still - great when I used to live there but now where I live its a 15 min drive. I dont mind it though as its handy having mum there so I can leave my 17 month old son with her while I go do them and ride! Am building stables as we speak though at mine so will be moving 2 of the horses here as soon as they're finished - the stables will literally be by my back garden fence so nice and close. Never had facilities as such in the way of a school or anything, but mums has stables and great separate tack, feed and rug rooms etc. so better than I'll have here but hey ho. She also has more land which is handy. Will just have to see how it goes or they'll be moved back and I'll have to travel again.
 
Exactly 1.5 miles to my yard and 1.5 miles back to my house - I can walk, take the bike or drive depending on how much time I have. We have a great little set up - the farmer doesn't want lots of liveries so there's me with my 2 and a married couple with their two and the farmers daughters horse - 12 stables between 5 horses and loads of storage - we do our own thing, rarely see the farmer and he leaves us to it although he does things like laying down some hard standing for us and keeping the fields sorted that sort of thing but we never see him - we don't have a school but to honest that doesn't bother me as we have fantastic hacking and can ride in the fields weather permitting - we have about 20 acres of land and its a 20 min ride to my instructors yard where I got for lessons.

Honestly I have gone from a huge riding school yard with indoor school the works, then to an assisted DIY to pure DIY and can honestly say I much prefer where I am now - no yard politics or gossip to deal with and within walking distance :D
 
I'm very lucky that mine are at home. I don't have many facilities but it does mean I can keep the turnout to a maximum :). I have a small, mis-shapen school that does me during the week in winter but for serious schooling sessions I have to hire somewhere or box to the beach. For jumping anything more than a couple of cross poles I have to hire somewhere or generally go for a lesson

I'm however unlucky that I have a 100 mile round trip commute to work, further if I have to go for meetings in our other office. If the boys weren't at home they would have to be on full livery which I really wouldn't like (control freak lol)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top