I want to move to Scotland

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ridefast

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So to get straight to the point, I want to move to Scotland (currently in Dorset) I have friends in the Perth and Kinross area so would like to be within 2 hour drive from them. I have 1 horse and 1 pony and not a lot else. I have worked 7 years on various yards although happy and willing to do anything. Is it possible to find somewhere to live, keep 2 equines and get a job all at once, or am I dreaming?
 
Absolutely possible, Aberdeenshire has a massive horse population and I often see horsey jobs advertised , it's within 2 hours of Perth.
 
Daytona said:
Absolutely possible, Aberdeenshire has a massive horse population and I often see horsey jobs advertised , it's within 2 hours of Perth.
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Yep, very horsey up here. Aberdeen itself is expensive generally though to live (oil) but surrounding areas are ok. Lots of livery yards around I think. Of course it'll be colder up here than you're used to but its hardly a big deal (although Ive never lived anywhere different to compare). Just don't live in the absolute middle of nowhere up little side tracks or you might not be able to get out much in the worst winter weather (says I who lives on top of a hill where the snow is dreadful!).
 
Are there any good websites to look at? I look on yardandgroom, careergrooms and do google searches but I find local word of mouth is the best way to get jobs round here
 
Yep it's possible. We are in Angus OH commutes to Abereen and I commute to Dundee. We are just over an hour from Perth. Two horses and full time job perfectly possible. It's lovely up here lots of hacking, shows and friendly folk about (next door farmer tells me where all the stubble fields are for us to ride in and points out the good ones!)
It is cold though and winter can be a little hard until you get used to it. Depends what sort of person you are! I quite like the winter and wearing all the proper outdoor stuff :) it was -5'C the other morning...
It's a good time to buy property. Have a look on ASPC, TSPC, and on Savills etc for an idea.
 
I'm north of Inverness and regularly advertise for help as young people interested in horses tend to move around and have active lives. The trouble is there really isn't much money in horses (or in much else!) this far north and I can't offer accommodation. I'm thinking to maybe get a residential caravan and offer a free holiday in return for help schooling/breaking youngsters over the summer. So far I've had positive responses. But perhaps you should try to get a short term situation initially until you find out if you like it?

There are a lot of people who sell a house down south, then find they can buy a house and land (with access to vaste areas of hacking) for the same money so move up here. Then they can't stand the weather, the life style, remoteness, the neighbours, etc. and sell up and move back down south. For example, I think nothing of doing a 70 mile round trip to do some shopping and when I lived in the hills, 6 inches of snow in winter was normal. One winter we got 26 inches on level ground which stayed for weeks, then four inches in June! If you go west or further north, think midges, wind, and rain. Personally, I do not like the north east much. Then huge tracts of land are privately owned estates and if you are on one where the owners are unhelpful, that can be problematic too.
 
It would be worth looking at Fife too, it's a really lovely area, there are a few big yards in the area which might offer work. Sandra low-Mitchell near Leven and Lucinda Russell is in Milnathort.
 
I'm another one in NE Scotland, and there are HEAPS of horsy jobs going - I'm in the industry so hear about a lot and get given lots of ads!

Having also lived in Cambridge, I can tell you that everything is more expensive up here. Compare a tenner per large round bale straw to £25. £25 per large bale hay to £35, £40 in some places. There is more land and therefore more grass livery, but livery with facilities/indoors is very expensive, particularly close to Aberdeen.

The weather is a real killer - the last week has been frozen so can't use the school, and also the roads have been icy so hacking has been very limited. And that's before the snow has even hit! Also be aware that there is very little BE eventing up here, only a handful of places that run BS and you will need to travel much further to compete (our RC moans every year about the trip to Lincoln for champs, PC does the same about PC champs, meaning getting whole teams there is very hard!) however the hacking is fab and you can't beat endurance up here with all the hills.

It ha certainly reached -18 at my yard in the past so be prepared for cold!!!
 
If your friends are in in Perth and Kinross try applying for a job at Gleneagles- accomodation, very decent wage for equine industry, training and exams etc.

Worked there myself for a few years and it was the best horsey job I ever had.

It is cold up here though!
 
DIARY OF AN ENGLISHMAN LIVING IN THE HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND

'Our First Winter'

DEC. 20TH
It's starting to snow. The first of the season and the first we've seen for years. The wife & I took out hot toddies and sat on the porch watching the fluffy soft flakes drift gently down, clinging to the trees and covering the ground. It's so beautiful & peaceful.

DEC. 24th
Woke to a lovely blanket of crystal white glistening snow covering as far as the eye could see. What a fantastic sight everything covered with a beautiful white mantel. I shovelled snow for the first time ever and loved it! I did both our driveway & the pavement.
Later that day a snowplough came along & accidently covered up our driveway with compacted snow from the street. The driver smiled & waved. I waved back & shovelled it away again. The children next door built a snowman with coal for eyes & a carrot for a nose and had a snowball fight - a couple just missed me & hit the car so I threw a couple back & joined in the fun.

DEC. 26th
It snowed an additional 5 inches last night and the temp. dropped to around minus 8 degrees. Several branches on our trees & bushes snapped due to the weight of the snow. I shovelled our drive again. Shortly afterwards the snowplough came by & did his trick again! Much of the snow is now brownish/grey.

JAN. 1st
Warmed up enough during the day to create some slush, which soon became ice when the temp. dropped again. Bought snow tyres for both our cars. Fell on my ars3 in the driveway. Went to physio but nothing was broken.

JAN. 5th
Still cold. Sold the wife's car & bought her a 4X4 to get her to work. She slid into a wall & did considerable damage to right wing. Had another 8 inches of white ***** last night. Both vehicles are covered in salt & iced up slush. That barsteward snowplough came by twice today. Where's that bl00dy shovel?

JAN.9th
More *******ing snow. Not a tree or bush on our property that hasn't been damaged. Power was off most of the night. Tried to keep from freezing to death with candles & a paraffin heater that tipped over & nearly torched the house. I managed to put the flames out but suffered 2nd degree burns on my hands. Lost my eyebows & eyelashes. Car hit a *******ing deer on the way to casualty & was written off!

JAN. 13th
*******ing barsteward white ***** just keeps on coming down. Have to put on every article of clothing just to go to the post box. The little ****s next door ambushed me with snowballs on the way back. I'll shove that carrot so far up the little *****s ars3s; it'll take a good surgeon hours to find it. If I ever catch that ars3hole that drives that snowplough I'll chew open his chest & rip out his heart with my teeth. I think the barsteward hides round the corner & waits for me to finish shovelling & then he accelerates down the street like Michael *******ing Schumacher & buries the *******ing drive again.

JAN. 17th
16 more sodding inches of *******ing snow & *******ing ice & *******ing sleet & God knows what other white ***** fell last night. I am in court in 3 months time for assaulting the snowplough driver with an ice pick. Can't move my *******ing toes. Haven't seen the sun for 5 weeks. Minus 20 & more barsteward snow is forecast.

This place really is the ars3 end of nowhere. I'm moving back to civilisation.
Sorry couldn't resist! :):)
 
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khalswitz said:
Having also lived in Cambridge, I can tell you that everything is more expensive up here. Compare a tenner per large round bale straw to £25. £25 per large bale hay to £35, £40 in some places. There is more land and therefore more grass livery, but livery with facilities/indoors is very expensive, particularly close to Aberdeen.

The weather is a real killer - the last week has been frozen so can't use the school, and also the roads have been icy so hacking has been very limited. And that's before the snow has even hit! Also be aware that there is very little BE eventing up here, only a handful of places that run BS and you will need to travel much further to compete (our RC moans every year about the trip to Lincoln for champs, PC does the same about PC champs, meaning getting whole teams there is very hard!) however the hacking is fab and you can't beat endurance up here with all the hills.

It ha certainly reached -18 at my yard in the past so be prepared for cold!!!
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I didn't know our hay and straw is more expensive than other places, that's annoying! I'm looking at hay and straw as we speak getting quotes... seems to vary for small square bales from £2 - £4.50. The houses and land out here "in the sticks" (ie. we're about 50 mins from Aberdeen) is quite cheap though. Land is roughly £3k - £5k per acre. So it is probably easier if you can buy your own land rather than go down the livery route. The weather is cold, but how it effects you very much depends on where you live. I live on a hill so its pretty horrendous up here and windy so of course any snow turns into nice big drifts which is irriating when trying to get home on a cold dark night, but 20 mins away at my mums she's quite sheltered and her road is regularly gritted so its not nearly as bad. Just make sure you do consider the snow when choosing where to buy. I also agree there isn't much BE up here at all - Aswanley and Burgie are my local. After that you're looking at 2 hours + drive. BSJA is mainly held at Cabin EC, they do hold a lot of it though and are a very active competition venue with lots on year round so its not like we don't have things on every weekend ;) and active RC's are around. You normally have a choice of things to go to pretty much every weekend so it is busy.
 
MagicMelon said:
I didn't know our hay and straw is more expensive than other places, that's annoying! I'm looking at hay and straw as we speak getting quotes... seems to vary for small square bales from £2 - £4.50. The houses and land out here "in the sticks" (ie. we're about 50 mins from Aberdeen) is quite cheap though. Land is roughly £3k - £5k per acre. So it is probably easier if you can buy your own land rather than go down the livery route. The weather is cold, but how it effects you very much depends on where you live. I live on a hill so its pretty horrendous up here and windy so of course any snow turns into nice big drifts which is irriating when trying to get home on a cold dark night, but 20 mins away at my mums she's quite sheltered and her road is regularly gritted so its not nearly as bad. Just make sure you do consider the snow when choosing where to buy. I also agree there isn't much BE up here at all - Aswanley and Burgie are my local. After that you're looking at 2 hours + drive. BSJA is mainly held at Cabin EC, they do hold a lot of it though and are a very active competition venue with lots on year round so its not like we don't have things on every weekend ;) and active RC's are around. You normally have a choice of things to go to pretty much every weekend so it is busy.
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Yeah, I noticed a big difference, particularly when buying in bulk. I don't buy small bales so can't help there, I just price large round bales, and they are defo more expensive for hay and straw, haylage seems pretty equal. Maybe because we lave a shorter drying time up here? Totally agree that you're better off buying your own land up here rather than livery if you can - I'm forty minutes west of Aberdeen, but I know that further north land is much cheaper.

I'm another unlucky one who keeps horses on the side of a hill - I will regularly get snowed out of the livery yard for a week each winter at least. Last winter went over late and got stuck in a snow drift for six hours... :S However I worked on the main road and never had to miss a day of work, so it really does depend where you are.

Aswanley and Brechin (and it is running this year!) are my closest, after that it's Burgie (which is about 1 hr 40-2 hrs with a horse box from here) or right down to Auchlishie... and yes the Cabin is good, as is Tillyoch for running BS, and there's plenty unaff SJ/ DR /BD going on so that you are never bored... but if you are serious BS or want to do more than handful of BEs it's a bit rubbish. Lots of SJers end up moving down south as I have been told there isn't the standard of coaching for jumping higher than 1.20s really... not that I jump that high ;) RCs are fab though, and the PCs are very active too.
 
We're SW of Aberdeen so might be nearish to each other! You're luck you live on the SIDE of a hill, we're on TOP of one - right by a huge wind farm so that says it all really! But yes snow drifts aren't fun.

Yeah, thing is there's not much point in anyone teaching much higher than 1.20m as it's not that often that BS up here has classes bigger (occassionally at the bigger summer shows but not your usual ones). I train with Andrew Hamilton (up to 1.20m like you say, but that's only because that is my height limit!). Totally agree BE is crap up here, its the reason I started doing more BS as it just wasn't worth joining BE anymore :( Sad really as we could have such nice XC courses up here.
 
MagicMelon said:
We're SW of Aberdeen so might be nearish to each other! You're luck you live on the SIDE of a hill, we're on TOP of one - right by a huge wind farm so that says it all really! But yes snow drifts aren't fun.

Yeah, thing is there's not much point in anyone teaching much higher than 1.20m as it's not that often that BS up here has classes bigger (occassionally at the bigger summer shows but not your usual ones). I train with Andrew Hamilton (up to 1.20m like you say, but that's only because that is my height limit!). Totally agree BE is crap up here, its the reason I started doing more BS as it just wasn't worth joining BE anymore :( Sad really as we could have such nice XC courses up here.
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Oooh, by a wind farm... You aren't on the south side of Kerloch are you by any chance, where all those turbines are going up? I can see them from our yard.

Oh yes, I know Andrew. TBF I feel proud of myself jumping 90-95cm in training (I train with David Harland), so 1.20 is well above me yet... but I think it is something that people don't think of when they move up here for the cheap land, that the reason it is cheap is because we are so far from the centre of things!

Yeah, BE is what depresses me most coming back up here. There's so little. It's the maintenance of the courses that's the problem - you either have to be rich and interested, like they are at Aswanley, or it needs to be covered by running some kind of EC... and there aren't enough of them that bother. There used to be so many courses in Deeside and they are all slowly closing. Very sad.
 
ok, be warned-if you move up its hellish difficult to move back down south for the following reasons:

1) Scotland is beautiful (well, when you can see it it is)
2) there are far less people/roads/traffic and people drive more slowly and less aggressively (although a red light in Glasgow means that the next five cars go through)
3) the Scots are great, you might marry one
4) you'll either never be able to afford to move down south or if you can, you won't be happy with getting that little for your money
5) eventually, you'll start speaking Scotch but without the accent eg 'aye', 'stromash', 'toon' and the English will pretend to not understand you
6) the English will start to annoy you :p
7) you can't bear the thought of short summer evenings south of the border.


seriously, its fab-been here since 2001. and yes, I married a Scot. Winters are colder, wetter, windier, much darker and more to the point several months longer than in Englandshire. Grass growing season is shorter, hay feeding season is longer.

some things are more expensive, some things are harder to find or just don't happen as often as in say, the SW. Thats partly to do with the 9 month long winter. If I lived in the tropics like Devon, I'd be out and about more as well.

nearly everything is further away than you think. It makes me laugh when English friends 'won't' travel for an hour to something. I think nothing of driving up to 2/3 hours to get something/go to something I want. As mentioned, if you are used to a hectic competition life, you probably wont find it here-there's certainly not multiple competition venues within stones throws of each other.

the main thing I miss is nice country pubs that do good food. eating out, especially rurally, can be like going back to the 80s up here-and the 80s were not good. many pubs are strictly function over form-in fact, many have bricked up windows-partly because of aforementioned winter and because it helps the clientele to forget :p

(the above post is tongue in cheek, before I get jumped on by angry Scotches and Hobbits alike)
 
Remember the referendum is only about 370 days away. There might not be so many people in Scotland after that, if you believe those who say they will move back down south if Scotland becomes independent of Englandshire.

Maybe better hang off for a while to see how it pans out, eh?
 
MotherOfChickens said:
5) eventually, you'll start speaking Scotch but without the accent eg 'aye', 'stromash', 'toon' and the English will pretend to not understand you
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OMG this. I am a Scot, but one of my close friends moved up from England, and she speaks the same dialect as I do but with a very proper accent (she's from Kent). Hearing her say "Aye, there's yows in the barn, looks like it's going to be dreich and I'm nae wanting them lambing in the top parks" is hilarious to say the least.

Also have a Polish friend who speaks Doric in a very obviously Polish accent. It's hilarious.

RE: The referendum, I would seriously doubt that it will happen. Most Scots were very pro independence to start with, feeling very patriotic, but now that it all seems very real most people I know are backing down and saying that it's all a bit risky... so hopefully will not come to pass!!! Plus if it does, I doubt Scotland will empty... all those corporate tax breaks Salmond has promised? Catnip. We'll end up full of immigrants...
 
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Would definitely recommend getting your name out on facebook pages or getting in touch with Sandra Low Mitchell or George Babes. Perth is pretty central and within two hours of a lot of horsey places. You might even want to contact SNEC?
 
NeverSayNever said:
It’s speaking ‘Scots’ not Scotch , arggh! sorry, will climb back under my rock now ;) :D
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it was ironic, done for comedic effect :p nothing like telling a Scot that they're Scotch (and in memory of my gran, who could never get it right at all lol)

re Independence. There's a definite north/south divide, they are much more pro up north than here-probably because they aren't so reliant on English companies for work :p so the only people I personally know in favour, are my in in-laws up north. I will be gobsmacked and a little disturbed if it went through. Also, if you aren't Tory down there, you'd better hope it doesn't, or you'll be having a Tory government for the foreseeable.
 
MotherOfChickens said:
it was ironic, done for comedic effect :p nothing like telling a Scot that they're Scotch (and in memory of my gran, who could never get it right at all lol)
.
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oh goodness yes my Gran was the same!! I think thats why it became a pet hate haha, if you say it, people might copy you eek, wouldnt like the OP to come up here and start off peeing everyone off :p :D
 
NeverSayNever said:
oh goodness yes my Gran was the same!! I think thats why it became a pet hate haha, if you say it, people might copy you eek, wouldnt like the OP to come up here and start off peeing everyone off :p :D
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it would be hilarious :D

I only say it sometimes, generally to husband and friends who have said something unintelligible.. they then take the mick out of how I say banana/raspberry.
 
MotherOfChickens said:
re Independence. There's a definite north/south divide, they are much more pro up north than here-probably because they aren't so reliant on English companies for work :p so the only people I personally know in favour, are my in in-laws up north. I will be gobsmacked and a little disturbed if it went through. Also, if you aren't Tory down there, you'd better hope it doesn't, or you'll be having a Tory government for the foreseeable.
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You say that - I'm North East and I'd say because of the large number of English people here due to the oil, we are far more anti than my family based in Glasgow city. There's more people in Glasgow pro due to the hatred for the Tories and the fact that the poorest people are getting hit so hard by the welfare reforms.

But lets not get into that, my family are bickering enough about it already...
 
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