Ideal yard set up, show me yours

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GermanyJo

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I am considering buying a property with some land to be able to keep my horse (s) at home. The set up would be for maximum 4 horses.
Currently, my ideal would be something like this
A paddock for winter with a large area of 'hardstanding' (approx 30m x 20m) with access to the field, where hay could be fed and during bad weather they could stay dry. This would also have a covered area where they could get out of the weather with a possibility to lie down. For the hardstanding I was thinking about the hardcore bashed flat with lava on top ( I live near the Eifel, so lots of lava available)
Then of course an arena - possibly with the shredded material surface (supposed to not freeze/ doesn't need watering in summer / doesn't need driving over regularly to get rid of the track)
Of course, all that will cost a ton!
The property we are currently looking at already has boxes, and some hardstanding, but that is just concrete.

My question to all of you....what have you for a set up? What worked? What was a disaster? If you have pictures that would be great.
Have any of you put some sort of surface straight on top of concrete? I am presuming that would not work due to zero drainage?
I want to collect ideas of what is worth investing in and what I should stay away from. (also interested in arena surface goods and bads)
I know I need to check planning permission for all this 😀
Thanks in advance 😀
 
nobody want to share?
Just to clarify, we are wanting to do as much of the work ourselves as we can, so this is not going to be a 'posh' just pay a company to come in and do it.
I kind of thought there would be at least a few people on here who had made improvements or set up their yard themselves, who could provide some insights .... what worked/what did not ..
 
having just spoken to someone in the north of germany who has a place and where the temps have been down to what she calls only -8 in the last few days with a biting wind. her luxury for this year is self regulating heat cable to all the water pipes :D I have a feeling she said something about rubber topped surfaces being frowned on in germany and that you can sometimes get a used surface from shows for less money. I saw a lot of places with plastic slabs that join together to make mats for surfaces that will go over sand or I think some went on flat earth and they drain through but you would need to look them up and see whats there as I only gave them a quick look from curiosity. best to ask the local people that you are buying from whats allowed in that area as thats the quickest way to get an initial idea
 
have had a chat and the plastic slabs are paddockplatten something like http://www.riedwiesenhof.de/paddockplatte/ and on the practical side make sure the fields have access for tractors at least 4.5m wide. if you want to have the horses living out have a gateway thats easy to get a frontloader tractor (with a roundbale on) across to the rack when its icy. if you are in an area with horseflies you can get plastic strips that the horses walk through for shelters and if you can manage it a long shelter with the entrance on a short side makes it darker inside and keeps more flies out. find out about manure removal and storage because some areas do not allow the water from the manure heap to go into the ground - I am guessing its if you are near a stream or river but its worth checking as apparantly some places in nrw have been fined for it. also you probably need to register with the tierseuchenkasse. think thats the gist she has just said her facebook page is pferderentner jung zucht ruhestand if you want to contact her. good luck with it
 
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Hi, thanks crabbymare, Re the mats, I have a few companies to check up withon that but am thinking they are going to be expensive, so may go down the dig out / hardcore/ lava route.I saw some pictures last night of the plastic strips (like at the butcher) look like a good idea.
Re muck heaps, all need to be on concrete.
We are lucky near Cologne, we don't get such hard winters as other parts of Germany, we are still on the between 3 and 10 degrees with rain at the moment
 
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