Is it rare for people to not drive these days ?

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I don't think I could manage to have my horses if I didn't drive tbh. I have them at home but I still need to collect feed, wormers etc etc. Take rugs for cleaning and bits n bobs. I'd feel a burden if I had to ask everyone for lifts everywhere.

I'm just curious because i've seen a few people on adverts asking for livery on their doorstep because they don't drive.

I'm sure its not impossible but it must be pretty hard.
 
My mum doesnt drive & never has, she is 51. I couldnt live without my car, I like my independance & I dont think I could have a horse if I didnt, it would mean me relying on people to take me to the yard all the time.
 
Plenty of people in towns and cities that don't, i.e. where there is a good quality public transport system, I'm sure, in the country you'd be pretty well b*gg*r*d if someone in the family didn't drive given that in some places you might see a bus once in a blue-moon and no trains since Beeching axed most local services in the 60's.
 
VoR said:
Plenty of people in towns and cities that don't, i.e. where there is a good quality public transport system, I'm sure, in the country you'd be pretty well b*gg*r*d if someone in the family didn't drive given that in some places you might see a bus once in a blue-moon and no trains since Beeching axed most local services in the 60's.
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Most yards are not in big cities and towns though. I lived in London for a while and public transport was not an option as the horses were further out and even if there was transport it wouldn't have gone at the times I needed and any connections would have taken hours to get there. Never mind the thought of getting my supplies to the yard.

Can you have horses and not drive ?
 
I dont drive and have a full yard of horses, all feed can be delivered, haylage delivered, farrier come to yard, wormers ordered on line.
I cant drive for reasons so it does not bother me, i have a fantastic network of family and friends so luckily i can get by without having to
 
I would dread to think how long it would take to get there in an emergency - unless of course you are close to where you live/work. But otherwise I guess it depends on the type of owner/rider you are TBH.
 
I couldn't imagine not driving! My horses are at home and I get my feed and hay delivered each week but still have to pop out for things I forget and need that day! Although I'm not very good at waiting for things to be delivered if I need them, ie. rugs, so I like to know I can just go to my local tack shop and get them! Not organised either so it would be bedlam! I'v got no family nearby and my partner works long hours travelling so I'v got no one to rely on for lifts and living in the country the public transport is non existent! I'v also got a baby, so even if I could get public transport it would be such a mission getting on a bus with a buggy and feed and rugs etc etc!!
 
I drive, but I am building up my fitness on my push bike to elimate the costs of running and keeping a car (I'm currently cycling 15 miles a day, but I still need to do a further 15 miles to manage without the car!) as its so expensive!!
I do have a horse box though which I'll use to transport my feed and hay etc, and I will be car sharing with my mum so that if I need to get up there in a hurry then I'm able to!
 
I would like livery on my doorstep but only because I wouldn't want to spend too much time driving to a yard (I already spend two hours driving to and from work a day!) However, driving lessons, getting a car, insurance, etc is expensive and if you had a horse, I can imagine most people would put driving and getting a car quite far down in the priority list!
 
I don't drive and neither do any of my family. I coped for years without a car at all (now my OH has a car). I have always been a live in groom and had my horses with me so getting to them wasn't a problem. I have lived in some fairly remote places and always managed. I have two legs and a pushbike :p :D people think i'm mad but I don't care I can't afford to drive and keep horses and i'd rather have my ponies thanks :p ;) :D :D :D
 
I don't drive. As a teenager I worked part time to pay for my riding lessons so I would have had to give up to have the money to pay for driving lessons. I live in a rural area and public transport is now non-existent. In an emergency I have to phone round for a taxi as my OH can't get out of work. Sure it's a pain, but I can't be paying out for lessons at the price they are on top of my monthly livery. The yard is 20miles away, but there is nowhere locally I'd trust.
 
I now dont drive - my car broke downa nd ive decided i can manage without it - tbh im sick of the cost of driving and i figure not having a car will do wonders for my ever deterirating fitness levels!
My yard is a 30 minute walk away or if im feeling lazy 2 short bus routes away.
Feed, wormer etc i can always buy online or if someone at yard is going i can ask for a lift and put towards their petrol.
Ive even thought of buying a pushbike !
 
I'm 25 and don't have a license. I learned when I was 17, then my DI had a heart attack and contracted meningitus. Then I got ill, and moving away for Uni quickly followed. I loved my instructor, but I despised driving and showed lots of panic symptoms before the lesson. I'm also a rubbish passenger. I think it comes from seeing too many people die, and too many people suddenly having healthy loved ones taken away while working in a hospital. (My Dad's a paramedic too - the stories don't help). I know I'll have to though for when I have my own horse - the chance of finding another great yard on a main bus route is probably slim. I don't think I'll ever take any joy in it however.
 
I had my license revoked 2 years ago when I was diagnosed with glaucoma and failed the dvla sight tests. When I was living in a small town it was difficult to keep a horse as all the livery yards are rural and lack of bus services to them. In July last year I took my old job back as hunt groom and rented a house 5 minutes walk from the kennels and also kept my horse there. Now on summer holidays and I have my horse about 2 miles away.

There's no buses where I live and I rely on shopping etc being delivered. If I need to go into town I have to get a taxi, so don't go in very often as its a bit expensive. I do tend to miss out on a lot of things I would like to go to.

Life was so much easier when I could just get into my car and go where ever I wanted or needed to go.
 
I'm 25 and have never had a driving lesson. I've lived and worked in 5 different countries in the last 8 years and managed to get by just fine :) I do want to learn to drive, but it costs an absolute fortune, so it's not my priority for now!
 
pinklilly said:
I had my license revoked 2 years ago when I was diagnosed with glaucoma and failed the dvla sight tests. When I was living in a small town it was difficult to keep a horse as all the livery yards are rural and lack of bus services to them. In July last year I took my old job back as hunt groom and rented a house 5 minutes walk from the kennels and also kept my horse there. Now on summer holidays and I have my horse about 2 miles away.

There's no buses where I live and I rely on shopping etc being delivered. If I need to go into town I have to get a taxi, so don't go in very often as its a bit expensive. I do tend to miss out on a lot of things I would like to go to.

Life was so much easier when I could just get into my car and go where ever I wanted or needed to go.
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Im so sorry about that pink xxx
 
I had over a 100 lessons and was still nowhere near test standard so gave up as it was costing me £100 a month in lessons. I don't trust myself on the roads, I don't have the reaction time and I wouldn't want to put anyone's life at risk due to my *****e driving skills so ride my bike everywhere. I have a bike trailer for my tack and to haul a bag of feed down to the field but I do wish I could drive as my OH moans when he has to take me to the tack or feed shop and I can't get to shows unless I hack.

Still, I would rather have a bit of hardship with biking than to have killing someone through crap driving skills on my conscience.
 
joosie said:
I'm 25 and have never had a driving lesson. I've lived and worked in 5 different countries in the last 8 years and managed to get by just fine :) I do want to learn to drive, but it costs an absolute fortune, so it's not my priority for now!
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Snap! (Bar the bit about 5 different countries!)

It takes me 4 minutes to bike or 13 minutes to walk to my yard (not that I've timed it!) I also work there. I wouldn't drive there even if I could, the traffic gets so bad around my house it can take over 30 minutes to get from the yard to home in a car!!
My OH drives and quite happily ferries me to fetch feed etc and my Mum doesn't work and is on hand whenever OH isn't about, she buys dog feed at the same place as I buy all my horsey things so I tend to catch a lift if she's going!
My Mum is also the taxi driver when I take the horses anywhere, she loves watching me compete so does that more than happily.

I managed to keep my horse all the while I was at uni, keeping them at the same yards as friends and paying for their petrol. Then for another two years when I lived 30 minutes drive from the yard, I kept him on flexi DIY and OH would visit his friends that lived nearby whilst I rode.

Occasionally I get annoyed that I can't drive, but it's never anything to do with the horses, more driving around the country to see my old Uni mates. :D
 
Tried driving when I was 18 and realised it was curtail my weekends enjoyment. Now 32 and my pony is 10miles from the house in one direction and my work is 30 miles in the other direction. Must admit it would be easier sometimes but it costs way to much to learn now
 
Ive tried lessons, hated them & really have no desire to drive at all. I live out in the sticks completely but thankfully my partner can drive, even if he couldn't we could still manage as everything is so easy now with online ordering.
 
Think it's part of the modern way of life for it to be standard to have learnt to drive.

It was never a question of whether or not I was going to learn to drive. I was, because my parents were fed up of ferrying me round and I fed up of them having to do this!! Coupled with living in the middle of no where with the most rubbish bus service ever..... not driving was not a choice for me!!

Couldn't imagine not being able to drive.... The freedom and independence it gives a person.... Especially as I'm just about to finish uni and will be entering my first full time job - if I couldn't drive, I don't think 99% of employers would look twice at my CV.....given the sort of employment sphere I wish to enter especially.

IMO a valid driving license along with some sort of higher education will be an implicit requirement for the younger generation in about 5 years time.
 
Never had a driving lesson in my life and I'm 24. At the moment, I've got a very good bus route at the end of my road which costs me a fixed amount every 3 months. Yes it's annoying if I want to go see friends and have to rely on lifts, or actually going places on a sunday but I manage. I use it as my switch off after work and the chance to wake up before work. So it takes 10/15mins longer than driving in but haven't got all the costs and trying to park to worry about...

That said, if I get the job I've applied for I'll have to learn to drive quickly but will worry about that when the time comes.
 
I drive and have a lorry for the horse but don't have a car.

I work in central london so driving to work is not an option, I go to the yard three times a week after work and take public transport because even if I did have a car it would take even longer to go home collect the car and then drive to the yard especially in rush hour.
So even if I had a car it would only use it at the weekends to and from the yard and to buy, tax, mot and insure a car to use it 4 times a week wouldn't make financial sense. There are always people going to the tack and feed shops so I can get a lift or get stuff collected but if there wasn't I can get an awful lot of taxis for the what it would cost to run a car.

If i moved out of london it would be different but for the moment it doesn't make sense.
 
I can drive but can't afford to run a car and horse... obviously horse has won out! My yard is only a few miles out of town (which is tiny anyway) and its extremely flat, so cycling is my main form of transport (it is traditional round here after all).

I try to get feed and bedding delivered in bulk, but there's conveniently a (admittedly not the cheapest) tack shop between town and yard, so I have on occasion cycled with a sack of mix/carrots on the bike rack. I draw the line at bags of chaff though - a bit too bulky - and so have pulled in favours from peoples with cars to pick stuff up. I tend to buy most tack stuff online, but will cadge a lift to local tack shops if someones going.

I'm lucky that yard is also on a bus route into town so I can get the bus if need be - normally only if bike has a puncture or the odd week or so when its too snowy/icey to safely cycle if the roads haven't been gritted.

I should be starting a new job later this year which means I can budget for a car, and I have to say I am looking forward to not have to cycle come next winter!
 
nikkimariet said:
IMO a valid driving license along with some sort of higher education will be an implicit requirement for the younger generation in about 5 years time.
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That may be so if you are a girl, but if you are a boy and insurance rates keep getting higher and high, then I think we may start to see less boys on the road! This is unfair, as most of the times that I've been nearly cleared up on the road, has been from idiot girl/women drivers!

I'm dreading when my son is old enough to learn to drive as we won't be able to afford to pay for his insurance. It's too bad as I would trust him on the road more than I would trust myself driving and I'm a 35 year old woman!
 
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Yeah, price has put me off too. For me at the moment, it was a choice between riding lessons and driving lessons... there really was no competition.

There's also the psychologist part of me that knows we haven't evolved to travel at those speeds and to react in those sorts of time frames. That scares the hell out of me, especially when people knowingly drive faster than is safe. I was a pretty good, safe driver when I was learning. It's other people in their cars that worries me! Something like 80% of people believe they're better than average drivers...
 
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I think it is rare to not be able to drive, but not rare for people not to have a car if they live in a city.

I don't have a car and it saves me probably about £100 a month I think which may not seem like a lot to some but it is to me. What I save by not having a car I can spend on lessons and if I want to go out to a show that I can't hack to or go on a sponsored then I hire a horsebox sometimes sharing the cost with a friend.

Yes it is tiring having to walk to the yard from the station but worth it for the extra things that I can do by saving the money. Hay and bedding is bought from the yard and we have a tack shop which delivers feeed once a week to all the local yards. Everyone on the yard uses the delivery service and you just order what you want and they put it in the feed shed every wednesday. My pony lives out and I only need to go once a day to the yard which obviously does help tremendously.

If I could drive to work instead of using the tube then I would seriously look at getting a car as then it would make sense financially.
 
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