Keeping a pony in your back garden!?

[neen]

I used to keep my horses on a yard in London that was surrounded by houses, the gardens of which backed onto the fields of the yard. Planning permission was really tight on the yard itself, but two or three of the houses had got around this by building stables in their gardens, which then opened onto the fields. I thought about buying a house there myself, with the intention of doing the same, but sadly was overruled by OH.

 

[MrsElle]

Mine come to the house every weekend in summer to cut the lawn for us! They love it, one day last summer we had the sitting room windows open, we were watching the grand prix on tv with two horses sleeping, resting their heads on the window sill!

As soon as we come out of the field 100 yards away and turn towards the house the ears go up and there is a spring in their step when they realise where we are going. The only time Ellie has been naughty and tried to get ahead when being lead is when we have been walking to the house.

 

[natalia]

This interests me as i live close to Richmond Park in Kingston. I used to have my horses up the road at a very nice livery yard (now a housing block sadly) and during this time (mid 90's) there were quite a few privately owned horses and ponies living in peoples back gardens close to me! My friend from school had two new forest ponies living in her back garden in dad built breeze block stables 5 mins up the road from me. They were visible from the train between new malden and norbiton! She later moved to a house with small field a few miles away but she used to take the ponies and exercise them either in the park or down to kingstonian football club who had a large patch of scrub land.
There was also a horse on park road next to the vets, he lived in a garden but used to walk down the side alley and have his head over the garden gate (always wanted polos), his owner used to have him shod outside my school on a quiet road. There was also a driving cob at potters the green grocers, who had a really sweet stable in the yard. I'm sure there were more than this around! It dosen't seem so popular now, and I've got my lot in Chessington (way too many of them to even think about putting in the back garden), and I know of a few people locally who keep/have kept minis in their gardens. Up until the late 90's there were a lot more small private yards in the area, most sadly have been built on now leaving only the big places. It's always tempting to drive one of mine home for the day though and have a garden party!

 

[finkle]

I live in a semi with a largish garden that backs on to open fields. Luckily the farmer rented me over an acre. I bought a field shelter that in the strong winds, the roof came off so had to sell on Ebay.
I decided to convert my garage, which is literally two steps from the kitchen door, into a stable. I had this arrangement for about 4 years and not one neighbour said a word! Think I was lucky. It was the nicest stable ever...double glazed the lot and she loved it!
However the muckheap thing became tedious and even despite offering free grazing and having no takers, decided that life would be easier on a livery yard. Even the vets when they came round were surprised. They knocked on the door of a 1960's house and were lead through to a mini equestrian yard! It was a wonderful arrangement while it lasted but I could not keep on top of the grass as she had to have it restricted. So it was best for the pony to go to a yard with restricted grazing. We would often be watching telly and she would appear at the patio doors for a carrot.....lovely memories.

 

[Sleighfarer]

I used to work in East London and remember many ponies and horses being kept in back yards. They were exercised in local parks but I doubt they had any turn out. A champion Welsh D lived close to Victoria Park in Hackney.

I used to see a pony of this type being trotted round the roads in Bethnal Green - wonder if it was the same one?!

 

[Archiesmummy]

Due to the bad winter I ran out of stables so cleared out an old stone cottage in the garden and did a cheap and cheerful quick fix to put two horses in there. There are three rooms. They have a lovely stone fireplace and plaster walls and are deep littered to the ears on straw so they love it. The ceilings are really high, only downside the door is narrow but they don't mind a bit. They have windows back and front and it is cosier than their usual boxes with rubber mats and a few shavings.

I'm looking for a rural retreat and this sounds just fine ... can I come stay? Don't mind the horses

 

[Sol]

Not sure, we live in a fairly rural area though houses very close as in an avenue type thing. We have two stables in the 'garden' - it's larger than average but not huge. We've had 2 ponies on there before no problem, worked daily. Winter is a pain as we're on clay so we have hard standing with limited TO. They had to be ridden as many days as possible or walked out.
However, it IS really handy if we get kicked off a livery yard and have no where to go, or need them close to home for any reason, or if one/both came down with something infectious then we could basically stick them in isolation by bringing them here. Nice to be able to have a new horse at home to bond with also
Might try get a picture later to show scale of our garden to stables etc!

Not got them at home now as tbh it isn't ideal with me wanting to compete - nearest school to hire is a few miles hack away, roads aren't fab.

 

[BigRed]

When I was 14 my parents lived in a normal semi-d in a normal road of semi-d's. I wanted a pony and there is no way my parents could have afford to keep one in livery. My Dad built a very large wooden building at the bottom of the garden and we walked the pony through the garage (up and over door), across the patio and down a concrete path my Dad had laid by the side of the lawn. I kept my ponies (2 of them) like that for about 5 years. They were perfectly happy. I rode every morning before school and then when I started work, before or after work. I had street lights to ride in the dark. At the weekends I rode much further afield.

People would stop me and complain if I took a different route because they would use me as their alarm clock.

We mucked out into the empty plastic shavings sacks and took the waste to the dump on a sunday.

My Mother had a friend who did the same and she lived in surbiton.

Police horses and army horses (royal mews) don't get turned out in the field every day, they live in stables all the time. They get used to it.

When I was doing it, the planning laws said that so long as you did not create a smell or encourage rodents, you could keep what you like in your garden.