Livery dilemma - horses in same place or keep them as they are?

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zoon

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Current situation - stressy TB mare on livery yard 2 miles from home. She is happy and settled here and I love the yard - large school, hacking is great, people are lovely. I also have a 2 year old and a 3 year old pony on my own land 5.5miles from home (have to go through town, so can be a traffic issue) There is about 2.5acres plus the same again that I have free use of owned by a neighbour. I have a field shelter and water, but no other facilities there. Spent a grand on a field shelter 2 years ago and about £750 on fencing it in that time.

I am considering selling pony and moving 2 year old on to livery yard. I am fed up with travelling to 2 places. I should mention I have a 2 year old son too, so time is valuable! Plus think 2 year old would benefit from having a little more done with him (walks out inhand, getting used to poles, hoses etc - would be much easier on yard) as he is to be my future riding horse. But obviously cost will be much higher as I only need to pay for feet/worming etc, and hay over winter currently and will pay 2 livery costs if he moves. But will save petrol and also pay someone to poo pick for me so won't have that cost. Plus can cut hay from my field.

Not sure what is best for me and the horses?
 
sounds like you've made your mind up ;)
Do you own the land, if so could you rent it out whilst you have your horses on livery to bring some cash in towards this?
 
I would love them in the same place, but cost is holding me back. My land is overlooked by my grandads house - we only have it because of him and he doesn't want strangers coming in and out, so I don't think he'd be happy if I rented it out. But if the horses moved off of it, I would cut hay from it so still get a bit of money back from it.

Not sure if it worth almost doubling my costs. Plus I have spent a lot on the land over the last couple of years.
 
I'd love my own land, so I'd say move all of them to the land :D but that's not practical... would the petrol saving of going back and forward be make putting them both on livery viable? (not to mention the time saving)
 
I do an 11 mile round trip each day to the field, which according to a useful online calculator costs me £1.70 in my car. So just over £50 per month. So fuel savings aren't going to cover my livery costs at all, but it'd save me a lot of time. Plus I'd no longer need the pony (although he costs me very little indeed) so 1 less farrier/wormer/vaccs. Plus I'd be wasting a good field that i have invested in. I can't take the TB the the field - it is clay as has struggled to support 3 in the past. Doing very well with just the 2 of them.

So do I pay extra for the convenience and just swallow the money I've effectively wasted on fencing/field shelters? Or carry on going to 2 places until youngster is ready to back (plan was always to move him to livery yard then), much cheaper, but a hassle - especially in winter!
 
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