Moving for better livery...

[FlyingCircus]

How many of you have upped sticks to move somewhere closer to better livery yards?

I live in the New Forest and am genuinely contemplating it. The yards in my area are either full, not great, or eye wateringly expensive (new one just opened up..STARTING at 400 a week...!)

Am I mad for considering?

 

[DirectorFury]

Not mad at all, I keep trying to persuade OH to move closer to the current yard (20 miles/1 hr drive) but we’d end up in a teeny tiny house with no garden as it’s a desirable area .

 

[skint1]

Crikey 400 a week!!! I always thought the New Forest would be amazing for livery yards, it being rural, but guess not, wow!

 

[pixie27]

Definitely not mad! I did it twice, though we were renting so easier than if we had to sell. We stayed in the same county but moved around a bit to be closer to yards. Poor ex-OH got dragged around, but being closer to the horse definitely paid off.

Currently in the process of deciding whether to move so I can own again...

 

[milliepops]

I have done a few times, but I'm still only renting.

 

[planete]

it is a bad time of year for livery vacancies. If you wait a few weeks you may well find the return of better weather will see places coming up. The average price for full livery in the New Forest is around £170/180 a week. There are a few places advertising in the NFED. i personally would not move as it would be difficult to find better hacking. Horse people are well served by a large density of professionals and venues in normal times as well.

 

[Frumpoon]

Seriously 400 a week?

 

[ester]

I moved to the yard
downsizing from a nice 2 bed flat to a rather much smaller annexe. It would have been a doable but tedious journey from the original flat and it was a bit right place right time. But I would have kept an eye out for the closer rental options regardless.

This time (as without a horse) I did prioritise house over yard though.

 

[laura_nash]

I moved somewhere I could afford a property where I could have mine at home, so similar concept. Meant moving to a different country though!

 

[FlyingCircus]

it is a bad time of year for livery vacancies. If you wait a few weeks you may well find the return of better weather will see places coming up. The average price for full livery in the New Forest is around £170/180 a week. There are a few places advertising in the NFED. i personally would not move as it would be difficult to find better hacking. Horse people are well served by a large density of professionals and venues in normal times as well.

I've been looking for years! Always keep my eye out as feel like the yards I end up at are me settling for best of what I can find at the time.

I'm also not really looking for full livery, which is part of the problem I think. I'd rather stick with diy or part. I pay £80 a week at the minute for a diy stable and a paddock for 2 horses. I wouldnt mind paying similar or a bit more, if the yard was worth it.

I think the new forest sounds great...until you realise most yards are private!

 

[FlyingCircus]

Seriously 400 a week?

Yep! It is a new very fancy pants dressage yard just opened up in the area. Is full livery as basic then training, competition etc.

I think its more aimed at the professional market rather than riff raff like me! ??

 

[Kizzy2004]

Unfortunately in the New Forest 2 large livery yards have given notice to their clients which has increased demand and pushed up the pricing.

I’m on DIY in the forest and for DIY it’s £175 per month with hay/haylage included, large 40x60 arena and direct forest hacking. That is reasonable for the forest. They are out there but they don’t tend to advertise, it’s word of mouth.

 

[throwawayaccount]

i think if you are able to afford a yard that has better facilities and generally a nice bunch of people, go for it

sometimes i think we compromise on too much

i spent too many years on cheap DIY yards that were not only gruelling but had terrible facilities, to the point where i used to just hack constantly and hire arenas. horses were better off for all the hacking and different venues, but if you're on a yard you should be able to do what you need to do.

 

[Bernster]

Thought about it as I’m north London and travel a long way for yards. But im not really sure it’s that much better moving out and although I don’t yard hop (tend to stay for years) I have moved yards over the years. If I’m prepared to travel I have an ok choice in yards currently. Many are losing their hacking though so I assume I’d get better hacking further out.

Its all a compromise so for me what I get living where I am makes up for travel time to the yard.

 

[RHM]

I am seriously considering it. There seems to be loads of yards in my area but they are all private. We were planning on buying a house with land but when that fell through I’ve been looking at moving away. There is my dream yard in Skipton and I keep trying to persuade my OH to get a new job so we can move there ? I think it’s completely rational!

 

[poacher82]

Yep! It is a new very fancy pants dressage yard just opened up in the area. Is full livery as basic then training, competition etc.

I think its more aimed at the professional market rather than riff raff like me! ??

A more cynical person might wonder if they actually want liveries there, or if the offer of livery provision assisted in gaining planning permission, after which the price has been set to keep it basically empty... Or, alternatively the location is perfect for lots of wealthy second home owners who, if the media are to be believed, moved out of London at the start of the pandemic and are now realising they have no intention of ever moving back there full-time. They may now be living in the forest more or less full time on London salaries, and therefore able to pay London-esque livery prices. It will be very interesting to see, but I'm with you in the riffraff camp, FlyingCircus!

 

[Littlebear]

No you are not mad at all, quite sensible really, if you are on diy and need to be there every day and often twice a day then it makes total sense to be near better yards. I moved away from just outside London and there is sod all where i am and it affects the quality of the enjoyment of having them. You would not believe the choice i used to have vs now, i would have to travel a minimum of 20 miles each way to get a decent yard from where i am now and its much more rural! I would move in a heartbeat to have better yards near me now but family life makes that more tricky. Just make sure where you move does definitely have what you want, sometimes yards look good in the ads and the reality is different!
Will add even near London I didn't know any yards that were £400 a week - blimey!

 

[Annagain]

I considered it for better hacking (so maybe even more extreme!) but decided against it in the end for several reasons.

I'd only have to move about 30 minutes away. I know plenty of people would be happy to drive that to a yard anyway but I'd have to go through quite a busy bottle neck that could add another 30 minutes at peak times and being on DIY with a full time job, a husband who works shifts so I don't see that much of anyway and other commitments like helping my parents look after my grandmother (in non-covid times) I don't want to add potentially up to 2 hours to my day every day (coming back to my parents a couple of times a week would be more doable) so I'd have to move that way too if I moved the horses.

The main reasons were that my yard has got the best mix of decent turnout and facilities in the area, my fellow liveries are lovely and it's a five minute drive or a very pleasant 25 minute walk from the house. I also love where I live now, we've got the best of both worlds. We're in a village with nice pubs, a decent corner shop, a coffee shop, a deli, a doctor, a dentist and a pharmacy. At the weekend we did a 6 mile walk from our doorstep and only the first and last 400m were on roads in a built up area but 100m from my front door there's a train station that gets me into the city centre in 12 minutes. In normal times, door to desk for work (on the train) is 25 minutes. Within 2 miles of the house is a dual carriageway that links to the motorway so it's really easy to go places. I'm also just around the corner from mum and dad so can help with my grandma very easily and we have good friends here. The horses fit into my life very well here so boxing up once a week for a more exciting hack is a small price to pay. Sometimes it's better the devil you know.

 

[HelenBack]

Sometimes it's better the devil you know.

This is a very good point! One of the reasons I moved to where I live now was because I got fed up of there being no decent yards where I lived before. I've subsequently realised that actually the choice of yards where I am now is worse than it was before I moved! Funnily enough my other half doesn't want to move again just so I can move to what I think is a better yard just to find out that one is disappointing too!

I think it depends on your circumstances. I would probably move somewhere else entirely but my partner is happy where we are and doesn't want to move just for the horse, which is understandable really. Also, we have friends here now and although I say I'd like to move I don't know where I'd actually like to move to and the idea of starting again somewhere else now is quite daunting for me. I'm not sure I can be bothered with the faff of selling our house and buying somewhere new just at the minute either.

However, if I was younger, single and renting and I had a job that allowed it I'd probably up sticks and go. The only thing I would say to you if you do decide to move is make sure you look at a lot of yards in your new area first. Then at least you have options to move to if your first choice doesn't work out.

 

[deb_l222]

blimey, I hope they're offering solid gold stable doors for £400 a week

No, you're not mad at all. Where I kept my horses was wonderful for the horses but access to bridle paths was really rubbish. I always used to comment that it wouldn't bother me if I never hacked on a road again. I think road riding is just too dangerous now, in my humble opinion and I used to spend hours and hours hacking around the lanes and never had any major incidents but times have changed and people are less tolerant of vulnerable road users.

Sorry, I didn't intend for my reply to turn into war and peace about riding on roads

 

[ihatework]

You only have to look at this forum to see all the struggles people have finding livery. So I’d caution that the grass might not always be greener, moving house purely for livery is a bit of a gamble!!

 

[Holsaskew]

Well I think that's answered my wonder of how much it is for livery at the swanky yard I've seen on Instagram. ? To be honest it looks like what dreams are made of and I would say the stables look like gold. Probably for everyone assuming it's great hacking in the forest and on paper the turnout looks decent.

But yes few and far between to find people to fill the stables!

 

[atropa]

I would in an ideal world, as long as I was 100% on the livery yard. Last year I was on a great yard with good hacking a 7 minute drive from my house and 10 minute drive from work. I got a new job at my partner's work and suddenly we both were commuting 70 miles a day for work, so decided we had to move up here but that we would actually choose a yard for the horses first then choose our home based on proximity to it.
It worked out that we chose a lovely yard and then were able to rent accommodation on site.

 

[Lipglosspukka]

Where in the new forest are you looking? I know a few that are never advertised, just word of mouth.