Moving to a livery yard for the first time!

[princestar]

I am moving my horse onto a livery yard, I have only ever had him on a field livery with nothing else on site and two other horses, then onto diy with three other horses on a quiet privately owned yard. Now he is going onto a yard with 11 other horses.

I am moving him due to the lack of grazing snd school, no one else to ride with and i'm paying a lot of money for a pretty basic simple yard compared to what I will be moving to so I am worried about the winter and what it would be like with no school, only road hacking and one field for summer and winter. So I have found a yard with a floodlit sandschool, floodlitnyard, cctv, owners on site, fields which are treated, ragworted, well maintaned, we have a local equestrian centre 0.2 miles away that hold shows and have an indoor school for the winter and great for lessons!

However the one thing that worries me slightly, probably needlessly is that horses have to be brought into the stables before dark in the winter, is this a common practice on livery yards, ive never kept a horse on livery in this way so not too sure... probably have to work it out with a friend and someone else to do him earlier or I will have to go there at lunch to put him in.

Also... rubber matting! The stable is huge, and ive sold all my rubber matting so now need to buy some more... I use eco comfy bed, but dont know whether to put matts just under the bedding, the stable is flat so no uneven bits wherenhe would be standing rather than buying a whole stable worth, would need about 10 matts!!

So excited, for an extra £30 a month im getting a lot better facilities and hopefully we can start to progress more!

....bring on the lessons

Thank you

 

[kaiserchief]

Congratulations on the impending move! My yard has a rule that no horse is to be left out alone which usually means that in winter, most horses are in before it gets dark. With my working hours, I can't get there as early as most others, so I pay the yard staff to bring my pony in on an evening. If I couldn't do this, I'd definitely pal up with someone and offer to turn theirs out with mine if they could bring both in.

 

[princestar]

Thank you, im so excited - I get to buy my own mucking out tools and they have a toilet!!

Theres someone on the yard who will turnout/bring in for 50p each way which isnt bad - they're usually turned out in twos and threes so we shoild be able to works something out.

With the amount I pay in hiring a sand school nearby I will still be better off by moving

Ah I hope he settles in well and we can start to progress, its been a slow start since he was backed so here's hoping to get some lessons booked

Ah I feel like a big kid all over again

Luckily its only about 10 mins away and on relatively main roads for the winter (I worry about snow all year round and not being able to get to the yard - but as my friend rightly says, snow is for one week of the year and there are people on site who can help if others cant ge there?)

 

[Caramac71]

Your new yard sounds exactly like the yard we were on until recently!

Our stables were huge brick built stables. We didnt use rubber matting, just kept the bed fairly thick. Horses also had to be in before dark in winter and by 6pm in summer. Yard was very friendly and between us all we'd help out if one one couldn't get own occasionally.

It sounds lovely, and from what you say there are loads of positives to you moving. I hope your horse settles well

 

[Ponyclubber11]

Cool, what livery yard is this and also, it is normal for you having to bring your horse n before dark due to health and safety. Normally people can be paid around 1 or 2 pounds to take in or out in the evenings.

Good luck