Moving to Ireland

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buzyizzy

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I'm very seriously thinking of moving myself, two horses and dog to Ireland just as soon as I can sell my house.
I've found loads of websites helping people move and lots of properties which will enable me to keep the horses back at home again, but I can't find anything on the prices of feed, bedding, hay etc. also, costs of barefoot trimmer, vet call out and all the other expenses I will incur.
Is there anyone that can help? I'm probably going to be in Galway/Roscommon area ish.
Thanks
 
I did this last year and so far have no regrets, although the weather can get me down. Generally, I have found things to be cheaper, but I have found feed to be pretty basic. Chaff around me is very hard to come by and more expensive. I cant find happy hoof etc that I normally use, so have resorted to an expensive balancer instead! Last year I paid 4 euro a bale of hay, varying quality. This year I made my own, but can buy it for around 3 euro, as so much around. Small bale of haylage is around 8 euro.
I used dust extracted shavings that cost 6.50 not very heavy, but went far. Not needed a vet call out yet, (touches wood), but small animal vet fees are way cheaper.
Also, has taken a while to find a decent farrier who hot shoes ( don't know about barefoot trimmers). Again, cheaper than the UK.
Things like physios, chiros and saddlers are hard to find. There are a lot of cowboys around and even using recommendations I have ended up in trouble.
Will need to factor in horse transport costs, unless moving them yourself. Would highly and only recommend Eric Gillies if need transport.

Galway is very horsey, though only passed through. I am sure someone else in the area may be able to help more.

Let me know if you want any more info and I shall try to help.
 
Thank you so much SB. Whereabouts in Ireland are you? All the prices sound very promising, glad to hear there is plenty of hay about this year:). I wouldn't be able to use Gillies unfortunately as my horse has major balance issues if he's not travelling forward or rear facing. Trust me, we tried everything, ended up selling our lovely three horse box and downsizing to a VW LT50 which was forward facing and he loved it:). I've in mind to buy a horsebox once I'm settled in and I know what's what:).
If you think of anything else that would be useful, please let me know.
 
Ireland is great; loads of horses, everybody loves them here, BUT.........this is most definitely NOT the UK; facilities are very limited, attitudes are much more old fashioned (not a bad thing, IMO), depending upon where you are (but pretty universally) hacking is not easy (often not possible) and there are fewer tack shops, feed merchants, farriers, horse-specific vets, etc. There are plenty of competitions - if you like showjumping, everything else is small. Generally, pfaffing about with horses is not encouraged: it's pretty robust.
 
Yeah, what Cortez says is spot on!!

I am from England but moved to Northern Ireland several years ago.

Horsie things I miss are off road hacking, access to good quality instruction, access to good show centres, frequency of competitions, access to farriers, vets etc. of course you can get access to these things but they might well be a lot further away than they would be in England. In addition, a lot of the roads are awful lol. Takes longer to get to places because of this
 
Thanks for all that. I was under the impression that off road hacking was available in the West and we are allowed to ride in the forests and moorland/mountains.
 
In Galway you will have much more access to off road hacking than most places in Ireland! Plus some of the roads in Galway would probably class as off road hacking :p

There are no bridlepaths in Ireland but plenty of national parks :)

competitions are slightly different as well, eg. eventing starts in march and in the north the events are on saturday and then in the south the majority are on sunday. The events run until May roughly when all events stop, and then they re-start end of June/start of July, which works quite well!
SJ is very popular and runs all year, and dressage is similar but would run approx 2 times a month. There are lots of hunter trials and hunts as well.

Agree with cortez about farriers etc. although in NI where I live we have been very lucky with vets/farriers/physios. We used a back man for years with the horses and he was very good, and it wasn't until we had been using him for a few years that we found out that he actually was a physio! Be prepared to try and don't set everything by qualifications, usually word of mouth is more reliable :)

Be prepared to ride in rain though - galway is one of the wetter places in Ireland :p
 
Riding is most definitely not allowed in state owned national parks, etc. Coillte (the state forestry body) might allow you to ride IF you have substantial personal and public liability insurance, otherwise it is a definite no-no.
 
Cortez said:
Riding is most definitely not allowed in state owned national parks, etc. Coillte (the state forestry body) might allow you to ride IF you have substantial personal and public liability insurance, otherwise it is a definite no-no.
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Oh I didn't realise that, it is allowed in NI so I assumed is fine down south too! Sorry OP :)
 
I'm moving to co Antrim once we find a house. Hopefully it'll be before Xmas. I did notice driving around last week that there didn't seem to be any bridle ways ? And didn't see one horse on the road on our travels. Looking forward to it and have already had a welcoming pm from one HHO member. :)
 
Ireland is a great place to live with horses. I'm in the north where there is no shortage of places to ride, events to suit all levels running numerous time weekly. I have no trouble getting all feed stuffs I need, actually have a fee great feed tack merchants on my door step. Access to vets, physics, alternative healers is no issue. Not much off road hacking but roads tend to be quiet around me anyway. Lots of beach/forest riding. Great year round grazing and livery, hay etc cheaper that UK mainland. Horses IMO are I'm general not mollycoddled as much a you would see in UK.... Rhinestones, pink, 10 rugs per horse and supplements galore and fair weather riding only are not that common place!!
 
Go on www.stabletostable.com this is Irelands HHO

Everyone on there is brilliant, always helpful and can tell you everything you need to know.

If wanting horse transport and all your horsey stuff going together we use Julie Magnus she always advertises in HH and her website is www.jmrt.co.uk

good luck as sounds exciting times
 
We have an outdoor sand school which we mostly ride in, in the summer we ride in our own field and hack on country roads (B road and then onto side roads) and tbh you do need a horse good with tractors and lorries! :)

If you are very very lucky you might be close to an indoor, but these are definately rare!
 
madmav said:
I'm slightly shocked to hear that the hacking possibilities are not so good in Ireland.
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They aren't bad - we just don't really have bridlepaths! We are very happy to hack on roads round us, and sometimes box up and take horses for a ride through forest parks or the beach, sometimes can ride through privately owned estates if have permission. We have about 8-9 different hacking routes we can take, all road, which are all circuits so can go both ways! It is also pretty hilly so good for fitness work, and can vary amount of hill work wanted :)

our local forest park is 10mins away and beach would be 50mins away :) Most people just hack on roads, which are grand. We also live in a very busy area - on every road we can hack on (including side roads!) there is at least one factory, one road has 2 factories and a feed farm! But at the moment it is very busy on the roads, as we live right in the heart of the apple county, which are ready for picking - including our own :p
 
Cortez said:
Riding is most definitely not allowed in state owned national parks, etc. Coillte (the state forestry body) might allow you to ride IF you have substantial personal and public liability insurance, otherwise it is a definite no-no.
Click to expand...
Since when?????? You can certainly ride in doneraile, Phoenix & killarney national parks. You can ride on coillte forestry land if you have a permit...or get landowners permission as a lot of it is rented. Being an island there is an extensive coastline which means loads of beaches!!
As for facilities there are excellent show centres all over the country, loads of safe country hacking. Good farriers, superb vets and great physios. Every Agri store sells or can order in horse feed. There aren't specific horsy areas, Ireland is one big horsy area. Ireland is home to some of the best tb bloodlines in the world....these don't get produced without excellent industry professionals.
 
Someone should set up a campaign for bridleways in Ireland. One of the best horse countries in the world doesn't have official equestrian byways? Just seems wrong.
 
There aren't any bridleways in Scotland either:(. It's all quiet lanes although we were lucky we lived near an estate complete with castle and loch and they didn't mind us riding on it out of the shooting season. We also had a nature reserve in our village, only small, but it linked up with a ride of 1 1/2 hrs which made a lovely loop and only 1/2 mile roadwork. :) it took us ages to find it though. Mostly we just had to plead with tractor drivers to slow down and the locals did after they realised we were here to stay :)
 
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