Moving to the new forest! Could anyone give any advice please?

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micra

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I live in Kent and I’ve decided it’s time for a change (plus sick of all the riding and livery yards around me being built on :( ) and the new forest is beautiful. I’ve only visited a few places there and would like to see more of it on a few more trips before I looked to go, but finding it very hard finding a 3 bed property with a little bit of land for my horses!

Could anyone recommend a part of the new forest which has reasonably good access to roads (will be travelling back to Kent occasionally) and is fairly close to competition venues, xc hire, and possibly livery yards too that’d take on holiday liveries for a bit of training! With access to a good bit of forest riding too.

Would appreciate any knowledge anyway, feel excited at the prospect of living there and the riding, a bit worried about riding round on my own though!

Thank you! :)
 
You are looking for what everyone is looking for!!! Look at being just off the forest to the North, some really nice places and not as pricey as being on the forest even though you still have the same hacking. (I mean you can literally be off the forest border and the price drops). There is a oddly low number of competition venue for how horsey it is, so expect to drive for 40 mins to start even getting to a venue.

From experience of being in Lyminton, when you are that far onto the forest it is an extra 20 mins just to get off the forest. So getting anywhere takes a long time. Again another positive of actually being just north of the forest.
 
North of the Forest is a bit cheaper and has good road access and hacking. All the roads in the summer are very busy especially Lyndhurst, Ringwood to Southampton (A31). I live on the outskirts of the Forest near the M27 but keep my horse near Beaulieu and have direct access to some of the best riding on the forest. Prices with land drop as soon as you move off the forest and you will get much more for your money if you are happy to box to the forest to ride. The nearest big competition venues are Crofton, Sparsholt with Bovington, Moreton and Kingston Maurward down to the West, but there are a few local places for Dressage and quite a few local summer shows on grass. I adore riding on the forest. I happen to think we have the best hacking in the country it is amazing, but properties with direct access are rare and cost a fortune, unless you have a million to spend or more forget it!
 
Try and view any land with the property at the worst time of year. There are many parts of the New Forest that are not only under water at the moment but are bad every single Winter.

I'm not living there now but owned land in several areas over 30 years of horse ownership there. Do your research very carefully, sellers will not readily admit that their fields are under water for 4-5 months of the year. I have friends that have a yard that floods every Winter, including the stables. Another friend has an idyllic property but almost every Winter the water comes up through the floor in her beautiful brick built stable block.
 
Lol at ester!!

As others have already north of the forest is best. Anywhere south of Lyndhurst is more problematical in terms ease of getting to places. You'll need a healthy budget to find somewhere with land.

You could always borrow some crab flies to take home to see if your horses would cope with them. Or I'll happily box a few to you once they appear. They'll survive as the *beeping* things are virtually indestructible. :(
 
lol at the prospect of boxed crab flies.

I do agree though, both mine and Rara's were ok with them, we had some travel up to wiltshire and the YOs horse went completely deranged about it and practically threw herself on the floor.
 
North of the forest is good, try looking at West Moors, Verwood etc. where prices are more reasonable than in Brockenhurst or Lymington areas.
There are competition venues at Bovington, Moreton and Kingston Maurward but these are a good hour from Southampton in a car, more in a lorry, however they are close to Wareham Forest, not the New Forest, as they are west of the Bournemouth/ Poole conurbation. Lovely riding area if you can get the horses not to worry about the military shooting, driving tanks around and flying helicopters low. The police chopper is based at Winfrith too. Mine grew up with them all but I imagine some horses might take a time to adjust.
 
I used to live in Ringwood, a small town to the West of the Forest. Had my horses a 10 minute hack away from the forest - I used to go on hacks for hours and hours, alone as a teenager! However, it was a bit of a twisty road upto the forest with tour double decker buses etc, and a lot of the forest is like that. Lots of walkers with dogs, children etc - but it is easy to get off the main paths/touristy areas quite quickly. There is nothing quite like it and I am desperate to go for a summer evening hack there again - despite the crab flies. None of my ponies ever had issues with them, even those who were older and brought in from other areas. But, I have known people who have sold on their horse because it can't cope with them.

Lots of local unaff show venues in most directions for every discipline, but aff is rarer. XC courses are few are far between that I can think of. Off the top of my head I can only think of a couple, unless you go a bit further afield. It is a lovely area and I would recommend it to anyone!
 
My main advice is to hire a good moving company that will organize the transportation. You can check out QQMoving's estimated cost moving calculator and find the best company for you. It's very fast and convinient. I used it several times.
 
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