Moving yards!

[MiaWatkins]

Hi everyone,
So im moving yards next month and we are paying £30 to hire out a trailer to take my gelding over and its not even a 30 minute drive! so we would drop him off and take the trailer back which in my dads mind is a waste of £30 as he says "money doesn't grow on trees"
so he said well why dont you do a competition and do a few dressage tests and then we go to the new yard straight after and the competition i found is right next door to the new yard!
so the question is, is this a good idea? will it make moving more stressful for my horse? i want to make it as smooth as possible and hes not the sort of horse to stand quiet, hes got a lovely caring temperment but hes quite bulshy and pushy never nasty but isnt the type that adapts to new yards quickly!
Please no nasty comments!
Thanks

 

[be positive]

You know your horse best, I would think nothing of doing it with any of mine, most are happy traveling, have been out to a fair amount of competitions and some have done overnight stays so used to being somewhere different, that said I have my own yard so it would not apply plus I have the advantage of being able to decide whether they stay in, go out, go on their own or in a group so they settle very quickly when a new one arrives.
Most that come here settle within days, once I know what suits them best, I adapt to them as much as possible and don't expect the horse to take ages to settle, if your horse takes time he may actually benefit from being tired and enjoy the new yard more quickly if he has done a bit of hard work before getting there.

I think £30 trailer hire is very reasonable, you may only need it for a couple of hours max but it will count as the whole day for the owner as they are unlikely to find anyone else that wants it for the other part of the day, if you do not do the show point out to your dad that the £30 has to cover something towards maintaining it, a bit towards general wear and tear, it needs to be cleaned between each hire so actually a bargain, you don't get much for £30 nowadays sadly.

 

[MiaWatkins]

Hi!
Thanks for the reply!
I think it would be better if he was a bit more tired as I was going to do a dressage test and a clear round or something and we just wanted to make the most out of using the trailer, I might just go ahead with it, it's all experience at the end of the day, if it goes horrifically wrong then I know not to do it next time I guess!