Musing:keeping horses at home feels like a never ending episode of the Crystal Maze.

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now_loves_mares

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Showing my age there, I know!

I'm just rambling really, but 4 years ago I moved house and hooray, have the horses at home. Now don't get me wrong, I love it and wouldn't change it, but sometimes it feels like it's a never ending line of conundrums to solve. It's not just the work (fencing repairs, stable painting etc) or the money, but the constant stream of head-scratching puzzles.

So for instance. I had two mares that were overly bonded so I was always working out ways around this. One could never be in the field alone, so always had to take both in to ride one. I couldn't event away from home as no-one at home to do the other, and she'd have to stay in whilst one was out competing. Then last year one was PTS. So I have ended up with a Shetland companion. She's amazing, but now I'm in a constant round of figuring out how to keep a skinny TB fat and turned out with a Shetland who is prone to laminitis. I have fenced off a bit of the field, but it's so wet I feel desperately sorry for her. I could spend money on drains, but I rent the field, already did one piece of hardcore-ing which has helped but need more. But do I spend the money on rented land, when we are about to apply for planning on another plot? Do we need another companion? And I'm in a constant puzzlement as to how to remove the muck from the field. Too wet for barrow pushing, too far from the house for that anyway. Field owner won't allow muck piles awaiting collection. Then I have no arena. How do I get my slightly loopy TB back into work after 3 months box rest? Can't hack out at home as no companion. Not brave enough to take her on her own yet. So have to box her up every time I want to ride. What about haylage? Can't use enough with just the 1 and a half horses, but no storage for hay. And don't even get me started on trying to go away on holiday :rolleyes:

So I realise this is merely a rant, in a "getting it all of my chest" kind of way. Just wondered if anyone else goes through the same thoughts?Sometimes it works, but I do spend a lot of time crisis-solving. Just when you think you've hit on a solution for a problem, a new one appears. I don't remember livery being quite so complex? Maybe I'm just getting old though. ;)

Will happily except either tea and sympathy, or a "dry your eyes" style kick up the rear!
 
i know what you mean - i have my horses at home which was a dream and i love it but... started with 2 but couldn't take one away so got another 2 as companions so no one left on their own - can't believe how much it all costs - fencing etc and the time it takes to poo pick. our intial hay store blew down so struggled with somewhere to store it - kept some in the disco - now have a new haystore but it cost me a lot - real probs getting a holiday as need someone to look after them and it is a lot of work especially in winter - no school and not great hacking so have to box them for a good hack - more money on a trailer and disco - i now think livery is a very good deal!
 
I have total sympathy! Your post did make me laugh ! (sorry...)

Ours are at home and Im sure it was easier when they werent....My pony cant share with my horse as he is a bully. So separated by electric. But then pony had mild lami attack despite bare field. So smaller starvation paddock. But then pony decides electric fences no longer an obstacle even if 3 strand and electric on, and kept getting out and hooning round the countryside. so now in field with too much grass. So grazing muzzle employed, but that makes pony chin bleed. So now trying padding on muzzle.

I think it was easier when someone else had to muck them out, there was a manege to ride in, people to ride with and someone to have coffee with!

Added to which Im having a major op in 6 weeks after which I wont be able to muck out etc for 6 weeks and we are struggling to find someone to cover :-OO
 
I thought you was writing my biography, Yes lets all sympathise together. Its a ying and yang thing. Bit of frost-great can get through the gateway but oh frozen water, too much grass, not enough grass. buy a companion horse - they hate each other. Everything in order - no just spotted ragwort. Monday brought a new rug - Tuesday its broken. Walked three miles taking daughter on ride out, did she enjoy it??? NO her legs hurt !!
Yes absolute sympathy
 
Hi I keep mine at home too, and I agree it seems to just get so complicated! I have a similar list of issues to you including the hacking on my own, companion issues and I've had mine at home for 15 years, you'd think I have got there by now! :)

I'm forever trying to make things simpler, not sure if any of them might help you but these things have helped me:

Muck vacuum for the field. expensive outlay but so worth it if your fields are too far for a barrow. I have had mine three years and best decision I made. Saves time and energy and backache! With the market as it is there should be some decent bargains out there, or 2nd hand one?

Muzzle for the companion, they do get used to them quickly and at least they can go together. I also have a little grazing system where my horse strip grazes the decent grass then I have another tape so pony can follow on behind...

Hacking alone, can you find someone to walk/cycle with you? Calmer ( i use global herbs instant to take my mare out if she's not been out for a while and I have to take her alone, it definitely works )

Hope this helps a bit, you will get there........all the best :)
 
I do not have mine at home but did finally manage to buy my own land. I now cannot understand why yard owners charge so little for livery land is expensive in my area at least maintenance is not cheap and time consuming and they have owners to deal with. I could never afford to keep a horse at livery if they really charged on a full commercial basis taking into account cost of buying land now.
 
Glad it's not just me - and it's ok that you laughed, it was (slightly) tongue in cheek, albeit at times I want to lie down on the floor and have a tantrum, toddler style.

I was trying to figure out the other day about the Shetland/TB thing. So my mind started saying, hmm right ok I'd need to keep Shelt in for a bit for the lami, so need another field companion for TB. But then is it fair to leave Shelt in on it's own all day. And is it fair to leave other companion in field all night on it's own? So maybe I need 2 field companions, plus a daytime stable companion for the Shetland. Before I know it, my one riding horse requires 4 other companions :eek::p

So then I think - ok maybe I could get a couple of grass liveries. But they can't be shod to try to save the field a bit. And no facilities or room for trailer to live here, so really you are talking retirement liveries. And also the owner wouldn't want to come into the field that often as my horse can be a bit unpredictable. So I'd need to do daily care, and have an owner that would turn up say once a week when my own horse was in stable.

It's ridiculous isn't it? I do wonder if I just pander to my horses a bit :rolleyes:. But I know if I tried to turn my TB out on her own, she'd use the full 10 acres to get her speed up and just run laps until she hit something. It's not a good plan.
 
flirtygerty said:
Holidays are easily sorted, just house swop
Horse friendly houses are normally in nice places
Simples
Click to expand...

But I want to go on holiday to get away from horses :eek:. There most be one of the following - big hills with lots of snow; a hot beach with cool calm water; or a noisy city with a smart hotel :cool:

No wellies, mud, musto clothing or hairy beasts in sight!
 
Welcome to my world! :D

This week for instance, I had a paddock with 3 geldings,
#1 was stalled at night,
#2 and #3 lived out.
#3 was sold.
#2 won't stay in a paddock alone, but can't go in any other paddock because he doesn't like youngsters, is ridiculously disruptive with mares and my stallion doesn't do male company.
So, I am having to stall #2 which is inconvenient and annoying but the only way around it and I am not getting paid for it because it is my decision. I have a list of liveries waiting to come onto the yard, but all mares, c'mon I NEED a gelding people!

now_loves_mares said:
But I want to go on holiday to get away from horses :eek:. There most be one of the following - big hills with lots of snow; a hot beach with cool calm water; or a noisy city with a smart hotel :cool:

No wellies, mud, musto clothing or hairy beasts in sight!
Click to expand...

Solution:

#1. Spend a week writing an instruction manual, for horses, animals, house, plumbing etc, along with compiling a telephone directory of ICE numbers.

#2. Sell your soul to raise the necessary finances for #3

#3. Find an animal/house sitting agency

#4. Pack your bags and go to one, or all, of your vacation choices.

#5. Be thankful you don't run a livery yard and have to think about clients as well.

Enjoy every last minute of your vacation :D ps, I can offer you a condo in a ski resort in Ontario, unfortunately we have had the crappiest winter for years and there isn't much snow there, or hills really come to think about it :(
 
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Hehe the trials and tribulations of keeping horses at home!

Mine have been at home for around 8 years now and i am finally putting a school in this year which i really need as live in a wet and boggy area.

I was ok last summer as had my riding horse, an aged gelding and a 2 yr old but my aged gelding was pts which left me with two and i didn't want to leave the youngster on his own for any great length of time.

I've now bought two shetlands so nobody will have to be alone, shetlands can stay in together when they get too fat and can keep the big horses company when one the other one is working!

Thankfully my riding horse is perfect to hack alone and that will be job no. 1 to get my youngster used to hacking alone once he's broken
 
Baggybreeches said:
Haha! Too true!

Yep another one here in the same boat, I have even taken the step of recruiting some sheep to look after my grazing, I mean how hard can it be to look after sheep?.............
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Haha - famous last words and all that?? I am wondering about asking a local farmer to chuck some sheep in the field.

True about the crystal maze having a cash prize. Chance would be a fine thing eh?

Enfys, I am actually off skiing this weekend, to the Alps though, where I understand there is several metres of the white stuff. But again it's a sort of cobbled together series of helpers, and I am indeed very grateful to not have a livery yard! Ontario next year maybe, though?

Wheels, a school would be my dream but not owning the land makes that a non-option sadly.

I agree with everyone who said Livery seems cheap in comparison :rolleyes:. And Wandamare thanks for the suggestions, a vacuum is out of the budget just now but perhaps in future. I do need to get the grazing muzzle back on the shelt (I'm rubbish at the Cruel to Be Kind stuff!) and need to plan out my strip grazing a bit more I think.

I think we need a Support Group :p
 
This thread has made me smile I thought I was only me that felt like this some times life is an unending list of paddock care broken rails adjusting electric fences honestly sometimes a DIY yard seems like an easier ( and it's definatly cheaper ) them I read a thread on here called Livery yard woes or similar and I recover.
 
i solve this.
mine lives at home in the summer with liverys on the other part of our field for company. then she goes on diy or working livery for winter so i have a school and no poo picking and people around to help. she only has to go away for 4 months and only costs me £50 a week in winter and nothing in summer. i got a field shelter for my 21st birthday and the liverys look after the fencing. and a friend who needs to boost her horses condition comes and shares my bit of field for a bit to feed her horse up for a week or two and clears the raggwort in payment. also i sell my horse poo and make about £200 a year from it and pay myself about £1 a hour. and if i go away i have a friend who come and looks after her every 2 or 3 days with a groom and hoof pick and check over and she gets a ride in return for each time she does her. my dad looks at her in the field or my nana does who lives next door, everyday and gives her a tiny feed.

it did all take some working out. but i also have a long suffering boyfriend in back up, he will do her if i beg.
 
Lady round the corner bags her horses poo in old feed sacks and once a fortnight or so the local allotment people bring a little trailer and take it away leaving the empty bags from the previous time. We take ours once well rotted for best part of a year (is pretty much pure poo as we don't use the one stable we have much) to a neighbour with a very very large garden he is restoring to former glory, about once a year he takes a trailer load in one go and speaks quite highly of it.
 
I have my horses at home, two horses is always difficult if one or both get ridden and they are attached, I know its nice to have your own place but how about letting a livery come in?
Or if you don't fancy that then id buy a third one.
We had to do this as our mare would go mad if left alone when I hacked out.
 
I was going to show my OH the details of a house I have just seen on the internet...with land and stable. Ripping it up now and putting in the bin!! Will stick with livery I think :)
 
Not much to say only the title of your post made me really laugh. Very very funny.
Loved crystal maze as a kid.
Only sometimes what we really want is the last thing we really need.
Happy in livery yard.
 
LIZ66 said:
I was going to show my OH the details of a house I have just seen on the internet...with land and stable. Ripping it up now and putting in the bin!! Will stick with livery I think :)
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no don't because the good really does out wieght the bad the first day we bought our horses here we let them lose in there own paddock with lovely new timber fences it was sumner and we sat in the grass watching them eat magic.
 
LIZ66 said:
I was going to show my OH the details of a house I have just seen on the internet...with land and stable. Ripping it up now and putting in the bin!! Will stick with livery I think :)
Click to expand...

Oh don't do that :eek:. Honestly it's hard work but there are so many plusses. I go out every night in my PJs to give them a bedtime cuddle. I can hear them kicking their treatballs around at night, a sound I love. When I had a very ill horse last year I could get up and feed her at 3am every night without too much hassle. My stuff doesn't go missing, I can turn out, or not, as I choose. Hay in the field, or not, as I choose. Honestly it IS worth it, it's just not an easy option!
 
agree the good does outweigh the bad - you can't beat looking out the window or sitting in the garden watching the horses - but it is more work and expense than i anticipated and couldn't do it without other half's support. a support group is a good idea! i also have 2 massive dung heaps and no idea what to do with them.
 
vienna said:
Not much to say only the title of your post made me really laugh. Very very funny.
Loved crystal maze as a kid.
Only sometimes what we really want is the last thing we really need.
Happy in livery yard.
Click to expand...

Glad to make you laugh :). I loved it too, and it's a thought I have often.

Oh god right if I do this x will happen now is that worse or better than Y, do I need something else to put here, will they break this, oh god oh god I'm running out of time <bangs on door to be let out>
 
I spose we ought to be asking ourselves, ok well would you go back to livery then.....

and we probably wouldnt want that either!

I guess this posts just illustrates the fact that unless you are lucky with your livery or lucky with your set up at home, then both have upsides and downsides.

It is very nice to be in complete control of your horses welfare; altho forthcoming op means for the first time in 4 years my babies will be being handled by someone else - which I am getting very OCD about and trying not to!
 
I feel your pain, what in where, when. Put up electric fencing, sheep slowly dismantle my leccy fencing :mad:

You've just got to laugh and go with it (gin helps) otherwise you slowly go insane :D

Nothing beats seeing them when I open the bedroom curtains though :)
 
lachlanandmarcus said:
Maybe the group could be called

It Seemed Like Such a Good Idea at the Time.....
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A farmer friend told us we were mad when we put in the offer on our smallholding. 17 yrs later, I know he was right, for all the reasons listed by every-one else.
We are now down to 3 horses, one of whom is retired. The other 2 both go out happily on their own but don't like to stay at home alone. So when the inevitable happens we are going to have to have another horse....... but will it be ok on its own, when we go out together......or will we have to get a companion for the companion?
 
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