Pictures of your yards

Snowy Celandine

Snowy Celandine

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Would anyone be happy to show me a picture of your yard and how it's set up please as I am still struggling to decide how to set mine out. I haven't yet got PP but I need to show them what I have in mind and I'm stuck :o

I've got two ponies and will have two mobile stables to start with. When I have saved up for an arena I would like that and some sort of hard standing but I'm not sure where to locate everything. I've only got a small field to play with and I would also like to put the muck heap in there but not the feed shed and tack will be kept in the house.

There's a 5 bar gate with vehicular access to one corner of the field and that is the flattest part and where I think the school (if I ever save enough to have it built) would best be situated but I don't want to block the gate access in case I need to get a vehicle in there. There's another hand gate that the horses might be able to walk through and definitely could if I changed it to a proper gate and another 5 bar gate that the farmer who owns all the surrounding land uses to get into my field with his cows and tractors. Clearly I can't block that either nor can I rely on it for access myself as I don't own the land that it opens onto.

What I need to figure out is what sort of hard standing I need and exactly where to put it in relation to the mobile stables since they will be superseded by permanent stables when (hopefully) the PP is received. I think if I could see some set ups it might point me in the right direction. Please PM me if you'd rather not post pics on the thread. Thank you :D
 
I don't think I have any of my yard, but it's basically 3 joined stables (around 27ft long), with backs to the wind, about 14ft wide with a mobile barn/tack room on the other side. There are gates either end. The yard is laid on paving slabs, laid rough side up on a thick bed of sand. The tap is there too and it's all lit up like a Christmas tree when I'm there in the dark.

Nearly forgot, it's right in the middle of my land which is two acres, with a driveway to one side which is planings on top of hardcore.
 
Thanks meleeka :) Just trying to visualise that in my mind! I'd completely forgotten about lights apart from one outside the field. I don't think I can have anything permanent until the PP comes through but I will check the rules again.
 
My plan, depending on what I end up buying, will be to have a large hard standing/ yard fully fenced in with a large shelter at the back, it will be as near to the entrance/ gateway as possible for easy access with probably 2 other gates that can be left open for them to get into the field/ track if I create one or closed to shut them in as and when required.
I am planning on cutting down on the work so have no desire to build stables that need daily mucking out, it will still need cleaning but not so much as individual boxes would, you need to consider all year access by a vehicle/ farrier/ vet as well as yourself so having it near to the normal entrance makes sense.

I would leave thinking about a school until you have settled in as the PP may make it difficult anyway, using the flattest part of the field for an arena does not always make the best use of the land, you need to put it in the best place for getting the drains in and unless it is very unlevel the earth movers will soon level it out, having it joining the hard standing in some way would mean easy access for the machinery as well as easy for you to get to in bad weather.
 
I hope you appreciate the effort I am going to try and do you a 360 ;) We have square in front of stables which is fenced then exits from this to lane, muck heap and field.

gate to lane with gate size gap out of yard (have had slip rails in it, now just a bit of tape)
18068_488570425437_6529758_n.jpg


This is the gas tank, there is a gate from the house at the left of this photo
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This shows the lean to at the side of the stables that has been used for extra hay, now used for wood storage and rug drying
1913856_367225470437_7091459_n.jpg


This is the hosepipe
531437_10151965144015438_1069634705_n.jpg


This is the actual stables
10399859_240602355437_1541785_n.jpg


This is the end of the concrete pad there is a small gap there to get to other field and muckheap (which is on a section of dry ditch between the two fields that seems to have been filled with rubble over the years)
552692_10151447461625438_1775073422_n.jpg


This is field entrance and exit on left to the road
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391666_10151965143730438_1445187243_n.jpg
 
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I have no pics of mine but I can describe it, and take some tomorrow...

Its got poor access though and on a purpose built complex built from scratch I'd definitely address that.

Accessed up an 8ft wide concrete path from the back of our house, and about 6ft higher level.

Square yard, two block stables with overhang (tack/feed room in between) at left hand side, hay shed and pony stable (corr iron lined with block) at the right hand side. Gate into field 2 acres in top right corner.

Then across the road, we have a short gravel lane leading to out muckheap, all weather turnout, manege, and another 5 acres.

Fiona
 
Thanks be positive :) I thought I would probably use the flat part of the field to school in at first but maybe it won't end up being the right place for the proper manège? Tricky to tell at the moment. Good point about farrier/vet access too.

ester, thank you, I most certainly do appreciate your photographic endeavours and thank goodness Frank found your hat for you :D I like your set up and those big overhanging roofs (is that how you make the plural of roof?) look really handy. I'm going to check the spec of my stables again to make sure that I have something similar.

I've not thought about rug drying so that's now been put on my list!

Thanks Fiona, I shall look forward to seeing pics in due course :) I'm puzzled by the fact that your yard is 6ft higher than the access strip but maybe it will be clearer once I've seen the photos?

I'm off to bed now as I'm exhausted after a day of shifting bonfire ash and re-locating compost heaps. Night night everyone :)
 
Sorry sc I meant that the yard was 6ft higher than the house so the access path slopes up.

Didn't explain very well.

Fiona
 
The overhang was a fluke but is a godsend. Much appreciated by the farrier etc.
Essentially planning said we could have two stables and a 24'x24' garage. When we put that to the stable company no one had really made the decision what was going to happen with the roof. So pleased they did that though when it was delivered.
The onduline roof is rubbish :p
The concrete slab is just wide enough to walk along to the end of the barn with horse/wheelbarrow.
We spent years walking to the field gate, then back up that fence before we just put a hole in the fence ;).
the large gap to get to the road gate was a later addition in order for the farrier and hay/straw man to get in more easily and only on the hardcore in winter.
The yard area is big enough to let one of them have a mooch and munch the grass coming through the stone, I think mum has even split it down the middle at times - they are not to be trusted together. We used to leave access open to the yard from the field but soon stopped that :p.

As stables they do get very hot in summer, compared to other woodens I have used (
 
Took some pics today...

First the main stable block, two stables with overhang, tack room in the middle.



The other end.. Pony stable and hay barn with gate to field in far left corner . .



This is the slope down to the house I was talking about lol..



And across the road, lane to muck heap on the right, all weather turnout behind hedge to left, and manger and trailer parking straight ahead.



Fiona
 
Thanks very much Fiona, all useful info :D I see what you mean about the sloping access road. It looks a bit tricky with the bend at the bottom too. What sort of surface do you have for your arena? Is it a sand school?
 
SC, you have been to mine, so no pics :p
Just remember when doing layouts, to have vehicular access to everything, not just muck heap and fodder store.
Obviously routine vet and farrier visits will need access to hardstanding but you may require (I hope you don't!) to get a vehicle with winch up to stable door or right across paddock. You need to ensure all gates linking are 10ft if possible as tractors will get through & also dead stock carriers. (I hate typing that bit, but its best to be practical, having had to demolish part of a neighbours fence to get to a field shelter where a pony had to be winched out of it, made a very sad job much harder).
Obs make sure water pipe/tap closeby too, otherwise you seem to have got some v good suggestions above :)
 
The Fuzzy Furry said:
SC, you have been to mine, so no pics :p
Just remember when doing layouts, to have vehicular access to everything, not just muck heap and fodder store.
Obviously routine vet and farrier visits will need access to hardstanding but you may require (I hope you don't!) to get a vehicle with winch up to stable door or right across paddock. You need to ensure all gates linking are 10ft if possible as tractors will get through & also dead stock carriers. (I hate typing that bit, but its best to be practical, having had to demolish part of a neighbours fence to get to a field shelter where a pony had to be winched out of it, made a very sad job much harder).
Obs make sure water pipe/tap closeby too, otherwise you seem to have got some v good suggestions above :)
Click to expand...

This is nasty but one thing I wish someone had told me. Made a difficult time more difficult and is a excellent tip.
For your convenience make sure you have taps right by the stables so you don't have to lug buckets round.
I could take some pictures of mine but it's really quite basic! 3 stables which are "mobile" as in on skids but would be impossible to actually move due to the fencing and concrete around them! A small yard out the front... oh actually that's another mistake we made this time. Small yard, massive gate which ties back to the fence leaving it tight for the farrier and takes away tying up space.
Then to one side a woodchip turnout area. If your able to do one of these I've found it invaluable. Summer- keeps fat ponies off the grass but moving and winter saves my poached fields a bit by providing a good leg stretch/bucking area when things are really wet.
That's probably the best thing we did.
 
ester said:
I hope you appreciate the effort I am going to try and do you a 360 ;) We have square in front of stables which is fenced then exits from this to lane, muck heap and field.

gate to lane with gate size gap out of yard (have had slip rails in it, now just a bit of tape)
18068_488570425437_6529758_n.jpg


This is the gas tank, there is a gate from the house at the left of this photo
1913856_367225455437_293139_n.jpg


This shows the lean to at the side of the stables that has been used for extra hay, now used for wood storage and rug drying
1913856_367225470437_7091459_n.jpg


This is the hosepipe
531437_10151965144015438_1069634705_n.jpg


This is the actual stables
10399859_240602355437_1541785_n.jpg


This is the end of the concrete pad there is a small gap there to get to other field and muckheap (which is on a section of dry ditch between the two fields that seems to have been filled with rubble over the years)
552692_10151447461625438_1775073422_n.jpg


This is field entrance and exit on left to the road
164316_10150372292825438_3912208_n.jpg

391666_10151965143730438_1445187243_n.jpg
Click to expand...

Ester, there's a flipping great horse in the way in all your photos :D


Hi Frank!
 



We have sloped concrete going up in to our stables, which (from a past experience at another yard!) is great because you don't need to worry at all about your stable flooding in the rain. Not sure if you can see in pics but all concrete is slightly sloped toward the drain in the middle - great most of the time, but can be lethal when icy (but then everywhere is when it's icy!)

Undercover washdown area...very useful for the farrier in the rain!

Two separate storage rooms, divided up in to about 2m by 3m spaces for each person to store hay, feed, bedding and tack (it does work quite well, but if you have too much stuff there is a separate barn and you can pay extra for as much storage space as you want.

Gravel track between fields and yard, with school and muck heap on the side of the track going toward the school.

We rotate fields every 6 weeks, so they never get muddy by the gate (even mid winter)
 
Thanks TFF :) I certainly have been to your lovely yard :D Thanks very much for the tips re access though. Actually that was the one thing I had thought of, sad as it is to contemplate. We've got a field gate which the vet/farrier will use but for 'other purposes' a vehicle would come up the farmer's side and use that gate as it leads to the road via a short track and is the way that the cows are taken out when they go on their 'final journeys' (beef herd).

Re the hard standing - I am buying some grass mats but am not sure yet what other materials I can use before PP is granted? I know that concrete is out.
 
poiutrewq, thanks for that too :) I was wondering about a cheap school with a wood chip surface (as I have no money for anything really nice) that I could turn them out in. OH is going to extend water to field edge as it's already run right up to the pond which is adjacent to the field. I definitely don't want to be lugging water for miles before I even get to the field :o
 
PaulnashsherryRocky, what an absolutely beautiful yard you have :) I'm afraid that I only have one measly field so whatever I do will have to be on a very small scale. When (fingers crossed) we get PP I will bear in mind what you said about sloping concrete, if it will work for us.
 
I have internal stables but if I were starting from scratch I'd go for a communal barn and an adjoining bit of AW turnout.

My horses are fatties and need restricted grazing. It would be much easier for me, and more fun for them, if they could share a barn and a space for a leg stretch rather than being stabled
 
cauda equina said:
I have internal stables but if I were starting from scratch I'd go for a communal barn and an adjoining bit of AW turnout.

My horses are fatties and need restricted grazing. It would be much easier for me, and more fun for them, if they could share a barn and a space for a leg stretch rather than being stabled
Click to expand...

I'm probably being stupid here cauda equina but what does a communal barn look like?
 
Snowy Celandine said:
I'm probably being stupid here cauda equina but what does a communal barn look like?
Click to expand...

Could be anything from a big field shelter type thing to a proper brick barn; if I were having one built I'd go for block at the bottom of the walls and Yorkshire boarding at the top, and make it big enough for everyone to move about safely.
 
Ok, thanks, I get it now :) I've already committed to two wooden mobile stables as that's all I can get without PP but I can see that your suggestion would make for a much more natural arrangement that would more closely replicate what horses would do if left to their own devices.
 
^^^^ Great advice about year round access and gates. I'd suggest 12' gates, though, we had a 10' one and the tractor + hay mower was too wide to fit through, which caused a few headaches.

We now have twelve 12' gates plus one 6' pedestrian gate on our 7 acres (not counting the 2 to the arena), dividing up and protecting various areas! Our set up is pretty much finished now, but we started out skint with no outbuildings of any sort on the land.

View from the house in winter '86/'87, with just this one 20' x 12' field shelter. Fairly soon we converted into two small stables.



We added a 8' x 6' wooden shed for feed, made our own hay barn from s/h corrugated metal sheets, and this was our set up for the next 20 years. The nearest tap was 50m away in the garden (a right pain).

Over the last 10 or years, we've revamped the whole set up, with full PP approval along the way. There is an L shaped 4 stable block with separate rug and feed rooms, two field shelters and the 40m x 20m arena. The hay barn is the only original building left, the stable block stands where the old field shelter did.

View last year from the same point as above.







Since the photos above, we have extended the hardstanding area all the way from the garden to the stables and up to the arena. The grass was fine in summer, but very slippery in winter and we now have year round vehicular access to the stables. There's also a proper muck heap down by the road.

We also finally have water at the stables, hurray! It's all so much easier to manage nowadays, and as I'm pushing 60 with a dodgy back, this is fairly essential. It was fine muddling along before when I was young and not creaky :).
 
AA%20Lexington%20Park%20Grazing.jpg


Top left is my horses paddock, runs the entire length of the track, ex trotting track almost a mile in length. Round pen is large with sand. Yards for every horse on the place, my horse gets the yards to the back right of the block - nice and big and under the trees. Arena is a weird size and has sand and rubber chip as a surface - the rubber is about 20yrs old now and is rather powdery, my horses socks are black when she comes out.
 
That looks amazing Tiddlypom!! I am very envious. I wish I'd got more land (and cash to spend :o ) because I'll never achieve anything like that but, once again, you have raised some valid points, all of which I will be taking on board, thank you. I'll measure our field gate as I think it will allow tractor access but I'm not 100% certain. Even if it doesn't the farmer's gate certainly will as they come in regularly with tractors to move round bale feeders and maintain the fencing. Obviously I can't rely on being given free access to their land at all times but I do get on very well with the landowner and all his staff so I'm pretty sure they'd not see me stuck :)
 
Another beautiful set up Tnavas :) I've never seen a property with a trotting track, ex or not. I am really enjoying seeing all these photos and trying to keep my envy under control, ha ha.

p.s. I have always wondered if you are a savant? Are you incredibly academic? Sorry, I just have to ask :o
 
Snowy Celandine said:
Another beautiful set up Tnavas :) I've never seen a property with a trotting track, ex or not. I am really enjoying seeing all these photos and trying to keep my envy under control, ha ha.

p.s. I have always wondered if you are a savant? Are you incredibly academic? Sorry, I just have to ask :o
Click to expand...

My horse was by a stallion called Savant. :D

The track is awesome - especially when doing fittening work or in the winter. We have some nice grass verges to ride on but no real nice hacking blocks - the only problem with New Zealand - not many roads and blocks can be many miles around.
 
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