Pros and cons to having a private yard

[Perfectpony07]

Hi all,
Tell me all what is the pros and cons to renting out a private yard? Stables and grazing, running water no mains electricity no school, great hacking..
Going to view a place tomorrow which will be just for me and my little girls to have, potentially looking at sharing with someone else with a pony so my girls have a friend to ride with..
we would be leaving a bitchy livery yard where we’ve made lovely friends but also has daily struggles where people can make having horses no fun.
Would love some honest experiences.

 

[SEL]

The lack of other people can be both positive and negative!

Who is responsible for maintenance? That is the biggest downside for me - anything that needs doing I have to sort. Otherwise it's all positive.

 

[Perfectpony07]

The lack of other people can be both positive and negative!

Who is responsible for maintenance? That is the biggest downside for me - anything that needs doing I have to sort. Otherwise it's all positive.

It will be down to me, my OH is a carpenter so will be able to help a lot with fencing and like stable issues. But muck removal and harrowing I’ve got to pay for.

This is what I’m not sure about, I do absolutely love my own space I won’t lie. But I do worry Itl get boring, it’s a difficult one isn’t it. I think I would deffo search for ‘the right person’ to share with us, mainly so my girls can have some fun.

 

[MuddyMonster]

I think it can be great but I know very few people who have their own or sole use of a place that still manage to to ride as often as they did on livery yard.

 

[rextherobber]

There's a lot to do, but if you enjoy that sort of thing, it's great. And it's good to be the one to decide if your horses come in or live out, which field they go in etc, it makes management of horses with health conditions much easier. I guess it could be lonely ( but you could argue no company is preferable to the wrong company). Provided you have back up you can trust for when you have to go away, it's wonderful. I'd hate to go back to livery. I know 2 people who managed to event at a high level without having an arena, they managed to do all their schooling out hacking, and the odd arena hire, so it's doable.

 

[poiuytrewq]

I have had my own place for years now. I love being able to make the decisions. My horses never have restricted turn out for example but I can almost do that to suit them. I had one that hates awful weather so he’d stay in, another would be stood grazing in storms.
I find the maintenance but ok, little stuff I do myself and OH is a farmer so not as handy maybe as a carpenter in some ways but has the kit to do fields (although I’m low priority!)
I do sometimes miss the coffee after a ride side of things with other liveries and the company. It was hard when I had a horse who was difficult to ride alone for example!
I’d LOVE a school and I’d love someone to be able to swap bringing in or something every so often.
However I don’t really think I’d swap back.
It’s absolutely with thinking about.

 

[limestonelil]

Low priority poiuytrewq, you know your place as a farmer's wife then !!.
Love it.

 

[dorsetladette]

I love my place. I moved here from a b#tchy small yard with a self appointed YM.

I loved the 'no people' thing for the first couple of years then the winter got lonely and dark so I advertised for a livery - what a nightmare! I eventually found a lovely lady to share my space with, she has since left for a different set up to mine, but we are still good friends.

I have a good network of friends IRL that I can call on if I need help or advise. I'm very active on here which makes me feel 'included' in the horsey world still. My OH is very practical and has done lots of maintenance around the place. We have a network of contacts to help with things if we need. Hay mans wife will cover care if we go away, hayman shears the sheep, etc etc.

I'd hate to go back to livery now. I don't think I could afford it with 3!

 

[reynold]

Overall it's much better than livery. Keep in mind a couple of things though - on your own there will be no-one to hold horse for farrier/vet if you are stuck at work and you will have to take time off to do it yourself. Similar is the vet situation in night-time colic or other vet emergencies. You'll be on your own and still have to go to work the following morning. Similar is cover for holidays...

The other disadvantage - which you may be solving by having another person share the place - is that horses tend to expand to fill the space available. My place had 8 stables. I started off with 3 or 4 of my own and by the end had all 8 of the stables filled with my own horses/ponies

 

[ElleSkywalker]

It's very true about the expansion of ponies, my first private yard (well rented house and land) had 1.5 acres of grazing, I started with 2 and left there with 3. Next place was just over 3.5 acres, started with 3, left with 5. I then squashed said 5 onto 2.5/3 acres, and now have over 4.5 and currently still 5.........

Honestly thought, I've always managed to find people to ride with if wanted, and get social interaction from vet, farrier, trainer etc as well as friends bringing horses over to hack etc. I much prefer having my own space, and would only go back to livery if forced or only had one horse.

Get a network of freelancers for holidays etc, and consider a second person to keep the pony hoarding in check and for company of you feel you need it

 

[poiuytrewq]

Low priority poiuytrewq, you know your place as a farmer's wife then !!.
Love it.

Absolutely! When get complaints from people about farm related things, none of which is anything to do with me I have to explain that any request coming from me will be put in the "ahh, that'll be ok" pile! People seem to think getting me on side will get things done Believe me, I'd not be fixing fencing (temporarily) with cable ties if that were the case

 

[poiuytrewq]

Overall it's much better than livery. Keep in mind a couple of things though - on your own there will be no-one to hold horse for farrier/vet if you are stuck at work and you will have to take time off to do it yourself. Similar is the vet situation in night-time colic or other vet emergencies. You'll be on your own and still have to go to work the following morning. Similar is cover for holidays...

The other disadvantage - which you may be solving by having another person share the place - is that horses tend to expand to fill the space available. My place had 8 stables. I started off with 3 or 4 of my own and by the end had all 8 of the stables filled with my own horses/ponies

This! This is so true. As a staggered across the yard this morning hidden behind a tower of feed buckets to dish out breakfast Mr P commented "bloody hell, they don't look that many stood in the field, when did that happen"......

 

[anglo]

I was in the lucky position of moving onto a yard with a friend from a livery yard and her family ponies when they bought their own place . Its worked well for both of us. My friend /daughters did morning feeds and turnout in the week and I did weekends. In the evenings, her girls and I did them. As the girls moved away/out my friend still did mornings and I did evenings with her ( although as she had more than me I helped with her jobs) . I am still there 20yrs later.

 

[DabDab]

There are cons??

Personally I would find it a right pita to have my horses back on livery now. Unless other circumstances meant that I needed my horses on full livery for some reason, but it's really unlikely that that's a life choice that I would make.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

If had to go back to livery, I wouldn't have horses.
Over the years, I've hacked regularly with neighbours and fellow RC members as well as my sister. We have built up a support network of neighbours' grown up children, who have planted hedges, installed fences and gates, removed the muckheap, cleared haylage wrapper and other accumulated rubbish, chopped down trees and maintained others. The hayman was recommended by the farrier and has advised on sheep-keeping. The sheep were hand-reared lambs from the brother of the RDA coach of the group I volunteer with.
Who needs a livery yard?

 

[MuddyMonster]

If you think you'll like.it it's definitely worth fiving it a go if the opportunity is there.

The biggest putting off factor for me is almost every single person I know with a sole use yard now had less time to ride because of yard maintenance. And unless you own it, you are still often contractuslly obliged to live by someone else's rules - I know friends that are sole use renting that can't turn out 24/7, can't use certain fields or must do/must not do certain things for example.

 

[Velvet turner]

I rent a 3 stable yard with great hacking, no school and 8 acres for my 4 horses. Whilst i do miss the social side sometimes, the other positives wayyy outweigh that. There is a local school the people down the road let me use (2 min hack away) and my mum rides one of mine so we hack together a fair bit. It also works well as i do one end of the day and she does the other. Being able to put out when i want and bring in when i want is the best feeling, and managing the grazing and horses how i want to. I can put hay in the fields, manage them as i want, eletric fence small paddocks etc as i please and noone 'borrows' my stuff and doesnt put it back. The owners are just lovely (they live on site) and always keep an eye on the horses for me. They do fencing, stable and yard maintenance but i sort the muckheap (i bag it up and sell) and have the fields harrowed.

When away (very rare) me and my mum cover eachother and if we are both away (even more rare) either the owner or my friend that lives nearby does them for me.

A massive plus is mains electricity, i am not sure with winter and working 9-5 i could manage without it when bringing in at 7pm!