Q for those who own their own land/facilities

I have a friend at mine now. Had rough and smooth moment. Had a few temp liveries, one ended badly and I kicked her off and the other chose to leave as horse wasnt getting on with friends horse. Wont be doing it again. Offering schooling/breaking livery now to make use of spare stables.

Would consider a child and pony maybe! They seem to be much easier than adults! I dont have enough stables to offer that now though
 
I would love to have someone to share with but in practice the people I have had come to have a look and the one I eventually took on have been a nightmare.
They do not seem to understand its not a livery yard, its my home and I do not want every tom dick and harry wandering where ever they want. I feel very lucky but also very mean, its not worth the hassle charging livery due to insurance and people expectations of what they get for £20 a week, and someone under the age of 16 would worry me even more.
I spent most of my early years riding other peoples naughty ponies and falling off, a lot and have encouraged my children to share theirs, taking other children to PC, shows etc., just for the pleasure of it. At the back of your mind you do have the worry of what would happen if one was injured or fell out with you, internet seems to spawn the disgruntled who want to tell everyone how unhappy they are.
 
must admit im suprised......i am the orginal grumpus, and NMT too, we are a proper pair of mardy old woman lol, but we love having our livery/helper and her mum around, we all get on like a house on fire and help each other out.......suprised more of you dont enjoy the company/want somone around to laught/cry/vent with?
 
Prince33Sp4rkle said:
must admit im suprised......i am the orginal grumpus, and NMT too, we are a proper pair of mardy old woman lol, but we love having our livery/helper and her mum around, we all get on like a house on fire and help each other out.......suprised more of you dont enjoy the company/want somone around to laught/cry/vent with?
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I think it's really the 'what ifs' that make most of us say no. If you could guarantee someone would be good company, respectful of your property and your privacy eg. not bringing hordes of friends round all the time and coming to the main house at odd hours to use the loo (or worse the shower!), then it would be different. There are other considerations though - I had a 'friend' who came to ride one of my horses who didn't bring a hat and when I didn't have one that fitted, said 'Oh that's OK, if anything happens, I'll just claim on your insurance - you are insured for 3rd party, right?!'.. :O The mortgage one is the bigger deal breaker though - using my yard as a livery yard would make my (impending) mortgage into a commercial one which has reasonable repercussions. I might take a livery (not for money, just for a private arrangement with no money changing hands) if I knew them well and knew that we would get on and have a good time, but for someone I didn't know - it just wouldn't be worth it. I don't think it's grumpiness - it's actually just that the world has changed and people are so much more aware of what can go wrong.
 
Prince33Sp4rkle said:
must admit im suprised......i am the orginal grumpus, and NMT too, we are a proper pair of mardy old woman lol, but we love having our livery/helper and her mum around, we all get on like a house on fire and help each other out.......suprised more of you dont enjoy the company/want somone around to laught/cry/vent with?
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I am surprised that the only really positive experience is from PS and NMT, with the standards of care they so obviously have, it is lovely to hear how well it works when both sides have give and take:).

For the OP I do think it a shame, you are possibly going to get knock backs but if your parents are on board it may help, it is hard for youngsters to get started with horses if not from a horsey background and with no local stables to help out at. I would take a different approach and see if one of the yards would let you go in and be a weekend helper, do all the jobs you can, make yourself really useful, learn about how to care for a horse, then see if you can get your own.
 
Agree with Kit279. I have a teenage sharer for my pony and it is lovely to have her around - however I knew her quite well beforehand so could pretty much guarantee it would work.We give her lifts to rallies and competitions and she helps out with our horses and dogs when we go away. Works well for us all. However, if I wanted to end the arrangement I could do so easily at any time with immediate effect.

A livery is different, though, and I have seen plenty of situations where landowners have been stuck with animals for long periods of time after an owner has been given notice to leave. Most people aren't going to have the heart evict the pony and leave it tethered on the roadside! So I can understand the reluctance for that reason alone, plus the other concerns Kit raises. I think it is especially true when you don't know the potential livery very well and so can' predict their behaviour.
 
As long as there was enough land to cope with another horse, I would be happy to give it a try.
The extra income, plus having someone around to 'fill in' if necessary, would appeal to me, but I would insist on a written agreement, and if things became problematic I'm afraid they would be asked to leave pretty promptly.
 
It would be a no from me I'm afraid. This is home not a business and I had a hard time with my ex thieving groom when I let her bring her old lad to stay she really took the mickey and started saying that her "friend" was coming to ride. Even I could tell that money was changing hands for using my school and facilities and I had strangers all over the place blocking my car in etc and had to tell her to knock it on the head. Never again:eek:

Hope you find someone op perhaps with a disused school and stables with separate access etc. Good luck.
 
I think it would be worth asking. I run a livery yard and I love having the company that a few well chosen horse owners give me. I am the only horsey person in my immediate family, (husband likes football and I have two non horsey teenage sons). I actually really like most teenaged girls, and could have really done with a daughter. If I had a smaller place, I would still probably look for one livery, just so that I had someone around to hack out with and sometimes share the load. You maybe just what someone is looking for. Good luck!
 
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Personally it would be no, but only because I hate having my privacy invaded and my land and stables are directly behind my house. Certainly worth asking though, worst they can say is no.
 
i guess it comes down to similar expectations/way of doing things?

current girl and mum are very much similar in terms of wanting the horses and yard clean, so daily washing off, weekly bathing, tack cleaning,trimming up,sweeping up, washing down, etc is the norm and they dont look at us like we have 50 heads when we put on extra rugs, leg wraps etc or fiddle with feeds, tack, supplements etc.

they compete in same disipline and share the same mentality of every detail counts.plus we can all bounce ideas off each other :)

it definately didnt work at all when the previous peoples standard of care/turnout was SO much different from ours as they just didnt *get* it and the details got either forgotten, ignored, or glossed over!!!!!!
 
I have land and stables, (Not at my own house though - so perhaps different?) but have to interlock with the farm and the cattle, who were there first and have priority! Got plenty of grazing, and am always open to the idea of having 'someone' else. Downside is it is clay soil, so gets very yukky when wet, and crap fencing and often wandering cattle! Not everyone's cup of tea! No arena either.
If there was a nice 'sensible head on shoulders' type of person who can cope with what we have and what we haven't, (prefer mares too) then Bob's your uncle... and I wish you good luck!!! :);)
 
Thanks for all the feedback everyone, it's really helpful to hear (even if most of it isn't what I wanted to hear). Like some have said, I've got nothing to lose so I'll still give it a try, probably by letter as it gives the landowner time to think about it, rather than giving the automatic 'no' response just to get me out of their hair. Thanks to whoever mentioned character references as I hadn't thought of this previously and I'm quite confident I'd be able to get some.

As for cycling, it's not really doable as I'm rather scared of getting on a bike since I fell off one:o:o:o. I know, I know, I'll happily climb on top of a half-tonne beast with a mind of its own but I won't get on a piece of metal framework which obeys my every command...:o. I might be able to convince myself if it was along quiet lanes but I just wouldn't trust myself in traffic as I know I'd panic if a car came too close or a bus came past. It wouldn't be safe for anybody!

I'm currently scouring through bus timetables (unsuccessfully, at the moment:(, all the bus routes around here seem to be strictly urban).

You know what they say though, when there's a will there's a way, and I'm a stubborn old mare:D
 
I was just thinking the other day- I find cycling way scarier than riding! Have no idea why lol. Once again, good luck with your searching.
 
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