School or Lorry WWYD

ElleSkywalker

ElleSkywalker

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So it looks like the type of lorry I need will be roughly the same price as a school, am now torn as to which to go for.

Few points to consider for school;

At present I can't keep horses in work over winter consistently as the roads (single track country lanes, 3 foot lower than ground level so frost doesn't melt) are quite dangerous at best of times and worse in winter - a school would mean being able to keep horses in consistent work.

We are on heavy clay so a school would mean all horses could be exercised even when they couldn't be turned out also helping keep them in work.

I could have an instructor come and give lesson to me at home.

I can hire the type of box I need from literally just up the road for aound £100 a day

There are no schools within hacking distance that I am able to use.

Few points to consider re lorry;

When I had a lorry I used it at least once a week, competing, lessons, clinics and trips out to meet friends, boxing for hacking etc so that's an awful lot of money to spend on box hire at £100 a go! That once a week was with one horse and will have up to three at present

Is there much point in having beautifully schooled horses if I can never take them anywhere?!

Anyone have any points I might have missed or opinion on which they would choose?!

White choc millionaires shortbread for all :biggrin3:
 
Hmmm, personally I'd go for the school. Nothing worse than lunatics who haven't been exercised for weeks due to weather conditions. (could you use it for turnout too?)

Are there schools in driving distance to hire? You could then load them all up and ride!
 
I don't see how you need such an expensive lorry (or that you can get a school as cheap as a reasonable lorry!).

I don't have a school but do have transport. In the winter I reckon on nasty days if we sometimes hire an indoor then it's a lot better value than a school would be. I don't have to upkeep it either.

In the summer we don't need a school as we can usually ride in the field unless it's a really wet year but then we can hack.
 
I *could* use school for turnout but I suspect I wouldn't, I'd probably lunge or freeschool instead.

Yes there are schools I can drive to hire so could hire lorry and take two to school, or if had own lorry could drive to in ok conditions
 
when I had to choose I chose a lorry but I had other reasons for wanting it (i.e. getting to other grazing) and I am not that fussed about riding in the winter any more. There is also no horse box/trailer hire in my area. Its a tricky one-ideally I would have wanted a school but there were other reasons in addition to the above as to why I didn't. Having transport is great though (am aware I am being no help at all, sorry!)
 
That is a real chicken and egg situation isnt it. Id be inclined to go for the lorry, then box them all up and hire a school somewhere. I guess school hire and lorry hire would cost you about the same with multiple horses but at least with the box you can get out and about to other stuff as well. Doesnt answer the turnout issues though and as a fellow heavy clay sufferer I sympathise. I do turnout every day come what may and accept that a bit of my paddock will need all summer to recover.
 
I had this choice nearly 20 years ago. I chose the school.

Looking back I think I made the right choice. The school has been fantastic - able to work horses when the weather was foggy/too dark (I had a competition horse and a hunter kept going through many a winter) We turn out on ours too, invaluable for EMS/Cushings ponies. For a private school ie only a couple of horses or so then the maintenance is not too onerous if you keep on top of it.
OK, so I've missed out a bit on shows and outings through not having a box so yes it can be a compromise which you may or may not wish to make - on the other hand I've had great facilities to train youngsters at home and during the FMD epidemic a few years ago I could keep going even though we were practically on 'lock-down' all around here. The school has also kept its value.

Things to consider though - I presume it is your own land, I wouldn't go through the angst of planning unless you intend to stay very long-term. Don't cut corners on the base and drainage. You WILL need planning permission.
 
MoC did you ever regret not getting a school?

FW & TFF :tongue3: poor little boy! Although if he's anything like his mother he'll decide being ridden is not for him and get retired by this time next year 😂 I did consider just not travelling him but I can't see the point of getting a lorry only 4 of them can travel in (I have two more unridden beasts as well including his lazy mother mentioned above!)

MBC school hire would be marginally cheaper but your gave given me another thing to think about, I'd probably use a lorry 2/3 times a week but a school I'd quite possibly daily. Hum. They do have a turn out pen so get out everyday in winter but they tend to mooch for 30 mins then want in do not exactly exercising themselves :rolleyes3:
 
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One thing, you are going to be seriously pushed to travel 2 in a 3.5T legally unless they are very light.

I would say 7.5T and box to school, after all how many days of frost have we had this year? Not many.

You could always put down a cheap as chips carpet and compost lungeing track to keep them going when it is actually icy?
 
ElleSkywalker said:
MoC did you ever regret not getting a school?
Click to expand...

wasn't really an option-not an easy one, it meant moving our septic, redoing some drainage and it seemed like a lot of effort and expense for a small school. Our house needs a lot doing to it and it felt really indulgent to insist on a school.

For what I do I've managed with a grass arena and it works well so long as I am careful with it. The truck means I can bring them back whenever I want to do a bit with them (I only have limited grazing but have stables and a hardstanding area at home) if they are grazing away. I hire schools locally when I get the urge and I can also box to hacking further away if I fancy a change of scenery.
 
TB they are ponies so can take two :) I can't drive a 7.5 ton but did consider taking test as bigger lorries better value however as it I've not yet found one I think he'd travel safely in except super expensive ones with full height partitions so not really saving me any money. Am planning on doing the 7.5ton test and uprating to 3.9 at some point so if I ever got a bigger horse it would be ok to travel as well :)
 
Just spotted your reply Catkins. Yes we plan on staying long term, and have already redone the stables and lots of fencing/hedging (house still a mess but hey ho!) I don't imagine we'd have too much trouble with planning as a friend nearby had it granted last year (same council) and there are ironically 4 other schools on our village. Sadly I can't use any of them :( To be honest though I think I'd use an equine planning company to do apply for us :)
 
School 100% for me. I had no transport for 25 years of horse ownership, just made me think more carefully about choosing outings and I met a lot of people who would give us a lift :)

In your circumstances I think I'd get daily use of the school... I learned to enjoy training at home and just going out now and then. Would also look into cheaper boxes once over the expense of the school, some are a very good price and you should find you can do modifications fairly economically.
 
If you are able to ride during the day and have decent hacking from home I might be tempted to go for the lorry. But in the depths of winter I wouldn't want to be boxing up two fresh horses in the pitch black to take them out for evening school hire as their main form of ridden exercise. Probably I am just lazy...
 
Having seen so many rubbish schools, built by friends, with drainage hardcore etc I would not build a school. Its not going to add value to your house and I would budget £20-30K to have one done properly. When we bought our house it had planning for a school and the previous owner had started it badly, so we filled in most of the hole. It's now a pond, so much for his drainage.
I used to have a battered old lorry that I used up to three times a week, we could get by without a school even through we are on clay and we flood. At one point we were on a livery yard which had a huge school which they had spent an absolute fortune on and it still had puddles and really I would have preferred better hacking
 
ElleSkywalker said:
So it looks like the type of lorry I need will be roughly the same price as a school, am now torn as to which to go for.

Few points to consider for school;

At present I can't keep horses in work over winter consistently as the roads (single track country lanes, 3 foot lower than ground level so frost doesn't melt) are quite dangerous at best of times and worse in winter - a school would mean being able to keep horses in consistent work.

We are on heavy clay so a school would mean all horses could be exercised even when they couldn't be turned out also helping keep them in work.

I could have an instructor come and give lesson to me at home.

I can hire the type of box I need from literally just up the road for aound £100 a day

There are no schools within hacking distance that I am able to use.

Few points to consider re lorry;

When I had a lorry I used it at least once a week, competing, lessons, clinics and trips out to meet friends, boxing for hacking etc so that's an awful lot of money to spend on box hire at £100 a go! That once a week was with one horse and will have up to three at present

Is there much point in having beautifully schooled horses if I can never take them anywhere?!

Anyone have any points I might have missed or opinion on which they would choose?!

White choc millionaires shortbread for all :biggrin3:
Click to expand...

A School, you can use it daily, I have a lorry with insurance, tax and parking it probably costs me nearly a £100 a month before I use it. Having the Lorry to go out in is great but we would be lost without the school. Obviously if you have the space you wouldn't need to pay for parking like I do. Could you then rent out the school to help save for the Lorry. Get a licence for a 7.5 as you can pick them up fairly cheaply compared to the 3.5 tonne lorries.
 
School, every time. Not much use going somewhere if the horse isn't up to speed, you will use it almost daily (unlike lorry) and it won't cost you money when you're not using it (unlike lorry).
 
So I guess in some ways I have done both.

pony at home (Mum's) no school - and not an option to build though flat (clay) fields we could school in summer and we had a trailer. Winter riding was tricky, I used to hack before work a couple of mornings a week, we'd try and go indoor SJ every other weds evening as it meant we rode!
Went for lessons once a fortnight, lots of nice trips to the beach and the hills as we had pretty rubbish hacking at home so pretty invaluable in that respect IMO, plenty of going to unaffiliated shows enjoying ourselves with varying success at times, bit of hunting, anything that took our fancy really, essentially trailer was usually out at least once a week. Did about 6/7 years of that.

Then moved to DIY with a 60x20m school
I only schooled once a week due to pony's age at this point but boy was it amazing to have, we came on leaps and bounds with the kind of rapidity not seen in the previous 7 years despite him being 19 at that point. However it may have helped having a dressage orientated YO and a visiting FBHS but we only saw him once every few months. We had very good hacking and I was able to hack to hunting for a jolly. For a time was able to share lifts for occasional outings with a friend to dressage/gallops/new hacking routes but I then really started to miss having the freedom to go out wherever and whenever, either to find new hacking routes or just go and play at some dressage when the pony was going so well- so yes I did have that my pony is looking and going amazing and only I know about it issue. He is also the sort to love a party to show off at!

Of course I then financed a small lorry and the pony had to slow down so that didn't go as planned but I hope my thoughts at least might help.

I'm trying to come to a conclusion and I think it would depend if I could finance a school hire weekly of a winter evening in the box.
 
Go for a school, even if it's 20x30. First winter in many that I've been able to use a school and I've loved it :)!

Box wise - you can get cheap small boxes with side ways partions (rear ramp). Find someone to build you full height stallion partions for the box.
 
Lots of replies since have been out sorting ponies and picking up cake *hands cakes round*

Thanks for all replies, they are really helping. It's still swings and roundabouts in my head but now added to considerations;

If we moved school would add value to house, possibly not what we paid for it but would def make it sell quicker. (Using professional company as as Honetpot says there are too many bad ones done when trying to do on the cheap)

If we moved lorry would come with so no worries about leaving it behind before have finished paying for it.

School would be used more and it standing still for a while wouldn't damage it.

Am used to the cost of a lorry as have had one for years but the only repairs on it should be to engine rather than horse area as will be a new build.

To an extent it's possible to get by (leaving stupid boy at home) with a cheaper older lorry but it's not possible to make a cheaper/older school.

Lorry won't be useable on frosty lanes in winter but with a good surface and waiting till pm a school should be even if only schooling at walk.

Maybe what I should be focusing on is in day to day life what will I get more use out of rather than thinking 'wahhhh I've not been without transport for 10 years and now I am grounded and can't swan off for jollies on a wim'?!
 
A school.

I had a similarish conundrum after diva mare refused to travel solo in a trailer, even after we upgraded to a much bigger and whizzier new one. Getting a lorry was never an option (even my long suffering OH has limits!).

Arena was constructed in 2011. It's brilliant, and we've never regretted it.
 
Michen said:
ESW you know the clear solution... trailer test AND school!!!!!!!!!! :D
Click to expand...

Now you know the stupid boy would be straight over the bar before I'd even got off the drive! 😂 if I took partition and cross tied him he'd bounce until trailer unhooked :rolleyes3:

And also there is small point of me failing trailer test 3 times already :o

Ester if you had a youngsters (they are 4 & 5) having had both what would you choose now?
 
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