Stables with no one living on site

Hello -depends on a) whether there are houses and people around and b) what the security is like on the yard.

If it's a remote yard, no I wouldn't but then I have my horses at home so have the luxury of seeing them from the house.
 
yes, where i am now i rent the whole yard which is half a mile away from the farm which it belongs to, there is a house nearby and the lady there has my number in case of emergencies or odd goings on, there is also a mad who feeds the yard cats who has my number.
 
In my area recently there has been a lot of burglary. So far the yards targeted have been the remote, no residential property or near neighbours stables.

So many people have purchased an acre or two, put up wooden boxes/shed and put a horse or two on the place. I think places like this are sitting ducks and I couldn't sleep if I had a horse in this situation. I doubt any tack is left on these places but the last one I heard had been turned over lost broken buckets, brooms, tatty old headcollars and even the bedding in the stables was bagged up.

The owners found their ponies wandering in the field with their rugs taken off them.
 
Ibblebibble said:
yes, where i am now i rent the whole yard which is half a mile away from the farm which it belongs to, there is a house nearby and the lady there has my number in case of emergencies or odd goings on, there is also a mad who feeds the yard cats who has my number.
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I'm not sure I'd be happy about having a "mad" about! :D:p

;)

There's no-one living at Mollie's yard and it's not overlooked by any houses. There are people coming and going from early morning til evening but no-one overnight. This hasn't bothered me so far but is not ideal.

However the YO and family plan to live in a barn conversion on site, hopefully in the near future.
 
A friend of mine has her horses at home. The trailer parked next to house. This was stolen in broad daylight.

So, i honestly believe that if someone wants what you have, they will wait for the right time.

Personally, as long as you have good security you will be as safe as the next person.
 
If it is remote I wouldn't leave any belongings there (a car boot that looks like a tack shop is fine in my book) but other than that if it was safe fencing and good water supply I'd go for it. If I had £35k competition horses I might think twice but I'm pretty sure on body would want to pinch my 2 oldies!
 
We have had our land and stables for almost 2 years and there is noone living on site. It is down a track however and the stables can be seen from the road across another field where there is a farm/luvery yard so potentially they can see what's going on.

Across another field up from thje stables there is another small livery yard (noone on site) but that is behind a row of house.

In 2011 the old nursery building (which subsequently was then an office) has now been converted in to two house. So, there are people about now I guess and anyone going down our track has to pass the houses. The nearest house to the track, the owner has installed CCTV that covers our track as well so that's handy.

Alhough we have a locked shipping container down there for storage we do not keep any tack items down there as we have had this taken on previous occasions (when it was just kept in the wooden padlocked tackroom. We have had 3 generators stolen - two of these were IN the locked container, which meant they also cut through too chains on gates at either end of the track to access the yard.

It is NOT nice!

We the got electricty installed and had no other 'visitors' ................well, until they then decided to help themselves to the batteries and fuel from our horsebox and old 4X$ we keep down there!!! (don't know how to do an angry face on here!).

Since then we now keep both gates locked at each end of the track (we used to keep the main entrance one open after our morning visit to the stables). It means it will (a) take longer for someone to get through and (b) there is more chance they will be seen and get questioned!
 
I would be most concerned about Theft, Illness and Fire.

I appreciate that these can happen even if one or someone lives on site but the dangers are greater if no one lives on site.

The most important thing is to ensure that your horses are freezemarked on a part of their body were it can be seen when the horse is ridden. A freezemark can be read by anyone.
Microchipping is a total waste of time as there is no central register and there are 7 different systems. Tack should not be left on site and should be tack marked. All other aricles should be postcoded or have Smartwater applied to them.

If horses are checked regularly than illness can be detected earlier.

If a fire breaks out then if there is someone on site there is more chance of it being discovered earlier.
 
There are valid excuses on this thread for anyone with animals to be able to live onsite for their wellbeing protection and security. Who would want to live on their land if they could, and who is opposed to it because it would spoil the countryside?

I'm all for it, subject to fitting in with the locality and not ending up like Ireland with great big houses sticking out like sore thumbs in every field on a roadside!

If we lived in Europe and wanted to live where our animals were, we could. Oh but we do live in Europe don't we? Confusing matter, planning.
 
It would depend on the situation tbh, once a horse is in the stable at night and theres nobody around theyre very vulnerable, i have done in the past but stables were well off the beaten track and overlooked by a house with a horsey owner and a game keeper who was around alot who kept an eye out for anyone or anything suspicious and phoned if anything was amiss
 
Thanks guys, this is all good to consider. The yard I am at now has people in site with two guard dogs yet a horse got stolen and not long after a lot of valuables did so it's difficult to know i suppose. The prospective yard has big metal gates, is surrounded by houses and is getting CCTV
 
Our YO lives at the back of the yard so only a 1 minute walk away over her huuuge gardens but she cant actually see the yard from her house. It's also hidden away behind a long row of terrace houses so nobody actually knows its there - plus on the gate there's a warning 'ROTTWEILER LIVES HERE' sign ... no ****** would get past my pooch so they enter at own risk - extremely protective and I feel safe when we're there :D
 
I have been on 5 yards in the last 6 years, only 1 had the owner living on site and he was the least horsey person going! All of the yards without someone on site were in very quiet locations, one of them you'd never even know it was there and there were padlocks on the gate etc. The current yard is part of a private estate, there is a cottage at the end of the drive and electric gates so security is high. It has never put me off any of the yards I think in this area it would really limit you if that was a priority.
 
I have my own yard but I don't live on site. my drive is straight out onto a main road, stables can be seen from the road. Is a big yard directly next door to me which again has no one on site but does have an alarm system, and then another yard next to them which has a bungalow on site. We are all very good and keep an eye on each other's yards, if my neighbours alarm goes off (it goes to her phone) she immediately rings everyone, we have been known to get phone calls and all meet up early hours of the mornin and patrol with our pitchforks he he he. So far seems only animals have set it off!!! (It works on invisible lasers which when crossed sound the alarm.)
Also if any vehicles are seen that are not know we are straight on the phone to each other. My friends dad dropped me off in a white transit van once and when I got into the yard my neighbours were hiding round the back armed with pitch forks and electric posts to pounce till they saw it was me lmao!!
The lady in the bungalow walks her dog across all fields at ten at nite and checks our all our yards for us. Also I have a guy who goes down shooting rats at nite so he is about at least twice a week.
I see my horses at six in the evening then not again till seven in the mornin. Not ideal. My friends is there on and off during the day but I work half eight till five. I would love to live on site but not lucky enough to be able to :(
 
We used to rent a small yard which had no one on site over night. In the summer we used to just leave the stable doors open so the horses could come and go as they wanted.

During the period of heavy rain we had to start leaving them in at night to save the fields which I really didn't like doing. I used to worry constantly about intruders, fire, horses getting ill over night etc.

In nov I turned up one morning to find my horse standing in a flooded stable after a tap burst - we moved them to livery yards the week after!

It's more expensive but I'm much happier knowing people live on site now.

We didn't leave anything at the yard (I even took feed home) and painted all rugs with our postcodes etc. we were next to a business premises who did get to the yard at 6am and were often there till very late at night (11pm) so there were people around a lot more than some places.

I wouldn't do it again with stabled horses - they are very vulnerable shut in stables when no one us around at night.
 
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