terrified and so excited in equal measure!! - new land venture

gracenarchie

gracenarchie

Well-Known Member
Joined
23 September 2009
Messages
66
Location
county durham
Visit site
Hello


am after some general advice please, stories and HELP!! :-)

we are in the very fortunate position to have just completed on some land of our very own and it is soooooooo exciting ( although I do fully appreciate that we will be penniless forever more!!!!!! and prob no more holidays etc etc)
BUT I am moving the two boys on this weekend - my pretentious pansy of a mare will have to hang on at livery until we're more established with hopefully some stabling ( secret prayer to the planners!!)

so I THINK I have things ready for the boys to move up but am sure there's some vital stuff that hasn;t even entered my head!! ( as we also got flooded last june and trying to work with the insurers to put our house back together again after being 3ft under dirty water! , and working full time aaaaaagh! :-) )

the two boys will hapily live out rugged and OH has nearly finished their new field shelter ( it is technically mobile) but still want to do things by the book so we will include it in our eventual planning app( as well as other additions) after meeting with the planning officer next month for informal initial discussions.
storage shed that was already up is stocked with feed and other essentials and the friendly farmer over the road can supply our hay initially and will also drop it into the ring feeder with his tractor :-)
there's plenty of natural shelter too & a new water trough at the bottom. they will be turned out on the rougher winter paddock side which is about 3.5acre) with a round bale of hay and the shelter and we'll be up twice a day to check/feed general daily horsey stuff
I've always been on DIY livery on a working farm so dont think it will be a HUGE adjustment in terms of the time commitment but am still terrified!!!!!

please share your stories, what are the pitfalls and potential problems we will face.
its so so exciting and can;t wait to get up there but also frightened about what may go wrong and a thousand other things that I should be doing that probably havent even entered my head!

sorry for the long post - thanks for reading :-)
 
congratulations. There's nothing like owning your own land and saying goodbye to the hassle of other liveries and yard owners.

You'll work out quickly enough what works for you but the pitfalls we faced were:

someone to cover us when we were on holiday/ill
somewhere with hardstanding for the farrier/vet to work
Lighting (we dont have electricity)
water (we had no mains water to start with)
how to get rid of the muck heap
 
I think security would be my first consideration.. once the local sticky fingered community realise someone is using the land they will be along to remove the contents of your shed!

Make sure you walk the land to check for ragwort, they are beginning to sprout in some areas already.
As previously said, hardstanding is essential, so if there isn't any yet make it a priority as you don't realise how much you need it until you REALLY need it!
 
Insurance, third party minimum but you may want to consider things like damage to hedges and fences.
We have this type of camera in a bear proof ( yes for real, they came from the USA!) box:
http://www.wildviewcameras.co.uk/ltl6210mm
Padlocks on everything, and ones that can't easily be bolt cropped on gates.
Things for emergency fence repairs such as hammer, staples and nails.
Congrats and enjoy!
 
Hardstanding, lighting - I think the solar lights are getting quite good. Think about security for stuff and horses.

I read an article about dividing the grazing into 5, so one for each season and one to rotate for the winter, which would then be re-seeded. Have really good strong perimeter fence, make sure it is high enough so the horses can't lean over it and make it fall over, and maybe fence a "corrall" type area with an exit into the paddocks, so could be used in turn. You could even just use tape for fencing the interior paddocks.

One of the best systems was a field shelter/stable with a fenced area which the horses could come into for shelter, or could be shut into, and could be let out into three different paddocks. Don't just think about putting the stables one one side, consider alternatives.

And then there is the Paddock Paradise system, where a track is made around the perimeter and the horses have to keep moving all day and go round and round and you keep the middle for extra grazing/hay/schooling area.
 
thanks so much guys, !
security is my main and constant worry!, we have a mobile shelter up ( roof getting finished today) just in time for the snow apparently!!!??? so dentist/farrier etc etc will have to work in there and have found the stickies on HHO very helpful for rigging up battery lights etc in there which OH and I will be following up with next week :-)

main gate is locked & chained but off to hardware store today to fit out th rest of the gates and the little cabin thing, but will not be leaving anything of value up there,
is such a shame really but I guess its just the way things are that you can;t leave a thing!

thanks again
xx
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top