LiveryList
Well-Known Member
I am having a continual dilemma about moving my mare and dont know if it is a to do or a to dont!
She is a 3yo TB mare, nice mare but can be a bit of an unsettled, spooky flid sometimes but has improved alot over the past few weeks now she is really settled into a fairly good routine.
The yard she is at now i have had her at since i bought her last June. It is an okay yard but rubbish hacking, not much grass and biggest downsides are that they have to stay in every night through the year and you have to buy everything from the yard shop (which isn't cheap) so it is more expensive than i can really afford. Also there is a new yard manager which although the yard is more organised the level of horse care seems to have been reduced with my mare having been switched herds without my say so (when i actually asked that she stayed where she is because the big mare herd beat her up last time she was with them) and now she's covered in cuts and hoof marks. Also she has now been brought in twice with afflictions (once a fairly deep cut on her side and the other week with swollen glands, and noone either notice or bothered to tell me. I pay to have her turned out or brought in but an never 100% sure who is actually doing it and there is no continuous care from one consistent person who would know if my horse was ill or unhappy for any reason.
However, she is settled at this yard. The yard is nice and busy and there are always people about which is an advantage as i am in the process of backing her. There are people to ride with and people at the yard like my mare so there are quite a few people used to handling her. It is also quite a spooky yard which is good for bombproofing her.
My other problem is that i am tied to the school run daily and as the yard is 15mins away from home (but via school) i have to have her either brought in or turned out each day and i do her stable, school her etc the other end of the day which is not ideal and means the boys have to sit in the car whilst i play horses before or after school. I cant come up after the school run as she is left alone in the yard and box walks, and i cant go up later in the evening as it means having to go out again later in the day having already been that way to do the school run and i just cant afford the fuel.
The new yard is more expensive, and slightly more of a pain in the bum to get to but she can live out and she is going with another youngster from the yard. However my biggest concerns are that the yard is quite quiet and if she is living out i will be going up to work her in the day when there is noone around if something happens. Also the gelding i'll be sharing with does not like being on his own in the filed and if i take my mare out to work her i would feel responsibile for the welfare of this other horse and always worrying he's going to leap out the field (which he has done before!). Equally i do not know how my mare is on her own if vice versa and he is removed. Saying that they may settle and get used to it.
The yard is much nicer, you get your own field to share with one other horse, brand new stables horsewalker and better, quieter hacking. But again if we graze down our grass that is all we have and i may end up paying more again for hay and still having her in most nights whcih means if the girl i am sharing the field with cannot turn her out or bring her in either end of the day i would be paying for this as well.
Sorry for the waffling but really am not sure what to do. i won't know if the other yard is right unless i move there but if i dont like it i am effectively stuck there. Am i best to leave her where she is as if i leave and dont like it or she is unsettled i cannot go back to the other yard and there is nowhere else in my locality that is suitable.
The main reason for moving being that in theory it should be cheaper but if she doesn't settle as planned or the grazing doesn't last it will work out more but again i woudln't know this til i got there.
Do i just pretend the other yard never offered me a space and in which case i'd never have had the option to leave the current yard anyway??!!
Any advice??? :s
She is a 3yo TB mare, nice mare but can be a bit of an unsettled, spooky flid sometimes but has improved alot over the past few weeks now she is really settled into a fairly good routine.
The yard she is at now i have had her at since i bought her last June. It is an okay yard but rubbish hacking, not much grass and biggest downsides are that they have to stay in every night through the year and you have to buy everything from the yard shop (which isn't cheap) so it is more expensive than i can really afford. Also there is a new yard manager which although the yard is more organised the level of horse care seems to have been reduced with my mare having been switched herds without my say so (when i actually asked that she stayed where she is because the big mare herd beat her up last time she was with them) and now she's covered in cuts and hoof marks. Also she has now been brought in twice with afflictions (once a fairly deep cut on her side and the other week with swollen glands, and noone either notice or bothered to tell me. I pay to have her turned out or brought in but an never 100% sure who is actually doing it and there is no continuous care from one consistent person who would know if my horse was ill or unhappy for any reason.
However, she is settled at this yard. The yard is nice and busy and there are always people about which is an advantage as i am in the process of backing her. There are people to ride with and people at the yard like my mare so there are quite a few people used to handling her. It is also quite a spooky yard which is good for bombproofing her.
My other problem is that i am tied to the school run daily and as the yard is 15mins away from home (but via school) i have to have her either brought in or turned out each day and i do her stable, school her etc the other end of the day which is not ideal and means the boys have to sit in the car whilst i play horses before or after school. I cant come up after the school run as she is left alone in the yard and box walks, and i cant go up later in the evening as it means having to go out again later in the day having already been that way to do the school run and i just cant afford the fuel.
The new yard is more expensive, and slightly more of a pain in the bum to get to but she can live out and she is going with another youngster from the yard. However my biggest concerns are that the yard is quite quiet and if she is living out i will be going up to work her in the day when there is noone around if something happens. Also the gelding i'll be sharing with does not like being on his own in the filed and if i take my mare out to work her i would feel responsibile for the welfare of this other horse and always worrying he's going to leap out the field (which he has done before!). Equally i do not know how my mare is on her own if vice versa and he is removed. Saying that they may settle and get used to it.
The yard is much nicer, you get your own field to share with one other horse, brand new stables horsewalker and better, quieter hacking. But again if we graze down our grass that is all we have and i may end up paying more again for hay and still having her in most nights whcih means if the girl i am sharing the field with cannot turn her out or bring her in either end of the day i would be paying for this as well.
Sorry for the waffling but really am not sure what to do. i won't know if the other yard is right unless i move there but if i dont like it i am effectively stuck there. Am i best to leave her where she is as if i leave and dont like it or she is unsettled i cannot go back to the other yard and there is nowhere else in my locality that is suitable.
The main reason for moving being that in theory it should be cheaper but if she doesn't settle as planned or the grazing doesn't last it will work out more but again i woudln't know this til i got there.
Do i just pretend the other yard never offered me a space and in which case i'd never have had the option to leave the current yard anyway??!!
Any advice??? :s
