Two horses different yards? Am I mad to do it?

pistolpete

pistolpete

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I MAY be getting another horse, mine is never going to be fully sound bless him. So does anyone else have their horses on two yards? No grass only livery where I am so he would have to go six miles down the road. Nice yard and really nice people there that I know already. Decisions decisions!
 
Personally I'd struggle time-wise to keep two at different yards so in your situation would continue to hunt for a yard that I could keep them both at.
 
I did this for a year or so, had my youngster at a different yard about 20 minutes away from where I kept my gelding because I needed grass livery for her which they couldn't provide at the yard where my gelding was. To be honest, it was a real pain. The yard where my gelding was was around 30 minutes from my house, when I'd sorted him out I had to drive another 20 minutes and sort my youngster out. It was a lot of travelling. I also never really gelled with the other liveries at either yard I guess because I was flitting between the two and never felt settled. I eventually found another yard that suits them both and it's brilliant. Is there nowhere local to you that could accommodate both your horses, honestly it's so much easier.
 
I had mine on two different yards. I would never do it again. Mine were 4 miles apart (country lanes). It doesn't seem like much but you are forever in transit. I cannot tell you how much I hated it!
 
I've done it before and I would never do it again, it was far to time consuming and I wasn't able to spend the time I wanted to spend with each horse.
 
I had to do it years ago for about two months until a vacancy came up where we really wanted to be - absolute nightmare. Daughter's pony was at yard 1, and we'd go there first. She couldn't spend any time with her pony or ride,because I was conscious that the horse at yard 2 was in, and needing to be sorted. (It was 100% DIY, and no one else was available/willing to turn out :( ) Then I'd get to yard 2, and do the jobs there, but couldn't ride as I had 7yr old child in tow, and nowhere safe to leave her! When we got them together it was bliss :)
 
I haven't done it but have, like you, considered it. I have horses with different needs and fortunately the time to do it. Having said that, it may be good for the horses, but unless you're a saint and very motivated, it'd be hard to do permanently.
 
I had mine on separate yards for 6 months - 1 year. One yard was 5 mins from my house and the other was about 30/40 min drive away(Horse had to be moved quickly and a reasonable distance away) Needless to say it really didn't work, and I wouldn't do it again.
 
I had my two apart (about 15mins apart too!!) for a while as I turned my mare away for the winter - to be honest it was horrendous and I would never do it again!
 
I do it, have my riding mare and my daughter's gelding at a livery yard and and a Tb mare turned away at a farm, there's about 9 miles between them. To be honest, I would be hard pressed without my friend's help with the TB mare and the fact that my daughter drives and can also help. I tend to do mornings at one end and evenings at the other but I do have to both sometimes, it is hard but it works. I admit on the days I am doing both it can be very tiring and I do feel under pressure to get it all done.
 
*sprinkles* said:
I did this for a year or so, had my youngster at a different yard about 20 minutes away from where I kept my gelding because I needed grass livery for her which they couldn't provide at the yard where my gelding was.
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I did, for same reason as Sprinkles. Yes it was quite a burden timewise but I did actually enjoy spending time with each on their own. I also really liked both yards and so felt torn about which I liked - but went for the one with more facilities in the end.

It is manageable short term but you do have to be organised with things like feeds, nets. If you have them already prepared for several days at a time it is a great help. Oh, and make sure you have a nice driving route between the two - nothing worse than getting caught in traffic when trying to get from one to another.
 
Mine are in two different locations 15 mins apart with the furthest 30 mins from home. I do spend a lot of time travelling but I've been doing it 3 years now and have got used to it. Just make sure you have a car with good fuel economy!
 
I wouldn't do it if they were on DIY or grass livery but it works fine if you have both on full livery and one of them is retired. I don't mind a bit of travelling if the yards are both the ideal places for the different needs of my two but I wouldn't be able to do it if I had to turn-out / muck out / rug / groom / ride both etc.
 
I did fora month.
It was winter and both were in at night.

I think it can be done.
Especially if one of yours is living out and not ridden.


Only you will know if you can cope.
 
Oh dear! Hoped for more poitive feed back. Forgot to say one would be grass livery so only need one visit most days and a friend also at that yard. Also other yard which is nicer by far has the lovey hacking school and help in the winter for turn out etc. So not so bad. Does that make it seem more doable (sp).?
 
We did it for a few months, about 2-3 miles between the yards. It was a nightmare. Everything seemed to take twice as long. I found I always needed something that was at the other yard. Also both ours needed exercising /schooling & that took ages. We were permanently knackered, tired & fed up. Horse ownership started to stop being enjoyable & was becoming a huge chore. Fortunately after a few months a space came available at one of the yards & we got them both together. Everything then fell into place & we managed fine. I wouldn't entertain doing it again, life's too short!
 
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I have two at two different yards and it's not THAT bad but my preference would definitely be to have them together. One of mine lives out and is walking distance from my house and the other lives in and a ten minute drive. The only thing i'd say is you do end up spending most of your time with the in horse and the out horse get what time you have left. My mare then had an accident but she is the one that lives in so although I wasn't riding her she still took up most of my time. Good luck it can be fine as long as you have a good routine going especially if one is at grass.
 
I wouldn't want to do it myself. You will always be rushing and that's no fun. Plus you will never get to really know anyone else. TBH, grass livery or otherwise I would never consider 1 visit per day acceptable unless you had the backup of a REALLY trustworthy person to check for you. And I mean, check properly. Just because a horse can be seen eating 100 yards away across the field doesn't mean to say it hasn't injured itself, been kicked or whatever. A friend of mine went down to see her horse which was grazing quite happily -with a broken leg.

Also, another factor to take into consideration is would both yards agree to it? Some will not allow it because of the risk of disease transmission
 
Both yards okay with it, one is a really tiny one anyway. I only work part time and the out horse would get checked twice most days as he would be in with my friends retired ponies. She goes up every day or her daughter does. Yard owner lives on site both yards. Having serious second thoughts though now...
 
I did it last winter and hated it, no yards near me so tb was at livery yard 11 miles away and youngster 6 miles away on grass livery in a different direction. In theory it was ok but in reality it was too time consuming and difficult.
 
I think it depends. Last summer I had my boys seperately, one on DIY on yard I was moving too, the other on full rehab livery. It was pretty hard work once he needed riding, as I needed to be there every afternoon. I had to give my sharer for other boy more and more time until eventually she actually took him on full loan. I then moved recovered horse to that yard so that solved that problem. Would never seperate them again as both in work and stabled part of day etc. my old girl has been retired out in a field for last couple of years about 1 mile from house, and she was checked daily by YO as the other retirees were hers. So that was fine as all I had to do was pop up and flick a brush over her once a week or so. Luckily she is pretty self sufficient and doesn't relish time with humans so I didn't feel too guilty! She has moved now and is keeping Auslander's horse company - perfect set up as they are checked twice daily there and lots more grass/space!
 
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