Unsupervised yards?

Shutterbug

Shutterbug

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Do any of you keep your horses on DIY yards that don't have 24/7 people around - what I mean is, do you keep your horse on a yard that is just a yard and not a house attached to a yard and a YO to oversee things?

My friend is thinking about moving her 3 horses to a DIY lot that has 5 stables and a small indoor school, a tack room, a barn and somewhere for her to park her lorry - its got a 5 acre field too, nice hacking around the yard both off road and on road.

She is currently on a middle sizedish yard but the owner lives on site and she is concerned that there wont be anyone living on the yard even though its quite close to her house and only a 5 min drive away. She would, for all intents and purposes be renting the whole place herself and be doing everything herself.

So I said I would ask you guys if anyone is in a similiar set up and see what kind of issues you guys come across, or in fact the really good side of being on a yard like that

Thanks :)
 
I keep my boy on an unsupervised yard. The only issue I have is when it snows. Fella thinks it's fun to ice skate, but I really, really don't. I didn't trust him not to fall over and hurt himself, or fly through a fence, so whilst it was icy he had to stay in when me or the YM weren't there. If someone had been living on site, I probably would have left him out in it as there would be someone to keep an eye on him, and sort him out or let me know if he had hurt himself.
Whilst it is unsupervised, it isn't isolated, there is a farm and two businesses on the same premises which helps on the security front.
 
Yeam my yard is like that. A bit bigger and there are 6 people with 7 horses. There is no yard manager, there is a cottage by the yard but the couple don't have anything to do with the horses. It has had horsey people in the past which meant that there was someone horsey on site at night. The new people are lovely although not horsey would call one of us if they noticed a problem.
The YO doesn't take a lot to do with us and we only contact him if there is a maintenance problem that we can't deal with ourselves, he really just lets us get on with it.
We all give each other a hand if we need it. I don't think I would fancy having a whole place to myself. Nobody to hack with or to bounce things off and you would have to get someone to come in if you want a holiday. We cover each others holidays or days off.
 
How far away is it?

If it's only 5 minutes away I wouldn't have a problem with it - you can check the horses in the morning, again at dinner time and then again just before bed.

If it is in a quite, secure area then I don't see the problem -only downside is lack of company and back up if she ever takes ill etc.

Sounds like an ideal set up other than that :D
 
I think you can get remote cameras now, can't you, that link to your mobile or home? Am sure I have heard about these somewhere. So your friend could keep an eye on things at any time of day or night. Something like that might allay some fears.

My boy is at a yard with YO living in but in the event someone tried to steal a horse late at night from one of the fields, if they really, really wanted to they could cut down fencing, etc, come in from the back and no one would know, so although YO is a deterrent it doesn't necessarily mean that all is safe.
 
She is through Edinburgh way BB - she lives literally 5 mins drive away from the yard so shes as far as me to our yard and I can walk it to our yard. Its quite out of the way so not the most glaringly obvious "oh look horses over here" place. Although there are farms either side they are a good mile or away. I dont think she will worry about not having company - her boyfriend and sister both ride her horses from time to time and she has had so many bad experiences with yards that I think it will be a relief not to have any other liveries to deal with :D

She showed me some pictures on her mobile phone and it looks lovely - they have a nice stable block and the field looks well maintained.

If she did get another couple of horses, as her sister is looking to buy, 5 horses would be fine on 5 acres yeah? Its one acre per horse I told her - hope thats right lol
 
Archiesmummy said:
I think you can get remote cameras now, can't you, that link to your mobile or home? Am sure I have heard about these somewhere. So your friend could keep an eye on things at any time of day or night. Something like that might allay some fears.
Click to expand...

Ohhhh yeah - I will mention this to her thanks :)
 
I'd say if she's that close then there wouldn't be an issue - as another poster said, having a Y/O on site doesn't necessarily make the yard more secure and if it's out of the way then there won't be random people passing by.

Sounds like an ideal set up - I'd snap it up if it were me! *goes back to dreaming of the day when she can have her pony living in her garden*
 
Arion probably could live in my garden - its big enough and could never be accused of not having enough grass in it - in fact its badly needing cut :D
 
I kept mine on unsupervised yards for 4 years. Stabled at night, just around the corner from our house. We gave our address and phone numbers to the neighbours nearest the yards just in case anything happened. We checked them twice a day, only once did I go up for a late check, when I was a concerned there might be colicking... It sounds a lovely set up, I wish it was down here and I would snap their hands off for it.
 
A lot of yards with people on site, don't have people who know about horses. When we were at livery the man who owned the place did do a last check about 10.30, but I know of a number of yards where the last livery owner visit is the last one for the day. If I were your friend I would probably give it a go, we keep ours at home, can check whenever we want, have horsey neighbours, so if there's a problem when we are at work, someone is likely to sort it. :) I could not go back to sharing with multiple liveries, who I don't get to choose! I think the set up your friend has been offered is the next best thing to having them at home. :)
 
I have a similar set up where I am by myself, and the land is not attached to any houses. The nearest house is the other side of the lane but not overlooking, the owners of the land live there and there is always someone around and they keep a very good eye on whats going on, plus i have got to know the local farmers who are always driving past and they will knock on the door too if there is an issue. For me its the next best thing to having them at home, if there is ever an issue they let me know straight away.

I have been on livery yards where if something catastrophic happened to one of the horses I very much doubt anyone would notice for quite some time.

Oh and I have a white board pinned up outside the stables with all my contact numbers, OH's contact numbers, vet etc in case there is ever the need. I don't lock away headcollers either - leave them hanging outside the stables so they are easy to grab if ever the need.
 
I keep my horses on a yard which is attached to a house but the people who own land and house are not horsey and don't check them etc. I go up twice at least twice a day and check them. It is nice to know that there are people there who would call me if anything happened and hopefully it is more secure with people around.
It is really nice being on own yard though and doing everything as you want, think horses also like the continuity of the same people looking after them all the time.
 
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