Which of these places would you keep your horse?

McNally

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1. Grazing in smallish nicely fenced and looked after paddocks with a field shelter. No storege for anything at all- wet rugs in my car etc!.
Same paddock year round so not able to rest it. Not much grass as its a fairly small space for 2 horses and i would need to feed hay all year round which i am currently struggling to buy!
Brilliant riding, quiet village and nice headlands, bridleways etc - Its also 5 mins from my work where i will have use of all weather gallops, out door school and private land to ride on.

This is £20 per week per horse (will have 2 there)

2. To rent a whole field- We will have an initial out lay as i would split into 3/4 paddocks (which will be bigger each than the one above) The owner will supply fencing but we will need to do it- thats fine o/h is a farmer!
I will also need to buy/make a field shelter/stables and storage but this is ok as there is space.
It gets wet in the winter (but think will have enough option to rotate fields) Although its down a very quiet lane there is little in the way of riding. There is a bridleway at the bottom of the lane- not sure where or how far it go's. Other than this there is not a huge amount of riding that wont involve going thru a busy village (very busy in summer with tourists, not too bad in the eve i suppose)
There will be no quiet little circular hack tho. I think i can fence off a flat schooling area with in the field.
My parents are close and friend visits her horses 2 daily a few hundred yards down the lane if i'm ever ill/away
This is £100 per month which is £12.50 per horse per week!!

I am so wanting the second field to be in the location of field number 1! unfortunately this is not possible and other people are after field 2 so i have to make my mind up

Vote below!! or any ideas etc
 
I can yes, but thats really the plan where i currently am that we will box over! However i am dependent on my o/h to tow the trailer as he has a 4 wheel drive and i have a clio, also i would need to take my trailer test which seems silly when i cant afford a bigger car to tow with anyway.

So far this year we have talked him into taking us out with trailer and pony on board....Once!
 
What do you do with your horses? Do you have them mainly for hacking or for competing? are they established or are they babies? :)
 
I think I would have to go with option 1 but only because I am currently in a place with limited hacking and its driving me nuts! Is there no chance you could build/ make some storage space at this place? Good luck whatever you decide :)
 
Option for my personal circumstances would be my choice simply because my horse had lami few years back so the grazing wouldn't be an issue.

Option 2 seems your best bet as you can rotate them etc, you need to find out where bridle path goes before making a decision, would be a pain to have to box just to have ride
 
With the price & availability of hay option 2 definatley, but it does depend on your horses if they are very good doers then option 1 would be fine but if they need constant good forage to keep weight on go with 2.

Are there no farmers around option 2 that you could talk to see if you can ride round there headlands or fields?
 
I can yes, but thats really the plan where i currently am that we will box over! However i am dependent on my o/h to tow the trailer as he has a 4 wheel drive and i have a clio, also i would need to take my trailer test which seems silly when i cant afford a bigger car to tow with anyway.

So far this year we have talked him into taking us out with trailer and pony on board....Once!

Option 2 and then you could buy the OH something nice each times he takes you out with the money you save.

Give him a kick up the bum, it works with mine !
 
would there be a way of putting up some kind of storage unit on option 1? i got stuck lugging everything in my car before, and it's a nightmare and i'l never do it again!

i'd def go for option 2. being able to fence off a schooling area would swing it for me.
 
option 2! Go for a wander down the bridle path and see how far it goes. Should give you more of an idea. Sounds great that you've got the space to do what you want though!
 
Option 2! Check out where the bridle path goes and I would ask the local farmers about being able to ride around their headlands. Where my horse is the hacking was rubbish as you had to do 30mins on the road before you got to a bridle path but I asked the two local farmers and now I have access to their fields and woods and this has meant I can ride across their land as much as I like and can reach the proper bridle paths without going on the roads.
 
I have decided on Option 2.

By the time we have the land ready to use (needs fencing, stables etc) it will be the end of summer. We can explore the bottom of the lane bridleway at first which i believe go's to a quieter village. Then by Autumn the tourists will thin out. By winter its a ghost town so the horses can get used to going round there whilst its quiet.

The horse currently is a rising 4 baby! not the ideal but he is un phased by any traffic so far and horse 2 is an ex racer- well actually he is still in training but i aim to have him by summer! He has spent the summers previously with his real owners and been ridden out as a riding horse so is fairly used to traffic also!

Quite an exciting prospect after so many years of restricted/no turn out at a scruffy yard and having to stick to rules etc.
Cant wait to have nicely fenced paddocks which are safe, poo picked and shady AND worm when they should be wormed instead of when Y/M remembers to buy wormers for the other horses (can be months late). And I'm going to save a fortune!
 
Sounds good that you've decided on option 2 you've got loads more scope , especially with schooling area , we bought land ( approx 7 acres ) without any buildings etc and now have shelters , stables , sand ( woodchip ) school all removable if ness. We can rotate / restrict and make hay and the best thing is if the boys want to have a race round like a couple of loons , there's no yard owner scowling whilst your horse ploughs the field!!
 
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