Would you rent a yard without water?

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Fragglerock

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Yard has stables, haybarn, school, land, field shelter and electricity.

If you would consider how much less would you expect to pay?

Cost of putting water in is around £15k so not really an option.
 
personally, no... would be an absolute pain. Unless you could built some kind of mini reservoir? or tap into a neighbours water? or install a well?
 
Do you tow? I would buy an old water bowser fora few hundred (we have one) and fill it up at home and take it to the yard however often you need to. Many farmers around here water sheep this way.

And collect all rain water of the roof, for washing water.

For the annoyance, I would probably expect to pay at least £1000 a year less, maybe more?
 
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depends on how many horses? dont underestimate how much work it would be, especially in dry cold snaps in the winter. I'm guessing they already rent out without water and so have a price?
 
No idea on how much less you would pay, if the owners have stables, school, land, field shelter and electricity I would think as water is more important than anything else they must have some sort of game plan for obtaining water

I have a neighbour who has no running water (Long story) he just turns up at my place and fills up all these containers, he also uses water butts and he manages very well considering he lives there and runs a business but he doesn't have any horses
 
I spent my youth at a yard that didn't have water or electricity (two horses). We did eventually put lights in the stables which ran off car batteries. We also had water butts so winter wasn't too much of a problem - we had several large water containers which we used. At the time we thought we were in heaven but people expect more convenience nowadays :)

Question is on behalf of a friend - the yard has 3 stables.
 
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Fragglerock said:
I spent my youth at a yard that didn't have water or electricity (two horses). We did eventually put lights in the stables which ran off car batteries. We also had water butts so winter wasn't too much of a problem - we had several large water containers which we used. At the time we thought we were in heaven but people expect more convenience nowadays :)

Question is on behalf of a friend - the yard has 3 stables.
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well I have done it (didnt have electric either) and I've rented fields without it as well. The yard without water I had a massive bowser that the farmer would fill (had to be towed behind a tractor-it held several thousand gallons. But then I was at the mercy of him and during those bad winters it froze beyond use. for weeks. carrying water in a car is not good for its suspension ;) vans manage better.
I wouldnt not do it, it has a school etc but I would source a couple of different options for carrying water.
 
Pedantic said:
How can it be called a yard with the most basic of requirements missing. NOA
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The Lord Almighty does deliver a significant amount of water to the rooves of three stables and a hay barn :)

For the right rent, in an area where they aren't two a penny, a private yard with three stables, storage and a school is worth its weight in gold.
 
Fragglerock said:
Yard has stables, haybarn, school, land, field shelter and electricity.

If you would consider how much less would you expect to pay?

Cost of putting water in is around £15k so not really an option.
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In ideal world no.

That said - Depends on my situation and these factors


1 Is their building where you could rain water harvest from a water but connected to the guttering.
2 How much land
3 How many horses I had
4 Electricity
5 Location of the yard to my house - schools- shows - hacking etc etc.
6 If there was nothing else around to suit my needs
7 What other facilities it had
8 If there was adjacent field where I could talk to the neighbours and tap my pipes to theirs and joint pay for the water.

If you are interested I would speak to any house/ farmer next to it and discuss the possibility for sub letting a water supply
 
ycbm said:
The Lord Almighty does deliver a significant amount of water to the rooves of three stables and a hay barn :)

For the right rent, in an area where they aren't two a penny, a private yard with three stables, storage and a school is worth its weight in gold.
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Oh I would happily put a rainwater water system into a yard, once I'd assessed how much water, from where, what storage, insulation etc. But in a rental situation, where you will really have to hit the ground running to get it all worked out fast enough that you're not getting caught out....well it's just a recipe to raise the blood pressure.

If I wasn't 100% on top of the situation I would worry endlessly about my neds running short of water and just thinking it makes me stressed. Aside from grazing, there is no other facility I wouldn't sacrifice in favour of water.
 
One other thing is how often is the electric checked, I know if there was a fire the fire brigade wouldn't turn up expecting to use a tap or my hose but guaranteed I would want to be dialling 999 with one hand and my other hand attached to a hose which was bellowing out water + balancing my fire extinguisher between my feet

Here is what I use water for:
Drinking, shampooing, jet washing for stables, water troughs, vehicles and yard, making up disinfectant foot baths, water troughs filling up, cleaning buckets, boots and footwear, washing fly masks, bits and did I mention gallons of coffee and tea making :-)
 
imagine there was a heat wave, or a freeze. you'd fly through any water you had saved from the roof. fair enough if you can transport water there in the back of a jeep, but what if your jeep breaks, or the roads are icy, or you are injured and can't do it. thats a lot of risks
 
paddi22 said:
imagine there was a heat wave, or a freeze. you'd fly through any water you had saved from the roof. fair enough if you can transport water there in the back of a jeep, but what if your jeep breaks, or the roads are icy, or you are injured and can't do it. thats a lot of risks
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^^^^This^^^^
 
I would have to say no. The fire risk would worry me. Seems strange that someone has gone to all the expense to build what's there, but haven't bothered to put in something as important as a water supply.
 
The yard behind me has no water.
The people there just take their own up.
They have never even asked me to use my tap for hosing a lame horse.
They harvest water from the roof of 2 stable blocks, and a barn. They do take some up themselves in dry weather, but seems it's rarely even needed them to do that by harvesting.
They rent the yard and obviously is not an issue for them.
 
I rent a set up and have no running water, I have a small flock of sheep and goats, about 50 chickens and three ponies. Most of the year I use rainwater harvested in two blue barrels and an IBC, the IBC will usually function down to some chilly temperatures but a bit of planning ahead means we have half a dozen large containers of water stored in the hay store with old rugs wrapped around them

In summer the roofs get so dusty that even if we get rain the water is often unuseable so when we have no water its bought from home in containers (over a tonne over two days of that hot spell last week!)

We have been there eight years and have only ever had two or three incidences of actual worry when it was so cold the car was not an option and in those cases we dragged water up on sledges

A friend has an IBC tank at her yard about 6 feet off the ground and this provides enough gravitational pressure to run a hose.

If I need pressured water for bathing horses though I use an Aqua2Go unit as it uses water very sparingly

Every now and again we fill the car full of all the feed buckets, feedbins, scoops etc and take it all home for a deep clean

If I could tow then I would definitely buy a bowser and a pump to make it pressurised when needed

Its not an easy life but its not a deal breaker for me
 
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Only if it was perfect in every other way.

We rented fields in the past, one had a working trough from which we were able to fill canisters and lug to the other fields in wheelbarrows. Or we'd bring canisters from home. There were no taps or hard standing.

So even with the 'luxury' of the working trough, it was backbreaking work. It's incredible how heavy a canister of water is.

It's doable, but a huge inconvenience. We missed being able to use a hose, for example.

I'd think twice.
 
Yes I would and did for 15 years. I eventually got a bowser which was lovely. Rainwater was never wasted and that kept my 3 going all winter. A friend has no water and manages to soak hay too! Grazing round here is rare to find, but fairly cheap.
 
Yes if everything else was right and owner was prepared to help with setting up rainwater collection system with IBC containers and I lived nearby. If it was at a distance probably not as I am time short personally.

However, if you are in an area that freezes a lot in winter then it will be a lot more work and hassle but I think only the person renting it out could answer if they are prepared to do the lugging and shifting of water.
 
Yes and no. Having done it for the last year it was a struggle, especially when we had such a dry winter! I rain water harvest into IBC containers (two) but even in winter I was taking up water 2-3 times a day. If I'd had the money to buy a bowser and I had the option of towing it certainly wouldnt be an issue BUT I didnt and I really struggled to the point my parents loaned me the money to put water in which cost a few thousand in the end. I now rain water harvest one IBC (old habits die hard) to supplement my fresh water usage (on a meter)

Electricity not a problem. I have a solar panel topping up a decent sized leisure battery and I run everything off that at 12v although planning to upgrade my system, add a battery and run 24v stuff via a transformer.

If you have the money to buy a decent portable towable water container then yes go for it if the yard is perfect in other ways and expect to pay about £700 for a basic off grid solar lighting system which you can obviously take with you when you move.

Off grid electricity YES. Off grid water .. no for me!
 
Lack of water was a deal breaker for me, and I moved just last weekend because of it! 'Yard' collected rain water off the roof of a barn, and when it ran dry during the hot spell it was a right pain in the backside.
Didn't help that the water trough sprang a leak and went from full to empty over night.

Honestly, I would avoid a yard without water, heck I'd be leery of one without water pressure as it makes hosing wounds and bathing a real bleddy chore!
 
Having spent the last 5 years renting a field with no water, no would never do it again. We take water up in containers, in either my daughters car or our 4x4. It is a pain in the neck. There is a bit that comes off the field shelter, but in summer this is very little, and does not look very clean, probably has dust in it.
 
We have no water supply for our yard with circa 15 horses plus sheep pigs and goats.

Friend who owns yard has a very good rainwater system, with tanks filtering off every shed / structure, strategically dotted around the land. The automatic troughs also fill off these. Because we are in Scotland, this system works well for 80% of the year. The other 20%, we all take it in turns to bring up water in water containers filled from the neighbouring farm. In wet times, we decant the tanks into containers to increase the store and ensure no water is wasted from over spill.

Its really not as big an inconvenience as it could be - but we do have about 6 or 7 massive and accessible tanks that work really well.
 
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