WWYD? LIVERY ADVICE

[peanutsmumma]

At the moment I keep my horses at grass livery where I live, their field is right at the back of my house. We have been told that the land is being sold but we have no idea when, we have seen the workman doing various things like measuring the fields and testing the water table etc

I pay £170 for 2 ponies on just under 2 acres, no storage an then have to pay an extra £25 a month to use the school.

Myself and my friend have been keeping an eye out for grazing just incase we need to move, the current livery owner isn't keeping us in the loop with anything and she would be the type of person to turn around at the last minute and tell us we have 1 month to find somewhere!

Anyway....we have found some grazing nearby but its a busy A road to get there so would be traffic at peak times to get there. It is part of a house, the owner isn't horsey so rents the fields out - there is only 1 lady there at the moment because although he has 9 acres, he doesn't want too many people there.

We can have 2 paddocks each for £100 and have access to some stables at the front of his house for an extra £20 a month if we need them. He has also agreed for us to have the rest of the fields cut so that we can make hay from them.

Downsides are...…There is no school so riding during the winter will be hard as the lanes are country lanes. There is access to a school 10mins away but would need to ride the lanes in the dark.
During the summer months, the A road is REALLY busy so would b stuck in traffic.

Im really torn with what to do...….having my boys at the back of my house is so convenient and I can pop out at any time to do them as can fit t round the children etc. If I knew we had a few years left there, I wouldn't even consider moving yet. :-(

 

[EllenJay]

In your shoes, I think I would move to the new yard. That will take the pressure off that you will have to move urgently. You can then take your time and look for something more suitable.

 

[SEL]

I was on a livery yard that got planning to put houses where the barns / stables were. I was allowed to stay on in the paddocks and was promised 3 month's notice. The landowner turned up one day and said he'd committed to vacant possession in 3 weeks time. Staying in the fields wasn't an issue, but the developers were not allowing access down the only road in apart from the footpath. So I could have walked to see my horses, but car access (farriers, vets etc) was non existent.

I had to move in a rush and although I fortunately found a lovely yard I wouldn't recommend the stress.

 

[ponynutz]

They might not be able to build. I wouldn't rush moving but have a plan set in place. They've been saying they're going to build on the field at the end of our lane for years but have never been able to get the permission so the horses that are in there have stayed.

 

[Highmileagecob]

I think I might ask the yard owner in passing if the land will remain as grazing. If the answer is yes, can you raise funds to buy? Sometimes it will start a conversation, sometimes not. Would your local planning office be able to shed any light on recent applications? Wouldn't hurt to find out if your fields are in greenbelt, if you don't already know. That would slow down an application, as the local outcry has to be dealt with.

 

[ester]

Tricky, if could be a very long time until anything actually happens even once sold so I’d be inclined not to rush either.

 

[peanutsmumma]

I think I might ask the yard owner in passing if the land will remain as grazing. If the answer is yes, can you raise funds to buy? Sometimes it will start a conversation, sometimes not. Would your local planning office be able to shed any light on recent applications? Wouldn't hurt to find out if your fields are in greenbelt, if you don't already know. That would slow down an application, as the local outcry has to be dealt with.

Our livery owner is not the easiest to deal with, she is on the defensive side all the time. The land is definitely being sold for houses. They have been offered a massive amount of money for it so there is no way she will accept an offer from me as it will come no where near what the builders have offered.

We are Greenbelt but a lot of the work for that has already been done for that

 

[peanutsmumma]

Tricky, if could be a very long time until anything actually happens even once sold so I’d be inclined not to rush either.

Once the land is sold to the builders, they can then ask us to leave as they now own the land......even if its not due to be built on :-/

 

[ester]

Yes of course they can but they might well not if they’re not doing anything with it immediately, if it’s been sold for a lot presumably it has outline planning at least already? I posted because We were possibly looking at a similar situation and would have been asking to stay as long as possible as one of the horses wouldn’t be moved. We also know how slow the wheels turn - it has been in the pipeline for 2 years this time round and about the same 5 years ago and nothing has actually happened.
Field out the back of us had horses on it at least 2 years after it was sold and fenced ready for development - now has a housing estate.

for me that would be long enough that I wouldn’t want to rush a move from the back of my house to somewhere I probably couldn’t ride much from in winter.

 

[eggs]

Have you been able to confirm that planning permission has actually been granted? You should be able to check on your council's website. If permission hasn't been grated yet it could be quite a while before it is. Testing the water tables is usually done before a planning application goes in.

 

[Gloi]

I think I would begin to rent the new yard and take the hay off it. You don't want to lose the chance of it and be stuck if you are in an area without many places to go when you have to leave your current place. Can you box out from the new place and mark out an arena to ride in the fields in summer