yard - stay or go?

Emilieu

Emilieu

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Just mussing - what things would make you reluctant to leave a yard and what things would tempt you away? Overall what would be the biggest deciding factor if you decided to move?
Interested in all thoughts!
 
I'm considering moving due to travel distance from work/ home. However, I am reluctant as the hacking where he is is great and I doubt I'd find as good nearer home :/

The yard is quite busy/ noisy which annoys me sometimes (I think I'm an anti-social creature) but does have good facilities. My horse was also there before I bought him and I'm worried that a move would upset him if he didn't settle into new yard.

All in all, a lot to think about!
 
I am in between moving - move in 2 weeks so I can be totally up to date and honest!

Reluctant as horse very happy & settled, fellow liveries are all lovely (& prob reading this but know I truly mean it), yo lovely & very supportive, grazing great, fencing, location etc, beautiful school & facilities....

Moving because I want my boy to have option of 24/7 ayto but with a stable, only 3 other horses in herd & my boy knows 1 of them, location, lovely yo, alot cheaper, adult hacking companions (none at current yard presently) & has somewhere to park my trailer.

Been a tough decision but fate played a hand & the new yard vacancy arose at right time so I felt I should take it.

*keeping everything crossed*
 
Factors for me = Turnout, Distance+Location, Hacking, Size, School, Price.

Those are my priorities and in that order.

I am moving on Saturday, initially for distance but happen to get much more grazing, cheaper hay and shavings, bigger stable, better surface and floodlights all by chance!

I will miss my yard though, I like the girls and will miss the horses :(
 
Nice people and good turnout would be the main things, in the middle would be quality of the school and then I'd compromise on the stables themselves....having left a yard that was populated by a vile woman, who made my life hell, I'd rather compromise on a stable design/size to be happy, although obviously not to the disadvantage of the horse, there would be a limit. I was lucky to not to have to compromise on anything in my recent move, and I managed to leave the yard bully behind! win :D
 
EMMA!!! i have tried and tried to reply to your messages and still to no avail.. so please dont think i havent replied deliberately. please private message me with your email and il email back! hope you and your boy are good xx

Elizabeth

xx
 
For me, turnout is the number 1 priority - both in terms of the amount of turnout the horses received and the quality of the fields and fencing.

Good facilities are also important - as is hacking but I've coped before with limited hacking and no facilities.

I doesn't have to be one thing though that can spur you to move yard - sometimes an accumulation of small issues are enough.

No yard is perfect though (well I've yet to find one that is) but as long as you only have to make minor compromises then I wouldn't look to move.

Hope that helps!
 
Thank you it does babybear. I think the problem actually is that I love my yard and the people at it... so nothing is pushing me to go. Basically tho I'm a happy hacker and the hacking near us is not so happy! Would love to be somewhere with some off road... but that would mean leaving all the things I love about the yard!
Eeek, hate decisions :o
 
Distance and social life count for me, plus hacking.

It depends what you want-facilities, turn out, proximity, company, services, hacking, indoor school?
 
Emilieu said:
Just mussing - what things would make you reluctant to leave a yard and what things would tempt you away? Overall what would be the biggest deciding factor if you decided to move?
Interested in all thoughts!
Click to expand...

Where we are at the moment we have beautiful large stables, plenty of storage, secure tackroom with loads of space. We have a floodlit sand & rubber arena which never floods or freezes. We have plenty of grazing & the land & everything else is well looked after & maintained. There is Lorry parking, beautiful large bail haylege & great hacking. The YO & his wife are wonderful. There are only 5 horses at this private yard, two of them ours so it's lovely & quiet. Why would I want to leave this little paradise? It sounds too good to be true I know, we ask ourselves regularly how lucky we are to be where we are.

The only reason we would move is if we could afford a place identical to where we are now. In fact there is only one thing wrong with where we are & that is we don't own it ourselves. :)
 
Emilieu said:
Turnout and hacking are my top priorities. Social life and company I think would be the sacrifices I would make if leaving.
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Ah I see what you mean now.

Do you have transport? Could you trailer out to places to go hacking?

It's also worth investing in an ordanance survey map to see what hacking is available around you as may have good hacking that you just don't know about.

When I moved to my current yard I was the only livery for a while and Y/O was new to the area so I would just go out on adventure hacks to see what I could find and fortunately we've got loads of good hacking.

If you are happy where you are in all other ways I'd look to do that first before moving to somewhere that might offer good hacking but doesn't suit in other ways.
 
Unfortunately i don't have access to transport or that would be an ideal solution - there is excellent hacking just up the road but it would be a good few hours hack on a very busy road to get there. I have been thinking about it but realistically am a good few years away from that.

I've been on the yard for a few years now and go out with others who have been there longer so I know the area and what it offers pretty well but a map is certainly another idea. At the moment it is 100% road work - my boy is bombproof in traffic but ideally i would like to build up my confidence cantering outside of the school - but there is nowhere at all to practice!

A little bird whispered to me that a space is becoming available at a yard just up the road from my house with access to brilliant hacking - this is what has thrown me into a spin!
 
That's a shame you don't have transport and 2 hours is a bit much to hack just to get some off road hacking.

I see from you avatar that you are near Glasgow and I do think that depending on how close you are to the city that hacking can be limited to road work.

I'm just outside Glasgow and am lucky to have access to quite roads and some forest tracks right on the yard but I know that in general this isn't the best part of the world for hacking.

It might be worth going to see the yard near your house to see what you think.

Write up a list of pros and cons to try and balance out the two. If you do decide to move you can always move back as long as you ensure you leave on good terms.
 
I sometimes have dreams of finding a yard with an indoor arena for dreich days, a big gorgeous outdoor arena, and miles and miles of hacking in big, open country in the mountains without farms nor fences in your way. Oh, wait, this was the yard I LEFT when I moved here from the US. Silly idea.

Since moving to Britain, I've been marginally unhappy with all yards. At the moment, it's because we have no indoor and the hacking is pants in that it involves a lot of roadwork and some forestry tracks with questionable footing. On the other hand, the other liveries are fantastic, as are the YOs, and my horse loves it, which is important as she can develop irrational dislikes of yards and drive me and herself bonkers. I keep telling myself that it's better than the place I boarded at in County Durham, where any hacking required roadwork on the A68. YIKES.
 
At the moment, I'm looking at it purely from Alfs point of view. I really like the yard, the facilities are good, and the people are lovely - but he is turned out alone, and he's fed up. There is only the choice of herd turnout (which I can't do because of his physical problems, because one of the herd was chasing him) or (reluctantly agreed by the YO's) individual in a small paddock.

Realistically, he isn't going to be back in work any time soon, and for the sake of his mental state, I think I need to move him somewhere where he can go out with one other quiet horse. Finding somewhere seems to be an impossible task though!

He took ages to settle into this yard as well - so I'd really rather not move again!
 
Auslander said:
He took ages to settle into this yard as well - so I'd really rather not move again!
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Like Casino Solo said earlier my last horse had been at the yard before me and so i would have been scared to move him in case he didn't settle.

Deano however settled right away when i brought him to his new yard in June so I no longer have that excuse!

A68 hacking sounds a bit scary CI! Our roads are quiet but twisty and the cars go quickly on them. Deano took violent exception to a bag of rubbish on the road yesterday, spun and started cantering for home. I dread to think what would have happened if a car had chosen that moment to speed around a corner :eek: it gave me quite a scare and made me long for nice quiet forest tracks!!

Babybear i'm about 30 mins outside of Glasgow and I work in Ayrshire so could also move further out that way for safer hacking. Think I know what a pros and cons list will reveal, just too scared to face up to the idea of moving from what i know!
 
Hacking is a must have for me so if hey bulldozed the forest I may have to consider a move :D I'm on the same yard as Babybear, we have good hacking, nice big outdoor, the liveries are nice - that's another thing that would have me heading for the hills - a psycho livery. You have to weight up the pro's and cons - there are things on my yard which are not ideal but I stay because the good stuff far outweighs the negative and the negative is stuff that I'm prepared to live with for the sake of having a sane YO, a yard I can walk to it I want, good hacking, friendly people, a nice school and being somewhere I am happy as is my horse
 
Hevs said:
the liveries are nice - that's another thing that would have me heading for the hills - a psycho livery.
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Reading between the lines I wonder if this would have to be the price I paid for the lovely hacking... And the best thing about my yard is the people so it would be awful to leave them for a bunch of nutters!
 
Emilieu said:
Reading between the lines I wonder if this would have to be the price I paid for the lovely hacking... And the best thing about my yard is the people so it would be awful to leave them for a bunch of nutters!
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I know of a couple of yards that have fab facilities, fab turn out, fab hacking but the Y/O is a fruit loop and ruins your ability to enjoy all those things by being difficult.

Is there one at your yard with transport that you could borrow to trailer out for hacks?

Shame you're not the other side of Glasgow as our yard would have probably suited you as it ticks all the boxes and everyone is lovely.
 
Emilieu said:
Reading between the lines I wonder if this would have to be the price I paid for the lovely hacking... And the best thing about my yard is the people so it would be awful to leave them for a bunch of nutters!
Click to expand...

Its one of the things I love about my yard - the YO will try her best to ensure that any new livery will compliment the already nice dynamics on the yard - shes not just about the money, she cares what kind of people are on her yard - after all she has to live there.

I kinda feel your pain with the no transport thing - I dont go anywhere other than hacking as I have none and Im desperate to get out and about. Just bought a 4x4 though so next step is trailer test and trailer :D
 
I am currently looking to move as yard doesnt meet my requirements. I have a very busy job that can sometimes mean working late and client socialising. Horse is on assisted DIY livery and whilst I am doing 99% of the work I do rely occasionally on friends to help me out and I hate it. I was told the yard would offer full livery which seemed ideal- yard has brilliant facilities, great hacking and is close to home. So initially ticked all the boxes. Of course nothing is ever perfect however I wasnt happy with the standard of care that came with full livery and decided to do as much of it myself as possible. Come winter it will be harder for me to do it and am looking for full livery in a small yard- preferably a private competition yard. Like hens teeth in my immediate area so think I will have to drive further but then wont have the worry of mucking out or making up feeds to contend with.
I had a conversation with a fellow livery last night. We were talking about yards in general and she said horsey people always complain about their yards. Which i agree we do! but my horse costs the best part of 500 pounds a month to keep and thats on DIY. If i was spending that money in any other area of my life and wasnt happy with what i was getting for it i would be complaining about it. I imagine as a YO its so difficult to keep everyone happy- I find on a DIY yard its probably harder again as everyone is left to their own devices. However I have worked out Im not cut out for a DIY yard and need to be somewhere different.
 
Ellefizz - i agree about people always complaining. That is what makes me scared to go! I actually like my yard so it would be awful to leave and go somewhere that ended up awful! No such thing as perfect I guess so it is just about deciding what is most important. Unfortunately for me that brings me back to looking for lovely off road hacking!

Hevs said:
Its one of the things I love about my yard - the YO will try her best to ensure that any new livery will compliment the already nice dynamics on the yard - shes not just about the money, she cares what kind of people are on her yard - after all she has to live there.

I kinda feel your pain with the no transport thing - I dont go anywhere other than hacking as I have none and Im desperate to get out and about. Just bought a 4x4 though so next step is trailer test and trailer :D
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Your yard sounds wonderful, couldn't we just swivel it around to the south side??! The no transport thing is a real pain - have to keep reminding myself that four years ago I would have given anything just to have a horse and to take it one step at a time! I properly eye up cars with tow bars these days :rolleyes:
 
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