Yards - it's another WWYD

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Surbie

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I have been looking at lots of yards locally and it's down to 2. While I've had daily care of my loan horse for nearly a year, he is still my first ever horse and the care has been supervised. I have learned loads, and am quite geeky so currently roaring through BHS manuals.

Horse is used to being out 24/7 all year, but has had a 4-5 month spell of box rest & mini yard with which he coped really well so while decent turnout is ideal, I know he can cope with being in overnight.

Yard A:
Lovely small yard - 3 sets of fields set up as mini-yards with own stables/shelters, 14 horses in total.
- 30 mins away when little traffic along a busy M25 access road
- grass livery or DIY available, assistance if required but some of that from other DIYers
- winter T/O is early morning to dusk-ish for DIY. So possibly the same as Yard B.
- fields are conservation meadows and look in very good nick
- fantastic hacking, mostly off-road
- access to a 20x40 school down the lane for an extra cost - school only has one small floodlight and can't be used early mornings
- no electricity yet, though might be put in for DIY field
- bounded by a stream (horse has mild sweetitch)
- very quiet & secluded - to the extent that I am concerned I will be lonely there (I am very sociable) and that my spooky horse will get more spooky when taken out of his comfort zone.

Yard B:
- Less smart than yard A, but same amount of horses
- 15 mins away along the same road as Yard A
- No overnight turnout through the year, DIY or paid assisted available with big airy boxes
- Winter T/O is 8-9am to 2pm
- Fields are very big and a 5-10 min walk from the yard
- Hacking is pretty poor - lots of roadwork
- electricity on yard, and floodlit 20 x 40 outdoor school is next to the stabling.
- busy yard with lots of people coming and going which will keep spooky horse accustomed to lots of different things - some of the riders compete and YM keeps her 3 horses there

My vet and farrier cover both yards, both do worm counts rather than a straight worming programme which I like, both seem very friendly. Both are on clay.

I do wonder whether it would be better for me to be on Yard B for a while, and then move to something like Yard A when I am more experienced or just go for Yard A.

Any pointers/thoughts welcome. Tea and choccie biccies for those who've slogged through this far!
 
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I'd keep looking if it was me, an hour a day or possibly two if two visits is way too much time out and I like good hacking. But that's just me.
 
I suppose it depends a bit on whether you work or not, if you do normal working hours neither sound suitable for the winter, yard a has no electrics so you will be doing everything by torch/ head torch or need something portable to do all your jobs with, don't underestimate how long winter is, the hacking may be good but may not be great in the dark.
Yard b has very restricted winter turnout which will mean you paying for him to be brought in every day and maybe turned out, you will use more hay and bedding to add to the expense, having electrics and an arena will make riding easier but the hacking is a negative.

If you don't work they may be fine but if you do I would keep looking for somewhere with better facilities that is more flexible.
 
Surbie said:
I have been looking at lots of yards locally and it's down to 2. While I've had daily care of my loan horse for nearly a year, he is still my first ever horse and the care has been supervised. I have learned loads, and am quite geeky so currently roaring through BHS manuals.

Horse is used to being out 24/7 all year, but has had a 4-5 month spell of box rest & mini yard with which he coped really well so while decent turnout is ideal, I know he can cope with being in overnight.

Yard A:
Lovely small yard - 3 sets of fields set up as mini-yards with own stables/shelters, 14 horses in total.
- 30 mins away when little traffic along a busy M25 access road
- grass livery or DIY available, assistance if required but some of that from other DIYers
- winter T/O is early morning to dusk-ish for DIY. So possibly the same as Yard B.
- fields are conservation meadows and look in very good nick
- fantastic hacking, mostly off-road
- access to a 20x40 school down the lane for an extra cost - school only has one small floodlight and can't be used early mornings
- no electricity yet, though might be put in for DIY field
- bounded by a stream (horse has mild sweetitch)
- very quiet & secluded - to the extent that I am concerned I will be lonely there (I am very sociable) and that my spooky horse will get more spooky when taken out of his comfort zone.

Yard B:
- Less smart than yard A, but same amount of horses
- 15 mins away along the same road as Yard A
- No overnight turnout through the year, DIY or paid assisted available with big airy boxes
- Winter T/O is 8-9am to 2pm
- Fields are very big and a 5-10 min walk from the yard
- Hacking is pretty poor - lots of roadwork
- electricity on yard, and floodlit 20 x 40 outdoor school is next to the stabling.
- busy yard with lots of people coming and going which will keep spooky horse accustomed to lots of different things - some of the riders compete and YM keeps her 3 horses there

My vet and farrier cover both yards, both do worm counts rather than a straight worming programme which I like, both seem very friendly. Both are on clay.

I do wonder whether it would be better for me to be on Yard B for a while, and then move to something like Yard A when I am more experienced or just go for Yard A.

Any pointers/thoughts welcome. Tea and choccie biccies for those who've slogged through this far!
Click to expand...


I think I recognise yard A, I am guessing I am local to you. If you want to PM me where you live and work, I have a bit of a mental database of all the yards near where I live and work, and am happy to make someone suggestions.
 
wingedhorse said:
I think I recognise yard A, I am guessing I am local to you. If you want to PM me where you live and work, I have a bit of a mental database of all the yards near where I live and work, and am happy to make someone suggestions.
Click to expand...

Thank you - will PM. :)

I work freelance at the moment, but am looking to go back to working for an organisation. I haven't found any yard that doesn't require them in mid-afternoon in winter, and most DIY yards I have seen have no electricity.
 
be positive said:
I suppose it depends a bit on whether you work or not, if you do normal working hours neither sound suitable for the winter, yard a has no electrics so you will be doing everything by torch/ head torch or need something portable to do all your jobs with, don't underestimate how long winter is, the hacking may be good but may not be great in the dark.
Yard b has very restricted winter turnout which will mean you paying for him to be brought in every day and maybe turned out, you will use more hay and bedding to add to the expense, having electrics and an arena will make riding easier but the hacking is a negative.

If you don't work they may be fine but if you do I would keep looking for somewhere with better facilities that is more flexible.
Click to expand...

There are those of us who do shift work you know :) Quite a lot of us nowadays
 
Out of the two, it would have to be yard B. The distance of the first yard would be too much for me, especially if you're needing to go up a couple times a day.
 
Definitely not Yard A. I certainly would not do an hour round trip (on a good day) on DIY it was bad enough on part-Livery. In an emergency or if you have to do daily treatment etc. It would be a nightmare.

Yard B sounds ok apart from the hacking. Most horses are fine with daily / half day turn-out in the winter. Depends on what the road hacking is like if it’s lots of fairly quiet lanes then it’s doable. Depending on your work pattern though you may be paying a fair amount for extras such as turnout and bring-in. Neither would be my choice and these days I just would not have a horse in those circumstances because I don’t think I’d enjoy it.
 
Thank you so much for all the tips and particularly to wingedhorse for your PMs.

I'm taking your advice going for a two-stage move in the end. He's coming to yard B (hacking is better than I thought - had another chat with some of the liveries there) and I will spend some time looking for his perfect set-up & going on waiting lists.

I don't want to do the 2 hour roundtrip any longer to the yard he's at. I'm very grateful for it, as it's been a brilliant safety net, but I can't take 4 hours out all the time. Looking forward to the new challenge.
 
Surbie said:
Thank you so much for all the tips and particularly to wingedhorse for your PMs.

I'm taking your advice going for a two-stage move in the end. He's coming to yard B (hacking is better than I thought - had another chat with some of the liveries there) and I will spend some time looking for his perfect set-up & going on waiting lists.

I don't want to do the 2 hour roundtrip any longer to the yard he's at. I'm very grateful for it, as it's been a brilliant safety net, but I can't take 4 hours out all the time. Looking forward to the new challenge.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a really good plan. Good luck with the move.
 
We've moved!

He has an airy 12x12 box at Yard B, which already feels very homey. I spent 3 hours scrubbing the box out this morning and am just waiting for my mats to arrive.

Lots of snorting and being very alert for a few hours, and initially refused to walk into the barn (scary drain), but then he was turned out with a nanny pony into a HUGE field and I honestly haven't seen him so happy for most of this heatwave. Much cantering and trotting around with his tail in the air before settling down to some serious munching next to nanny.

Very good feels about this place. And 10-15 mins in the car is such a luxury after the slog of the M25.

First lesson tomorrow. First hack Thursday. Following advice on other posts, we are starting as we mean to go on... :)
 
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