Those of you who keep your horses out 24/7

[upsidedown]

I am currently looking at moving my horses from a livery yard to a field nearer to home.

For the last 7 years I have been on a yard with Stables and a School to use. However due to a change in circumstances I am looking at moving my two lads to a field near my house.
It is approx 10acres, and does have an existing building which could be used as a shelter and a flat area which I could ride on.

I would section the field up so that it provided enough grazing for the whole year, and with only One horse and 3 miniatures (all being good doers) there is ample room and grass for them to be out all year round.

However I want to know people own experiences with having only a field?!

I am really looking forward to having him closer to home (500yrds instead of 4miles), saving on travel costs and time. Also meaning I can go and ride at any time, and do my own thing.

The field is attached to a house, so there would be supervision of the horses, and there is a main water supply. However no lights in the existing shelter, but prospects to build another.

The owner is not horsie as such, but does love to watch them. She has no plans for the field and is currently allowing one of the local farmers to graze a few cattle on it to keep the grass down, (he does not need, nor really want the field and just uses it as it needs to be grazed)

I would be taking on the boundary maintenance (stepfather already maintains the surrounding woodland so know the field well) and I would obviously want to keep up on poop picking etc.

But have any of you made the big move from a yard to a field??
What do you think??
How do you manage the winters??

Many thanks in advance, sorry its a bit long winded

 

[No_Angel]

That sounds like a lovely opportunity.

I only have a field (4 acres at the moment) no water, no electricity, no existing buildings, and it's 4 miles from home.

I've not known any different, as I've never been on a yard, but did have the horses next to my house for a few years and it was much easier.

 

[Dreamster]

My horses live out 24/7 although we do have stables we can use if required. They can come and go as they please but very rarely use them. It is great having the freedom to manage your horses as you wish without livery yard rules or politics.

The manure gets bagged up and left out for gardeners and also a local allotment comes once a year for a trailer load.

Make sure you have somewhere watertight to store any hay or haylage. A good headtorch for winter.

If your horses are anything like mine they will enjoy their new lifestyle. Let us all know how you get on.

 

[Trewsers]

When we brought ours home to live all we had for the first spring, summer and winter was a field, a shelter and not a lot else! I learnt the hard way though - and did not section it off like I should have done. Water wise, we had a bit of a time getting it down there, but we did invest in War Horse containers - they are heavy for lugging but if you can get a car to the field like a four wheel drive, it shouldn't be a problem. We bought lanterns to hang outside the boxes - I got some from a local DIY place - they gobbled up batteries pretty fast mind! Head torches are a must - if only I'd discovered those sooner......
Leccy fencing is a god-send - OH and I have got quite handy with it since! I also bought some of those enormous storage boxes from B & Q - to keep rugs, feed in etc. Pity themice discovered a way in.....hehehehee, they weren't too bad I suppose............
Only tip I wish I'd known then, was I wish I'd bought more field mats. The outside of the field shelters got dreadful, all churned up and was hard for the farrier to trim and shoe properly.
Now we have our all singing all dancing stables, with water and electricity I am just spoilt!!!!!!!
Its still the best thing we ever did though - I had my moments when I wondered what on earth I'd done bringing them home to no facilities! The bad weather wasn't a favourite and I did get a bit fed up with all the mud. Now I think I'd just sneak some hard-core in there - without the neighbours seeing it - and probably never get caught by the council (I have a horrible nosey neighbour who rings the council everytime he suspects something untoward is going on!!!!)
Oh, and a wind-up radio -great for just sitting on a nice day and enjoying the horses!!!!

 

[learningcurve]

I rent 6 acres, only thing on site is water, owner may provide you with water if outside pipes freeze up, if not get a few 25l containers so you can bring some from home. Water trugs are useful so that you can section field up without relying on trough. I am quite lucky that my field is quite dry so mud isn't much of a problem but I do fence of areas that may become poached.
My field is down a private road and I have a large hardcore gateway which I have put rubber mats on for farrier.
Head torchs are fantastic, I also have some LED torches with hooks to hang up.
We made a hay store with 8ft fence posts, lorry tarp around the sides, tin roof and pallets on the ground, it holds about 70 bales. I also have an old chest freezer in there for feed etc.
A shed is handy for rugs, headcollars, first aid, etc.
We have a post and rail area for tacking up.

 

[tazzy-anne]

This is funny - I'm going to see an 8 acre field in the morning too! From a livery yard with full facs (right by home but field not too far either) to a field with just water. I know nothing else about it at all so might be a total no - go, but I'm excited at the prospect. Apparently you can set up lights from just a car battery?! And in the long run the choice to manage it all as you wish just sounds wonderful.

 

[juliecwuk]

I am coming round to the idea of finding a big field to rent but I just don't know how to find one! Now we have 3 horses plus 2 owned by close friends and my hubby would like one, we would be far better off renting a very large field! I worry I would miss the use of a school (not that ours has been any good this winter tho!) and also I don't want to move far from the good hacking or far from home...so options are very limited!

 

[Whatanejit]

This is a fabulous opportunity!

We rent 8 acres and moved from a yard to there 4.5 years ago now.

Only 3 horses on the land so lots of space.

How we manage it:

A) We bought solar lights for our field shelter. One light was a sensor which was a pain as you don't want it going on during the night when the horses trigger it and you aren't there. The other was a string pull light. Not very bright but good enough to change dressings on an abscess in the dark.
Check out ebay for solar powered lights. They range from £10 to £100s of pounds

B) Head torches are your friend

C) Paddock paradise is a great way to manage the field. You will need to invest in lots of electric fencing posts, tape, energisers and car batteries but it is worth it in the end. You keep the horses' weight down and grow winter foggage. If you manage it well you should only have to hay in the snow and no other times.

D) we have a flat area that we financed to fence off properly for schooling. Still only usable for 6 months of the year but we have great hacking so don't really care.

E) A little shed onsite beside our field shelter houses a portaloo - which comes in very handy.

F) Enjoy the space, the peace, the freedom, the lack of liveries