The beginning

Following trying both livery on a private yard and on a larger showjumping and dealer yard, we decided we wanted to live by our own rules and not be answerable to anyone about our horses and routine.
We had been looking around for land near home for months, there were no pre existing equestrian yards/grazing locally mainly agricultural land.
The final straw for us came when I broke my arm when my horse spooked which was a combination of him being totally ‘fresh’ as he had been stabled 24/7 for most of the winter due to no grazing/not being allowed to be turned out by the yard manager who didn’t like mud and the fact that a new arena had been constructed right next to the original arena with 4 horses excitedly cantering around when Galaxy is quite reactive around too many other horses he doesn’t know.

We eventually heard about some land for sale in our village on the grapevine and after a few beers with my husband a deal was done with the owner. It took months and months for the conveyancing to get sorted out, we applied in the October and finally officially got the keys in April 2021.

A lot of work to do

When I say land it was literally that, there were old caravans and lorry backs, an old skip, lots of rubbish and scrap metal to get rid of and that was all before even thinking about fencing, paddocks, stables etc.

The grass was poor quality and over grown so had to be topped with a tractor a couple times before it was really suitable for the horses.

There were trees to be pulled out and taken down to make more space for grazing.

Utilities

We were quoted an unmentionable figure for mains water and electricity supply so we had to decide to go for solar power and transporting water in.

We have a 600 litre water bowser trailer which we fill up at home and yes we are on a meter eeeek!

Fencing and stables

So thankfully with the summer coming stables weren’t urgently needed, but with the age of Galaxy and Harley (our 2 horses at the time) I didn’t want them on grass 24/7 either. However you can’t just pop horses in a field and expect them to stay there especially Harley as she likes a wander lol!
We purchased 2 ‘temporary’ stables for Galaxy and Harley which we later thought we would use as field shelters.

We called in the professionals who do stock fencing for farms and they put stock fencing all around our boundary and posts allong where we were going to make the row of paddocks and enclose with electric rope.

Initially planned idea

We originally hoped we would have and have the budget for 4 stables in a block, a 20×40 sand Menage with drainage and it would all be would be complete by about September! Well that’s optimism for you!
Little did we know the hidden expenses we would face! We couldn’t always get the deliveries we needed down the disused track due to mud and width! We had to get trees cut back to make the track wide enough to get lorries down and also as the track was all over grown it was making it muddy and vehicles were getting stuck in the mud.

Road

As the original track/road was over grown that went the length of the land, we needed to scrape off the top soil and re lay stone and road plannings for over 250 meters of track so this took a huge chunk of the budget.

Added extras

After visiting a horsemanship demonstration we also decided we would like a round pen so again not in the initial plans.