Grass livery woes

[SpottyBumPony]

What happened to the days where you paid £10 a week for a muddy field that had ponies and a few old cobs in.

My yard is being sold and here in the central South grazing is like rocking horse poo. I'm currently paying £130 a month for the privilege of leaving my horse out by herself overnight as everyone else brings in. I'm struggling to find anything else as a replacement

I miss the old days of horses in fields

All around me the land has been bought by retirees from the city. All they want to do is look at a field of pristine grass and pay someone to mow it each year. The idea of any sort of livestock is an anethema to them. I can't even persuade them to allow a few sheep on the ground. There is a huge shortage of grazing land in the South now so everyone (including me) brings in at night to try and keep what they have in reasonable condition. We are hoping to switch to a track system with access to the barn so the horses can have more time outside but again mud is the enemy.

I'd love to try a track system but that seems impossible to find as well

I don’t think £130 per month is bad for rent of a field but I agree it’s unfair for your horse to be out alone. As the pp said mud is the issue and landowners don’t want their fields turned into mud puddles by horses being out all the time .

I've kept her out for 18 years, fields get muddy in winter and then recover in summer

Most people I know with cheap gras livery (I fairly recently paid 15 a week, which included a check and rug changes if needed) get it through word of mouth - mine wasn’t a yard but a farmer who’s daughter had horses and was happy for a couple of extras on site.

I'm kind of on grass livery - rent a couple of acres with field shelters and basically do what I like with it. The farmer who I rent from has recently given up a fairly large block of grazing, with shelters and running water, because no-one was interested in taking it! At the princely sum of £60 per horse per month which I think is dirt cheap for the sole use of a few acres. But I'm in the north, fairly rural, and things are a bit different here.

@RatherBeRiding that sounds an unbelievably good deal to me. @Plantstrees the land situation is exactly the same here when it is attached to houses. There are still some spots where land is separate and outside of planning where you might stand a chance. Any grazing fields being rented out tend to be by people who are sitting on them in the hope of getting planning in the future with no maintenance on fencing etc. @SpottyBumPony the yard I was on was sold for housing this year, second time I have had that. I know what you mean. I have three living out together where that has been a way of life around here for centuries but sometimes I feel like I am one of the last people in the world doing it. Hope you find somewhere soon

Well I just got an email with notice to be out by 30th January as the field I'm in has been sold. No option to just turn out in another field , what a bitch- the week before Christmas

There's a lady offering an opportunity to set up a track but I'd need someone to share it with share it with and to invest in field mats etc. The hacking is crap though

There might be a field at a yard where another livery is going but apparently the YO can be odd

God love a good farrier, he asked another customer and she would have space so am going to look round after Christmas

@SpottyBumPony really glad to hear that you have somewhere to look at and I hope it works out, know how stressful and upsetting it is. Great farrier to try x