Buying land

[MrPickles73]

We have a horse and a pony that our children ride. They enjoy riding and we do lots of pony club and NSEA etc. One child is 15 and one 12.

We've had ponies for 3+ years since the riding school closed. We keep them on a friend's farm which is 15 mins drive away and we / I go there every day to feed and check on them. Friend has children and ponies and lovely massive barn, electricity and we park our trailer there.

Friend is super and very easy going so touch wood no issues there.

We live on the edge of a village with fields behind us. Our garden is one acre and has two pet sheep, trampoline etc.

The field behind our garden is on a hillside and about 4 acres. No water supply but constant stream. Usually grazed by cows. Access via a green lane.

The guys who owns it owns lots of land, inherited and has no children and his brother has died. He has asked us before if we'd liked to buy it but hinted it would be expensive so I didn't pursue it. He has now approached my husband about it again (in the pub) two years later.

Pastureland around us is £7-10k an acre. We could let the local farmer continue to graze it and have it as back up for our ponies. It would add value to our house or am I wasting my time? Or I shouldn't consider it without piped water? Do I need to check for oak trees? Are the ponies going to eat acorns and keel over?

We don't have a stable at our house so if we were to use it we might have to build some kind of temporary shelter and put some concrete down?

Any advice?

Is it literally at the back of your house? could you access it from your garden? if so - that would be ideal!

If not, you could put a shelter up with some hard standing, and one of those 1000l water containers to catch rain water?

If i could afford it, i'd jump at the chance to have land that close to home!!

Is it well fenced? Fencing is bloody expensive, so if its got decent, horse safe fencing already then that will save you a huge amount of money.
Is it literally behind your property, ie you could just put a gate in the fence for access?
Is it accessible for a vehicle?

you’d be living the dream! i’d go for it. if you can afford it. anyone who has a horse will pay good money to buy your house from you for their horses in future.

id ask a local agricultural estate agent for an up to date idea of prices for wgat youre looking for in the area. however i’d not tell them where it’s potentially for sale in case they go up to him, i’d just say you are “interested in buying locally what kind of price would they suggest” and i’d ask do they have anything on thwir books just now

I’d go for it but then not be in a rush to bring your ponies home so that you can take your time to sort it out and get it right .

It sounds ideal but there’s lots of things to consider. Definitely think about fencing - I’ve spent around £25K on fencing over the last few years (we have 16 acres of grazing, so your pro rata cost would be less but it’s still a substantial amount). If the land is currently classed as agricultural then you’d need to get change of use to be able to do anything other than graze horses there. Will your children miss the company of the other children at the farm? Will you be able to take out one pony/horse on its own or will you always need to take them both out together? Is there any hard standing or could you put something like mud control mats down so there’s a dry area for the farrier etc. What happens if one of them needs box rest for any reason? We have a stream running through one field and we can’t use that field during winter as it gets too boggy so check how wet it is now. I’m not meaning to be negative but these are all things to be aware of before going ahead.

Thanks folks. Yes it backs on to our garden. We have a small orchard with a gate in it them the green lane and directly opposite is the field.

Will go and check it's bogginess..

And the field's access is via an existing gate onto the green lane directly opposite our gate.

I bought 5 acres in 2012. It already had more than enough stables, sand school and 2 small winter turnout paddocks. It’s half a mile from my house, so easily walkable.
Judging by prices around me, if it was attached to the house then house and land together would be worth around £100k more than they’re currently worth as individual areas.
It’s great owning your own land as you can turn horses out when you like, however it’s also a lot more expensive than being on a Livery yard.
Unless you own a decent tractor, with various attachment such as rollers, post knockers, hedge cutters, chain harrows etc, then you have to pay a friendly farmer to do everything for you. Ditto removal of muck heap.
Then if you only have 2 ponies and want to take one out to a show, the other has no company, so you need to buy or loan a companion so you end up with 3 ponies! Or you take on a Livery, who constantly messages you to ask if you ‘can just…’ because you are on site and they can’t be bothered coming up.

Planning permission where I am is extremely hard to get.
I asked for a pre planning visit for a field shelter, cost was quoted at £80. Fair enough, I was happy with that. However the guy on the phone assumed it was to be used as a tractor store (no idea why). When I told him it was actually for horses, that same visit would now cost £250 as it related to a leisure facility and not a farming facility.

Think really, really hard about the costs and maintenance involved and don’t just think about the added value to your home…unless you intend to sell up very quickly!

also check council's building plan.
we almost bought a couple of hectares but it was earmarked for residential development so no permissions for grazing or shelter and council tax was high.

We have oak trees in our pony paddocks I put temporary electric fencing around the trees when the acorns start falling. Some people spread manure thick under the trees to put the ponies off eating them but I prefer belt and braces safe tbh

Honestly buy it! We have a 3 acre field at the back of our house that I’m desperate to buy - even if you never keep your own horses on there land that backs onto your house is priceless they’re not making more of it!

https://www.battens.co.uk/insights/buying-land-for-horses

Might be helpful