How far Would you travel?

[lauren123]

Just wondering whats the max you would travel to see your horses if they were on livery?
In miles or mins?
I am currently looking further a field. Yard i am going to look at is around 25 mins away or 13 miles away.

 

[GaryB]

It depends how often you need to go! Harvey is on part livery (which in this area means the yo does him 5 days and I do the other 2). My last yard was 30 minutes away and this was a complete bore particularly in Winter when I had to go and turn him out, muck out, ride etc. I then had the choice of sitting on my own in the cold for a couple of hours, or a one hour round trip to be at home for an hour.
My new yard is 20 minutes away, but they do turn out 7 days a week so I only have to go once a day - this distance/time then isn’t really an issue. It also suits Harvey as they all get breakfast and go out at the same time, and come in and have tea at the same time

 

[domane]

My yard is 12 miles and 22ish mins away. But I only work part-time so I don't have time pressure.

 

[Trewsers]

Furthest I had to go was half an hour - doesn't sound much but it wore me down a bit. Being self employed I could be pretty flexible about my hours but even so it was hard going. Wouldn't have liked it to be long term. As already said depends on how many visits you have to make.

 

[PePo]

Ditto @GaryB .

Pete has been 18 miles/30 minutes away from home - but he was minutes from work, so I could go 3 times a day if needed. I had him on an Assisted DIY/flexible part livery & I also had assistance from a groom for weekends. But as Gary said, plenty of my weekends have been spent hanging around in the cold.

He's now on DIY with ad-hoc assistance & is 5 minutes from home and 15 minutes from work.

I'm in the South East (5 miles from a major airport) where good turn out - especially in winter - and hacking can be hard to find and would travel up to 30/45 minutes if Pete was on part livery & it was the 'right' direction for home/work.

 

[orbvalley]

My old yard was a 40 minute drive / 70km round trip. I still have my 2 retiree's there on livery but only see them about once a month now. I moved my youngster/current ride this spring to an RS 12 minutes away and phew it takes soooo much less time up for the whole door to door thing

 

[orbvalley]

Ps I've saved an absolute fortune in diesel !!

 

[MrA]

I used to cycle 40 minutes (10 miles) each way, at least once a day but twice a day a few times a week and times like Xmas day when there was no one around to bring in/ turn out.

Now in utterly spoilt yard is 15mins by bike and 8 by car with no traffic. Much closer however I'm alot less fit!

 

[Flipo's Mum]

I moved my lad to a yard about ten miles from where I was living and did two round trips a day, ten miles to him in the morning, then on to work which was an extra twenty miles, then reversed at night. It got wearing and at weekends I’d tend to go over a little later and make my day all about my horse so that when I left in the late afternoon, I wouldn’t have to go back.
Eventually I moved flat to be nearer to him. I now live 0.7miles from him and it takes all the fear out of not being able to get there to check on him in bad weather, I’ve been unsure it hes ok after sedation or whatever and on many occasions nipped down in my pjs in the middle of the night to check on him. When he was ill and I was doing three hours care a day, I didn’t have a shitty commute on top of the time I had to be there and just in general there is not a day where I don’t want to go check on him because it’s so easy to get to.
I do still tend to go down at the weekend and potter about with him for a few hours but the difference is that if I’ve forgotten something it’s only seconds to run back and get It.
I worry about buying a house and being further away tbh!

 

[Jessey]

The factors in that decision for me;
- the type of roads - how busy they are and how often I'm likely to get caught in traffic, if they are more effected by bad weather etc.
- the support available - if I have to visit twice a day (or 3 or 4 times a day to deal with sickness/injury)

I have had mine 12 miles/26mins from home on a farm where they did the morning turn out, even then it was tiresome as bad traffic at certain points meant it would regularly take me 45 minutes to get there and it was a nightmare when I had to do 3x daily visits to deal with an injury. Another yard was 4.8 miles/12 mins but it was little lanes and a ford that flooded a lot, thankfully the YO would help out as there were times I couldn't physically get there for days even in my 4x4. They are only 2 miles or 8 mins now but because its the other side of town traffic build up means it can take me 20 mins at peak times.

 

[Ruskii]

The max I would go is 15 minutes, but I am lucky in that there are quite a few yards in my area - I've been at most of them at some point

My current one lacks a lot but makes up for it in other ways, I don't have a school, fencing is dire, but I get round this by putting my own secure electric up and I do have road work if I were to go out - but not far to open areas. The pluses are we are left alone, completely alone. There is no interfering YM, we all have our own field and can bring and turn out as well please. This is bliss for me as I only bring in when the weather is really bad and I have to at my yard as we are on clay - also the final one is it's dirt cheap. Ridiculously cheap and only 5 mins from home. I could move for better facilities but I currently don't have the need and if I really want to use a school then I can hire one out at the RS up the road but I don't have need for it as being in a school is tediously boring for me.