Author Topic: Escaped the city and now starting a tiny stables. (Read 2124 times)

ShinyCharizard90 · « **on:** April 02, 2020, 01:47:02 pm »

Hello!

My wife and I recently got married and we bought a very small 2 acre piece of pastureland near home to keep as we had planned to move to Canada.
However, CV-19 made short work of that! We only got 2 months away and now we're seeing it as a sign and perhaps may stay here for good...

We'd love to get more involved in the community on here as we are newbies at all of this and would appreciate all your advice.

The land has been used for grazing horses for 10+ years and was an orchard prior.
However, as we couldn't think of anything reasonable to farm on land so small, we're going to use it to look after horses, but we'd like to look after them properly and get change of use for equestrian so we can feed and rug them and build them a little stables so they have a home too.

We'll be posting a few questions on the relevant threads in the forum so your advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
Aaron & Krish

Possum · « **Reply #1 on:** April 10, 2020, 09:03:44 am »

Hello and welcome to TAS.

If the horses you are keeping are your own (or even a friend's) I don't think you will need apply for change of use. If the horses are going to be a business venture then you will have to tell HMRC, but otherwise it sounds like the land use is similar to past years.

harmony · « **Reply #2 on:** April 10, 2020, 09:39:27 am »

Hi

I think you will need a change of use to run as a livery yard. You will also pay business rates on any buildings and you will need insurance. Two acres will not support many horses. The rule of thumb is 1.5 to 2 acres to keep a horse so you are looking at two if your ground is good and you can look after the pasture well. Not sure that will cover insurance costs.

ShinyCharizard90 · « **Reply #3 on:** April 12, 2020, 10:48:08 am »

Thanks for the replies.

I totally didn't even think about insurance.
Are there any providers people would recommend? I don't mind paying a bit more if it's way less hassle.

We live about 25 mins drive from the land so I hope weekly visits to check it are sufficient. I'm not really sure what checks i'd need to do other than security, the fence condition, stables, if the horses have chewed through anything, and clearing waste.

TBH, I'm hoping to get a solar powered USB module and attach a few webcams on top of the stable and a 4G dongle so I can check in remotely too.

harmony · « **Reply #4 on:** April 12, 2020, 11:04:27 am »

Quote from: ShinyCharizard90 on April 12, 2020, 10:48:08 am

Thanks for the replies.

I totally didn't even think about insurance.
Are there any providers people would recommend? I don't mind paying a bit more if it's way less hassle.

We live about 25 mins drive from the land so I hope weekly visits to check it are sufficient. I'm not really sure what checks i'd need to do other than security, the fence condition, stables, if the horses have chewed through anything, and clearing waste.

TBH, I'm hoping to get a solar powered USB module and attach a few webcams on top of the stable and a 4G dongle so I can check in remotely too.

Checking once a week whilst you have no stock is fine but once you have stock, if you are looking after them then twice a day is needed. Camera's might tell you whether something is dead or alive and some things but not pick up on that infected cut hidden from sight.

Correct me if I'm wrong but you don't sound as though you have kept horses before. If you are going to offer livery you need to know something about horses. If you are going to rent stables/land for someone else to do the work then the livestock will be their responsibility but you still need insurance.

Google equine insurance for businesses. There won't be many offering cover and you need to compare the small print.

cambee · « **Reply #5 on:** April 15, 2020, 08:02:07 am »

Horses need checking at least once a day and preferably twice. We have horses on diy livery and their owners come at different times so ours get checked regularly. Lucky as between me checking my pony early morning and one of the girls coming on at noon, that pony had got his foot trapped in a hay feeder. £2000 of vet fees later he is now fine. You will need 3rd party liability insurance. We use NFU.

bj_cardiff · « **Reply #6 on:** April 15, 2020, 08:19:03 am »

It sounds like your planning on offering a DIY type livery where you rent the stable and field to a person who has sole charge of looking after their horses. You will check weekly to make sure the fencing is all ok and general maintanance - you won't be involved in the horses care.

Have you checked what the going rate for DIY Livery is in your area? In mine its around £100 a month per horse. To be totally honest, if you have borrowed money to buy the land, need to fence it and put up stables I doubt you will see a return on your investment?

ShinyCharizard90 · « **Reply #7 on:** May 21, 2020, 08:17:44 pm »

Hi.

No it's more for fun and to help vulnerable animals.

We aren't planning on looking after the horses ourselves until we are closer so would be merely providing the land, stables, and helping out as favours to learn and gain experience.

Then we're likely to foster if we feel capable, but we are not really bothered about rent or income on the land, just so long as it covers the costs and were helping out some animals it's fine.

bj_cardiff · « **Reply #8 on:** May 22, 2020, 05:58:29 am »

I think my first stop would be local animal charity's, shelters or rescues some of them rehome livestock. If you said you could offer land, but they would need to take care of the animals day to day and you would like to volanteer that sounds like it could work for you?

Just a word of warning though - there are well run and badly run charities and you really won't know which you have on your land until its too late! Just be careful and might be best to have a written contract in case you needed the land back