| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| ScarySara |
Equestrian livery in South Wales I am hoping to find out what you can expect to pay\charge for horse livery in South Wales
What is the average cost of DIY and Part livery (everything except riding and tack cleaning) on a smallholding with post and rail fencing, all year turnout, stabling, owner on-site, secure tack room and feed room, ample storage, no manege but easy access to bridleways? |
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| sally_in_wales |
any help?
http://www.walesindex.co.uk/pages/2597.html |
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| Ixy |
I can give you lincolnshire prices 
the place I'm renting land from now (though not for horses) has people on site all day, secure yard with guard dogs at night and CCTV, outdoor school, post and rail fenced acre paddocks and a stable for £50 a wk DIY, incl. 4 bales of hay. There's no safe hacking nearby though. |
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| RichardW |
How much paddock space do you need per horse per year for year round livery?
Richard |
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| ScarySara |
1 acre per horse | ||||
| RichardW |
Is that sustainable year in year out?
Would it need to be split into 1/4 acre sections to rotate the pasture? (think fencing costs) I ask cos everyone I know with a horse has them on much larger plots & they still look like a battle field after a little rain. Richard |
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| Ixy |
an acre is pretty standard but they're on intensive worming regimes, the paddock are poopicked regular and the horses should/would be brought in in wet weather. | ||||
| RichardW |
Ah so not sustainable then. More meds & more labour (pooh picking lol). So better to go larger if poss.
So people pooh pick cos the area is to small & the worm burden would soon get out of hand other wise? Richard |
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| Rob R |
Well that's their excuse... |
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| Ixy |
not necessarily larger, but more paddocks to rotate around. It is an area a little overlooked in the horse world although from what i can see people are taking a bit more notice now that the worms are becoming immune to all the wormers! | ||||
| ScarySara |
well, and to keep the fields in good nick. There is only so much poo you can harrow in and left for only 6 months to rot back in ot the ground.
Here is Ascot where the land is v expensive the horses get tiny little paddocks, but usually only 1 horse per paddock (to stop them kicking each other and causing reason to sue!). Most livery yards don't turn out at all in winter or only every other day but I'm lucky enough to get tournout every day as ground is not clay wormer types are interchanged so you use different chemicals in the regime I've never thought about the affect of wormers on the land. |
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| RichardW |
I would disagree the more the merrier (up to a point). Most if not all farmers fields will have all the pooh from the animals (at a higher stocking level) & then if they use it more FYM or slurry on top. Soon gets washed in. Thats why I just dint "get" the pooh picking thing its good for the land. Some told me its cos horses wont eat near its own pooh & other cos of the worms. Split the acre in 4 & you would get 9 months fallow time between occupation. Richard |
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| alison |
scary.
I used to live in Cheapside, and went to school at Charters. Is that anywhere near you? |
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| Rob R |
It depends how biologically active your fields are though, generally horse fields are paddled & managed more as exercise areas than managed grazing. I don't get it either, but the worm burden reason is probably the best I've come across. |
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| Ixy |
a quarter of an acre is nothing for active animals though - at 'my' livery yard (and most of the stables ive worked in) paddocks are treated as exercise/play areas rather than food as with cattle etc, horses were fed inside and given hay year round and let out to exercise. | ||||
| Cathryn |
Forget applying anything agricultural to the horse world.  Keeping a herd animal in boxes and apart from others, there's no animal behaviour logic.
I must get a worm count done on mine. |
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| Ixy |
I try not to...I've left the horseworld behind now - there's a hedge between me and them and i like it that way 
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| ScarySara |
extremely! nothing cheap about cheapside! |
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| ScarySara |
no, they don't eat near the poo, they don't like the thick grass that grows there. |
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| alison |
Not now.
Do you know Watersplash Lane, we lived at Paddocks. |
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| ScarySara |
I know Watersplash Lane, cycle down it a lot. I don't know Paddocks but guessing its the one on the end with paddocks and the horses in it from its name! |
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| alison |
No, but we did look at that one first!
It is 3 up from Dorian Drive, away from the park |
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| TheGrange |
½ acre paddock is about the smallest size feasible paddock size for rotation. Poo-pickin is essential in a small paddock because horse manure is not like cattle manure, a horse has only the one stomach horse manure comes out more or less like it went in few nutrients are removed and the gut does not break the grass fibre down. Cows have more stomachs and ‘chew the cud’ which means constant regurgitation so the fibre are broken down completely and therefore their manure is much like liquid fertilizer.
Store the picked pooh for at least 6 months then reapply to the ground, too fresh it will burn the grazing. Horses won’t eat around droppings as the grass is bitter. Horses are poor grazers and will leave areas of grass long, to us there will be no visual signs as to why they wont eat but they still won’t you mow these short to encourage grazing. Ideally horses should rota pasture with sheep to avoid uneven pasture growth. But that isn’t always possible. Horses will on poor pasture root through their own droppings increasing worm infestation, there are many purely herbal methods of controlling worms in horses, which are to some better than the chemical pastes. |
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| towerhill |
I agree - most folk with horses are a tad nuts. When we bought our place we had one big field and just turned the horses out onto that. By the end of the winter the place looked like the Somme. Over the last few years (when I can afford it) I've been using post and rail to split it up unto paddocks. This means I can rest the land, spray and pull ragwort without worrying about the animals eating any dead stalks and fertilise any weaker areas. Ideally I'd have the field in 1/2 acre paddocks. Still a long way to go. We tend to keep the finer bred animals in on stormy nights but the native ones are out even through the worst of the winter weather. Your right about the herd thing though. We always try to make sure that each horse has a companion nearby at all times. They stress terribly when alone. Ideally I'd put sheep fencing up as well and have 3 or 4 sheep which would follow the horses in the rotation. They eat the grass horses won't touch and horse worms don't pass through the sheep's guts. Thing is I cant afford the wire or the sheep just now so I have to top the grass with my poxy ride on mower (slavaged from the dump). I look very silly mowing it when the farmer next door is out in £60,000 of John Deere metal. |