So I have been entertaining the idea of my own horse property. I have asked all of you guys how realistic is it for a middle aged working women to manage her own horse property and got very good information on that…Thank you guys! But now I would like to know what your average commute is. I am sure if I had a bigger budget, I could get a shorter commute but I am horse poor so…what do you consider reasonable and does a long commute make life more difficult? I am looking at an hour minimum (40-60 miles one way).
depends on your job, your hours and your vehicle. I personally would not drive over 15-20 minutes. You have to factor in the added expense of the vehicle and gas. Also that takes 2 hours out of your day so you may not have time to ride.
My commute is 19 miles, which is the maximum I am willing to undertake. There were three months when I had to commute about 40 miles, and those three months were hell… You can do it, but do you really want to spend your precious two hours each day stuck in traffic? Will you still have energy to ride and work on your farm? It is a lot of work.
China Doll - I wish for a 15-20 minute commute even without a horse property. Right now I am commuting 30 minutes if there isn’t much traffic. And then driving 35 + minutes to the barn but I don’t go every day.
Gloria, my current commute is 22 miles Traffic really sucks around here.
My commute is 26 miles and varies from 45 minutes to an hour and it is 100% worth it. One of the main highways I travel on is under construction so hopefully things speed up when it is completed. I work in far north Fort Worth.
One song…don’t hate me.
2 Likes
Having owned my own farm, I really have to caution folks who are thinking to move to a farm themselves. Yes. It is nice to be able to walk out of the door of your house and ride - until you realize how much work you have to put in yourselves to be able to have that privilege.
You have to build the barn, build the fence, build the arena, run the water, then you have to put up lights for arena if you want to ride after dark (how are you going to ride otherwise?) Then after you invest all those $$$$$$, you have to do the mucking yourself. And the list is not over yet. If you have only a couple of horses at home, you may find yourself unable to find a good farrier to come. You are then stuck at trailering your horses out every six weeks just to get their hooves trimmed.
All of these will have been taken care of if you just board your horses. Yes, you will have added commute time to travel to the barn, but the commute time will be nothing comparing to the time and money you will spend if you own your own farm.
The only people I found really happy owning their own farms are those who LOVE labor works, and those who are rich, and can afford all the amenities a boarding barn will provide, and can farm out all the works associated with horse ownership at home. Seriously, if I were to redo again, I will board at a full service barn with top notch amenities, and move to a golf course. I will still come out far ahead financially, and still have time to spare to travel.
7 Likes
I personally only commute about 20 mins as my property is on the opposite side of town from where I work. Literally couldn’t be farther and still in same town.
But my friend lives in a nearby community and commutes to my hometown everyday (on highway) for work. Her commute would be about 50 miles each way. She lives out there because that is where her SO lived when they met. And I know it is wearing on her. Especially after this winter when our weather was really bad with lots of snow. She says by the time she leaves work, get some groceries or does a couple errands and drives home, she is exhausted. Then its time to make dinner, do house chores etc. She ended up getting cleaning lady because she didn’t want to spend time after such a long day cleaning the house.
I agree that you might find you are too tired/busy to ride once you get home. I really don’t want to discourage you but a commute of that length does get old quickly.
We have a makeshift stall in the carport. The property was already fenced. I ride in the backyard for arena work and the pasture or roads for hacking out. You make do.
2 Likes
Right…boarding would be easier but since I have 3…I am looking at it. I am not one to make a snap decision. So hearing about people’s experiences, good and bad all help.
1 Like
Commutes are very regional. What is considered excessive mileage in one area may be no big deal in a more spacious region with open roads. I just say that because you’re going to get wildly different opinions.
When I first moved the horses home, I had a 40 mile commute one way. It generally took about 60 minutes because it was mostly interstate and I reported at odd hours, but if I hit a rush hour period, it was 90 minutes or more. I hated it and actually changed professions to get out of it! The toll it took on my older vehicle was not worth it.
Now I have about 20 miles/35 minutes one way. Much more tolerable.
you are now in Celina… what area are thinking of moving to… Pilot Point/Aubrey? take a look at the proposed tollway extension that is supposed to take the Dallas North over to I-35 … see if that helps any.
Another thing would be to pull up Google Earth View to find the pockets of land that are closer to your work. We found acreage over by Ft Worth (3/4 mile from Northeast Mall) that reduced my commute to nearly zero (well most days now it is zero as I can work from home)… but there are pocket of land that go skipped over.
here is a list of horse friendly areas in north Dallas FROM 2009… might check to see if any of the areas are still horse friendly…note the pricing is not current
I commuted about a half hour in Minnesota and it was okay. I wasn’t riding when we lived there, but I could have maybe gotten one ride in a day with all the barn work…maybe two rides on the longest summer days. I worked 8 - 5.
My husband commutes 60 - 90 mins here, depending on the train schedule. He also works ~ 7 am - 6 pm. I pretty much never see him during the week. He comes home, we have a late dinner and go to bed. If I had a commute like that, even with an 8 - 5 day, I don’t think I could even get stalls done, much less get any horses ridden. Or keep up on the outside work.
If you have an hour + commute, can you pay someone to clean stalls and do the basics like set up feed and fill water? Otherwise I’d think that getting anything done BUT that would be pretty tough.
Lol you must have really good boarding facilities near you. Here I have to drive 35 miles one way to find a place that won’t run out of hay and not feed my horse, or only turn the horses out two days a week, or tell you that you can’t ride anytime there is a lesson which is basically 12 hours per day.
Sure I’d pay $2k a month for a place 5 minutes away. If it existed. At this point I would settle for “not a mudhole and not 15 horses on 3 acres” and be satisfied, but even that doesn’t exist.
2 Likes
My commute is 15 minutes . . . but, my job is in the health sector and most days, I cannot leave under any circumstance. So, living near my farmette doesn’t do me much good in terms of being able to respond to emergencies – I still rely on horse-sitters, my vet, and my horsey neighbors more than I realized I would.
I have a non-horsey spouse & sibling in residence, and I recommend considering a roommate. Even the least agricultural person can hold a hose, toss hay, or call the vet and say “there’s blood everywhere, come quick.” I am very grateful for their presence. If they weren’t here, I’d be shopping for a roommate, offering cheap rent for someone who can toss hay occasionally. I live in a horsey area, though, where these things exist. Not sure what your part of TX is like.
BTDT. And I have 3 horses boarded here in addition to my 3. When the 3rd boarded horse moved in I hired someone to help. Who at times seems like he just might quit. He wasn’t helping me all that long when he told me he was going away for the weekend, but ended up not going. I was thinking, I might be able to fit in cleaning 3 stalls along with having to work 8 hours myself each day, but what if I was full with 7 stalled horses?!
My horses live out. I hope to stall them for occasional stretches of bad weather–that is one area of discontent I have. I have the indoor arena, but dealing with muddy bellies and muddy feet can cause me to just not ride. As can pouring rain that prevents me from getting the horse from run-in to arena. That’s not something I’d thought of as being a problem when having them live out. Nor that their paddock would turn into boot sucking mud–or even be 6" deep mud.
I second what Frog Pond said; I’m considering finding a roommate who can feed at least once a day. Not sure where to advertise to find someone other than feed store bulletin boards.
To the OP: my commute is 24 miles, 30-35 minutes. Before moving here, I think work was 20 min and the barn was 25 min. So I’m saving time spent in the car.
Are you planning a fancy place if you take this leap, or simply having the horses at home and ride in the paddock, no arena? (Not familiar with TX but know different areas are very different in climate.) To build a place with an indoor, well just finding financing was a chore. Permitting requirements were a pain in the neck and pocketbook. Then the shell was up and “how am I going to get a tack room built in here?” When/how will the stalls be built? Need electricity and water run out there… Of course this is moot if you buy a place already built. The place I looked at with an indoor probably would have been an hour or more commute to work.
Currently 25minutes for me. In the past I had a 45 min ride, and that’s getting beyond what I’m willing to do. Life is short, so spending 10% of every day just sitting in my car holds zero appeal. I realize in some geographic regions, that’s just “the way it is.” That’s fine, but not quite accurate. It’s a choice you make.
My commute is 9 miles : ) I live in a horse community that happens to be close to the “town factory” as it were (town factory being the local state prison). It surely makes life much easier to live close to work, particularly since I often work crazy hours. Another thing that makes my life a whole lot easier is that I feed my two horses from bale sized slow feeder nets. I only need to add a bale every few days (I do have to pick poop, fill water, and give them their supplements daily). Also fortunately I have a very good horse/cat sitter- so I can go on vacation when I want/need to. Hope you will find a situation that works for you.
I have always driven about 45 minutes. I would love to be closer…but after looking for 2 plus years, we just could not find a place under 500K and most of those were not as nice as what we already have and would not have saved us but about 8-10 minutes driving each way. The benefit of being a bit further out is ZONING. We are in a more rural area and surrounded by farm land. I gave up and built an indoor last month. I am now working on perfecting the drainage around the building and tweaking the footing. The constant outside work is a drain physically, but I am a bit of a control freak and don’t love boarding. I want lots of turn out and to be able to manage my crew how I want to manage them. The biggest problem is not having someone on the property when I ride. I don’t like to ride without someone around.
