# Keeping a pony in your back garden!?



## cp1980 (8 April 2010)

I read a book today that suggested it is possible to have a stable/loose box within a residential back garden and keep a pony (or horse) there.  (I assume that for grazing, the pony would need to be walked or transported to a field perhaps some distance away).

I live in the leafy posh suburbs of London and close to me is an 'urban yard' - about five or six horses in 'boxes, all sandwiched between a couple of houses on a residential street.  The yard is a commercial enterprise (rides through the local horse friendly park).  However, it must be quite old and seems well established.

I know that one can build a shed or garage or similar building (ie. also a single stable box and a tack room/feed store) within your back garden without planning permission (so long as certain limits are not exceeded). 

But what are the other legal issues that could prevent you from doing this?  Do you need planning permission for actually keeping a large 'pet' in your back garden?  Are there enviromental heath laws that you must comply with (such as not smelling too much)?

*Has anyone actually done this successfuly outside of a rural location?  *

I guess the advantages are:
Convenient for owner in terms of time.
No fuel costs for owner to travel.
Secure from theft.
Cheaper then livery.


Personally, I think it would only work if the pony had company (so two ponies in a back garden) and if grazing was close by.


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## aimeejay (8 April 2010)

I really could not be bothered with having to transport my horse to a field just for turnout 
..Maybe Im just lazy


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## cp1980 (8 April 2010)

aimeejay said:



			I really could not be bothered with having to transport my horse to a field just for turnout
		
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I remember a time when a horse in serious training was not to be grazed until the end of the competition season!   :-(

Things have moved on, but breeds prone to laminitus might still have to have restricted grazing - perhaps it could be mutually advantagous to lamanitic pony and owner?


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## Tinkerbee (8 April 2010)

How do you define garden? Our stables in Ireland are right up by the house, and open out onto the garden/patio area. However I wouldn't have described it as keeping the horses in the garden...

That said, its a rural area and the field is just behind the stables so maybe we don't count?


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## ester (8 April 2010)

It is still rural I spose but a house I drive past on the way to work the gardens back on to the main road, row of victorian terraces (so quite long gardens) keep 2 ponies in the backgarden all winter, have 2 stables and a small yard fenced area. Whether they get turned out elsewhere I don't know. Also don't know if they go elsewhere in the summer as I cant see them when the hedge greens up!


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## cp1980 (8 April 2010)

Tinkerbee said:



			How do you define garden?
		
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How about this?  Just an ordinary back garden in a residential street?  (taken from a google search)










Tinkerbee said:



			That said, its a rural area and the field is just behind the stables so maybe we don't count?
		
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That would be perfect...


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## Christmas Crumpet (8 April 2010)

We've got 2 bits of our garden - the nice bit and then a bit about 1/4 acre which is fenced like a little field. That's the injury paddock and horses go out there if on box rest or restricted exercise. You have to go through the garden gate and up the little path to get there.

So despite having 10 acres at our disposal, they do get turned out in the garden!!


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## Tinkerbee (8 April 2010)

cp1980 said:



			How about this?  Just an ordinary back garden in a residential street?  (taken from a google search)










That would be perfect...
		
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I can't picture it in that garden. Maybe if it was double the size, or even just half again I can imagine a loose box or two, if there was easy access to a field nearby. 

Wouldn't the neighbours moan about the muckheap?


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## the watcher (8 April 2010)

In a village near me is a family who keep their driving pony in a stable in the back garden, it has no turnout and is driven daily for exercise - it is one of the fittest and best behaved horses in the area


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## cp1980 (8 April 2010)

Tinkerbee said:



			I can't picture it in that garden. Maybe if it was double the size, or even just half again I can imagine a loose box or two, if there was easy access to a field nearby. 

Wouldn't the neighbours moan about the muckheap? 

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Yes - it would have to be bigger, but in terms of having other houses so close?

Anyway, I think the yard near us has a pickup truck that takes away the muck on an almost daily basis.  It does smell on that street though!

I saw a planning application for a stable and tiny padock in a residential area in a small town in lancashire.  The plannners over-ruled objections from neighbours on the grounds of smell and said that if the owners had a system for storing and removing the muck on a regular basis they'd be happy!  Must be the exception rather than the rule.


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## jendie (8 April 2010)

I used to work in East London and remember many ponies and horses being kept in back yards. They were exercised in local parks but I doubt they had any turn out. A champion Welsh D lived close to Victoria Park in Hackney.

The Docklands Equestrian Centre has 20-plus horses in superb stabling and has indoor and outdoor schools....but as far as I remember no turn out for the horses. Before the stable moved to new premises is Becton it was based under railway arches, the stables being built to fit. The centre is RDA and does a fantastic job with local children.


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## treacle_beastie (8 April 2010)

years ago, one of my friends kept their pony in a garden shed and led it to grazing each day!


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## Divasmum (8 April 2010)

My PC DC many years ago kept her Dales pony at home (1930s house, normal garden) in Thornton Heath which is London Borough of Croydon.


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## ischa (8 April 2010)

i knew a woman who had a horse in a back garden it was just over a 1and a half acre she had a walkin shelter , but also she rented a field near by for summer grazing ,she would have paddock as you walked out back door then had a fence that had a gate then after that was a walkin shelter this is in a rural location


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## Jericho (8 April 2010)

I used to go carriage driving with an old traditional coachman who kept his 2 friesan stallions in 2 loose boxes in his garden, which was about the size of a tennis court. They were very rarely turned out but could wander around his bit of garden (well, rough bit of ground with rotary washing line on it and kids slide on it) for about half an hour a day in good weather for a roll / stretch but they went out driving for a good hour a day. Best behaved horses I have ever met and in immaculate condition. 

Also my old little pony had to live in a concrete yard and stable most of the summer due to being a bad laminitic so in terms of space she hardly needed anything.

However keeping horse with no access to fields or good exercise facilities (i.e somewhere for them to feel sun on their backs, roll, stretch and general fresh air doesnt seem particularly right to me but I know it is done and done well in many cases, I would just hate people to think 'oh I have quite a big garden, lets get a pony as a pet' and not really consider the needs of a horse. I guess much the same as keeping birds in cages, dogs in kennels, small flats, rabbits in hutches....


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## The Bouncing Bog Trotter (8 April 2010)

A house I drive past on the way to the yard has a stable in the garden surrounded by a fenced all weather turn out area about 4m x 8m and a very tidy little muck heap. They have had 2 ponies there all winter. The house faces fields but is in a semi urban area.


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## s4sugar (8 April 2010)

My first two ponies were kept in the garden. We had a victorian house with about an acre but a third was veg garden and most was ornamental and a tennis court with Yew hedges.

I had a 12x12  stable with a forecourt about 18' x 50' that was secure so the stable door was often left open. Muck was wheeled to behind the stable for the garden. I would ride daily and did much of my homework & revision sat while my pony grazed in nearby woodland.


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## *hic* (8 April 2010)

I've been a bit extreme this winter. I have a house on a total plot of an acre. It's a long thin plot and the first third is house and lorry / car parking, greenhouse, veg garden, formal garden etc.

Second third is horse yard with four stables, pig shed and run, barn and tackroom - oh and the chicken run. Also muck trailer and trailer that acts as mobile forage store.

Last third has been mostly fenced and Terram and woodchip covered - on an area 17m x 35m - as it used to be too muddy for the horses to be safe on it. The rest of that area is fruit trees and orchard, ie a long thin strip round two sides of the woodchip.

At the worst time I had three horses, two ponies and ten sheep up here. I'm currently about to put up a pen inside the barn so that the pony that lives in the pig shed (and has done since the first snow) can go in there as we have four pigs on order. The horses and ponies are turned out in two groups for around half a day each. The four in work are ridden or lunged on the woodchip which takes quite a lot of maintenance as it isn't very big and it is quite heavily used.

The horses all look surprisingly well, in fact my little eventing mare started being lunged in January after being turned away in October and although she'd only been ridden four times was fit enough to gallop round a cross country course on Monday.

I do have a field half a mile away but it suffered a swan attack at the end of the year and the grass just disappeared over 24 hours so I've had to take all the horses off and feed the sheep hay. The grass has really suffered over the winter so I can't put the horses back up there yet.

I am within a village with neighbours close to me on both sides.


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## itsme123 (8 April 2010)

Someone I know converted their outhouses into stables and have about 1/4 of an acre of land. Half is used for winter turnout (both horses - hunters- exercised daily) and led to grazing for the summer. It works well, both horses happy. 

I turned daughter's pony out on our garden in the summer. We had a largeish garden and he had to walk up steps to get to it, but he loved it  

If I had the room I'd do it again. You just have to have permission from the local council to do it, and no objection from neighbours.


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## Irishlife (8 April 2010)

Due to the bad winter I ran out of stables so cleared out an old stone cottage in the garden and did a cheap and cheerful quick fix to put two horses in there. There are three rooms. They have a lovely stone fireplace and plaster walls and are deep littered to the ears on straw so they love it. The ceilings are really high, only downside the door is narrow but they don't mind a bit. They have windows back and front and it is cosier than their usual boxes with rubber mats and a few shavings.


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## julie111 (8 April 2010)

cp1980 said:



			I read a book today that suggested it is possible to have a stable/loose box within a residential back garden and keep a pony (or horse) there.  (I assume that for grazing, the pony would need to be walked or transported to a field perhaps some distance away).

I live in the leafy posh suburbs of London and close to me is an 'urban yard' - about five or six horses in 'boxes, all sandwiched between a couple of houses on a residential street.  The yard is a commercial enterprise (rides through the local horse friendly park).  However, it must be quite old and seems well established.

I know that one can build a shed or garage or similar building (ie. also a single stable box and a tack room/feed store) within your back garden without planning permission (so long as certain limits are not exceeded). 

But what are the other legal issues that could prevent you from doing this?  Do you need planning permission for actually keeping a large 'pet' in your back garden?  Are there enviromental heath laws that you must comply with (such as not smelling too much)?

*Has anyone actually done this successfuly outside of a rural location?  *

I guess the advantages are:
Convenient for owner in terms of time.
No fuel costs for owner to travel.
Secure from theft.
Cheaper then livery.


Personally, I think it would only work if the pony had company (so two ponies in a back garden) and if grazing was close by.
		
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When i was a child we lived in Northolt, Middlesex and yes we had a stable in our back garden, we did have complaints from neighbours and the council visited us a few times, but the council were satisfied that we had adequate drainage and there was no smell so told all the busy body neighbours to shut up and put up.


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## riversideeu (8 April 2010)

Hi
I kept horses in my stable in my back garden of my mums semi in Middlesbrough for years. No turnout but hacked to my field 2 miles away. No planning required as horses are pets so stable was classed as an extension to the house. Neighbours loved it though did muck out into bags and take muck away in a trailer so no muck heap smell. Hacked out every night by street light much easier than now as the country is pitch dark at night !


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## MagicMelon (9 April 2010)

I personally find the thought of it quite horrid. But then I don't agree with permanently stabling a horse (or even stabling it for 24 hours solid). When does the horse get time to be a horse?!


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## NeedNewHorse (9 April 2010)

MagicMelon said:



			I personally find the thought of it quite horrid. But then I don't agree with permanently stabling a horse (or even stabling it for 24 hours solid). When does the horse get time to be a horse?!
		
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My thoughts exactly. I don't mean to come across harsh but if i couldn't offer my horse a decent life I would not have one. Being stabled or being kept in a little tiny yard/stable with no decent field/turnout/grazing and proper companions is not a decent life.

Also, I don't agree with any of the business where a few said that they saw or had the best behaved/trained horses, as if this housing arrangement suited them perfectly! 

Whilst is is my sole dream to to have my horses at home it wouldn't be at their expense.

xxx


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## *hic* (9 April 2010)

Now the weather is improving I notice my horses want to be out more. However when it's cold and raining and frosty and sleeting and windy and they all come screaming up to the gate as soon as they see me and pile into their stables as soon as the gate is opened I don't really think they are hankering for a life outside. 

Still, shortly they will all be moving to their summer quarters - 8 acres of grass. I honestly don't think anyone who met any of my horses would say that their winter lifestyle is doing them any disservice at all.


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## russianhorse (9 April 2010)

Theres an elderly couple in the next village to where I live, who have a lovely shetland pony in their approx 30ft garden and have made the garage into his stable.  He is out all day to graze and is an adorable pony


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## MiJodsR2BlinkinTite (9 April 2010)

Gosh, there are some issues being raised here; and to me at least there are serious welfare issues with keeping an equine in a garden!!! 

Horses need company and its unlikely that there would be room for a companion; also getting enough turnout and being able to rotate that turnout, is surely going to be a problem. 

If you live in the middle of town; where are you going to hack? The roads out here in the countryside are dangerous enough, but taking a horse onto hard tarmac streets with all the traffic in an urban environment is, to me, not going to be a viable proposition. 

I don't think its fair to the horse to be kept in the back garden. All right, its every child's (or adult's) dream to have their own pony/horse and keep it at home, but surely better by far to find a good livery yard where there is proper facilities for keeping horses? 

I seem to remember something about the "Five Freedoms" about keeping horses - can't remember where this came from but its something to do with the ILPH - can anyone enlighten? One of them was to do with horses having company of their own kind, etc etc.


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## sidesaddlegirl (9 April 2010)

Sen, the Arab I used to have on loan came home with me one weekend (her owner, who is my friend said it was OK!) to eat my grass  We have a normal sized garden and she was ok in it but I wouldn't go as far as to say that it would be good for long time use. 







Saying that, when we had all that snow this winter and all my water froze up down the field, I did seriously think about bringing Hattie and some of my hay home and keeping her in my garden during the nights until things unfroze (I don't drive so there wasn't anyway for me to bring tanks of water from home to the stables). Unlike the middle of London, I can hack around my area and only live a 10-15 minute walk from my stables.


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## Minxie (9 April 2010)

I'm actually jsut about to do this very thing - although rather than build new stables I'm converting my garage.  The grazing field is about 500 yard from my house along the road and i'll just lead them to and from each night.  It would only be for the winter months though. 

I did look into putting up a stable and there were no planning issues as long as i wasn't creating an exit onto a road and I wasn't building closer to the road than the house was.  I'm hoping to set up three small manure composts in the field out of pallets and I'll deposit the stable contents into it, letting each one rot down each year.

I've no idea what I'll do at fireworks night though but i'll worry about that nearer the time.


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## Mithras (9 April 2010)

I don't think its a welfare issue in the cases mentioned as the people involved clearly pay a great deal of attention to detail.  I doubt keeping a horse on minimal turnout is much different to what is offered at many livery yards over the winter or what the management is like on competition yards.

I have a set up a bit like Jemima_too - a house set in about an acre, half of which is taken up by house and parking, and then a paddock.  I have kept my mare there for up to 2 1/2 weeks at a time but after that it tends to get trampled and churned up (even in summer) and she misses company after that long.  Although she does enjoy the shade offered by the field shelter.  I really think it would have been easier than this winter, when my yard couldn't offer turnout other than in deeply rutted frozen mud baths and I couldn't ride from the yard for 3 weeks - in fact I couldn't even get there!  

The problems are the accumulation of poo.  I would have to find some way of getting rid of it.  When she is there for a short time, I pile it up in the neighbour's compost heap, but it grows alarmingly!  The paddock also isn't that well drained, and there is nowhere to drain it too.  There is hacking but I have to go onto a busy main road to get to it and although both my horses are great in traffic, there is always that one lunatic driver to worry about.  I think with my two big horses - 16.1 and 17.1 it would be no good, but with two smaller ponies, in winter I think it would be quite do-able, as they have room to roll and can choose to shelter in the high hedges or the large field shelter.


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## neen (9 April 2010)

I used to keep my horses on a yard in London that was surrounded by houses, the gardens of which backed onto the fields of the yard. Planning permission was really tight on the yard itself, but two or three of the houses had got around this by building stables in their gardens, which then opened onto the fields. I thought about buying a house there myself, with the intention of doing the same, but sadly was overruled by OH.


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## MrsElle (10 April 2010)

Mine come to the house every weekend in summer to cut the lawn for us!  They love it, one day last summer we had the sitting room windows open, we were watching the grand prix on tv with two horses sleeping, resting their heads on the window sill!

As soon as we come out of the field 100 yards away and turn towards the house the ears go up and there is a spring in their step when they realise where we are going.  The only time Ellie has been naughty and tried to get ahead when being lead is when we have been walking to the house.


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## natalia (24 June 2010)

This interests me as i live close to Richmond Park in Kingston. I used to have my horses up the road at a very nice livery yard (now a housing block sadly) and during this time (mid 90's) there were quite  a few privately owned horses and ponies living in peoples back gardens close to me! My friend from school had two new forest ponies living in her back garden in dad built breeze block stables 5 mins up the road from me. They were visible from the train between new malden and norbiton! She later moved to a house with small field a few miles away but she used to take the ponies and exercise them either in the park or down to kingstonian football club who had a large patch of scrub land. 
There was also a horse on park road next to the vets, he lived in a garden but used to walk down the side alley and have his head over the garden gate (always wanted polos), his owner used to have him shod outside my school on a quiet road. There was also a driving cob at potters the green grocers, who had  a really sweet stable in the yard. I'm sure there were more than this around! It dosen't seem so popular now, and I've got my lot in Chessington (way too many of them to even think about putting in the back garden), and I know of a few people locally who keep/have kept minis in their gardens. Up until the late 90's there were a lot more small private yards in the area, most sadly have been built on now leaving only the big places. It's always tempting to drive one of mine home for the day though and have a garden party!


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## finkle (24 June 2010)

I live in a semi with a largish garden that backs on to open fields. Luckily the farmer rented me over an acre. I bought a field shelter that in the strong winds, the roof came off so had to sell on Ebay.
I decided to convert my garage, which is literally two steps from the kitchen door, into a stable. I had this arrangement for about 4 years and not one neighbour said a word! Think I was lucky. It was the nicest stable ever...double glazed the lot and she loved it!
However the muckheap thing became tedious and even despite offering free grazing and having no takers, decided that life would be easier on a livery yard. Even the vets when they came round were surprised. They knocked on the door of a 1960's house and were lead through to a mini equestrian yard!  It was a wonderful arrangement while it lasted but I could not keep on top of the grass as she had to have it restricted. So it was best for the pony to go to a yard with restricted grazing. We would often be watching telly and she would appear at the patio doors for a carrot.....lovely memories.


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## Sleighfarer (24 June 2010)

jendie said:



			I used to work in East London and remember many ponies and horses being kept in back yards. They were exercised in local parks but I doubt they had any turn out. A champion Welsh D lived close to Victoria Park in Hackney.
		
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I used to see a pony of this type being trotted round the roads in Bethnal Green - wonder if it was the same one?!


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## Archiesmummy (24 June 2010)

Irishlife said:



			Due to the bad winter I ran out of stables so cleared out an old stone cottage in the garden and did a cheap and cheerful quick fix to put two horses in there. There are three rooms. They have a lovely stone fireplace and plaster walls and are deep littered to the ears on straw so they love it. The ceilings are really high, only downside the door is narrow but they don't mind a bit. They have windows back and front and it is cosier than their usual boxes with rubber mats and a few shavings.






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I'm looking for a rural retreat and this sounds just fine ... can I come stay?  Don't mind the horses


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## Sol (24 June 2010)

Not sure, we live in a fairly rural area though houses very close as in an avenue type thing. We have two stables in the 'garden' - it's larger than average but not huge. We've had 2 ponies on there before no problem, worked daily. Winter is a pain as we're on clay so we have hard standing with limited TO. They had to be ridden as many days as possible or walked out.
However, it IS really handy if we get kicked off a livery yard and have no where to go, or need them close to home for any reason, or if one/both came down with something infectious then we could basically stick them in isolation by bringing them here. Nice to be able to have a new horse at home to bond with also  
Might try get a picture later to show scale of our garden to stables etc! 

Not got them at home now as tbh it isn't ideal with me wanting to compete - nearest school to hire is a few miles hack away, roads aren't fab.


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## BigRed (24 June 2010)

When I was 14 my parents lived in a normal semi-d in a normal road of semi-d's.  I wanted a pony and there is no way my parents could have afford to keep one in livery.  My Dad built a very large wooden building at the bottom of the garden and we walked the pony through the garage (up and over door), across the patio and down a concrete path my Dad had laid by the side of the lawn.  I kept my ponies (2 of them) like that for about 5 years.  They were perfectly happy.  I rode every morning before school and then when I started work, before or after work.  I had street lights to ride in the dark.  At the weekends I rode much further afield.

People would stop me and complain if I took a different route because they would use me as their alarm clock.

We mucked out into the empty plastic shavings sacks and took the waste to the dump on a sunday.

My Mother had a friend who did the same and she lived in surbiton.

Police horses and army horses (royal mews) don't get turned out in the field every day, they live in stables all the time.  They get used to it.

When I was doing it, the planning laws said that so long as you did not create a smell or encourage rodents, you could keep what you like in your garden.


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