FORGE Livery

Cheeky picture of Macca for attention!

1x diy livery space available
£207 a month paid for in advance, to be paid by standing order 1st of each month

Indoor Monarch stables. Paddocks post and rail or hedges with electric.

Paddocks shared by two to three horses/ponies. Separate winter and summer paddocks.

Currently all liveries live out overnight and come in for the day for a snooze, riding, etc. so needs to be somebody able to fit in with that routine.

The land is clay so turn out is restricted in winter. Small space for all weather turn out which is shared so only for short periods eg whilst mucking out.

Small amount of storage for hay and bedding. Bedding available at £9 per bale or can source your own. Chopped r**e, pellets, paper or card only. No straw or shavings. Source your own hay. Haylage deliveries approx once per month or source your own.

Spacious and secure tack room.

Space for parking a trailer or small lorry.

School, lunge pen, jumping field, grass tracks and access to nearby excellent hacking.

Experienced and reliable staff available for holiday cover, lessons, clipping etc.

Hi I’m Debbie. I run FORGE livery and I thought it was time I re-introduced myself.

In 2012 we had a teenage pony who was very dear to me and I couldn’t bear the thought of selling him. So I decided we needed to buy a livery yard. Obviously! At the time of the sale going through I had a full time career, John had just qualified as a farrier, and we had one daughter with two ponies. Initially I ran the yard around my job but we quickly expanded and thirteen years later we have three daughters, an unspecified number of ponies, and 20 chickens. My career didn’t last beyond my first lot of maternity leave. In 2020 I added Forge Horsebox Hire to the family.

Running a livery yard is far more time consuming than I could have imagined. All the jobs take at least four times longer than expected and we never seem to have the right tools, the right size screws, or enough time. Consequently the jobs list only gets longer, not shorter, and I have no idea how we managed to get through so many wheelbarrows. But we keep on chipping away at what needs to be done.

John used to show jump and I have always had an interest in showing. Naturally we have ended up going down the working hunter pony route. In 2017 I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to loan Moonpenny Aquarius for the m&m working hunter pony classes. He gave me my first ever RIHS ticket and he is the reason we fell in love with Exmoor ponies. We now try to give something back to this beautiful, but endangered, breed by breeding them ourselves. So far we have managed two fillies: seven year old Peach (Forgehills Ariana) and yearling Peggy (Forgehills Bombardo).

Photo of Caroworth Hamper AKA Smarty Pants. Has 31 now and still going strong. If it wasn’t for him, life would have been very different.