I would always recommend having your first horse at a serviced stable or at least somewhere, where more experienced horse owners are at hand to help out.
Believe me, owning a horse is a huge difference to "just" riding one. All decisions are up to you. You're the one who has to see if the horse is lame, has a temperature or signs of some other illness. If it tears down the fence it doesn't matter if you got 10 minutes until you have to be at work - you're the one who has to fix it
Also - if you've got your horse at your place, you run into a few more difficulties:
- planning permissions: are you even allowed to have a horse? Just because it's your land it doesn't mean you can build a stable or a field shelter!
- who delivers straw/hay and where do you put the muck heap?
- if you only got one horse of your own, he/she will need a companion. If you have someone else's horse as a companion for your own, you run into a whole different set of insurances that you need to pay.
- it's harder to find a farrier who comes out for two horses (at least where I live). At a larger stable you can usually join in with one of their regular appointments
- the most important factor is TIME.. believe me, when it gets dark at 5pm and you got a fulltime job you will spend the winter not riding but wading through mud and carrying water buckets
- organisationally you also have to take into consideration, that you'll always need someone trustworthy and reliable to fill in if you want to go on vacation or got a hospital stay or something
I help out with horses that are kept at their owners house and it is a LOT of work.
It does have it's good sides though: no other people or stable owners to annoy you *hehe* but all the above problems still apply!
I think the right way would be the one QuarterHorses described:
Full Service Stable, Self Service and THEN if you feel up to it -> your own.
As long as you look after your horse everyday you will build a relationship even if the horse is not stabled at your home, no worries there
Mefiant