1.3 acres am I mad to consider it??

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angel7

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A small plot of land has come up for sale a few miles from me. Its only 1.3acres with the remains of an old arena on it, and a concrete pad for 2 stables. The ground is poor and would need fenced and all services put in.
Its reasonably priced for what it is, but I'm used to horses out 24/7. this would obviously need to be very carefully managed.
I would love to bring on young horses and with no livery yards accepting colts where I stay having my own bit would be ace.
Am I mad to consider it? Its in a good hacking location but its a distance from my house house.
 
Similar has just come up very near to me with water and electric for around £55K. You need to find out how much to put on services. I looked at one yard but the quote to put in electricity was getting on for £100K.
 
If it makes you happy why not ! i'm currently on a similar size paddock which I have divided in to three and rotate my girls around. I have a hard stand area and feed hay and turn out for 2 hours when very boggy or flush grass. You are very lucky you have some basics which will save loads of money ! concrete pad for stables and remains of old arena big bonus. Just keep in mind you will get loads of expense which you didn't expect along the way, but nothing more satisfying as been your own field owner ! good luck if this is what you choose !
 
Would only be a max of 2 at any one time, and periods with none. I think services will be reasonable as its right on the main road with the mains going along it.
 
angel7 said:
Would only be a max of 2 at any one time, and periods with none. I think services will be reasonable as its right on the main road with the mains going along it.
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Services will still cost a lot. Our paddock is on the road and even has electricity wires crossing over it (for which we are paid a wayleave) but the electricity company still wanted 10K to connect us. Connecting the water cost us almost 2K, even though the water main goes up the middle of the road. I'd recommend you get quotes first if you cant manage without services. We manage perfectly well without electricity - and for a couple of years we managed without mains water too. If you are careful you can cope with 2 on 1.3 acres. We have four large ponies on 2.3 acres and they live out most of the year. For us, a hardstanding area is the most important thing.
 
just a thought, if you only have 2 on there the one that is left alone while you ride might get stressed out, charge around and churn up the limited grazing! I had 2 mares out on 3 arces, but it was 24/7 and the land was trashed in 6 months
 
kerrieberry2 said:
just a thought, if you only have 2 on there the one that is left alone while you ride might get stressed out, charge around and churn up the limited grazing! I had 2 mares out on 3 arces, but it was 24/7 and the land was trashed in 6 months
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Yes, it will only take a couple of happy hour sessions to leave you with a totally trashed field.

Call me grumpy before my time, but I would not consider keeping two horses on that amount of land.
 
hnmisty said:
Yes, it will only take a couple of happy hour sessions to leave you with a totally trashed field.

Call me grumpy before my time, but I would not consider keeping two horses on that amount of land.
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Pretty much what I was thinking. Its lovely having your own place, but I wouldn't consider that much land unless I had a couple of diddy native ponies. Certainly not for bigger horses, especially youngsters that need to play and run around.
 
I have about 1.5, with about 1 acre available for horse use. I have one paddock of about 0.7, which two ponies and one horse hang out in 24/7, and one paddock of about 0.4, which is flat, rectangular, and reserved for schooling most of the time. The 0.7 paddock is pretty trashed in the near half, but since mine are all on the round side, it's not a disaster that they have no grass and that I have to feed hay year-round. I don't like the mud at this time of year, and have recently had stables put in, with an area of hard standing available in front. The plan is to fence this hard standing so that I can keep them off the paddock when it's really wet. So the amount is manageable, but you will need to count on feeding hay year-round.
 
What type of ground is it? If it's well draining sandy soil it would cope much better than, say, heavy clay. Would you be happy stabling them if you live a few miles away? A friend had her stables burnt down (arson) so replaced the stables with a field shelter, reasoning that the horses couldn't be trapped inside if it happened again.
 
Seeing as a horse should have an one acre AT LEAST, yes i think your mad to even think about it, i sound horrible and grumpy but you running up into the high thousands here and saying the ground is horrible etc, you answered the question for yourself.
 
Tern, it does depend completely on the ground and on how much you are expecting the horse to live off the grass with no added hay. In my pony's case, he used to be at a yard where he was meant to be in a massive field...and had to spend most of his time in a tiny, grass-less paddock, for his own health. For him, being in a paddock that is many times the size of his previous summer "pony jail", with enough room to get up a good gallop and hang around with two friends, is not a bad thing at all!

1.3 acres isn't enough to subsist on without added forage, but depending on the management, it can work. If the price is reasonable, if the utilities can be put in at reasonable expense (get estimates), if the travel to/from home is manageable, and if the field management plan is well thought out, this might work for the OP.
 
CazD said:
Services will still cost a lot. Our paddock is on the road and even has electricity wires crossing over it (for which we are paid a wayleave) but the electricity company still wanted 10K to connect us. Connecting the water cost us almost 2K, even though the water main goes up the middle of the road. I'd recommend you get quotes first if you cant manage without services. We manage perfectly well without electricity
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This, but I didn't cope without water, I had that sorted before the horses moved in.

Tbh, if the paddock you're looking at was next to your house, well, within walking distance I'd go for it. I'd it's a few miles away and not ideal, mmm, not so sure. You'll have a lot of outlay to get it right and never underestimate the cost of maintenance.

And, as others have said, you'll need to supplement with hay all year round. If the land is clay you'll need to have the horses off it in the winter. I have trash paddocks for the winter, but you won't be able to do that on 1.3 acres.
 
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spookypony said:
Tern, it does depend completely on the ground and on how much you are expecting the horse to live off the grass with no added hay. In my pony's case, he used to be at a yard where he was meant to be in a massive field...and had to spend most of his time in a tiny, grass-less paddock, for his own health. For him, being in a paddock that is many times the size of his previous summer "pony jail", with enough room to get up a good gallop and hang around with two friends, is not a bad thing at all!

1.3 acres isn't enough to subsist on without added forage, but depending on the management, it can work. If the price is reasonable, if the utilities can be put in at reasonable expense (get estimates), if the travel to/from home is manageable, and if the field management plan is well thought out, this might work for the OP.
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Fair enough about ground but i still wouldn't do it.
 
Lots of things to look at. Is it next to other land? Perhaps you might be able to rent that as surplus? If you get the land serviced its only going to go up in value. If anything it might be worth something as plots for housing which is a good thing to bare in mind. If the ground isn't wet it should be pretty good.
 
You aren't mad to consider it but you might be mad to actually go through with it ;)

The small amount of grazing does make me edgy TBH & it isn't something I would consider PLUS putting right what could potentially be somebody else's bodge job on an arena could cost £1000's
 
spookypony said:
1.3 acres isn't enough to subsist on without added forage, but depending on the management, it can work. If the price is reasonable, if the utilities can be put in at reasonable expense (get estimates), if the travel to/from home is manageable, and if the field management plan is well thought out, this might work for the OP.
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I agree with this. It will need good management, and will depend upon what type of horses you are putting on the paddock and what you do with them but it can work. My four are all very good doers so 2.3 acres in summer is still too much grass. I got 80 bales off the field this year as well as 24/7 turnout through the summer. Winter is harder and we do get through a lot of hay then (no extra feed in summer). The hardstanding really comes into its own then as if the mud gets too bad we can pen them on it (we are on clay). We are just happy hackers though and the ponies are all fairly rough and ready types. It probably wouldn't work for TB competition horses.
 
Ideally as others have said you would want more ground. Is it possible to have this as their summer home when the field is drier and grass more plentiful, then move them to livery in winter or would this be an all year round thing. Personally if it's the latter then I would wait for something else.
 
I've got mine in a field about that size with 1 other. They are both sub 14.2hh and unshod. The other horse is stabled 16 hours a day, mines out 24/7. Mines only been there 6 weeks. The field is trashed, the poo picking is endless and mine moves back to a livery yard on Saturday as its just been a miserable experience for us! I'm a big fan out horses out 24/7 qnd have kept all of mine that way for the last 5 years + but having moved to the South where lands at a premium I'm giving up on that and going for day turnout in the winter and 24.7 in the summer.

I loved having my babies out 24/7 but I had access to 13 acres for a max of 5 horses and it worked ok as it just didnt get churned up a lot due to the space available. Its very, very different on a smaller acreage!
 
I've got 3 on 1.8 acres. It's split into two large paddocks which are rotated and a winter trash paddock.
They come in at night all year round.
I have no mains water or electricity bit I don't miss either....water is collected in IBCS, stable lights are battery powered, clippers are cordless.
If you manage the land well it's perfectly do able.
 
That why I need some opinions.
Plan would be to rotate them between being in, on the arena bit one day, and out in the paddock another. Theres no other available grazing nearby, or the possibility of anything else coming up for sale, although there is a livery yard they could go to if it gets trashed. the ground is well drained on a slope but heavy clay.

I could live without main electric and water could be collected.I would feed forage all year round.
Its just so reasonably priced when nothing else is available it is niggling me all the time. Its been for sale for a while so I worry if its no good I would be stuck with it, but if someone gets planning for a house its cost will rise beyond my reach. (planning is a possibility as its the site of a former house and sandwiched between 2 other houses).
Security and commuting twice daily would also be a worry. Especially in bad weather.
I think I'm talking myself out of it....
 
Sounds like you are going off the idea however here's a little thought from my perspective. I own a large farm with many pasture fields. Every pasture field has an adjoining corral/paddock of around 1 to 2 acres. The fields that the corrals/paddocks are attached to are mostly around 8-10 acres each. I feed ad-lib hay all year round even though all my fields have plenty of grazing. In one of the broodmare fields there are 8 mares; their paddock is 2 acres and their field is about 8 acres. These mares barely ever go out of their paddock into the field. They hang around their hay feeders or munch on the grass in their paddock (which seems to grow at a rate of knots btw). I have to top their pasture field regularly in the summer as otherwise it would turn into a hay field! It's the same in a number of my other fields. So my point is this, although I don't keep horses on tiny acreage, the vast majority of my horses prefer to live in their small corral/paddock areas rather than spending time in their pasture fields.

Small acreage can be managed well if you know how. There's a book over here which I know has been a bible to a few friends of mine who do keep multiple horses on 2 or 3 acres and they manage their land very nicely. http://www.horsekeeping.com/horse_books/Horsekeeping_on_a_Small_Acreage.htm
 
Youngsters need to be running around outside, not stood still on hard standing imo. 1.3 acres is not enough land; I would struggle keeping one on that; Infact I have four on 5.5 acres in winter and that just about lasts 6 months. Its false economy; I would wait until you find somewhere with more land.
 
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