1 acre

It would depend on how well drained and maintained the land was. It would probably be do-able as long as stabling was available and ideally a hard standing yard area to get them off the land in very wet conditions.
 
I'm not sure but I believe there is a stable area. I would have to go see it first I imagine but just wanted to know if it's possible.
 
LittleBlackMule said:
It would depend on how well drained and maintained the land was. It would probably be do-able as long as stabling was available and ideally a hard standing yard area to get them off the land in very wet conditions.
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Agreed. My neighbour keeps two 15.2s on an acre with stabling and hay put out as necessary. Not ideal, as you're even more at the mercy of the weather than someone with more land.

Having said that, I reckon one acre of well drained loamy land is worth four of heavy clay!
 
I struggled with 2 14h2s on 5 acres during the winter. You would need to heavily supplement with hay, not be worried about the field being totally trashed, and possibly stable during not even the worst of weather. And come spring you will need to reseed the bare areas or docks/nettles/thistles will overtake.
 
Personally I would say no. That paddock is going to become overgrazed and poached quickly. A rough guideline is at least one acre, per season, per horse. So that means two acres, per year, per horse.
 
We keep two on 1.25 acres. I do have stables but they live out all year round. They spend a lot of time standing indoors when it's cold and wet. I divide the field into two halves and it's fine.
 
I have one on 1.25 of slightly sloping heavy clay but have stable and a little yard which he is shut on overnight in winter. He is laminitic so is on a track spring summer and autumn with soaked hay and in the middle in winter with supplementary hay as needed. He has sheep on there as well for company and horses on each side so he is settled but doesn't charge about much. Last winter I had to shut him off the yard in the day with hay as he refused to go out in the wet at all when had free access to stable !
 
Ive got 4 on 14 acres.
id say 2 on 1acre would be on hay all yr! Even if itdrains well, it's still going to disappear if they are out a decent amount of time.
if it's clay......you'd have a mire very quickly.
 
There is a yard next to me with 12 on 8 acres. I will take a picture tomorrow to show just how little grass they have - at the end of summer! I dread to think what it will be like in winter :(

Eta. - found a pic from July. Not good for mid summer IMO...

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Compared to my field directly adjacent

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I think if you have a good doer, it would be doable. Providing you're not expecting your horse to be turned out all year, in all weathers 24/7 and are prepared to supplement with hay.

I'd certainly go & have a look - you've got nothing to lose :)
 
No, especially with a bit sectioned off it means they will always be cooped up. I like a horse to be able to canter round and play. It may be ok for a year, but the grass will gradually become a bit horse sick as it will never get a rest..
 
I kept a 16.1 tb and a 15.1 cob on just over an acre and in winter the field was trashed and i had to rent a field every spring to let it recover for a month or two.
 
Just spoke to the gentleman that owns the yard and its 1 acre and 1/3, so 1.3? I am going to view it tomorrow so will ask how it holds up over the winter with wet weather, it also has 2 stables.
 
I'm sure my yard owner said the other day that we have 14 acres of land with 16 horses. The paddocks vary in size, I have quite a large paddock which I have sectioned into two but the grass doesn't grow well however, it is enough for my 13.2. I think my field is around an acre but definately not enough to graze 2 13.2's let alone 2 14.2 ponies. You would have to feed hay all year round I would imagine and if you don't stable over night in winter your fields will be wrecked.
 
Stacy_W said:
We keep two on 1.25 acres. I do have stables but they live out all year round. They spend a lot of time standing indoors when it's cold and wet. I divide the field into two halves and it's fine.
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So they don't live out if they spend a lot of time standing indoors?!!

I would say definitely not. You may as well look for something a bit more pricey as you will be spending a fortune on hay!
 
For 24/7 grazing - no, but if you see the 1.3 acres as 'turnout' rather than grazing ie you have to supplement with hay, you may be all right, but as others have said a lot will depend on the soil.

If there are 2 stables available that is a huge advantage, so would be thinking stable at night in the winter/stable during the day in the summer, to preserve the grass. Also see how easily dividable with electric fencing it is - if you could split it into 2, that would at least help you rest and rotate it.

You also need to take into account your horses habits - we had a couple of liveries here that could trash an acre in mid winter in a few days as used it to 'self excercise' (ie hoon around like loonies!!!). However my cob could easily be on the same acre and it not get churned up at all, as he rarely does more than mooch around.

I think it is doable and there are so many advantages to having you our land that outweigh the negatives. Let us know how you get on!

(Sorry meant to add - however nice Fides field looks, it would give me kittens putting horses out on that amount of grass, but then I do have good doers!)
 
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L&M said:
Also see how easily dividable with electric fencing it is - if you could split it into 2, that would at least help you rest and rotate it.
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The problem with this is the smaller the field the more mess it will make. It will become poached along the fence lines and that will be a significant amount of grazing lost.

I had this idea when I first got my own place - 5 acres in a squared off U shape arund the central yard. I split it into half acre paddocks to 'properly rotate'. All that actually happened is that within a couple of weeks the edges would be poach and I had to move them on - by theend of winter I had no grazing. The next year I sectioned off an acre for the summer and left the other 4, got a cut of hay and then put them out on the 4 acres over winter. There has no grass left by the end, but I had hay to supplement, but the ground wasn't excessively poached despite them being out nearly 24/7. I would never split a paddock less than 1 acre now, ideally not less than 3, for that reason.
 
I was 2 years on a 1 acre field with two stables with my horse, a 15.3 TB and my friend's welshie. The field was on a gentle slope so had good drainage and I sectioned it off into 4 little paddocks to rotate every month. They were still able to hoon about but in winter, I had to feed hay in the paddocks. In summer though, both got incredibly fat, even my TB on the grass I had. I used to poo pick twice a day and pull any weeds/ragwort as they came up. As long as you are on top of poo picking, weeding, maintaining the resting sections and feed hay in the winter, you should be ok.
 
Sebastian said:
Personally I would say no. That paddock is going to become overgrazed and poached quickly. A rough guideline is at least one acre, per season, per horse. So that means two acres, per year, per horse.
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I have 4 seasons per year where I am!

I have managed a 14.3hh, a 13.2hh and a shetland on 1.7 acres 24hrs turnout for 14 months, the field was harrowed and rolled 3 x per year, no fertiliser/topping. however it is hard work, hay given twice daily and when the ground is wet hay can never run out and hay station has to be moved daily, non of them had any hard feed. the fence was moved daily all spring summer and at least half rested for the growing months, the grass still runs out though then full access to the field is given along with hay till the field drys and grass starts growing then the fencing off starts again.
the ground is fairly heavy where I am and we avoided masses of mud by the summer grazing being furthest from the gate and the fence moving towards the gate over winter, no mud fever for any of them-hard work but doable
 
No, I once tried keeping three horses on two acres and it just didn't work, now have 10 acres with two horses and three miniatures and that works just fine.
 
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