1 horse on 1 acre field.

It massively depends on the field and they type of ground. Also the type of horse. Anything other than perfectly draining ground with a horse wouldn't take long to churn up and become horse sick. If anything I'd fence it in half, a third of an acre is tiny tiny.

Personally I wouldn't.

Is the horse alone? Will it never have company?
 
My 15 hh gelding is out on just under an acre 24/7 from April til October and then he comes in at night and out in the day. I have a very small paddock that I save for the winter when his main paddock gets very, very wet. Altogether the land is about an acre . I manage it really carefully and poo pick every day. I don't section it off as I don't want too much grass - he just has the whole paddock. I put hay out if necessary.
 
Have done this for 5 years. Fortunately I now have oppourtunity of 2.5 acres for 1. Wouldn't have been able to do it without my stable and very careful management on my part. Will only ever be a turnout area come autumn and winter and most of spring depending on managemen tbh and will have to feed forage. depending on soil type you will find it doesn't recover that well due to overgrazing and not a lot of recovery time. Unless you have somewhere else to put your horse for a few months over spring/start of Summer to let recover. Mine lived out most of spring and all summer and lived in at night and out during day in autumn and winter unless torrential rain and was in. I varied my electric, sometimes was strip grazed other times was let on 2/3 and left 1/3 to recover it all depends on how well it
Drains etc. Don't let him Have whole thing otherwise you will have no grass. I was ways told to have one field resting, one being used and one ready to use so always in 1/3rds. Worked well for me. Could always do
It in 1/2s if horse isn't greedy and just picks

ETA: my horse always has company on other side
Of fence. We each had 1acre and a little yard of our own so could manage however we pleased. Wouldn't do it if no company tho
 
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One acre is under seventy metres by sixty metres. If your piece of land is genuinely one acre, it's too small for anything but a turnout area, and not even that unless it drains well.
 
ycbm said:
One acre is under seventy metres by sixty metres. If your piece of land is genuinely one acre, it's too small for anything but a turnout area, and not even that unless it drains well.
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I might be wrong but I think one acre is 4046 square metres. 60 x70 would only be 420 square metres and that would be tiny.
 
sandy3924 said:
I might be wrong but I think one acre is 4046 square metres. 60 x70 would only be 420 square metres and that would be tiny.
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Quick google checked and yes it is 4046 square metres.

OP, I don't think a horse would be able to live out 24/7 on the same acre for the entire year. A fat miniature might but, generally speaking the ground will churn up in wet weather so you'll end up with a mud bath and no grass.
 
An acre easily keeps our 2 ponies through the summer, split into sections by electric and rotated. As soon as it gets wet in autumn they have to come off and go on the winter patch which conveniently contains a big area of old concrete that they can be fed on.
 
It can be done but depends on so many variants, such as soil type, size of horse, whether shod etc. When I did livery, each horse had an acre paddock each, which sustained the horses out 24/7 april - oct, and for daily turnout over the winter months.

However I was lucky to have very well draining land, and 'sensible' horses on livery - if they had been the type to gallop around and churn the paddocks up, I may have had to restrict winter turnout more. Equally when the ground was very wet, liveries would turn out in the school.

In the summer mnths the paddocks were split into 2 with electric fencing, so could be rotated to ensure good grass growth, with the horses having access to the full acre from approx. oct-mar. I had my own harrow/rollers etc so could maintain the paddocks on a regular basis, and insisted on daily poo picking throughout the year.

If you were wanting 1 acre for 24/7 365 turnout, you would probably need to feed additional hay all year round, and create an 'all weather' area to put the horse on when very wet.

It is not ideal, but could be workable with the right conditions and management.
 
Horse won't be alone - horses either side, and won't be out 24/7 was just wondering whether it would be difficult to manage before I make a decision. Am re locating and this is just one of a few yards I am considering
 
sandy3924 said:
I might be wrong but I think one acre is 4046 square metres. 60 x70 would only be 420 square metres and that would be tiny.
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Sorry, that's not right, 60 ×70 is 4200, not 420

Many people don't realise just how tiny one acre is. It's only three long dressage arenas, basically.
 
Perfectly doable :) I wouldn't ( and don't) have a problem with it at all.

If:

a) The ground is suitable, and doesn't turn into a swamp --> then you are stuffed.
b) You do not expect the grazing to sustain the horse all year round and are prepared to feed forage as required.

Would I section it? No. The more space a horse has the less poached the land gets. I have very good doers, I do not want a lot of grass and would rather feed hay.

My stallion lived out for 8 years very happily, and healthily, on a half acre paddock, granted it was tile drained, and sandy, and that I fed hay all year round.
 
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I keep a 15.1 and 14.2 on just under an acre 24/7 from March to end of October. Paddock is split in two and rotated weekly. From November until beginning of March they are in three quarters of an acre but come in at night. They will get at least 8 hours turnout a day supplemented with hay if necessary. Ground is not very well draining and the winter paddock resembles a ploughed field by the spring but it always recovers. It can be done but needs careful management.
 
We've 2 ponies on an acre + an acre of woodland that's too wet for winter but has some grass in amongst the trees. We don't have a stable but do have a field shelter and we have a 3rd water meadow (so too wet to graze beyond about 6 weeks after we take the hay off plus we have the option of about 2 acres of hay from a neighbour, usually we're self sufficient but this year we couldn't cut the neighbour's. The main paddock is split in half with an electric fence to encourage them to walk round otherwise they tend to ruin it all rather than just ruin the top bit.
 
Totally depends on the horse and the ground. I have 6 on less than 5 acres living out 24/7. All natives, and it's grazed by cattle and sheep over the summer too or I would have too much grass for them. If it's free draining it will be fine IMO.
 
OP We as mentioned many times before on H&H, We Have around 8 - 8 1/2 acres, we maintain it VERY well( weed kill - harrow- fertilize it every year. ) We always rest two of the paddocks while two are in use, the paddocks are around 2 acres each and the horses can migrate through the two as they please. The other two have about 2 -3 months off and only get used briefly when a new horse comes and then for a weeks intro. Ours are all out at 7 and in at 4 at the moment so the land has a break through the night. We are rarely short of grass and use too before the farmer retired have two of the fields for hay and got about 250 - 300 bales. Which when you consider we have a max of 9 out there should theoretically not be able to be done..

Our resting fields grass are about a foot in length - two feet in places all over and the in use ones are still around 6 - 8 inches long


As others mention it is doable and I would not let horse get access to all of it as then you wont get the best of it (IMO) . Land is a tricky thing as it depends on:

What type pf land you have
soil
irrigation
treatment
regime used
where in the country you are.



I would fence it off with electric and use one and just see how it copes and for how long, your first months to a year is trial and error what you can and cannot do, with electrics fence you can enlarge or shrink as needs be. I know someone locally who has a similar size acreage to me but does nothing with it and have not partitioned it off. They have less horses on and their grazing is poor. I am a firm believer of the old farmer saying
" Look after your land and your land will look after the horses - feed your land and it will feed your horses well"
 
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sultana said:
Horse won't be alone - horses either side, and won't be out 24/7 was just wondering whether it would be difficult to manage before I make a decision. Am re locating and this is just one of a few yards I am considering
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It's not ideal , however if the yard fitted all your other needs and the horse is in work it will be ok you will need to split it in winter I think unless the soil type is very free draining .
I would never consider it for a horse not being worked hard just not enough space to move to keep a horse healthy .
 
I keep my 15.3 good doer in a similar set up with no issues. Summer I divide into 2 and swap sides approx every 3 to 4 weeks and she stays out 24/7.

Winter she is stabled overnight and has hay top up and field is opened up to stop the churn. If your horse is the type to hang around in gateways I would consider some grass mats to protect the churn.
 
My horse has been on an acre for the last 12 months (horses either side) and she has done incredibly well on it. I'm about to open up the final third (closed this off to grow in August) and once that is gone, she will then move to another paddock.

This has only worked because she is in during the day May-Oct and in at night Nov-April. To be able to save the third, I also started feeding hay on the field in September.

It can be done, particularly if you have a good doer!
 
People are comparing multiple acres with multiple horses but you can't really do this - the smaller the field, the more relative fenceline there is to be trashed, along with a few feet to the side of it. It's much easier to manage 5 horses on 5 acres, than 1 horse on one.

I've done it and you will need to top, roll and reseed come spring. There will be patches that will recover but bare areas will end up full of buttercups, nettles, thistles and docks unless reseeded.

I'll try and get a picture later of my 1 acre paddock which has had a 14h and 12h onto until last week. It is trashed already, and I do fortnightly rotation between 3 paddocks. There's no way it would last the whole winter with even one on :(
 
it really does depend on your land but i doubt 24/7 is do-able.

ours have 1/2 acre for summer and a completely seperate 1/2 acre for winter and the land does very well, never churns up, never looks sick, always plenty of grass left on it when they swap paddocks.

but thats very sandy soil, ex dairy grass and barefoot horses which is basically the absolute ideal conditions for maintaining grass! On clay or recently sown pasture you would never manage it.

ours are in overnight all year too, even my land wouldnt support them 24/7.

i poo pick every day. re-seed the bare patches no matter how small, and even go as far as to pick up molehills before they get washed in to a mini mud patch by the rain. In short i am obsessive about looking after it and for 16 years we have never been short of grass.
 
I have 2 on 1 acre at a livery yard, spring and summer the field is tracked, the middle is left to grow and the gate is fenced off to protect it all year. I feed hay all year in the field too.

YO hasn't reseeded in years, field is full of docks and thistles. I reseeded the barest bit last year with old fashioned grazing ley, full of cornflowers etc and it came up wonderfully.
 
I would take a section - say an eighth of an acre - and put down either pea gravel/wood chip over a membrane/hardcore base, depending on budget and how clay/soggy the ground is, to use all year round and let the horse onto the other bit as appropriate. If you can't do that then no, you will need to split the land and stable quite a lot I would imagine, unless it is a shetland!
 
canteron said:
I would take a section - say an eighth of an acre - and put down either pea gravel/wood chip over a membrane/hardcore base, depending on budget and how clay/soggy the ground is, to use all year round and let the horse onto the other bit as appropriate. If you can't do that then no, you will need to split the land and stable quite a lot I would imagine, unless it is a shetland!
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