3 Acre Field - Is It Big Enough???

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armywag

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Morning All

I am considering buying a 3 acre (approx) piece of land that at the moment has 3 stables on it to run as a small livery yard.

Has anyone managed to run a successful livery with only 3 acres? If so how many horses do / did you have on it and how do / did you manage the turn out??

If I did buy it I would be looking to add a few more stables and a school (may be 4 more)

I was thinking we could rent another field nearby if grazing gets poor......

Any advise would be appreciated.
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Thanks
 
I hade 8 horses at a 3 arca livery yard, i managed the yard very well.

All feilds poo picked, fertiliased while resting (this was done by hand!! saves £££)

and we all still had winter turnout for an hour each horse!!

Now thats skills ~ its major do able!!
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I would say an acre per horse.

If you are adding more stables & a school, then you will definitely need more grazing. IMO 3 acres is more than enough for your own horses, but not enough for livery.
 
I would say its enough for two horses. I am used to having lots of grazing, and couldn't stand it if they only had 1 hour turnout in winter - that makes stables more like cells imho
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[ QUOTE ]
I hade 8 horses at a 3 arca livery yard, i managed the yard very well.

All feilds poo picked, fertiliased while resting (this was done by hand!! saves £££)

and we all still had winter turnout for an hour each horse!!

Now thats skills ~ its major do able!!
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Sorry, but winter turn out for just one hour a day?
I know it happens and that some have to be in 24/7 in the winter but personally I would just not consider it.

Not what I would call skills - unless what you are aiming for is maximum income on as little land as possible.
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Depends on what the grazing is like - we rented a yard (six acres and six stables). Short story is that we had to move because the grass that came through in the summer field wouldn't have kept two going
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. Pity, we liked it there.

Hopefully the grazing you're starting with will be better than what we had
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I think you would struggle tbh especially as it would appear the stable yard and access comes out of that 3 acres. I think you'll find most liveries want 24/7 turnout in the summer and day turn out in the winter and the land would get a fair bashing.

I think the only possible way it could stretch is if you put a school in and had some competition liveries but even then......
 
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[ QUOTE ]
I hade 8 horses at a 3 arca livery yard, i managed the yard very well.

All feilds poo picked, fertiliased while resting (this was done by hand!! saves £££)

and we all still had winter turnout for an hour each horse!!

Now thats skills ~ its major do able!!
laugh.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry, but winter turn out for just one hour a day?
I know it happens and that some have to be in 24/7 in the winter but personally I would just not consider it.

Not what I would call skills - unless what you are aiming for is maximum income on as little land as possible.
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Well we had 4 divided fields, all horses where competition horses and in the summer they lived out at night!

Mares ( which was only 2) whent in the smaller paddock and the gelding went in the other 3 divided into small groups.

ALL horses were worked so the turn out was more relaxation as apposed to streching there legs.

in the winter (because they were competing) none of the girls wanted mud fever and dirty horses. So they got exersices and turnedout for mucking out and brought back in.

We didnt have a horse walker either which i really appreceiate now, but then i have 45 acras and 20 horses.

If the land is managed correctly you can do it, it was hard work but as i said do able.

I class the skill in the fact that i did managed to have all 8 horses and owners happy.

AND at £15 a week for DIY i wouldnt say i was really making money! and only £45 for part DIY in winter!

If you wanted 4 or 5 horses on 3 acras it would be a walk in the park.

But it does depend on what they are doing, if you want all year turn out than of course, it would be silly.

It worked for me as it was all that i had and i had to make the most of it, which i did for 6years.
 
I have 3 on approx two acres, and it isn't going to last through the next winter. I will be moving soon as it isn't enough (they have munched their way through it so by end of summer it will be non-existent.
I would say not enough for a livery yard at all, even if sectioned off (I hate seeing horses squished into small paddocks without room for a good meander)
 
As I thought! It’s more of a yard to keep your own horses!
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It’s just so tempting to go for the first piece of land you see!!
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Oh, excuse my lack of knowledge... but what does “tbh” & “IMO” mean?? They are probably really obvious but.....?
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To be honest and in my opinion.

You'd laugh if you saw what I keep mine on - and my previous place was a RS that had 24/7 turnout with no grass. Bumps the feed bill but, hey, it's what you do.

I wouldn't run a livery yard on 3 acres myself.
 
Here in Spain its unbelievable how many horses on a piece of land - no grazing so all on hard feed - takes a bit of getting used to !
 
The Council might not think this is enough to run a business, they have a set number of acres per horse.

However, when I went to the USA I noticed that most people kept their horses in dirt corralls and fed them hay and the horses had just a short time out at grass, if any. This was private owners and a large stud. So the horses weren't kept standing in stables all day, they had company and food but very limited grass.
 
In Spain though, I doubt your fields turn to a sea of mud if horses are out on it?
I wouldn't take a horse of mine to a livery yard with so little grazing. If they can't go out for a good 7 + hours in the winter then I wouldn't even consider it.
I suppose you could set it up as a "competition" livery and argue that competition horses don't need full turnout, and that work can replace the need to be out chilling and grazing for hours. I guess it just depends on what you consider to be an acceptable standard of care for any horse.
 
3 acres is not enough for 7 horses, no matter how much wishful thinking is involved. It's one acre per horse. I wouldn't keep my horse on a livery yard where he had half an acre to last all year round, tbh.
 
I have a small yard of 3 stables set within 3.95 acres. I won't have more than 3 horses on the place. My land is clay so that has to be taken into account. It's funny but when you first acquire land you think that it's a huge area but once you've had it for a while it seems to shrink. I certainly wouldn't advise having more than 3 horses on 3 acres and probably 2 would be a better number.
 
Yes, the type of land really makes a difference, although 7 horses on less than 3 acres just isn't enough. I went to look at a 2 acre field yesterday, that hadn't been grazed for 6 months, but before had been used by two ponies. The field told the story, it's wet, it was heavily poached, it would have been a hellish winter for the ponies. Now the poaching has set rock-hard, so the owner is going to have some fun finding someone to rent that field. So in that case, even 1 acre per pony wasn't enough.
 
Depends on where you are.

I saw a livery yard in North London which had 6 acres of grazing with ... 30+ horses.

They apparently had grazing 8 months of the year and for the winter months could go into a mud pen for an hour a day while being mucked out.

In reality, they didnt even go onto the paddocks in summer as they were on the side of a hill, so the slightest bit of rain and they were brought straight back in to "save the grass".
 
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Sorry, but winter turn out for just one hour a day?
I know it happens and that some have to be in 24/7 in the winter but personally I would just not consider it.

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I agree, sorry but I hate seeing horses stabled - utterly pointless in most cases. Mine live out 24/7 - I currently have 2 horses and 2 ponies on 4.5 acres (with field shelters & stabling which I rarely use) and have plenty of grass, 2 paddocks are currently being rested as well. They live out all year round, winter as well.
 
Being the person who posted this, I just wanted to add that I also do not agree with a few hours turn out.

However it was good to see mixed opinions.
 
would only be suitable for competition horses that get little or no turnout.

i wouldn't have more than 2 big horses on it or 3 medium > small ponies.

If it was myself, i'd also need to consider the fact i'd want to pen an area off as a schooling paddock if it had no school.
 
We were looking at a 3 acre field but in the end decided not to as we wanted 3 TB's on it. Depends on the type of horse too - our TB's need plenty of good grazing, but our friends have 2 ponies prone to laminitis who need restricted grazing and would probably find 3 acres too much!
 
Regardless of the type of soil and management skills, unless horses are kept in a lot and fed lots of hay/haylage, then three acres is definately not adequate.
 
as long as you stick to 2-3 horses it would be fine anymore you will need more grazing. Acre a horse is adequate. Horses don't need loads of space not when managed correctly. Not to far to walk for poo picking!
 
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