For those of you with your own land...

Absolutely dooable.
It is difficult for people in Britain and Ireland to get their heads around how to cope with limited land but it is very possible with some good design.
For some perspective in Switzerland where grassland is extremely limited but hacking is endless owners carefully design their stables on little more than a postage stamp where they live year round. Here are a couple of examples:

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This will probably upset most here but why do you want to turn out. Unless you have got loads of room why not keep them in and have a sand school until you can afford a ménage . Let them out for at least an hour a day or ride in the sand school so they get exercise, put up lights so you can ride through the winter. Then as a treat they can have grass when it's long and dry underfoot . This way your land won't look a sight of either a mud bath of dust bowl.
There is a lot of work involved and I learnt never to rely on a hedge to stop a horse. Always post and rail on the inside. You need to decide on muck / bedding and how you get rid of it and find a good hay supplier. I also found it was handy to have a shed with a door wide enough to roll a round bale of hay in.
We sold our house with acre paddock to move close to a better school ( pushy parent?) but now she is due to start 6th form we are looking again for house( in any condition ) and land
 
It depends how you keep them. If you want 24\7 turnout and don't want to rent extra land that is not enough. I got 4 acres 2 years ago and keep 3 large ponies out 24/7. I would love more land. I could not afford to buy a house with land though. You may find it cheaper to buy land separately. If you stable them it may be easier. My neighbour has 1 horse and 2 good doer ponies on 2.5 acres and stables them at night. She struggles with that but makes it work. Another has 2 horses on 2 acres and grazes a neighbours too for free. It is workable but go in to it with your eyes open if you do not have access to enough you cannot just sell up and move at no cost.
 
its about this wide ;)

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we just finished making it all the way round at the weekend having purchased some metal posts for the corners so we can keep it tensioned.

We dug approx a 7mx8m section out by the gateway that goes into the yard (which was bare earth from winter use) and have filled it with about 5" of pea gravel, for his lordships foots benefit!

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Essentially I think plan is to use the track in the summer, cut hay off the middle as usual (and the remaining acre paddock we are now not using) and then use the whole thing in winter again.

It has been in about a month now and am really pleased with it even though they can't get all the way around yet (am strip grazing it initially) they are walking around soo much more!
 
Dave282B said:
This will probably upset most here but why do you want to turn out. Unless you have got loads of room why not keep them in and have a sand school until you can afford a ménage . Let them out for at least an hour a day or ride in the sand school so they get exercise, put up lights so you can ride through the winter. Then as a treat they can have grass when it's long and dry underfoot . This way your land won't look a sight of either a mud bath of dust bowl.
There is a lot of work involved and I learnt never to rely on a hedge to stop a horse. Always post and rail on the inside. You need to decide on muck / bedding and how you get rid of it and find a good hay supplier. I also found it was handy to have a shed with a door wide enough to roll a round bale of hay in.
We sold our house with acre paddock to move close to a better school ( pushy parent?) but now she is due to start 6th form we are looking again for house( in any condition ) and land
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because it is much healthier for horses to be moving around all day.
 
I don't often comment on HHO but felt the need to reply to this!

We have a 14.2, an 11.3 and a miniature on 1.5 acres right next to our house. They all live out and are all good doers, but we have to feed quite a lot of hay obviously.

We have a starvation section where the field shelters are. They are in that bit at night, and then they all go out on the main grass during the day. The two little ones do grass mowing duties in our back garden as well (although our naughty Falabella keeps eating my climbing roses and I have to run outside and chase him off :))

We poo pick religiously, harrow, fertilize, rest each paddock and nurture every blade of grass. Luckily we have vary free draining soil so it doesn't get trashed at all and all looks quite presentable. We also get to borrow the neighbour's field now and again for them.

It's hard work tending it and obviously more expensive feeding the extra hay, but I would not ever swap my set up for a bigger one with more land away from my house.

And when ever I wistfully think about having another acre or two, I also sit down and read some of all the livery yard horror stories on this forum. Then I go away and remind myself how very lucky I am to have my own set-up, however little it is!

So I say go for it! Good luck and enjoy :)
 
It does depend on the soil type, drainage and lie of the land. However if you keep your horses stabled at night, manage the land by picking up the poos each day and putting in hardcore by the field gate, additional drainage if required and annually harrowing, overseeding and rolling the fields then you should be o.k. Treat any Ragwort that appears and also strim any nettles or thistles that appear.
 
Dave282B said:
... until you can afford a ménage . ...
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Sorry, this is my pet-hate: it is NOT called a menage - a menage is, by dictionary definition, "A domestic establishment, or its members collectively; a household, a home. In later use also: the parties involved in a romantic or sexual relationship regarded as forming a domestic establishment; the relationship itself".

The place where you train your horse can be called a 'manege'. I am so tired of affectation especially when people can't even 'affect' with the right words.

;-)
 
when my mum had horses (many years ago) she had 5 horses on a 1.5 acre plot. they had to manage it and poo-pick etc... and gave them hay in the winter. they had stables, so they weren't out 24/7 and all ponies stayed in very good condition.
 
hest said:
I don't often comment on HHO but felt the need to reply to this!

We have a 14.2, an 11.3 and a miniature on 1.5 acres right next to our house. They all live out and are all good doers, but we have to feed quite a lot of hay obviously.

We have a starvation section where the field shelters are. They are in that bit at night, and then they all go out on the main grass during the day. The two little ones do grass mowing duties in our back garden as well (although our naughty Falabella keeps eating my climbing roses and I have to run outside and chase him off :))

We poo pick religiously, harrow, fertilize, rest each paddock and nurture every blade of grass. Luckily we have vary free draining soil so it doesn't get trashed at all and all looks quite presentable. We also get to borrow the neighbour's field now and again for them.

It's hard work tending it and obviously more expensive feeding the extra hay, but I would not ever swap my set up for a bigger one with more land away from my house.

And when ever I wistfully think about having another acre or two, I also sit down and read some of all the livery yard horror stories on this forum. Then I go away and remind myself how very lucky I am to have my own set-up, however little it is!

So I say go for it! Good luck and enjoy :)
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How sensible and agree with every word....and remember the best thing is..getting up in morning, putting on dressing gown and wellies, letting your gee gees out on your land, letting out the rescue battery hens you are sure to get, making a cup of coffee and going back to bed!! luxury.
 
My mum has a 14.1hh cob and a 15.3hh Thouroughbred on just over an acre. In the winter they are on the yard and in the sand school with ad-lib hay. As soon as the spring grass starts to come through they are on the grass/yard (their choice) 24/7.
The field is poo picked every day, split into 2 with electric fence, and occasionally she may find another field to rent to rest this one. She has kept her ponies like this for years and I think at one time had a horse and 3 ponies on it with no problems (obviously had to feed some hay).
 
Freddie19 said:
How sensible and agree with every word....and remember the best thing is..getting up in morning, putting on dressing gown and wellies, letting your gee gees out on your land, letting out the rescue battery hens you are sure to get, making a cup of coffee and going back to bed!! luxury.
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OMG Freddie are you spying on me :eek: I do all the above apart from the going back to bed bit (I wish).

One of our rescue hens (Henny) has just died actually. She was given a full state funeral, buried in our pet cemetery) and we all cried...... a lot. She has her own headstone made by my children out of half a breeze block, with 'Henny RIP' carved on it.

OP if you do end up with your 'own place', then I can thoroughly recommend a chicken or three to go with your four-legged friends.

Another reason to go for it!
 
hest said:
OMG Freddie are you spying on me :eek: I do all the above apart from the going back to bed bit (I wish).

One of our rescue hens (Henny) has just died actually. She was given a full state funeral, buried in our pet cemetery) and we all cried...... a lot. She has her own headstone made by my children out of half a breeze block, with 'Henny RIP' carved on it.

OP if you do end up with your 'own place', then I can thoroughly recommend a chicken or three to go with your four-legged friends.

Another reason to go for it!
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Promise I am not spying, arent hens wonderful, my very big ex rugby player husband absolutely loves his hens, two of whom have only to hear his voice and run to where-ever he is, and that includes up the stairs. To hear him calling come on chuckies is the best thing ever. My 4 dogs even allow chuckies to share their bones. Big dobermann usually gives up and chuckies take over bones, the joys of living with animals.
 
You'll be fine - go for it. We keep 3 large ponies (14.3hh, 14.1hh and 13.3hh) plus a companion pony on 2.3 acres. All are cobby types, so good doers. They all live out 24/7/365. We do feed a lot of hay in the winter and we poo pick twice a day but we get compliments from local horse owners about how good our paddock looks - thanks to hubby fertilising, reseeding and chain harrowing every year! We have a hardstanding area around the field shelter where we feed hay in the winter and this saves the field getting too churned up.
 
It will be fine you need to budget for equipment for maintaining the land as you will have to be able to get into the paddocks as soon as you rotate.
I would consider making a pea gravel turnout pen or wood chip so they can get some fresh air when it's very wet.
If the horses are working it will be fine nothing beats having your horses at home it's magic .
You will find maintaining everything takes more time and costs more than you think but it's so worth it.
 
Ah ha didn’t think I would get a round of applause for suggesting keeping horses in, but let me explain my thoughts so you can really get excited and shoot me down.
We all agree that with careful management horses can be kept on a small piece of land but that as this is a compromise against the ideal, we have to make adjustments and work harder in other areas to make up. The list includes more regular poo picking, strip grazing, fertilizing and weed killing etc.
Well my point is that as the horses would ruin the grass if left out 24/7, I would set up an all-weather riding surface so if you can’t hack out, there is always somewhere to exercise. I also believe that as there is limited turn out there is a higher possibility of the horse having an accident than stood in its stable.
Being stabled is not as healthy and you need to try harder to avoid boredom, muck out more often and be very careful that when you do turn out they don’t go ballistic and hurt themselves in the first 5 minutes of freedom. This depends on the type of horse as a TB would gallop and a cob probably go for a roll then start seeking food (or simultaneously if they can), so you may need to lunge before letting go free. As I said before you need to work harder in other area’s, so I hope you see my point even if you don’t agree with me.
Any how I am just popping to the stables next door to see if they can manege a manage in the ménage.
 
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