How many acres for all year turnout??

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bugsysmum

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Hi everyone
Realistically, how many acres per horse would be the minimum you could have in order to keep grass all year? Not talking about wrecking fields into mud patches, but so you could have green fields all year?
And if you have "summer" and "winter" fields - how many acres for each? Bearing in mind winter would be stabled overnight, summer live out 24/7
Thanks for your advices...
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I recon 4 horses - 10 acres. So 5 acres for winter and 5 for the other.

I think it innevitable that a winter field will get wrecked. But if you really want to avoid that - then I'd say you'd need a minimum of 5 acres per horse with continual rotation.
 
Our cob lives out 24/7/365 and has plenty to eat all year and not much winter mud on a 3 acre field (divided and rotated as necessary) It's enough but nothing to spare
 
I have 2 15 hh horses who are kept on 3 paddocks that total 4 acres over the winter. In winter they are out usually 8-5ish and stabled at night.

Our fields are clay soil and on a slope though so they do get very wet and slightly poached in places but always recover (this year one of the paddocks has been out of action so they have been kept on 2.5 acres and still coped well).

Our summer grazing is a completely separate field just down the road and is about 1.5 acres in size and they are out 24/7 on there from about april/may til sept/oct (weather dependant) and as they are both fatties that is strip grazed over that period and they do fine on there.
 
The theory states 2 acres for the first horse and then 1 acre for each additional one.

In practice there are quite a few variables which will effect your pasture being soil type, drainage, is it level or on a slope and type of grass.

I keep my two cobs in a well drained half acre field in Winter and get no mud and in Summer on a slightly smaller field. They are both laminitic so this prevents them from putting on weight.

I do however pick up the poos each day.
 
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Our cob lives out 24/7/365 and has plenty to eat all year and not much winter mud on a 3 acre field (divided and rotated as necessary) It's enough but nothing to spare

[/ QUOTE ]

Im the same but with 3 on it the fields divided in to 3 paddocks, theres another paddock full of grass if I ever want it though, and mine have kept their weight fine all winter and last winter, they have plenty of hard feed and haylege everyday but Buddie could live on fresh air and still be fat, they are all good doers!
 
I've got 7 for my two and they still poach the bit near the shelter. Rest of it is in a good nick though and I reckon could support another two as I sectioned off about 2 acres as a 'mud fever reserve'. didn't have to use it.
 
I have 3 horses and 2 cows on 6 acres. They are all out 24/7.

The field is a well draining field and I have a big hard standing area where I have round bale haylage. They spend a lot of time on there in the winter which I feel helps the fields stay green.
I just have a few muddy patches mainly the approach to the hard standing.
 
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