Is six acres enough for small hacks?

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indiat

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I know, probably not, but I have seen a house we love that has six acres and I was hoping the kids could toddle about on the ponies on it. We would have to box them up for longer hacks, which I don't mind but it would be wonderful if the kids could just mess about a couple of evenings after school. Forgive the idiot comments, there are going to be a LOT of them as we house hunt for a horse-friendly place! :D
 
Lol no you couldn't 'hack' on 6 acres, that's a tiny amount of land, however I'm sure little kiddies would be perfectly happy wandering about 6 acres on their ponies.
 
Goddammit! Why can't some one invent 'infinity' land, like a bloomin' swimming pool! :D I am getting waaaay too excited about all this.
 
You could split the acreage up and make little courses with interesting things for them to do; think gymkhana type stuff or small jumps etc. or an obstacle course. I'm sure they'd be quite happy to pootle around in there for most of the time and then take them out elsewhere to give them a change of scenery every once in a while. How old are the children?
 
TARDIS land? I wouldn't mind that either. I'd be tempted to have a gallop track round the edge of 6 acres - not really hacking, but still good for fast work if the hacking's not good!
 
Well, I have 7 acres and have little pootles around the fields when the weather is clement and the ground is firm. Wouldn't call it hacking per se, but at least it stretches the legs and I can check the fences and state of the grass as we go. It's good to get them out cantering on different terrain too.
 
The thing is, the house is wonderful, the land is glorious, the location is PERFECT, our next door neighbour runs a livery yard and hosts shows and has two kids the same age. My girls are 12 and nine, littlest is quite happy just to have a cuddle so is not looking for hard work outs. The land is great because it has no public access and is bordered by a railway line and stream so no chance of stray dog walkers etc. I was thinking of putting in a bridle path. Gutted by the hacking but they would have to use a busy road to get to it and I am not happy for them to do that on their own.
 
Spring Feather said:
You could split the acreage up and make little courses with interesting things for them to do; think gymkhana type stuff or small jumps etc. or an obstacle course. I'm sure they'd be quite happy to pootle around in there for most of the time and then take them out elsewhere to give them a change of scenery every once in a while. How old are the children?
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Yes, this. We used to set up gymkhana stuff and handy pony, and they would mess around on that for hours.

How old are the children? Up to 12 they would be fine.


Edited to add, it sounds great for them at the moment, especially with kids the same age next door, but bear in mind that they will grow up and the lack of hacking will become a bigger issue later on.
 
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If it's one flat paddock than it would be a bit boring but we used to have 6 acres that was all up and down with lots of random bits and we could play for hours. My dad used to cut a track which took 10 mins to walk round but we could play up and down the little hills for ages.
 
We have seen a house with less land but much better access to hacking, all off road. I particularly like the fact that the barn is attached to the house so I can just walk through and check on them. The location isn't as good though. :( I HATE house hunting.

BTW I am off to copyright Tardis land and then invent it before any of you lot get in there first! :D
 
Spring feather, that thought popped into my head too...a little jumping corner, an obstacle/gymkhana type area...if the kiddies are quite young, but the idea of a track round the outside with some xc jumps might appeal more if they are a little older!
 
BWa that is one of the reasons why we like this house so much is that land is very interesting (and every beautiful). BUT the kids are going to get older. We just have to do a lot of research.
 
You might find that if the kids get friendly with the next door children they end up spending most of the time with them at the livery yard - does the livery yard have facilities such as a school that perhaps they might hire to you a couple of evenings a week?

Also being next to a livery yard might be useful should you want to go away at all as there might be people willing to pop in look after your ponies if you go away.

Where do the livery yard clients go to hack?
 
SO1 That is what I am hoping, that we can hire the school and have the kids go round for lessons there. We never go on holidays but it would be nice to have the option! I talked to a livery who didn't tell me much about the hacking so we are going for a second viewing and I will speak to the owner herself. I viewed on one of the days the Bath and West show was on, so not the best timing for talking to horsey neighbours!
 
On a practical basis, would your "hacking" area also be your "turnout" area??? Sorry that's probably a stupid question but it does occur to me that if we get another winter like the one we've just had (please god no!), or even a normal winter, then six acres isn't going to be very much TBH. I don't know how many equines you intend to put on that space, but if you're using it for hacking/poodling as well then I wonder whether it will be sufficient???
 
We have two acres for grazing and I was going to keep my highland and companion on it. Littlest is unsure as to whether or not she wants a pony of her own to ride. The other four acres would be for riding. I take your point about the winter, I have no idea how we will cope as I have never done this before. Another thing I have to research.

ETA I was thinking of putting a bridle path around the edges of all the acres. I don't know if that would help?
 
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I think it will really depend on the land, the soil and how good the grass is. Our wet clay land would be knee deep in mud if we rode round and round on the same path in winter.

I would consider putting a manège in for them to play on in winter.
 
Sounds great tbh! I'd love a set up like that-i have 2acres which the horse and her companion get turned out on(ad lib hay as required) and I ride on. And barely any hacking at all unless dad boxes us 25mins up the road to a small wood which we can get around at a fast canter in under 10mins*sigh*.
So yes 6 acres is plenty to keep interested on. ;) If you can,home made jumps etc would be ideal as well for them.
 
Honey08, I really want a school! There is a massive double garage on the land with storage at the back and a concrete yard. I was going to measure up and see if I could fit a menage in the space and maybe take up a bit of garden as well. It comes with seperate gardens and frankly, I really don't need it all, not with six acres. Luck of the Devil - how do you manage to keep your horse fit and interested?

I am going to ask the riding school if we could hire their hacking - alternatively there is a country estate nearby with 550 acres, they might hire theirs. We were liveried on a country estate once, and they didn't mind people coming in as long as they could prove their horses were vaccinated and gave a contribution.
 
We have just over six acres, and my children used to ride in the field after school. We put xcou try jumps round the edge,, mowed a dry flat area for using to school, practice handy pony etc, and still had room to put jumps closer together to practise show jumping. We had successful competition ponies and horses, but they did come in at night for most of the year and this helped save the ground.

However we do live in a hilly area so weekend hacking was good from home and helped keep ponies fit.
 
A friend made a "part" school on an area same sort of size. They dug out, lined and rubber chipped 2 circles, diagonals and straight borders on a 20/40m area. Obviously not perfect but she could do basic work at a cost of 4k as opposed to 20k+ for a full arena.
 
I'm going through the looking for a house/yard/land exercise ATM (oh my god it's hard!!)

One place I saw, had been cleverly fenced so the paddocks in the 7ish acres sat inside a circular figure of eight track around the edge of the land & across the middle, so you could ride around it without leaving the yard, it had curved paddocks & they'd been really creative with the space, so I think you could do it, but would need a bit of patience to get it all set off
 
Millikins and Racing Demon, that's interesting. I have bought some books today on keeping horses on small holdings so I can do some better research.
 
Spring Feather said:
Lol no you couldn't 'hack' on 6 acres, that's a tiny amount of land, however I'm sure little kiddies would be perfectly happy wandering about 6 acres on their ponies.
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Crikey - that's got to win the prize for most condescending comment of 2014 so far.

Agree you can't properly hack on 6 acres, however I, as an adult opposed to a 'little kiddy' manage to keep an event horse fit by using my 'tiny amount of land' to canter around, plus have 365 turnout and a sandschool and a house and a garage and a granny annexe and stables, tack room and feed room and tractor store so perfectly feasible OP. The kids used to spend the whole holidays playing ponies and they are incredibly creative keeping themselves and their ponies fit with various games.

SF - to buy the amount of land you have where I live would be around £10 million with a house and facilities so unless you are Cresus it's not feasible for us normal people.
 
indiat said:
Honey08, I really want a school! There is a massive double garage on the land with storage at the back and a concrete yard. I was going to measure up and see if I could fit a menage in the space and maybe take up a bit of garden as well. It comes with seperate gardens and frankly, I really don't need it all, not with six acres. Luck of the Devil - how do you manage to keep your horse fit and interested?

I am going to ask the riding school if we could hire their hacking - alternatively there is a country estate nearby with 550 acres, they might hire theirs. We were liveried on a country estate once, and they didn't mind people coming in as long as they could prove their horses were vaccinated and gave a contribution.
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Its actually not to hard. I'm am older then your girls (older teenager) but have been riding on this field since I was 8! My dad is great making up jumps (the bright blue roof of a Wendy house as a filler, pallets nailed together as a chicken coop type jump etc) but the main thing is to change it around. The jumps ate never in the same place for more than 2 weeks and I was always setting up handy pony courses or obstacles ie mams washing line was really fun to play with.
To keep the horse fit- my field is flat enough for a large gallop and when I was younger my friends and I spent hours playing cowboys an Indians and mounted tag etc. If your girls are a little older they would love this sort of thing. Nowadays I do more schooling as I don't actually have my own horse but take on others to school and play with lol but same thing, jumps are never in the same place and at least once a week have a massive blow out the cobwebs gallop just for fun!
I do have a group lesson in an arena once a week though but I can honestly say that other then competitions I haven't ridden in a) an arena bigger than 20x45 or b) an indoor arena in over 7(!) yrs.
 
Also forgot to add if there is a pony club near by join it! Your kids will (hopefully) make friends and benefit from rallies etc and you will also (hopefully) make friends of your own!.
 
Nicnac; 6 acres is 6 acres. Doesn't matter what country you live in, it's still 6 acres. And on 6 acres, as I said, and you agreed with, you cannot possibly 'hack' out on 6 acres. The OPs children most likely can still have fun on it however. And yes I know how much land costs, I lived there and sold our land and moved here, however the cost of the land is totally irrelevant as you still can't 'hack' on 6 acres no matter what the cost to purchase it.
 
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Spring Feather, I really didn't see your post as patronising. I was being too hopeful! However, everyone has given some really good advice and I feel a lot more positive about this place now. I have emailed the owner of the yard next door, they actually conduct all the hacking on that country estate I mentioned so hopefully we could pay to use that at the weekends. They do hire their facilities as well and hopefully the events they run will not just be for liveries only. Of course, there is the small matter of actually being in the position to buy the place! Our own home still has to sell and I am terrified of selling a place I adore with no where to move to! Did I mention that I HATE house hunting?! Nicnac and Luck of the Devil, thank you for the advice - I am going to print out this thread as a lot of people have suggested ways to get the most out of small acreage.
 
Nicnac and Luck of the devil, I may be plaguing you guys with questions if this goes through, I am giving you fair warning now! Nicnac, I am very impressed you kept an event horse fit on six acres - it gives me hope that we can do the same with our laid back family pony!
 
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