Is this reasonable / a bit foolish / complete nonsense?

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Abacus

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Reading the thread from the person who is putting in stables at home made me think. We have a half-acre 'paddock' at the back of the garden (nothing in it but a shed and some fruit trees), which is post and rail fenced.

I was idly thinking about how easy it would be to put up a couple of stables and tack room, and keep the boys at home (for days I am working from home and so can potter with them before work, at lunchtime and after work) and rent a field in the village where they could live the rest of the time. I have two big horses, geldings, they get on fine.

Is that too small a field for them to live in for, say, 3 days / week?

I don't think I will do this or OH will agree to trash half the garden, but just wondering...
 
It's pretty small, but no reason that they need to be grass does it? Could the land be turned into a manège?

If you want to keep it as grass, could always put down honeycomb grass mats to help save it. Seems like a good idea... Good luck with the council planning dept though!
 
I would say it could work if we had a drier climate! It could get quite poached in wet weather. If you turned a chunk of it into hard standing and gave them hay it might work.
 
Sounds like a nice idea! Its not a lot of grazing so I would personally go down the route of using the field in the village for the summer and keep home and stables for the winter. Have them on my doorstep to work when light and time are at a premium!
 
I'd do exactly the opposite luci. Use it when you wanted them out on less grazing and you didn't have your back garden trashed in poor weather. Larger field in winter.
 
I think it would be fine, but I would seriously consider laying part of it with hardcore and sand and then you could fence them in that part with electric fencing when it is extra wet. The only reason horses are recommended to be kept on at least an acre per horse, is because of them having enough grass. If you are prepared to feed hay all through the year, then this really isn't a problem.
 
I would lay all of it with hardcore and use it all winter when the days are short. As long as you poo pick it every day it will be great - especially if you want to go shoeless or are already :)
 
I did pretty much this but had a hard yard with the stables off, a woodchip surface that measured 35m by 17m, a tiny piece of grass and a gravel yard that was mainly for the cars but could have horses on. I had up to seven horses living there during the winter and everything was pretty happy. The woodchip stood up well enough that I got my AA mare as near to eventing fit as possible on it, including lunging her in canter for 35 minutes a day.
 
Friend does this (keeping them at home), tho she also has 2 acres nearly 2 miles away.
She keeps them at home over winter - riding 1 & leading the other to the 2 acre field daily & turning them out, cycling home. Same routine late afternoon.
If weather foul, she keeps them in.
Occasionally they do get out to 'mow' at home but thats not the norm tho.
 
I think it could work very well but agree you will probably need areas of hard standing but that doesn't have to be seriously expensive, especially if OH is handy and you can get hold of a machine. :D I'd consider linking hard areas to a track round the edge. The horses will eat/kill the fruit trees and not all are good for them to eat aside from the wrekage.
Here's some ideas, on a bigger scale but the hard standing ideas might help. Look through all the 'next' pages. http://www.performancebarefoot.co.uk/page63.html
You will probably need hay storage.
 
Ok, so now I have started to think it might be possible... how have you people done this to me?

Wandering out in the morning to sort them out (without the half-hour drive) would be heavenly...

OH with a machine though? Maybe a coffee machine... but that's about his practical limit...
 
I think its very reasonable. The 1/2 acre will get trashed but if you can get some hard standing / yard area around the stables it could work well. The extra grazing land could be used when not going to be riding so much/ if weather OK / whenever really. I have 4 acres but come spring my two (now three) spend much more time (usually most days) in a less 1/2 acre paddock with concrete yard and stable and field shelter as they get too fat. They then go out on the big field at night.

You will also need to think about stroage for hay/ feed and also removal of muck. My solution for this was to buy a 8ft by 4ft approx trailer and just load all the poo into that and then take it down to the allotments every three weeks.

Its lovely having them at home and I am nipping in and out to change rugs and feed, give a pat in my PJs all the time.
 
I have been a back garden horse keeper. As horses ar classed as domestic pets as long as they are in the curtaliage of your garden and they are not a nuisance you can put a stable and keep them in your back garden.
My last house had 2/3 acre and I had a small turn out area that I used in winter and a couple of stables. You have to make sure you manage the muck heap well but I uswed hemp and always managed to get a keen gardener to take it away. Yes the gound does get poached but you have to think of it a s turnout not food and as I had summer paddocks I would reseed and rest it in the summer.
Many years ago I lived on the side of a moor where my local livery had no turn out from October to Apirl as it was so cold and the soil so thin, so in the winter I kept my horse in a modified garage at home. We lived in a semidetached house in with a normal sized garden. You just get good a planning ahead.
 
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