Land advice

[Megan1009]

Good evening,

We have just bought a property with three stables already built. The property has 4 acres of land, which is essentially on the door step/garden. I am quite knowledgeable about fencing areas off and creating a secure area for horses/ rotational grazing.

Does this seem appropriate for two horses, given that it is close to home? They would not have access to around the house, as it is mainly gravel that surrounds. I have not stabled horses next to the house before, only a public livery yard. The 4 acres are fields, essentially with garden access, but this will be fenced off. The stables are fenced off as well with a tack room etc already constructed. As well as a concrete base muck heap with walls.

I do accept it is not a lot of information that I can give. We have given consideration if we have to move the horses up the lane for additional grazing through the months, this is something we can do.

If any members could pass along some pros and cons of keeping horses close to home, I’d be happy to hear!

 

[teacups]

Welcome to this forum!
4 acres should be plenty for 2 horses. It sounds pretty nice, with stables already in place too : )
The big plus of horses at home is that you don’t have the travel, and can just nip out to say hello & do things as and when.
The big downside is that you are the one responsible for everything: including maintenance of fencing, land management, etc etc, and you will need to make arrangements for horse care if you go away/are busy, whereas on a livery yard there might be the option of buying in extra services.

 

[Hobo2]

Sounds perfect and plenty of grazing. I also think there will be plenty of grazing to get a useful field companion so if riding one there is always a friend . A good companion that will be happy on its own if you take both out at the same time is worth its wait in gold.
Enjoy having them at home but yes try and find a local freelance groom that would do them if needed.

 

[Red-1]

That will be fun. Love having them at home, 99% of the time anyway!

My big tip would be to have a hard core/road planings area near the stables to be able to turn out on when the weather is really foul. Mine now have small hard core areas at the back of the stables and each horse can access this from their own stable. It makes the worst of weather so much easier.

Have a plan for water when it goes to -10 degrees, as most taps freeze below that.

Have proper posts, even if you are using electric fencing. Firstly, it is loads more secure but it also looks so much better as the fences can be tensioned.

 

[teacups]

Agree with all of those.

The concrete base muckheap is a bonus, too. Downside is you are responsible for getting rid of the muck. My tip is to use bedding which rots down quickly to keep the size of the muckheap down (and therefore cost of anyone taking it away for you). So avoid using wood shavings or straw. We use chopped rape, and straw pellets.

 

[Dasher66]

You might want to check that you can fence off any garden plants that are poisonous to horses. They can stretch a good distance over fences.

 

[Goldenstar]

I would divide the paddocks into at least three it’s hard to advise without seeing but I would try to design it so you can use any combination of paddocks together by having a linking track or similar .
I would if possible use electric fences with some easily removed round posts where needed until you know the land because what you think is the best area for winter might not be .
I would get a mains unit to run the electric fences
At that acreage you are likely to need a sacrifice paddock for winter chose where it is carefully .
If you can try to make a hard standing in front of the stables for terrible weather if theres concrete that great and you might be able to make it a little larger with grass mats and there still time to do this for this year .
I also have a range of tiny paddocks that I use for injured horse and hand grazing these are really useful .
Watch the horses use the natural shelter and enhance it with hedging and trees we did a lot of that here because it was pretty open when we came . Those baby hedges we planted are now ten feet adults how and give the horses great shelter .
Also look at how the horses use the sun coming up in the morning .

I would also consider if you have horses that get fat that some form of track system worked in . This can be combined with your linking system for the paddocks .

Getting it right takes time so only put in post and rail where you know it’s the right thing to do ( I got it wrong here and had to live with it for years ) .
Always protect wooden fences with electric to the inside .

It’s great fun having horses at home but don’t underestimate the work and time you send on maintenance so a final bit of advice would be that is you ride your horses do it first thing enjoy it and then do your work on the place .
I made this mistake I found I hardly had time to ride at first so I started riding first and then cracking on with jobs .

 

[Goldenstar]

Oh and plan what you are going to do with your muck heap early .