Property with land and stables!

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keekee

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We have recently looked at a lovely property for rent with nice stables and barn and a few small paddocks on first visit I fell in love with 2 stables this would b perfect for my own horse and the dream of getting the kids a pony and it all being outside my back door wow!!! We talked about it asked questions and handed over a hefty deposit today I went to look around the paddocks and was very disappointed the grass was course and not much of it lots of weeds and thistles some ragwort which is to be expected but still not really nice grass for my girl I've been on a downer ever since and have spoken to the land lord who I think now dosent really know about horses but has told me he will give me a few other small areas which are in a similar state is this type of paddock an easy fix can I do some work to it at a reasonable price do I have any rights that say he shud do the work to the paddock and what would you do? I'm so silly and shud of walked round on day 1 the mant won't give us our deposit back so I need to still move there but I'm pondering weather o take horse or not plz shed your views!
 
As there are several paddocks it will be easier to improve them, pull the ragwort, top off the other weeds and you will be looking at an immediate improvement, then rotating them keeping the weeds at bay, pick up droppings, roll and harrow and possibly fertilise, the grass will quickly improve, horses do not require really lush grass, more space with less is healthier as they will move about eating rather than stand still gorging all day. Just check for poisonous plants before you top, they will usually enjoy picking through cut nettles and thistles which they can eat safely, docks are harmless.
 
Horses don't need lush grass, ponies certainly don't! Check the growth carefully, so that you know what is growing there, what you think of as weeds, your horse may consider a tasty delicacy, they are better with mixed herbage to graze. Of course some weeds are harmful, so need to be removed. If you can persuade the farmer to graze some sheep on your paddocks, that will be very beneficial. Do be careful, if you decide to fertilise, make sure your fertiliser is suitable for horse paddocks, or you may get too rich grass.
 
My two lived on a farm track last winter. Literally. They could eat the grass from under the hedge, graze on the hedge and pick at whatever weeds were growing through. They had hay as well and came in at night for more hay. They looked wonderful, they didn't like being turned out on "nothing" but they looked very well on it. Being a track is wasn't too muddy, or at least, only in places.

Grass recovers very well. You could maybe buy some grass seeds suitable for horses and ponies - that is important - and make sure there are no poisonous weeds growing in the fields. Other weeds can be regarded as herbs! The most important thing about horse grazing is good fences!
 
Sadly paddock maintenance is an ongoing issue when running your own yard. Work on it a bit and a time and you'll have the yard you want before too long.
 
I took on a place like this, pulled the ragwort and had the rest topped a couple of times, the field looked a different place within a couple of months :)
 
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