Those who keep horses on a small holding.

[Firewell]

How much land do you have and how many horses do you keep on it? How have you divided the land and how do you manage the grazing?
We have 5 acres. 3 acres are being used for the house, gardens ect. 2 acres for the horses. I plan on having my horse, a pony and a couple goats. A two stable barn with storage and space for the trailer. A one acre paddock and a half acre paddock as a resting space. I live in a dry climate so no worry about mud or cutting up the ground.
I am not sure about if to use the whole 2 acres as a bigger field with the stable barn in the field or if I should divide it as I first mentioned and use an extra large gateway so I can open up both paddocks if I need to.
Any ideas of best use of space most welcome.

 

[catroo]

Personally I don't like small paddocks, 1 acre is quite a small size and not much space to roam.

I'd keep it whole and have the stables within it so you can open them up and let them come and go.

I have three on five acres in the summer and in winter they are out in 15 acres.

 

[Orangehorse]

I would think of a system so you could sub-divide easily and have the stables with a corral area and be able to open a gate at either end to keep it as flexible as possible so you can let them out to graze according to grass growth and how much weight they are carrying and ground conditions. YOu might want to keep an area you can exlude the other livestock while schooling.

 

[Firewell]

Thanks. I live in Southern California and when looking for a house it was either 1000 acre ranches in the middle of nowhere or small plots in good locations!
We get no rain but have a well so I can water the field so it's always just right.
Really interested on how those with 2-3 acres divide the land. Here everyone keeps their horses in pens which for me is a no go.

 

[Firewell]

Thanks Orange horse. I was Considering fencing the area around the stables so I could put the pony/goats in there if I needed to ride in the field. Got an arena 5 mins away that I can trailer to luckily.

 

[tankgirl1]

Have you considered a track system?

 

[catroo]

In which case I would have a fence around the stables and a small yard area that can be used to corral.

I would then have maybe three paddocks leading off this but with fencing that can be opened up so you can have them in the full lot or sectioned off in to any part.

 

[WelshD]

I have three acres

The sheep and goats have about three quarters of an acre, chickens and the stable yard is another three quarters and we try to save this section for 'emergency' grass at the end of the winter, we mow it in the summer

The ponies have about 1.5 acres, they have three small paddocks for part of the summer and the run of most of the area in winter. in addition there is a long strip of land separating the sheep from the ponies which forms part of a 'track' system of grazing and they are let free on this to have a real blast daily for the time I am at the yard so I can keep an eye on them.

In the very hottest months they swap places with the sheep and goats, that field is stripped bare by then due to the hungry lambs of spring, they have a bigger but more bare area that way and the sheep sort out the mess that the ponies have made of the other part of the land!

 

[Dry Rot]

I have 25 acres and a dozen Highlands in various ages. Get yourself a piece of paper and start drawing. With some imaginative gate hangings, you can arrange for paddocks to link up, work for shedding, etc. Mains electric fencing, or even one strand on offsets on an existing fence, is useful as you can split paddocks with white tape powered off your live wire. Don't forget water troughs. I'd say the more paddocks the merrier, but do remember accessing them. I graze about 15 acres and cut 10 for hay and am pretty much self sufficient.

 

[be positive]

I have more horses and more land available but don't like tiny paddocks that restrict movement, I keep 2 on a 2 acre field that is divided into 2 by electric in the summer but open in winter, they have room to gallop if they want, if I was starting from scratch I would have a shelter/ stable with a fenced area around so they can be shut in out of the wet, or in your case the sun, with the rest divided into no more than 2 with the gates set so they could use the whole lot by going through the corral shelter area.

 

[Booboos]

For 2 acres and 2 horses with no mud problems I would make two pen enclosures around the two stables for when you need to keep one or both in and then have both pens open directly onto one field that would be accessible to them 24/7. I would have a separate enclosure for the goats, they need very good fencing, they don't need to graze on grass but will eat everything in your garden given half a chance.

 

[Magicmadge]

I have 4 acres house, yard, barn in 1 corner so approx 31/2 acres of grazing. I have two 14hh cob X and 4 Shetlands . Grazing is divided in to two sides big ones and little ones . Each side is divided in to two and I rest and rotate . Each year a different section on each side is closed off and over seeded . From November they have the run of it all ( not the reseeded bits try to leave them a year) but still divided big ones little ones. I have a ménage size grass area that i keep for treat grazing , any isolation and lunging. One of my Shetlands is due a foal in July she will go in there after foaling for a while till all settles.

 

[EQUIDAE]

I have 5 on 16 acres - 3 acres per horse is a good size and allows the opportunity to take hay in the summer.

 

[DragonSlayer]

Three horses on almost 10 acres. The field is divided up into paddocks, plenty of room in each to gallop about a bit and kick their heels up. In winter it's a paddock each (purely to stop the guzzler pinching feed off the other one!) and in spring and summer the two boys share, with the mare in a paddock next door. These are rotated often in the summer, it's very old pasture and grows very quickly.

 

[windand rain]

We have 4 on just under 5 acres and strip graze year round. 2 acres are left all summer to grow foggage which we strip into in winter one acre is for summer grazing for the three fatties and one acre is for the livery who has hay as well. We live in the uk but although we get some lying water it never gets muddy. The summer acreage is used as a school and looks like a mown lawn. while using it the loose ponies go on the track or a small area off the main one. Bit of a pain moving the jumps around but they would eat them if left in the field with them. We have two highland ponies a laminitic dartmoor and the livery on it. We only use hay at this time of year as the grass is too rich and for the livery the rest of the time it provides all the grass they need

 

[Crugeran Celt]

We have 10 acres of our own and about 3 or 4 acres extra that belongs to the owner of a horse that is out with mine. I have three horses between 14.2hh and 15.1hh and three minis under 35 inches on the land. They have access to all of it over the winter then it is split into three areas over the spring and summer just because there is too much grass for them. I wouldn't keep any more on this amount of land.

 

[Firewell]

Thanks everyone. Here people are much more used to keeping horses on small plots, a lot of houses with only 1 acre have a stock horse or two in a pen out the back. Weird when one considers how gigantic CA is compared to England. A lot of show horses stabled near LA never get turned out .
Anyway, I Google Earthed my property, printed out the plot and have been using that to draw on. Going to get some temporary fencing to play around with fence lines. I am thinking having a coral off of each of the stables with access to a larger field. Playing with the idea of two fields vs 1. Think I am leaning towards 1. The goats will have to come into a stable at night anyway or the coyotes will get them.

 

[DD]

5 acres 2 horses land divided into 3 paddocks. would like another 2 or 3 acres TBH to rest the land properly especially in the winter.

 

[sunnyone]

We have 9 acres for 5 sometimes 6 horses. The land is an L shape so we have 6 paddocks. 2 or 3 are resting at any one time. We have 3 shelters and water points that can be accessed by horses in each pair of paddocks.
In the inside corner of the L is a lunging ring and outside of that a free schooling area. On the outer edge of the L the fence is set in sufficiently to allow a tractor to mow the ditches without disturbing the grazing horses, and for us to have a 1km ride without going off our own land.