tips wanted for keeping horses on smaller acerage.

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lizzypeg

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im giving up my 4 acre yard due to needing to cut costs and will be moving my 2 x 14hh dales and 1 x 10hh dartie hill pony to a new place.
its got same facilites but less land( only 2.5 acres).
its half the rent of previous one so will save me a lot of money and is drier than current place which floods in heavy rain.

iv never kept 3 out 24/7 on that small an acerage though so would apprieciate and tips on managing the land.

will be good in a way as can feed them up rather than having to restrict them all time if needed.

they only get hay and hard feed in winter and usually just have grass in summer.this winter they only had had when we had deep snow and are still a bit on the fatter side than id like going into spring.

apparently it grows well so they strip graze in summer and only feed from oct to march usally.
 
It's a very small acreage for 3 if the land poaches in winter. Unless you're very careful you will gradually get diminishing pasture as the poached areas spread, and you may not have sufficient space to rest some of the land - apart from the strip grazing.

One suggestion - though it's a bore to do. When you strip graze, don't only move the electric fence x amount forward. Have another electric fence 'at the back' and move that forward at the same time - i.e. you keep the grazing area the same size, your horses have some new grass, but you are also resting some of the land you started the first paddock with instead of having a bigger and bigger area that is overgrazed. Also takes less poo-picking!!
 
thanks.

the current renter had 3 on there and they are all bigger than mine and it looks good considering that its been wet here.
its on a slight slope and doesnt look to get wet or muddy at all except a flat bit near bottom where it is level.

they are all so fat coming out of winter that lack of grass isnt a big issue just never had to manage such a small area as usually had 4-5 acres for them.
 
Can be done easily imo; I have 5.6 acres and never use 3 acres; I used to keep my 14.1hh ,12.3hh and shettie( no longer have him but routine still the same ) on half an acre from March to November; This was spilt into two and a track put around the outside of each; They were strip grazed one paddock at a time; Never had to feed hay.

The 2 acres was then split in two and rotated in winter, there is still far too much grass for mine!!

I think people underestimate how big a couple of acres is, its actually bigger than a football pitch!
 
I would designate a winter area to trash, and be really strict about it. My two are currently on a very small area, smaller than yours, while the rest of the land has a rest. The area they are on won't be used all summer.

I would also be looking into fertilizing each year to help the grass growth come back again.

Ditto the comment about the strip grazing and moving the front and the back fence.

Also if you can (!) which you might be able to having good doers, let the area you plan to use over winter, get well grown, don't keep it grazed down, then it will get off to the best possible start. If you l et it grow it will get a bit 'scrubby' and won;t cause your good doers any issues when you put them on it, but will save the ground getting churned up at the first sign of rain hopefully.

I was thinking yesterday that its hard to believe that the area my two are on was knee length and overgrown in November when they went on it.
 
i was thinking of putting a 12 foot track around perimeter (like the paddock paradise idea) to incorporate the 2 open stables and a 12 foot road planings track that is already along half of one side of field.(was going to be a road that was never needed).
so i could then keep centre to grow for winter and could feed/water on the road planings to reduce mud.
 
Brandy said:
I would designate a winter area to trash, and be really strict about it. My two are currently on a very small area, smaller than yours, while the rest of the land has a rest. The area they are on won't be used all summer.

I would also be looking into fertilizing each year to help the grass growth come back again.

Ditto the comment about the strip grazing and moving the front and the back fence.

Also if you can (!) which you might be able to having good doers, let the area you plan to use over winter, get well grown, don't keep it grazed down, then it will get off to the best possible start. If you l et it grow it will get a bit 'scrubby' and won;t cause your good doers any issues when you put them on it, but will save the ground getting churned up at the first sign of rain hopefully.

I was thinking yesterday that its hard to believe that the area my two are on was knee length and overgrown in November when they went on it.
Click to expand...

Ditto this....I give a small area over to getting totally trashed- there is grass at the far end but its mainly grassless now. Amazingly enough it does grow back from the seeds in the hay.....I give it a good tidy up and shut the gate on it and leave it all summer.

The rest is divided into 3 paddocks- I rotate regularly, poo-pick daily and bring mine in at night.
 
I also have 2 that are moving onto a smaller field however better growing. I am too thinking of going a track system idea however the best of our shelter is on the outside of the feld so im not to sure how to do it. Although neither of mine need a huge amount of grazing as one is a fatty and i cant catch the other!!!
So any feed back on the track system would be good
 
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