what do you do when land is tight?!

[spookypony]

I manage with 3 on 1.5 acres (1 horse, 1 big pony, 1 medium pony). They spend most of the year in a 0.6 acre paddock, with hay fed all year round (laminitis prophylaxis). There is no grass in this paddock. In the summer, this is fine; in the winter, about 1/3 of the paddock turns into a bog. Although it looks awful, the horses don't appear to be suffering from this, but I would ideally like to convert that area into hard standing/all-weather turnout as money becomes available.

 

[indiat]

Thank you all for replying. I am going to view the property anyway, but I have my doubts. I need an weather turnout put in as the pony who is IR will be on it most of the time and I find my Highland has to have regular breaks from grass in teh summer as he bloats and his stools go very runny! He only has to look at grass and he puts weight on. I honestly feel like crying, this is such a nightmare. We need a certain size house as myself and the OH work from home, the kids need to be near good schools and I don't really fancy living anywhere that has no off-road hacking at all! Do any of you use an arena for turn out? I always thought that was a big no no?

 

[Bede]

If you've got an IR pony an all weather turnout area will be invaluable all year round; if you're planning to build one I would have thought 2 acres would be fine for 2 natives.
No property is perfect. Given the opportunity for great hacking I would happily buy in forage

 

[Honey08]

Don't get stressed. Go and have a look, form your opinion from what you see and feel but keep your head.

Yes good hacking is valuable too, particularly when you have children that will ride out. We keep out two big horses on a hardstanding for most of the winter. We feed hay. That would be one option, keeping them off grass totally all winter and just grazing it down in summer..

 

[indiat]

What would help is if a had a horsey OH who put land before the house. As it is, OH looks at the house and goes, "I'm not living in that!"*sob* Pass the chocolate.

 

[honetpot]

Tell to think of living with miserable kids and a house that you need to put a sledgehammer to. Grass doesn't keep you warm.

 

[SO1]

It sounds like you have two ponies who need very restricted grazing if one is IR and the other is a good doer highland so in this scenario I think you would be fine as even if you had 5 acres you would be needing to restrict their grazing for quite a lot of the year. If you can put up a field shelter with hard standing perhaps with a wood chip pen area in front they could have hay in there and then you could rotate the rest of the grass as needed.

However if you get a 3rd pony then you would be wanting to look at getting a similar sort so they could fit in with the routine the other two have.

Native ponies don't always benefit from having lots of good grazing.

 

[indiat]

Youngest child wants a baby Highland of her own and eldest shares my 14.2 Highland with me, so yes, no fussy eaters for us. The IR pony is a 13.2 New Forest cross who can carry me, even though I look stupid on him.

 

[SO1]

TBH if you had another highland then all 3 I expect would need to on a weightwatchers sort of diet if not in heavy work during the spring and summer. It would just be harder if you have a cold wet winter as they may make the field very muddy but if they had their hay in shelter with hard standing then that might help prevent poaching.

I have a NF and when he lived out on grass livery they were allocated an acre per horse in herd turnout and I had a lot of trouble keeping him slim he was muzzled 7 months of the year and in the winter only had hay if it snowed. He is on part livery now and in at night and I have to say it appears to be a lot easier to manage his weight being in at night and having a more hay based diet.

Youngest child wants a baby Highland of her own and eldest shares my 14.2 Highland with me, so yes, no fussy eaters for us. The IR pony is a 13.2 New Forest cross who can carry me, even though I look stupid on him.

 

[Adopter]

Cheshire is an expensive area as OP has no doubt found in her search already.

If the house is right for the family, plus schools and good hacking make the best of the land and if you need to rent extra grazing in the future cross that bridge when you get there.

Good luck in your search OP, we could not afford rural Cheshire which is why I live above Cheshire in the Moorlands where you get more for your money.

 

[AngieandBen]

You'd be better off having the natives off the grass during spring/summer/autumn then turning on the whole lot over winter;

My three natives have 5 acres in the winter, never get fat ( underugged if any at all ) they move around so much and run/play a lot.

Exercise is key to a healthy weight

 

[TGM]

Do any of you use an arena for turn out? I always thought that was a big no no?

I use my arena for short spells of supervised turnout, but not for general turnout use. Obviously there is no grass in an arena (or shouldn't be!) and most arena contractors advise against feeding hay in an arena because it can block the drainage after a while.

 

[indiat]

Well, I asked the estate agent to come back to me with SPECIFIC measurement of the pasture before I shifted my backside out of a nice warm house to go and see it and the total turnout is 1.91 acres with no room for an arena or all weather turnout in addition. I just think it is going to be far too tight. I have had a heart to heart with OH (OK, I *may* have had a mini meltdown when I threatened to go insane and take him with me) and he has finally agreed that perhaps the dream house with the dream yard is just asking too much. The priority has to be land and riding, the way the house looks has to be the compromise. This place, while very pretty, is going to be a nightmare in terms of space for the ponies and if we want to get a fourth it will not be possible. So I have girded my loins and am off to see a couple of places in Malpas, Market Drayton and Whitchurch this week. It is true what they say, you really do get more for your money in North Shropshire. We haven't signed contracts with our buyers yet so it might all fall through (God, I hope not!) and they want a long closing date as they have paid for their rental accommodation until August. But I do appreciate all the replies - having always been on a livery yard it is interesting to see what people do with their animals.

 

[ElleSkywalker]

When we got this place we looked for ages on lots of different places (OH can work anywhere in country so not tied to an area) and after seeing lots of different houses we decided on what we were and weren't willing to comprise on. What we decided was we need at least 3 acres, 3 bedrooms, and good riding.

We ended up with 3.5 acres, excellent hacking, literally 30 or so miles of tracks 1/2 a mile away and a 3 bedroomed house.

BUT, the towns etc surrounding our hamlet are not great, the 1/2 mile I have to go to get to tracks is very narrow road with blind bends, it's a bit hairy and half the people in hamlet with horses won't hack because of it, the 3.5 acres is heavy clay meaning next year we will most likely need to build an all weather turn out and the house is semi-detached.

Do I regret it? Not at all, we were aware of what we could get for our money and made decisions based on the best we could get for what we had

Eta I have 5 ponies, biggest 15hh on this land and currently 3 stables, which is the same as where we have just moved from. It is possible with good management to have lots of horses on a little land

 

[indiat]

The problem is that OH is not horsey and we live in a lovely Georgian house. He wants the same again, with land! We're going to keep looking, when the right place comes up, we will know it when we see it. I think the more you look, the more you realise not only what you can afford, but what you really, really want.

 

[Milkmaid]

I think you are so doing the right thing.
Act in haste, repent at leisure as the saying goes!
The number one thing that comes up time & time again from people with horses at home is.....I wish I had more acreage, so definately try to get the most you can for your money!

 

[Cocorules]

Agree with Milkmaid. I waited years to find sufficient acreage, with off road riding, without it being flood risk, free draining and in the right location. It was worth the wait. None of the alternatives that came on the market in the meantime would have worked for us.

 

[AngieandBen]

I think you are so doing the right thing.
Act in haste, repent at leisure as the saying goes!
The number one thing that comes up time & time again from people with horses at home is.....I wish I had more acreage, so definately try to get the most you can for your money!

This exactly, you can never have enough land if you have the money!

 

[Landcruiser]

I think that unless money isn't an issue, you will always have to compromise. We moved last November, from a lovely 4 bed detached house in a village with a school to a ratty 3 bed bungalow with no close neighbours, 3 acres of clay soil pasture, and a lot of stables and outbuildings in very poor repair. Artex on every ceiling, woodchip on every wall, and the whole lot stinking of cigarettes. We were constrained on area as we wanted kids to stay at the same school, the main criteria for us was land and being somewhere very rural, which we now have. There was nothing else on the market in our price bracket.

The plans are in for a loft conversion, the kitchen came out in the first week and is now in the final stages of being replaced. My two horses have very happily overwintered on the large yard with small (20x20) turnout area off it, open stables if they want them. The fields are still very wet but grassy and unpoached. The hacking is pretty decent. Come spring I plan to make some sort of track system off the yard, and will supplement hay year round if needs be. Cheaper than paying livery!

 

[Wagtail]

Even with full sized horses, it wouldn't put me off, so long as you have the money to create an all weather turnout paddock for them and everything else ticked thee boxes. Nothing wrong with feeding forage all year round, it's just more expensive, that's all.

 

[indiat]

Thanks guys. Perfectly happy to feed forage all year round as IR pony needs it anyway and my boy needs regular breaks from grass for the sake of his tummy. Decent hacking is proving nigh on impossible to find though. However, a place has come up with 14 acres and I am thinking CANTER TRACKS! We shall plow on and do our best. But I do appreciate you all taking the time to reply and let me know your experiences, I am going to come to depend on you all a lot more once I am off a livery yard!

 

[YorksG]

We certainly compromised on the house, think mock flock wall paper, pretend copper wall paper on the chimney breast with wall lights that completed the look of a cheap curry house! Polystirene tiles on the bedroom ceilings (turned out to be covering rather nice boarded ceiling!) We eventually got new windows, re-wired and there was the memorable time when the plaster came off the chimney breast,to reveal a space for a yorkist range. The yard and house are ever evolving but we take comfort from the fact that there is always at least one house in the village with scaffolding round it

 

[Honey08]

I don't think that you ever finish working on a small holding, both inside and out. There is always something needs doing!

 

[YorksG]

I don't think that you ever finish working on a small holding, both inside and out. There is always something needs doing!

Very true Welcome to our world OP

 

[indiat]

OH isn't going to know what's hit him!

 

[Ali2]

We've got 4 on 7.5 acres total. We use the back 5 in winter and the front 2.5 spring to autumn on a track system round the outside of it with some larger mooching/eating areas. I'd say there's an acre of it that is inaccessible in the middle of the track. If you've got good doers who need summer restriction then a track system could work really well for you by cutting down available grass and forcing more movement. You'd be able to supplement with hay if you needed to. You could open up the whole area at the end of autumn and use the long grass in the middle, plus hay, to get through winter.

The issue with this would be that your never be able to properly rest the whole lot and it could end up trounced.