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 I Chore in Chucks
Posts: 2882
   
Location: MD | We are deciding what we want to do so I'm just casually looking at houses and lots. How many acres do you think is a bare minimum? 2-4 horses with room to run a bit, I don't want them in tiny pastures. Looking more because I don't know how to figure in how much space a house and a barn would need added on.. |
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 Swiffer PIcker Upper
Posts: 4015
Location: Four Corners Colorado | 10-15 |
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 Expert
Posts: 1718
Location: Southeast Louisiana | I live on three acres. That's house, three stall barn, shed, run-in shelter and we have a pretty big front and back yard that the horses don't use. Horses are probably on two acres. The general rule is 1 acre per horse, I think. Before we bought this place, I didn't think you could do much with three acres, but I've been pleasantly surprised. We have two horses, but the grass never gets over grazed. We could definitely keep three, probably four if they all got along. Some things to consider are upkeep and fencing cost. Larger acreage is nice, but with both my husband and I working full time, it's all we can do to keep up with keeping the grass cut on this place. Smaller acreage does take a little more management. Someone on here posted some nice pics of their smaller acreage set-up. Maybe they will post again, I'd love to get my place looking as nice. I think it was someone in California where land costs are ridiculous. But, point is, you can do more with a smaller place than I realized. |
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I Chore in Chucks
Posts: 2882
Location: MD | Nita - 2015-07-18 9:25 AM
I live on three acres. That's house, three stall barn, shed, run-in shelter and we have a pretty big front and back yard that the horses don't use. Horses are probably on two acres. The general rule is 1 acre per horse, I think. Before we bought this place, I didn't think you could do much with three acres, but I've been pleasantly surprised. We have two horses, but the grass never gets over grazed. We could definitely keep three, probably four if they all got along. Some things to consider are upkeep and fencing cost. Larger acreage is nice, but with both my husband and I working full time, it's all we can do to keep up with keeping the grass cut on this place. Smaller acreage does take a little more management. Someone on here posted some nice pics of their smaller acreage set-up. Maybe they will post again, I'd love to get my place looking as nice. I think it was someone in California where land costs are ridiculous. But, point is, you can do more with a smaller place than I realized.
This is why I asked! I was thinking a 5 acre lot would be absolute bare minimum and it would still be tight! We've already made jokes that we would probably fence the majority of the place anyway to cut down on the amount of mowing, lots to think about! |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 520
| We have 8.3 acres with 2 horses on it (and 3 goats). I wish some of it was wooded because I end up mowing so much. I'd say about 4-5 acres is pastured right now, and I have it separated at the moment as its too much grass for just the 2 easy keepers we have. I'd be more than happy with 5 acres of open land plus some woods.
Edited by Buckles 2015-07-18 10:04 AM
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
| If you are wanting to leave them out 24/7, then for horses I would want at least 20 acres. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 473
| I have 11 acres in Florida with 8 horses, mostly out 24/7. No problem.
I had 12 here at one point, again - it wasn't a problem. As long as they get along. It's four paddocks, with about one acre of yard that I'll sometimes turn 1-2 horses out in.
Edited by AfleetEquine 2015-07-18 10:41 AM
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Expert
Posts: 1718
Location: Southeast Louisiana | Buckles - 2015-07-18 10:03 AM
We have 8.3 acres with 2 horses on it (and 3 goats). I wish some of it was wooded because I end up mowing so much. I'd say about 4-5 acres is pastured right now, and I have it separated at the moment as its too much grass for just the 2 easy keepers we have. I'd be more than happy with 5 acres of open land plus some woods.
We leased a little over thirty acres once. It was a job keeping it up. More work than I want. I want to be able to enjoy it some of the time. I'd like a bigger place, but we will keep most of it wooded for privacy and live on 3-5 with maybe a few acres in hay so we can bale our own. There again, that gets expensive buying equient, fertilizer, etc.
I'm I a neighborhood right now and as soon as I can afford it, I'm going to put up privacy fence on both sides. I like my neighbors, I just don't want to see them every time I walk outside. We have also had a problem with neighbor dogs. I couldn't put up just a rail fence because I had to fence out the loose dogs. But, that's more specific to the location we're in not the size of the place. |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | My bare minimum would be 10. We have 54, but have only actually done anything with about 14 of it. We're still working on it tho. Our land adjoins my family's farm land, so I've got several hundred acres to ride on and that has me spoiled. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1131
| I have one horse on 4 acres and there is more than enough room for 1-2 more. So I would say 1 acre of grazing space minimum. So for 4 horses, thats 4 acres and then add on how much you need for amenities, like the barn, arena, etc. |
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| Buy double or triple the land you think you want or need ...
fence it in with four strands of barbed wire and keep the
bottom strand 16 inches off the ground ... this is the wire
that horses get hurt on and at this height .. they cannot get
a foot over it ..
The reduction in your feed bill will pay for the additional land ..
20-30 acres is my minimum ... and never buy a mobile home ..
Build you a 3-4 car// tractor shed and live out of it temporarily or forever
.. don't call it a house when building or it will cost you 10x more ... lol
Foot traffic of horses do more damage to a place than what they eat ..
even though horses can nip the grass off at the ground due to having
top and bottom teeth where cattle only have bottom teeth and cannot
nip it off at ground level ..
There is nothing worse than trapping yourself on a place that is too small
and/or stacking your barn, house and other buildings too close together
and no place to turn trailers around etc etc ... then there are round pens,
a walker, runs at barn etc etc .. planning your layout before building anything
is crucial ....
drive tposts and hang baling twine AROUND each item and drive
a trailer, truck etc to get a true picture what kind of mess you are creating ..
and of course pay attention to how the water flows and build your pads up
at least one foot before you build.... even if you live in the desert ...
Use 40 inches of rainfall per year as a guide line for number of acres per horse ..
4-5 acres per horse is my guide line ... smaller amount of land means old horse
is eating more worm larvae than they are grass .... less rainfall .. the more land
you need ...
A major key on pasture care is a spray rig to kill the weeds ...
spray the pasture before you see any weeds ... you can use
a lawn mower rig or use a ATV or pickup to drag sprayer with ...
FYI: weeds sprout in the winter time and grow a big long root
so when hot weather wakes it up ... it grows an instant 3 feet .. lol
So spray during April or the first two weeks of may ... BEFORE
YOU CAN SEE THE WEEDS..
Check into using these 12x21x8 carports at $800 for temporary cover
for hay or whatever ... they are easily moved later on for pasture sheds.
HAVE FUN ...
Edited by BARRELHORSE USA 2015-07-18 3:46 PM
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 Life Saver
Posts: 10477
Location: MT | A lot of it depends on the carrying capacity of the land where you are buying. In much of the western part of the country you will need way more ground if you plan on having any summer grazing for your horse at all.
I've kept horses in Utah on a 1 acre place, had one big lot for all of them basically. And our place we sold last fall was 10 acres in SW Montana. It was not nearly enough to expect to graze it with all 3 of our horses. We needed something along the lines of 80-100 acres there if we were going to do that.
Now we are living on a 60,000 acre ranch in SE Montana and that is PLENTY of room! The ranch's horse pasture is 4,000 acres and there are only 14 horses on it. 
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 Roan On The Range
Posts: 7889
Location: Stephenville, TX | Anyone on small acreage want to share some management tips? I'm mainly concerned with ways y'all manage the accumulation of poo if it gets to be too much volume to just let it decompose naturally. Compost it somehow or just pile it up and haul it off periodically?
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 Regular
Posts: 76
Location: North Carolina | I have 6 horses on 10-15 acres of pasture & they can NOT keep up with it! It has to be periodically brush hogged To keep it down & they're on it 24/7. I live in TN.
Edited by Panther14 2015-07-18 5:35 PM
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| We had 6 horses on 10 acres and had to bush hog it regulary through the spring and summer, they had plenty of grazing. We had a 2800 sq. ft. house, barn and a big arena, plenty of room for all. We had a 4 rail wood fence on 3 sides, left the barb wire fence on the side we shared with the neighbors cows and my horses never got caught/cut in it. We built the house and barn bad about 2 feet up and graded around it where you could not tell.
Edited by rodeomom3 2015-07-18 6:49 PM
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 Expert
Posts: 1395
Location: Missouri | 5....and that's how much we have right now. We only have one horse, but feel we could have two if we managed it right and still keep it looking ok. I wouldn't want any less, personally. BUT. That said, sometimes you do what you gotta do! We wanted 10 before we bought and couldn't afford it so were making the best out of 5! |
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 Strong Willed Woman
Posts: 6577
Location: Prosser, WA | It really depends on the land. My in laws have 5 acres with about 3 in pasture. It is irrigated and they keep 2 or 3 head of yearling cattle on it with 3 horses from May through October. On unirrigated land around here you would need about 20 or 30 acres per head. |
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 Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | The guy where I keep my horses, he's on two-acres. House sits in the middle; driveway on far right hand side; 3 large pens on the upper right hand corner, 8 stall barn along the back, 150x250 (ish) arena in the upper left corner long-ways down the left side; square turnout in the bottom left corner, and a round pen next to the turnout but more along the front of the property. The front fence line has some foliage but you could easily add some pens if you wanted. For how much he has on there, it's pretty well laid out. The horses are turned out on rotation.
Or if I weren't in AZ, I'd want more like 3 acres. Back when I was younger we lived on ~10 acres and we had 5-12 horses at any given time and that worked for us. |
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Miracle in the Making
Posts: 4013
| i live in ga i figure 3a per horse but i left mine hou 24/7 maybe thats wht my horses were healthy had 1 colic in 40 yrs none of this stuff i hear about course now i am old fart and in a chair
m
i think u need to figure where u live what u are comfortable with me i love my dirt i am or was land hungry |
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  Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | At one time we had 8 horses and a little less than 5 acres. We rotated and we always had a little grass.
Now we have 8 horses and about 10-12 acres cleared with about 10 more acres un-fenced in woods. Ideally I would love to have all of it cleared and fenced but it's a lot easier than where we were before!
2 mares are turned out full time with a run in shed. The rest are turned out at night. I don't have to feed hay during the summer months but I do during the winter.
Ideally, for full time turnout, I would want a minimum of 2 acres per horse.
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 My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
Location: Arkansas | Crowned Image - 2015-07-18 8:02 AM
We are deciding what we want to do so I'm just casually looking at houses and lots. How many acres do you think is a bare minimum? 2-4 horses with room to run a bit, I don't want them in tiny pastures. Looking more because I don't know how to figure in how much space a house and a barn would need added on..
I like 2 acres per horse. We have 5 on about 10 acres right now. Have about 4 more acres not accessible to the horses at this time. We have two of our catfish ponds fenced, and the levees are what they are on. And butterball fat!!
ETA if I was doing house and barn with pasture I'd add 5 acres for the buildings/runs, etc. Like someone else mentioned, I have about 600 acres at my disposal so I'm spoiled too. . .
Edited by Chandler's Mom 2015-07-19 1:07 AM
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Location: midwest mama | I have 13 acres, and it is WAY too much for me to take care of on my own. I spend all my time taking care of my place, and have no time left to spend with my horses!
I have really thinned out my herd, so I have 2 barrels horses, and an old retired horse and her mini. 5 acres would be plenty for me now - a few dry turnouts, a few irrigated turn outs, a 6 stall barn and an all weather arena is all I need. And a little house with a yard. I need to simplify........ |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 871
Location: Bama | I've always heard a minimum of 1 acre per animal. I've had two horses on eight acres the past few years and only have to give hay two months out of the year. They look like ticks most of the year. I've added three more horses over the last 4 months and I still Have to bushhog the pasture. |
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I Chore in Chucks
Posts: 2882
Location: MD | Thanks so much for the responses! I'm not so concerned about the money aspect but more about the ,"having too much we don't know what to do with it all " aspect as we are going to buy below our max so we have plenty of wiggle. We are probably going to stick with a 5-6 acre lot and divide it into two so we can rotate. After a long talk we probably won't add on horses as I'm not nearly involved as I used to be. I will probably just see out the two that I have for their lives and be done. Because I am too emotionally attached and can't sell! |
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 Not Afraid to Work
Posts: 4717
| Ive been house shopping for about a year. I think layout of the land tends to be important. I have seen multiple 5 acre places I would enjoy and think would be more that suitable for 3-4 horses. However, Ive seen some 5 acre layouts I wouldn't consider. I preferably would like 10-15 for an arena and stuff but I don't think I would want more than 15 as I wouldn't know what to do with it  |
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Expert
Posts: 1718
Location: Southeast Louisiana | Running Roan - 2015-07-18 4:12 PM
Anyone on small acreage want to share some management tips? I'm mainly concerned with ways y'all manage the accumulation of poo if it gets to be too much volume to just let it decompose naturally. Compost it somehow or just pile it up and haul it off periodically?
I have a little homemade drag I can pull behind my four wheeler. It's made from a strip of fence with some pieces of 4x6 posts stapled on for weight. Luckily, my horses have places where they poop and places where they eat grass. If they pooped just anywhere, I'd have to drag more often.
We have one corner of the place that gets pretty wet. When I have to keep my horses stalled, that's where I dump the wheel barrow. I do spread it out when I dump it. I don't dump it in a pile, so I don't have to work that area after the stall cleanings are dumped back there. We get a lot of rain here, and that helps it decompose naturally. Otherwise, we would probably have to get extra garbage pick up so I could put it out by the curb to be hauled away.
When we have to fertilize or put out ant poison or weed and feed or whatever, we have to stall the horses. It would be nice to have an extra few acres so we could alternate pastures if we need to.
Oh, another thing to consider is equipment parking. Right now we have a bunch of stuff in the corner with some rope around it. Luckily the horses don't mess with it. We need to put up a covered parking spot for implements, trailers, tractors, etc. |
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Veteran
Posts: 146
| I somewhat depends on where you live and how well pastures grow. We have 10 acres, 8 in pasture, 4 horses. We live in a hot, humid part of the country and grass grows overnight; so 4 horses can't even begin to eat down 8 acres. DH ends up needing to mow pastures very frequently (which he doesn't get done!). Right now pastures are tall and look crappy. Also the 2 acres with house/barns needs mowing just about ever 4-5 days! It's a lot of work. So, if you are in an area where grass grows well, I'd say 1 acre per horse would be sufficient, if in a dry area where pasture is not so good I would go up to 2 acres per horse. However, a lot depends on how much money you have to spend on property, fencing, barns, equipment etc. Fencing a lot of land can get costly. We spent $10,000 on 3 rail board fence for 2,100 feet of fencing (about 6 acres). The maintenance on fencing is often. Also, think of how much time you want to spend taking care of your place v/s work, competing, riding, and getting older. If you have a high maintenance property it can eat up a lot of your free time keeping it looking nice. |
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 Bulls Eye
Posts: 6443
Location: Oklahoma | We have 5 head on 2 acres. Coming from Southern CA, we know how to rotate to keep it going. Mine are on hay 24/7 (bermuda round bales) and poop is picked up daily and put in the dumpster that gets emptied once a week. We haul 4 miles to the arena to ride. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1304
| I'm definitely not in the market for a house or land yet, but I like to dream about it! I would probably want for me horse-wise around 10-15 acres. I feel that's enough for rotation and the amount of horses I would want (probably two) as well as any extra animals you may want such as a few cows or goats. I would want to have more land though, like my boyfriend does, for hunting and trail riding. I guess it all depends on the use of it! I would have a lot of acreage as long as it was hunting or trail riding land that didn't need a lot of up keep like pasture with fence, etc. |
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Good Ole Boys just Fine with Me
Posts: 2869
Location: SE Missouri | I always thought 20 was the bare minimum I would want. We bought 40. There are positives and negatives.
Per acre cost was lower than if we bought 10 or even 20. Plus we just couldn't find the smaller tracts..
We put in 14 acres of alfalfa and the rest is broken in to 4 pastures, 3 acres is a pond, and there is probably another 2 acres that hasn't been fenced. We have since bought a tractor, partners on a bushhog (currently broke), a mower/conditioner, tedder, rake, 2 hay wagons (that we haven't picked up yet), 2 utility trailers, and square baler (than has been gone through at the dealership). Our equipment is all older an finding labor is a PAIN! It is paid for, that is a trade off, lol. If a dealership had been open on Sunday, I promise I would have a new tractor with hay spears (thank GOD for neighbors). That is a different story but we got it done.
We don't have a barn built yet. We do not buy any hay and we get to sell some, we are able to graze the pastures (we put in orchard grass, timothy, and use cold grazer for winter) all but 3 months of the year. We feed little grain (probably don't need to feed any) and really very little hay but I'm a hay hoarder and have issues with selling it, lol. We are able to use shed space that is my dads b/c he is using some of our pasture.
I don't know what is the right approach. I am very happy that we have the 40 because they just don't make it anymore, lol. We have learned A LOT. Pigweed SUCKS, herbicides are my friend, moving dirt is EXPENSIVE, and water drainage is probably the most important thing that we should have addressed at the very beginning. It's frustrating and very rewarding to start a property from scratch! I don't have anyone to blame if we don't get it set up right the first time. So we are going to have an expensive lesson with the alfalfa as we are killing and turning over probably about 10 acres due to the pigweed taking over b/c of run off from neighboring field.
Someone mentioned barbed wire.. I will not ever use that for horses, I know lots do but I've seen too many wrecks with that and smooth wire. We use the white rope electric and it works great for us for perimeter and for cross fencing.
I THINK we will start construction on the barn this fall after we get our water drainage tweaked.. We have to reroute the overflow on the pond and decide best option on the overall drain flow from Northeast to Southwest... We are planning on using steel frame, block walls for the stalls. We have the basic design laid out, working on the details, and I think we have basically decided on the layout for the farm.. The hubby is a civil engineer tech and lets just say we have to get everything agreed upon before we start, lol.
I think you have to figure out what your objectives are! Self sustaining paddocks or just a couple notches about dry lot? Just invest in horse friendly herbicide to deal with weeds as SOON as you see them. It's ridiculous, lol |
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 Future Lottery Winner
Posts: 2348
Location: True North Strong and Free | It depends on the climaate in your area and how you set it up. We had 3.5 acres that was set up with turnout paddocks and sheds for 4 horses, round pen, 4 box stall barn, garage, large house, 1/2 - 3/4 acres sacrafic groundto turn them out on and the rest in hay fiels that would get us enough hay to feed 2 horses year round. We live in the pacific northwest so alot of rain. Love our place.
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 679
Location: KS | Technicolor Paints - 2015-07-20 3:27 PM
It depends on the climaate in your area and how you set it up. We had 3.5 acres that was set up with turnout paddocks and sheds for 4 horses, round pen, 4 box stall barn, garage, large house, 1/2 - 3/4 acres sacrafic groundto turn them out on and the rest in hay fiels that would get us enough hay to feed 2 horses year round. We live in the pacific northwest so alot of rain. Love our place.
Your place is beautiful! |
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Future Lottery Winner
Posts: 2348
Location: True North Strong and Free | Thank you :)
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Expert
Posts: 2685
| I have 3 big horses and a yearling on 3 acres. We fit comfortably with an arena. Haven't killed my grass yet but I feed free choice hay and feed alfalfa twice a day.
I wanted more land but I'm 20 and bought the place on my own. I couldn't really expect to be able to get a loan for a big place nor did I want a big payment. |
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Roan On The Range
Posts: 7889
Location: Stephenville, TX | Technicolor Paints - 2015-07-20 4:27 PM It depends on the climaate in your area and how you set it up. We had 3.5 acres that was set up with turnout paddocks and sheds for 4 horses, round pen, 4 box stall barn, garage, large house, 1/2 - 3/4 acres sacrafic groundto turn them out on and the rest in hay fiels that would get us enough hay to feed 2 horses year round. We live in the pacific northwest so alot of rain. Love our place.
Your place is so neat and tidy! The set up looks well thought out too.
When I look at places for sale, sometimes I wonder WTH people were thinking LOL!
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 629
| Currently we are on 23 acres. The house is taller than it is wide, so is big, but doesn't take up much ground space. We have an 8 stall barn connected to one pasture thats about 5 acres, and another across the driveway that is about 6 acres. We have 2 large yard sections that are not fenced that we have to mow and it's a pain. We also have a pond that takes up an acre or two. Then the rest is not fenced and wooded that we don't do anything with. We have 3 horses on this, but I would like more, and think that if I had the donkey, a mini and some goats and 2 more horses that I want, this would be enough.
I have been looking/planning to find something to buy in the next 2-3 years. Since we have had this property, I have a few requirements.
Currently the house is in the back/middle of this property which is GREAT because we have a ton of privacy. We are .25 mile from a main highway and you would never know from our porch.
I would NOT run the driveway up the middle of the property. This is purely for convenience...since we have two pastures we rotate horses on/off daily, it's a pain to move horses across the driveway because everything has to be temporary so that horse trailers/cars can pass through. I would put my barn and pastures all on one side of the driveway.
I also would want to fence every inch of grass so that we don't have to mow as much. Also, the two yards we have that aren't fenced would have provided more shade for the horses. The only other option would be to have the barn/pasture on one side and house/sheds/arena on the other.
I think 15-20 is a good size for me. We have enough grass so that I don't have to feed hay throughout most of the year. Only during really bad winters, and I keep square bales so I can feed hay when they are stalled during bad weather and for hauling to shows.
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