Grazing Advice

C

cully_c

New Member
May 13, 2009
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Falkirk, Scotland
Hi,

I have been riding for many years and am looking to get my own horse. But what we are intending to do is a bit of an 'escape to the country' to a property where I can keep the horse at home. A property we have found (which would need some work before a horse could be introduced) could provide a field approx. 1 acre once work is complete. (Stabling etc would be seperate to this) Is this enough to keep a horse on? I have always ridden horses at places with 10's of acres, who are out 24/7, so I have, I admit, never really learnt what the minimum acreage is or any other routine other than out in the field all the time.

What concerns me is that the field would never get a chance to rest, unless I started splitting the field in half for a few weeks to rest each side (is that even feasable?) Can a horse be kept on land this small? I assumed I would be supplementing his diet? Could he be stabled for short periods so he is not on the land 24/7?

There may (although we havent investigated) be the chance of buying more land or at least renting some, which I would do. But in the event that this is not possible is it workable?

It would only be the one horse and some kind of companion animal eg a goat or two? Would a shetland or donkey be okay in your guys opinion? Or am I asking to much of my small plot!!

Here endeth my list of questions! It would be great to hear people's views, I have looked everywhere and there are such differing views from 'I have 1/2 an acre for my horse and we do fine' to 'you need 3 acres per horse minimum'!
 
yes, you have to get a companion, an equine at that (shetland is probably better than a donkey ...). i think the idea is an acre per horse but you could always put hay out and split the acre in half to rest some of it. at the end of the day, its a personal choice ... as long as the horses have enough to eat (be it hay or grass) and space to run around in :)
 
I think their wellbeing is more important than having lots of land; Companionship, room for a good runaround and enough fibre for their needs.
It is possible to keep a horse and pony on one acre, but you will have to be perpared to spend a fortune on hay!

Renting another couple of acres for winter would be a great idea if thats possible.
 
You could manage it, but it won't be as straight forward as horse at grass!
I managed to keep 3 on about 2 acres, we split the land into 3, 2 summer paddocks which we used on a 3 week rotation to give the grass a chance to grow in between, then the 3rd smaller paddock was our sacrifice paddock for winter/wet days, every year it got completely trashed and we always fed hay full time when they were on it. We also stabled at night during the winter to get them off the mud and we never used our summer paddocks for 24 hours after heavy rain as it was the type of soil that tore up really easily.

Having limited space just means you have to be more careful about what you do and when, lots of poo picking and seeding fertilising carefully and you can have decent enough grass for the better part of the year :)
 
Jessey said:
You could manage it, but it won't be as straight forward as horse at grass!
I managed to keep 3 on about 2 acres, we split the land into 3, 2 summer paddocks which we used on a 3 week rotation
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So do you reckon that I could do something like split it into 2 and then just rotate between them? With plenty of hay available
 
it would worry me that the horse would be on its own :eek:
i dont like seeing them on their own.

it would be better if you could rent some more

we have 3.5 acres for 2 :)
 
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At the risk of offending anybody on here (really don't want to but have to say!) please get a companion - for the long term - I have to pass a very lonely pony everyday on my way to work and it upsets me. It doesn't look happy at all - (its well kept I don't mean suffering physically in any way tho). I'm sure it would be happier with a pal! As for the acreage - it may be doable, but - I think you would have to resign yourself to no winter turnout (or very little) and keeping your horse in during the extreme wet weather.
 
Ditto what everyone else has said above, also maybe consider moving them to livery for 8 weeks during the height of the growing season if you can find somewhere local.
 
So do you reckon that I could do something like split it into 2 and then just rotate between them? With plenty of hay available
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Yes, I think so, don't expect to have loads of grass unless you're really lucky!
My 2 currently live out 24/7 in one sand paddock, its about 30m x 30m maybe a bit more, they live in there year round and have done for 3 years now, there is no grass at all but they have a hay ring which is kept full and they are happy, content and rather round :D they have neighbours on 3 sides all in similar size paddocks etc. It isn't ideal, but the only one it doesn't suit is me, I'd love to see them in a nice grassy field :p
Definatly agree on the companion thing, they are herd animals, it causes undue stress if they are kept alone, give you will have limited grazing a couple of good doers would be a good choice, perhaps you could give a good home to a potentially lamanitic companion, you might be a god send for someone :)
 
i have 8 acres split into 14 paddocks, in the winter we only use the 7 on the left and totaly leave the other side for summer, in the summer we do use both sides till about septemeber october then we rest the left hand side ready for the winter, we always have enough grass and we have 3 horses and 2 ponies on it.
 
Jessey said:
My 2 currently live out 24/7 in one sand paddock, its about 30m x 30m maybe a bit more,
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We have another property in mind which already has an acre paddock. But it also has an old cow shed, the front part of which is 21.7 x 18.47 (not being exact or anything :) ) which could be turned into a sand school. I see that you kepp your horse on a sand paddock, could this potential sand school double as another small paddock?

Again there is land which looks possible to buy but we are unsure! Why do people sell properties with such little land!! The worlds biggest cow shed but only an acre paddock! If you kept enough cows for the size of cow shed and put them out on the acre you'd just have this solid cube of cows squeezed in the paddock!! Yet the schedule says the property could be used for farming purposes!!! Moan over! :D
 
Unfortunately a lot of farms have been sold for building purposes, only keeping the smallest piece of land to go with the house :mad:

It is very annoying.

You maybe better off buying land and house seperately. Padddocks do go for more money than lots and lots of acreage, but you should be able to get 3 acres for £35k max
 
3 acres for £35K???? That sounds a lot to me, not that I'm an expert on real esteate mind you. But we bought our fairly large farmhouse with just under 9 acres, a Dutch barn and a lovely stone shippon for £450K True, the house needed (and still does in part) a lot of TLC, but that was 18 months ago before the bottom dropped out of the market.
 
i have two large horses on about an acre and a quarter. its not ideal, what i do is fence off a third at a time then once opened fence off another 3rd. thats the only way to keep grass plus i have a round bale out at all times plus they get a better quality square bale a day(half in morning half at night) its doable but not ideal. you def should get a companion though x
 
Alot depends on your horses and your grazing land I suppose.

I have 2 horses and 2 1/2 acres.
This spring I've fenced off 1/2 acre for schooling purposes and I have much too much grass with the 2 acres left.
Horses are brought in their stables overnight (9-10pm until 5.30am) but are out with a field shelter otherwise.
In winter, I fence off a winter paddock in the top part of the field so the horses get winter turnout but the whole field doesn't get churned up.

Horses share about a small bale of hay in winter per day outside (plus about 1/4 a bale each in the stable overnight) but no need for hay in summer.

I'm another in recommending a field companion - be prepared for potential separation problems though when you want to work one and leave the other in the field.
 
I currently keep a cob and 2 ponies in 2 1/2 acres all year round. I have far too much grazing and have to restrict them for 3 seasons. :) So 1 acre for a horse and a companion would work out ok especially if you halfed it and rested one side while they grazed the other. The only trouble you will have is in the Winter. Restrict it right down to just literally enough room to stretch their legs and feed them ad lib hay. Because they will literally churn it up and kill what decent grazing you have in the rest of the year. :)
 
Showqa, It really depends on where you live; Wales is fairly cheap compared to England, unfortunately!
450K would buy you a shed with land around here! LOL

My friends yard has just been put for sale at 180k :eek: she has 6 acres , 5 stables, tack room and feed room, and a very small school!
 
Skippys Mum said:
It also depends where you are in the country. In the West of Scotland it probably wouldnt be doable - its just too wet here.
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I couldn't manage it here either. The only way would to have them in most of the time of have a large bit created as an all wether surfcce that won't get muddy and to feed hay all year round.

I would have to have 2 equines so that they have decent company.

The larger the land, the more you can get away with average acreage per horse.
 
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