# Keeping a horse in stable and paddock



## Jeremiahc (Jul 6, 2011)

Hey there,

I have been searching for rough estimates of Horses per acre suggestions and of course it varies, but we are looking at purchasing a homestead that has about 2 - 3 acres of pasture. I grew up with horses and would like 3 to 4 for the family to ride, but we also want goats for milk etc. I'm pretty sure that the pasture will not sustain them, so I was looking into other options. I saw this website that shows a stable and paddock setup. These horses will be worked often, so don't think I plan on locking them up for extended periods of time, but I'm thinking this will be our only option. We would let them into the pasture for periods of time, but their primary residence would be as pictured. Let me know what you think. 

How to Size Your Horse's Paddock? - Smart Horse Keeping


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## Joshie (Dec 8, 2008)

If you haven't purchased the place and want that many critters, I would suggest looking at a larger piece of property. The horses will likely make a dry lot out of the pasture in little time. 

We have two horses on a two to four (depending on how it's partitioned at the time. and the last two years have been horrible for our pastures. I say this because with as little land you're talking about it'll be very tough to reseed so you may well have to hay year round. 

How much do you plan to work them? Our horses, especially one of them is a great guy but he gets really bored in dry lots and when he's bored he gets into trouble. 

I think there are a whole lot of variables.


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## unregistered41671 (Dec 29, 2009)

Joshie said:


> If you haven't purchased the place and want that many critters, I would suggest looking at a larger piece of property. The horses will likely make a dry lot out of the pasture in little time.
> 
> We have two horses on a two to four (depending on how it's partitioned at the time. and the last two years have been horrible for our pastures. I say this because with as little land you're talking about it'll be very tough to reseed so you may well have to hay year round.
> 
> ...


Agree 100%


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## Jeremiahc (Jul 6, 2011)

Thanks for the input! I figured the pasture would be a dry lot in no time, that's why I was considering stable and paddock with daily working. But you mentioned that boredom can become a problem in a small paddock/dry lot situation? My mom is hoping to board a horse or two with us (Hers, plus what we want was our 3-4 number) But since we want goats also, I don't want our pastures to go to waste and have to feed hay to our goats plus the horses, so my thought was to limit their space and feed them hay, and use as much of the pasture as possible. Does this make sense? 

Any suggestions would be welcome. We know it's not ideal, and I will not be that person who collects animals irresponsibly, but I'm wondering what my options are. If it absolutely will not work, then the welfare of the animals comes before my wants, but Im just trying to think creatively and see if we can make the dream happen. 

Thanks again.


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

We kept 3 horses in a half acre paddock with a nice little barn for years when I was a kid. No grass, we fed good hay year 'round. We did ride quite a bit, had good fences and the horses were right next to our house, so got a lot of attention. It worked fine. I was a teenager, spent a LOT of time on my horse. Of course hay was a lot cheaper and easier to get then, so keep availability in mind. 

My last horse lived on a one acre dry lot, we didn't work her a lot, but she was older and so are we. She got good hay and we visited and spent time with her pretty much every day (fed twice a day to start with and messed with her when we fed). We all seemed to enjoy that a lot too.


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## Joshie (Dec 8, 2008)

Jeremiah, Granny brought up something really important. Hay production is way down. I am assuming that it's not any better where you are than it is here in IL so keep that in mind. We have ten acres in grass hay. Our hay is usually beautiful stuff. We grow it for halvsies and sell what we don't need. If I had not kept back a lot from last year we wouldn't have enough to get us through the winter. We got about 25 percent of a normal crop and what we did get is awful stuff I would never buy. I'm happy that at least our boys will not starve. 

Anyway, I would suggest that you get a place with a barn large enough to store a whole winter's hay plus some. Have you looked for larger places? 

Good luck finding your perfect place.


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## mountainwmn (Sep 11, 2009)

For myself I like the barn with stalls that open into small pipe corrals. You can lock the horses in if you need to. They have a small area that they can run in, but can't chew on. You can still walk down the aisle to easily feed and water. And they are seperated from each other and easy to feed. Then you can turn them out in the pasture for as much or as little time as you like. 
If I were building a place that is what I would do, even if I had 100 acres of good fenced pasture. Boredom isn't too much of an issue as long as they have hay.


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

At the old place, I had a 1/2 acre pasture for two miniature horses and for the Icelandic's and Fjord horse, totaling 4 small horses, I had a 2 1/2 acres,in what I called the night pasture(fencing that would keep out black Bears and cougar), another 1 acre pasture and then the 10 acre combo of hay field and woodlands. 
Before the hay started to grow and after, they had access to run around during the day and boy did they love to run.

I really miss having my own hay. Is very spendy and I have to go 1 1/2 hours away to get it.

Here in VA, I am starting from scratch again, I only have a 1 1/2 acre pasture, but I just have two Icelandic's, one mini and two mini goats. It really isn't big enough for them to blast around.
Once I can afford more fencing, will be making another bigger pasture. 

Because of the repairs this house needed, my dream dutch barn couldn't happen. So I bought a 12 x 24' board and batten hay shed. II can hold a years worth of hay, for the animals I have and a 12 x 32 board and batten run in shed with a small tack room. Not perfect but it works.

Anyway,,, if you are going to have big full sized horse's, to keep them healthy and without bad habits..... 3 to 4 horses are going to need about 5 acres. Though more would be better.
Right now, land isn't that spendy, the place I bought here, is 21+ acres and was a lot cheaper than some 5 acre places we looked at. 

Good luck property hunting!


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## Jeremiahc (Jul 6, 2011)

I really appreciate all the comments. Our offer was accepted on the property. It was the best balance of house and land that we could afford. We will start simple and go from there. Since I rode horses often growing up, but never had them on my property, I wanted to make sure I wasn't sacrificing the animal's well being by considering the stable/paddock setup, and it sounds like it is done, and as long as they are worked doesn't sound unreasonable. 

Thanks again, I browse this site often but haven't posted much since we are still in the planning stages, but appreciate all of your kinds words!

Jeremiah


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## Cliff (Jun 30, 2007)

Just remember that they will still need working after the newness wears off. It can become work instead of fun if your life is very busy and others who need to help lose interest. We have a few horses but we also have 200 acres for them to roam around on when we're busy so I don't feel bad about them not working. If they had to stand around in stalls or a small paddock I would feel awful.


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## oregon woodsmok (Dec 19, 2010)

I have an excellent 2 acre irrigated pasture and it will support two horses as long as the horses also get hay.

It will work for 4 horses if you keep them in small pens or a stable and just turn them out for about an hour a day. I'd have a small riding arena to turn them out and let them kick their boogers out first and then move them to the pasture so they don't tear it up by running.

Also, 2 acres is enough to rotate and that will help to preserve the grass.

best luck to you with the new farm. What a wonderful adventure.

PS: sometimes neighbors will have pasture that they will rent to you for very little as long as you keep the fences maintained.


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## RedSonja (May 16, 2010)

Congratulations! 

Interesting article you linked to there, a few ideas sparked my interest. The idea of a "track" sacrifice area especially. Wish it weren't so blasted hot outside at the moment, I want to give that a try with temporary fencing.

-Sonja


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## Irish (Feb 10, 2012)

We have four acres and two horses. But I feed and then throw hay. The hay isn't the best but it's roughage at least. I try to set it up where the nutrition comes from the feed and the hay is just for keeping my lambchops out of trouble. It is so hot and dry here, nothing much is coming up anymore. Even when we moved the horses off of one part to let it regrow. I have a big corral and then temp fencing off of it to various spots. Still, nothing much is growing and our water table/pressure sure seems to be down lately. So we have to feed and hay. 

Also, check Cherry Hill's ideas on partitioning a place.


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## Work horse (Apr 7, 2012)

I have two horses on 4 acres (one acre paddock attached to 3 acre pasture) and they are both super fat with no supplemental hay or grain. I haven't fed them anything since mid-April. I close them in the paddock at night to limit the grass a bit (the paddock has grass about 1/2 inch long and they munch on that all night).

The set-ups in your pictures look like they would be great for your situation. 

The only other thing to consider, is how many horses you really need for everyone to get some riding time? Maybe 2 horses would be enough.


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