But Mom, I know a pony would fit in the garage!
Dec 30 2009
When I was a kid, I read one of those books – it was probably the Summer Pony one – where the parents built a stall in their garage for their daughter’s pony. I thought that sounded like a great idea. Â I mean, we had a pie-shaped suburban lot. Â The back was pretty wide, affording plenty of room for a kid and a dog to get up to speed. Â Surely there was enough room there to turn out a pony, if we added some fence. Â My mother’s explanation of subdivision HOA rules sounded far too ridiculous for a six-year-old to believe could be true. Â If it was OUR house, why couldn’t we keep OUR pony at it?
I grew up and learned about HOA’s (though I still think they’re largely ridiculous – particularly that part I grew up with about how we had to all have the same lamp out front) and developed a deep and abiding hatred of suburbia, based upon my earliest recollections of it as a Place You Couldn’t Keep Ponies. Â But when I had a question this week about how much space it really takes to keep a horse, I decided to Zillow my childhood home and see just how large that yard had been. Â It turns out it was just over a quarter of an acre. Â So, a huge and wonderful turnout for a horse if you are in Southern California, and not big enough to keep anything bigger than chickens in the rest of the U.S.!
The space issue is an excellent question. Â I just adopted out a Thoroughbred mare to a place that is probably a quarter of an acre – but she’s 24 years old. Â The space is clean, the fence is new, there’s a large, tall run-in shed and poop is picked up daily. Â She shares it with two alpacas and there hasn’t been the slightest issue. Â Shortly thereafter, I was asked to look at a horse just down the street that some impulsive lady had purchased at the Enumclaw auction and was now dumping on Craigslist. Â OMG. Â Same amount of space, but full of crap including a trampoline and numerous other hazards and junk – and the horse was a six year old OTTB! Â A rescuer friend snatched him up quickly before he had a chance to get hurt.
There are four main issues to consider when asking yourself how much space a horse really needs. Â The first one is safety. Â If you have more than one horse, someone is going to be the boss and it’s smart to give the #2 horse sufficient space to get away from the tough guy. Â In a small area, horses are more likely to be cornered and kicked or bitten. Â That’s why all those horses on a kill buyer’s lot are so marked up – there’s just no space to get away. Â So, if you have two twenty-something sweethearts that have been together for years, they may do just fine in a fairly small area, but lose one and replace him with a four year old, and you’re likely to have problems. Â Another issue is how active the horse(s) are. Â The senior Thoroughbred I mentioned above rarely even breaks into a trot on her own. Â A young one that needs to run needs the space to do so, or you are likely to have a heck of a time with him under saddle. Â Southern California is full of young Thoroughbreds and Warmbloods locked in stalls or 10 x 15 pipe corrals. Â I watch their owners longe and longe, trying to make up for the lack of turnout and space to run, and many of these horses are still nuts. Â Seriously, I’ve never seen as many people offloaded at any barn as I have at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center. Â It is like the rodeo over there – and I think it’s all about lack of turnout. Â (They do have some paddocks, but turnout is not included in board, so many horses sit all day while the owners work). Â A final factor about space is what is the space like? Â A perfectly flat and mostly clear half acre with no significant mud problem is a vastly superior horse home than ten acres that are thick with trees and turn into a swamp come October.
The second issue is sanitation. Â If you are going to have horses on a small area, you absolutely have to get out there and pick up poop. Â Yes, in the pasture. Â I know, I know. Â The first time I saw someone do this, I too thought they were off their rocker – but it’s actually an unavoidable part of decent quality horsekeeping on a small property. Â If you’ve got more acreage, you may be able to just drag the pastures or even let nature take its course, depending, but if you’ve got fifteen horses on five acres, get the wheelbarrow – you’ve got a lot of work to do if you don’t want your property to be a breeding ground for parasites. Â Don’t think regular deworming will fix the problem. Â Horses shouldn’t eat off their own excrement, nor should they stand in it, period. Â In nature, they constantly move and travel so that this isn’t an issue. Â If you’re going to lock them up, it’s your job to clean up. Â You’ll never get a horse worm-free if he’s in a little dry lot you never clean.
(The space issue is so interesting. I know some of you are going, OMG, who would put 15 horses on 5 acres? Â And those of you somewhere like L.A. are thinking, man, I wish I could find a place to board that had five acres and only 15 horses on it.)
A third issue is the horse himself, and there are two main considerations about how much space he may need, and what type of space. Â The first one is soundness. Â It’s not fair to an old coot with stiff legs to ask him to stand in a 12 x 12 box stall and be taken out once a day for a ride. He’s going to be stiff, sore and painful and I’m sorry but NO amount of Legend, Adequan, bute, BL pellets, glucosamine, MSM or anything else is going to compensate for the lack of movement. Â Your old guy needs to walk and move continuously, and on a reasonably flat area that doesn’t stress his legs. Â He needs to be kept out of mud or deep footing. Â A stall with an attached paddock is the ideal, or 24/7 turnout with shelter. Â The other kind of horse that absolutely has to have space is the young, energetic horse including young stock. Â Ask any vet and they’ll recite for you the problems that are caused by locking growing foals in stalls or small paddocks where they can’t run and play. Â A study at Utrecht University in the Netherlands found the following:
“Week-old Dutch warmblood foals were put into two groups: One living in box stalls for five months, and the other turned out 24 hours a day. After five months, some foals were euthanized and their fetlock joints examined. The results showed that confining foals significantly decreased calcium deposition, collagen development, and collagen cross-linking, which is critical to collagen strength. In comparison, pastured foals had normally developing subchondral bone.” Â (This is from The Horse)
Yeah, yeah, I know, I would think there’d be a way to do that without euthanizing foals, too, but the point is that babies need to move or you’re looking at soundness problems later. Â Locking a foal in a stall or a small paddock is a bad, bad idea and people do it all the time, reasoning that a foal is small, so for him, it’s not such a small area. Â He may be small, but his need to exercise is far greater than the adult horse that is three times his size.
The final question is whether or not you expect the horse to live off of pasture, at least in the summertime. Â There is no hard and fast rule of thumb about how many acres of pasture a horse needs. Â It depends on what your pasture is like. I used to have a five acre property in the midwest and had no problem keeping 5 Thoroughbreds positively hog-fat on it all summer – but it was an old alfalfa field and animals hadn’t ever been out on it when I bought it. Â If you let your horses graze everything down to the dirt and you never pick up poop or rest any part of the property and let it grow back or seed/fertilize, I can guarantee the nutritional value of whatever grass remains is about the same as snacking on cardboard. Â Horses can only live on grass where there is grass, and this means sufficient grass that it never gets grazed down to the ground. Â You either have to have a lot of acreage or separate your property into different pastures and rotate, letting the grass have a chance to grow back before you put horses out on it again. Â (By the way, the presence of high, untouched weeds or long coarse grasses that the horses didn’t touch does NOT mean there is still something left to eat out there…use a little common sense.)
A really great book if you have a small property and are trying to figure out how to configure it is Cherry Hill’s Horsekeeping on a Small Acreage. Â I’d check that one out for sure.
By the way, large acreages can present their own problems too! Â It becomes a lot harder to check horses daily for injuries, maintain fence, watch for the presence of animal holes or other hazards, etc. Â And of course it is much harder to secure from thieves. Â I know a lot of people with large properties who keep a smaller sacrifice area down by the barn, and use it as a catch pen. Â They call the horses down at least once a day and lock them in, usually with a bribe of a few handfuls of grain or some tasty hay that is even more appealing than the pasture. Â I’ve worked at a place where they ring a bell and everyone comes running – a huge convenience when it is time to ride and you don’t want to hike out over 100 acres looking for your mount, who may otherwise very well toss his head, laugh at you and head for the hills!
How much space do your horses have? Â What are the challenges you face in maintaining it? Â Have you had a property for a long time and had to learn what the “right,” manageable number of horses on it was — or are you trying to adjust to that number right now?
138 comments to “But Mom, I know a pony would fit in the garage!”
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Well written. Like most horse decisions, research before action is helpful.
Sorry, hit “send” too fast! My horse is boarded because I am afraid my cats would chase him in the yard
. He has a large turnout pasture (an acre?) and a stall at night. Depending on the season, he is sometimes in larger pastures (barn owner rotates pastures depending on grass, flooding (creek floods in winter), etc) for the health of the horses. Overall farm is 65 acres, so there is plenty of room to move about. 
My parents tell me the reason we moved from SoCal to NorCal was so that I could have a pony – I sort of believe them. I have a little less than 1 acre and I have two horses and a pony. I have three pastures – one is large where they mostly spend their time and it is all sand. I do get a little mud here and there, but I get loads of sand in every couple of years and fill it in again. The other two pastures are small – but grow good grass and I can use them to separate the “herd” if need be. I don’t usually lock them all up in the little pastures together – but will leave it open to the big pasture. We clean daily – rain or shine. Ok, I did take Christmas off and was sorry I did. Picking it up the next day (two days worth of poop) was a work out. Especially when it’s wet. I have a riding lawnmower/tractor with a trailer that I drive around (actually my daughter drives while I scoop) and then the garbage man takes it all. That’sthe lucky part. We never did have garbage services out where I live until a few years ago so we were mulching the poop and using it to fill in areas, etc. But we still always had a big pile of mulched poop. Thankfully now we fill two regular garbage cans every week and it’s hauled off. Some neighbors with gardens take some of the poop but certainly not enough to keep it to one can.
I feed three times a day so there is more poop than feeding twice a day – or at least it seems like it. The horses have room to run and buck and play and I have shelter for them and keep my trailer in the pasture too – so far so good. I have a neighbor with 2 acres and only one horse so I can always put one over there if need be (if a neighbor complains about the number of horses on the lack of acres.)
But since we keep it clean and kept up – no hazards or ugly fences (three rail) we have been keeping horses on the property for 35 years, but this is the first time I’ve had more than two at a time. The pony only counts as a half though, right? The only maintenance issue I face is the worn out areas by the feeders – I have to fill those in once a year or they get really muddy…so a little gravel and sand and we are good to go again.
It’s so good to hear that your horses are doing well on 1 acre! I also want 2 horses, plus a mini (for company in case one of the other two horses is sold, away at a show, etc.)
I have almost exactly one acre and some of it is a bit uneven and some is wooded but I’m determined to make do with what I have! In the Northeast, there is land available, but it is SO expensive. Luckily we border state forest so at least trailriding is available.
I want a two stall barn with attached paddock so the horses can have 24/7 turnout, and there will be just enough room left for a small riding ring and our little grassy backyard where I can handgraze. Manure removal will be a must. I have researched which companies will rent dumpsters for manure. My plan is to have a low dumpster situated next to a small hill so it will be easy to dump wheelbarrows into it. I hadn’t thought of cans – do they actually dump out the can right there, or do they take the whole can with them and bring it back?
Thankfully my small town’s zoning allows horses everywhere, with no restrictions as long as you’ve got less than 6 horses. I’ve got neighbors really close to me on one side, though, so, hopefully they won’t mind!
It won’t be the largest or most extravagant setup – there won’t be grazing pasture, but a lot of stalled horses don’t get that anyways. I think a good sized attached paddock with occassional handgrazing is not such a bad life for a horse. I’ve seen worse.
Just recently I found a great discussion of horsekeeping on small acreage on the Chronicle forums, although it was really old.
With only about 1/3 acre pasture and two horses it must be cleaned daily or they will avoid about a 5 ft circle of grass by each pile… so here is the dream toy that I want to get the job done – a Manure Vacuum! http://www.mymanurevac.com/ My husband is just not onboard with the idea yet (sigh)….does anyone out there get to play with one of these?
Haven’t you ever measured? A pony will fit in your CLOSET!!!
We have 3.5 acres and have had as many as 9 horses on it, all in stalls with runs. I pick the runs daily, compost and sell it twice a year. The pasture is about 1.5 acres, but the horses don’t even use all of it,god forbid they can’t see the barn. Mostly they are allowed to run & be crazy in the arena so they don’t tear up the pasture grass. Currently there are 4 horses and its more than enough for this small area but I still have grass and guard it carefully.
Isn’t it true! Turnout, clean facilities and work-horses take work to keep them healthy and happy. We kept 10 horses on 5 acres but we had a ton of work to do to keep the manure picked up and composted, keep a dry turnout with good footing, and run in for the weather. Now we have 40 acres and still have to work to keep the fields in good condition, but we are thankful for more space to let them run and be horses, especially during the playing season. They are much more sound both mentally and physically with turnout and a great place to just be horses.
Absolutely. One of the soundest strings of polo horses I ever cared for went out every day on 80 acres. We brought them back from playing and out they went. The 20-somethings moved like 5 year olds. We had NO lameness, NONE, not all season. Zip, zero, zilch. No colics, either. They played 3 days a week, loped five or six miles 3 days, Mondays off, and just never had the slightest problem.
I worked for someone else who thought they’d get hurt if they got turned out. Not only were his bat-shit crazy and he had to ace several to play them, but he had tons of soundness problems. DUH. I tried to explain that when they go out every day, they do not run around like crazy. His ran around like crazy because they never got out!
Ok I’ll comment (yikes-sorry for length). Fugs has seen the pix of my property. We have 15.5 acres with about 4 acres that are yard (which I ride on/jump through), pond, 130′ X 260′ arena and perimeter field around arena. The remainder is fenced in 3 or 4 strand electrobraid with permanent driven posts. There are 2 pastures in daily use. Fencing is checked regularly as is ground, and surface rock is removed monthly (well, not in winter….).
The pasture on the south side of the barn is ~ 2 acres (can be divided into 2 paddocks easily). It is essentially a sacrifice paddock for 2 mares 12 & 13 yrs. old) that are air ferns-one with metabolic syndrome. There is run-in shed space (12′ x 24′, and Dutch doors to their stalls can be clipped open for more shelter) and a Nelson waterer with 100 and 70 gal stock tanks as backup in summer. These mares wear grazing muzzles 12 hr. a day April-Nov. Occasionally I switch and put them into the big pasture at night and move TB into front, or bring him in.
There is a 7 acre pasture on the north side of the barn, again with a run in (12′ X 40′). Water is by 2 buckets (in Performance One insulated bucket holders) in winter. BTW, it was still warm after 12 hr at 7 degrees yesterday-this is a great product at 69$). I use a 100 gal. stock tank in summer. A 4 year-old TB gelding is turned out here (needs to run and can handle ad lib, grass and hay). Stock tanks are rubbermaid, and I check them daily and clean them at least every 2 weeks.
My horses are out at least 12 hrs. a day (24/7 when possible). I feed hay from late Nov. through March or part of April. I bring horses in at night if it is wet/muddy, when there is sleet or lightning (day or night), and when the temp is below 20-25 (for my convenience and so the 2 Nelson’s in stalls don’t heat all night).
Our manure management is harrowing weekly in south pastures and monthly in the heavily used part of the north pasture. The larger part of that does not require harrowing. Barn waste/bedding is piled and hauled away 3-5x/year, and we use lots of fly predators on pastures, Equispot, and occasional spray for riding. I have an intensive rotational worming program, and all horses are on Strongid C2X (and I monitor by quantitative fecal 3x/year).
Our biggest challenges are weed management (have been trying to go w/o herbicides, but will need to use some next year) and drainage in 2 areas (one is a dry stream bed we just live with when we get very wet seasons occasionally, other is a gate between 2 front paddocks that will get road fabric, stone dust and a drain pipe this year).
We’ve owned this property 4 years and it is a work in progress. I would not want more than 4 horses on this property ever!!! Horses/livestock are hard on the ground, and this requires constant attention. Keeping horses well is a lot of work (but it is soooo worth it).
When I get questions from clients about having horses at home, my advice is to first consider stocking (horse) density, drainage, manure and pest management, traffic patterns, and specific individual needs of each horse-plan ahead and get advice from someone who runs a really good facility, a vet who owns and manages his/her own horses, your county extension office, etc. Visit facilities and ask questions. Seek guidance, have a plan and be ready to adjust it and solve problems as you go.
My parents have a 25 acres, of which only 10 is fenced and really 5 of that is “nice pasture”; the rest of it is hilly and over crowed with trees. They let the animals graze it down to the dirt and wonder why it grows only weeds and why they have such a problem with worms (they of course do nothing to help the land…or the animals). It’s very maddening to try and talk to them about how to keep up the land-hell even the animals!, but my dad is a ‘good old boy’ so naturally anything coming from a female’s mouth is null and void. They’ve lost so many animals due to their ignorance/neglect. When I threaten to call AC on him I get laughed at.
My two horses (who will never come anywhere near my parent’s place) though are boarded on 30 acres with 11 other horses. By the law here it’s one horse per one acre, but they like to have ample space for the horses. They have 24/7 turn out with run in sheds and these people actually know how to rotate and seed which leaves them with wonderful grass. In the small paddocks they pick up after the horses, but the main field they only worry about what’s around the shelters. They are wonderful! I don’t have to worry about them and that a least takes some stress off my shoulders.
I was also one of those that wanted to keep a horse in my back yard. I don’t know how big it is but I’m sure we could put a horse back there. I begged for a horse and that was my answer for “where will we keep it?” Heck, I STILL want to keep a horse back there. But I’m glad I waited until I was older and purchased stalls at a local horse club arena. I like to have people around that actually know about horses. If anything bad happens, they’re there to help me (and notice if something is wrong when they feed their horse). Or if I have a question or training problem, they can help fix it. I’d feel completely lost without them. AND it’s nice to have other horse crazy people that understand my addiction.
I have 3 horses on 20 cleared acres of native grass with 5 acres reserve in case of drought. I only have 1 shelter, 20 X 50 feet, open on 3 sides but protected from the north wind. The climate is very mild here in S. Texas. I have people stop and ask all the time if I will take in the horse they no longer want. They are always shocked when I tell them I am full. They’ll give it to me for free….
Sure, there is plenty of grass and space. However, I have an older mare who does not need the herd dynamics disrupted. Everyone gets along fine. Another horse would ruin that. And, as it is Becca gets booted out in the rain regularly. She is easily bullied. I could cross fence and add more shelter and animals. I cannot afford that right now. Why would I take on another horse when I am at my limit finacially already? Besides, 3 horses are more than I can keep fit as it is.
My horses are lucky to be just about the only ones in the county that will have grass all winter. We had a horrible drought this year during the growing season. Having grass now tells me I have just enough space, not extra.
Turn out, turn out, turn out. I’m a little off topic here, but your comment about the stir-crazy horses in LA made me think of the riding club I’ve been attending at a big European city. It took me a while to twig that there was no turn out. As I’d been away from horses for over a decade, I thought it was just that horses were more volatile than I remebered, or that they were horses rather than ponies. Then I talked to others who’d been there, read up a little, and after one particularly insane, out-of-the-blue accident in one of my lessons (thankfully no one was hurt, but it ended with the rider narrowly escaping being rolled on, and the horse kneeling on its own side reins, trapped with its quarters in the air), haven’t been back.
That, and one day I went into the stall of the old schoolie mare with a headcollar and she went for me. I’m not scared of horses, or horses putting their ears back or even snapping, but this was pretty sustained. I could hardly believe it, and got out of the box pronto. The instructor came along, gave her a sugar lump and took her out of the box and she was fine. Lovely again. (and yes, sugar lump, WTF? I didn’t hit her as she’s not my horse.).
The way the corners of her mouth suddenly turned down, and then the teeth… What makes it more awful is the knowledge that she got that way because much of her life involves going from barn to indoor school and back to barn again. They barely even ride out, as far as I know, despite being nextdoor to a huge forest.
2010 resolution: even if it means less riding, or spending crazy amounts of time on public transport, I will only ride horses that are allowed to be horses.
Oh my, this is so true. I grew up in NorCal, where there is a little bit more space, but we still thought nothing of keeping 4 horses on a moonscape. The Mediterranean climate causes all the grass to die back in the summer and the soil is clay, which turns to adobe. I kept my horse on a bare slope in my back yard and wanted so badly to have a nice flat grassy field and a stall.
Fast forward to a move to KY – 15 partially wooded acres with clay soil – does not turn into adobe unless under drought conditions and is also broken up by frost action so at least don’t have that to deal with. But looking at the neighbor’s 15 with two horses – what a degraded mess! DH is from SoCal and put up a 1/3 acre paddock for interim use – he is shocked at how quickly two horses have torn up “all that nice grass”. I have convinced him to set up two 16×16 pens on a pre-existing graveled area, then if we add two 2 acre paddocks and begin a rotation on drier days we can begin to get a handle on it. Certain areas in this state are famous for horses, picturesque herd of mares and foals on lush rolling grass, but as you get out into the boonies and the rougher terrain you will find plenty of nasty mudlots. Keeping a pasture in good condition takes a lot of planning and work!
My two horses are on a very small lot… it is 1.25 acres (and that is with the 3600 sq foot house taking up a good chunk of it). Thus, we had to be pretty clever when we put in the fencing for the horses.
We have a decent sized arena, and in the far back corner of the arena is a roundpen.
The horses are kept in 30ft X 200ft day pens. This has been sufficient for many years and many different horses… until recently. Currently, my once lovely arena is the 24/7 home for our 3 year old TB colt (I say ‘once lovely’ because 99% of my three rail wood rails have been beavered by the gent). Yep, he is one of those that NEEDS the constant turnout, and the day pen just wasn’t cutting it. He truly runs to the point of a dead sprint daily, followed by bucking fits. He has 3 Jolly Balls and uses the tar out of those things daily. The only time he has to go back into his day pen is if I am using the arena, or if it is icy outside.
My 2 year old lazy-as-the-day is long paint filly is just fine with her day pen. Granted she sees turnout and exercise, but her turnout normally consists of her strolling around slowly until she finds a more comfortable place to stand and sleep.
BTW, excellent point on the arthritic or hurting horses! We had an older ex-barrel gelding that was a cripple, and that poor-poor guy was just too sore in confined spaces even though he was older and not exactly a speedy mover. He lived in our arena temporarily until our horse shoer took him as a companion for his daughter’s lonely mini (on 10 acres). I think all too often people assume the less active (sore) horses are fine in a small confined space, but it isn’t true! Our vet told us that increasing circulation to his feet was what helped him stay mobile, so we found him a home where he would be able to live comfortably.
We just moved on to our 30 acre ranch this summer, so I’m asking myself all these same questions(with regards to drainage etc.)
We keep 2 paints in a 2 acre paddock with run-in under the barn with cement and rubber mats. The 2 thoroughbreds and friesian share a 3 acre paddock. Every morning after their breakfast I turn them out on an 8+ acre pasture(no mud, still some grass).
It amazes me, if I keep them in their huge paddocks for a day(if it’s raining too hard that day to turn them out) how they act if they miss a day of turnout. They run and buck and act like they’ve been kept in a stall. When we get the back 20 fenced, then they’ll have even more turnout. Hopefully I will have something more enticing so I can still bring them in as easily every night. Right now I just call each ones name and they go in the right paddock-most of the time;)
We have 7 acres…fenced in…5ft no climb horse fence…
Our biggest problem is that it is all one field…
This spring we are putting up a divider and a run in shed on the other side…but we had run out of money…
They have shelter now…along w/ stalls…but will need a run in for the other field…
and will have to get a new trough for over there too…
We have a rotating 7 horses…it is working fine…barely any feed for them in the summer…
We bought our property 1 1/2 years ago. We have just under 40 acres, with about 30 in pastures. On the west side, the pastures are great, they supported our 6 horses and 2 cows all summer, there are hills and trees and run in sheds for them. I love the hills for keeping them in shape! On the east side it is totally different soil and has been over-grazed before we took possession. We did manage to keep 7 yearling stud colts on it this summer and the pasture kept up, but if we hadn’t had rain like we did, that would not have happened. I keep my 6 in the dry lot over winter, its about 3/4 of an acre, but they do really well in it, and they aren’t ruining my pastures over the winter and early spring months. We did run some hot wire in a few areas for ours this fall just to strech the grass as far as we could, but had we not had the stud colts, we wouldn’t have needed to. I know I could easily run some cows on the west pasture and get the east pasture in shape and run the horses back there, and that is the plan. We also plan on splitting each pasture into atleast 3 different pens so we can do more rotation. As a last resort, we are totally fenced in on the perimeter and have a cattle guard in the lane, so I can let them eat in around the buildings too. I just make sure I have my gate to the house yard shut, no horse apples on my lawn.
I am sure my horses are all quite comfortable and happy here. I have kept horses on much less, as little as 3 horses on a little more than an acre. I was a kid then, but I was smart enough to split the pasture into 3 pens and made a little dry lot too for muddy days. Even then we didn’t have to feed much hay to supplement over summer.
Growing up, my parents had a touch under 1.5 acres and two teenage horses. Manure went to a dedicated spot behind the barn, and after a good number of years boy did we have some rich fertilizer. During the summer, there were two grass pastures to choose from, and during the winter hay was bought off the farmer across the street. The only problem with the property is that it’s in a flood zone and the non-grass turn out would become epically muddy. Now that there’s only one horse, a senior who doesn’t churn up the earth with her running anymore, it’s not as much of an issue.
I have 3 horses on my grandparents property. They have 12.5 acres of which only about 2 are fenced in. They are on 24/7 turnout with a large run in that fits the 3 of them plus a round bale. Of course I want more pasture for them but I could only do 2 acres at the time. Me and this guy were kicked off the old property because it was being sold and the new owners didn’t want horses. He ended up sending his 2 horses to the Crowley’s Auction in Agawam, MA and I moved mine to my grandparents this past October. We could only afford to fence in 2 acres and still have the funds to maintain the small herd I have now. In the future though, I plan on building a small barn on the property and a couple more pastures. But for now I have 10 acres to roam around bareback because I am too lazy to put a saddle on. =)
The often used parts of the pasture though have begun turning into mud (well now frozen mud) but what we call the field portion of their pasture still has grass on it. They used to lease out their large 6 acre (not sure quite how big but that’s my guess) field to the farmer next door to hay for his sheep.
I would have liked to fence in the 2 acres in that field but my grandfather (and me a little too) did not want people seeing my horses from the road and he wants some of that field for his gardens one day when he retires (next year.) I am paranoid people are going to steal my horses that’s my reasoning, my grandfather didn’t want people to stop and stare and wind up causing an accident. He is also paranoid that my horses are going to escape and run into the middle of the road.
Speaking of Crowley’s Auction, I know their season is over, but I was wondering if anybody went to the auction on October 15. There was a horse there named Ginny, I would just like to know what happened to her. I think she ended up selling for $100 but idk to who or for what purpose. I was offered her for free but turned her down because 4 horses on 2 acres is just too much IMO. After the heart wrenching feeling I got from leaving this horse there, I will never even think about taking any horse, mine or a strangers, to an auction ever again.
On the night of my high school graduation, my parents let me throw a big party at our house in rural GA. The night was relatively uneventful until around 2 am when suddenly we notice a horse galloping down the highway towards us. We managed to wrangle said horse and put her in our pasture for the night. Needless to say, it was a little odd. The next day we were able to track down her owner. It turned out that she was not a horse person but decided it would be great to have one, and her unpreparedness be damned! So she went out and got one! And staked it in her back yard! As in, she put one of those dog stakes you screw into the ground and tied her horse to it. Well, the horse, being a sensible creature decided to get the hell out of there as soon as possible and made a break for it. We think she was trying to run back to her old home! Moral of the story – people are idiots.
I think that episode was actually IN “Summer Pony.” Put it through my head early on that you do not tie out a horse like a dog!
I grew up on a 7,000 acre cattle ranch in Colorado that has been in the family for over 100 years. Our smallest pasture was 120 acres and I remember growing up thinking of that as a tiny space! I never had the “I want a pony momentâ€â€¦ We rode the ranch string and everything was “in training and for saleâ€â€¦ They were never yours. The first horse I owned was one I wrote a check for when I was nine. That was the first one that I had complete control over and papers in MY name.
Everything was fences with barbed wire but with that much space it was never an issue as no pasture was over stocked. Our broodmare band ran year round on a 500 acre pasture that included 50% rough hills and 50% river bottom. There was not a shelter on that pasture but the terrain provided natural shelter and they were hayed only in extreme weather conditions. Most of the broodmares were not even halter broke and many of them were nasty witches! All registered AQHA and all cutting bred. The stud was turned out in June or July as he had a day job as a ranch horse. Geldings rotated through the riding string and they were ONLY fed grain when they worked that day. That is the best way I can describe the “horse management†model I grew up with.
Now *sigh* I’m a yuppie. My horses are a hobby and a diversion from work. Managing horses is a whole new world! I have a 20 acre (postage stamp, according to my dad) and currently six horses on it. I definitely have a lot to learn about keeping horses in that small of space! My pasture management is vastly lacking. I bought the Cherry Hill book a while back and I have learned a lot. I’m probably going to be moving to a smaller property as I move closer to work, so any tips that you have for managing the pasture for the best use of the horses would be great!
I’m SOOO getting that Poop Vac! My ancestors are all embarrassed now!
i have a little 4×4 ATV with a dump cart that we use for everything! we have 6 horses on a little over 3 acres fenced in
I’d say one per acre with excellent grass and one per three acres with moderate grass.
We had up to eight on seven acres. We worked out a deal with the neighbors so we fed their three and all eleven got access to our property and ten of their acres too. We rotated pasture, closing off a couple acres at a time ’til the grass grew knee-high. Occasionally we’d mow or drag a pasture if there was too much grass. An acre and a half was lawn, which the horses got turned out in a couple of times a year as well. We were in northern Illinois and had really excellent grass. Most of our herd were only fed September – April. They got sweet feed and timothy-alfalfa bales in the winter. We had a four-stall main barn and a back barn with three huge (14′x’20?) stalls, but all the outer stall doors were kept open. The neighbors had a couple of run-ins as well. There were some massive shade trees along the fencelines. We usually had one heated round trough by the front barn, and filled buckets and a back pasture trough as needed.
My girls are now two of eighteen on 35 acres with a couple of calves. They get three grass round bales at all times, and pellets twice a day all year. The grass here in central Texas isn’t as good even when we’re not in drought. My barn manager doesn’t pasture rotate yet (still saving money for good fencing materials) but her personal horses got moved to a barbed wire fenced acre during the day this summer. The barn here is outside the pasture so they only come in to eat. There are two 10′x20′ run-ins in the pasture and a lot of little trees. There is a spring-fed pond, but I would like a separate trough so they wouldn’t get quite so muddy.
We paste wormed quarterly when I was a kid and never saw a worm. The last place I boarded had terrible pasture so I fed Strongid daily plus a good rotation of paste. My current barn manager worms every horse herself on a strict schedule and the Strongid pellets began to outnumber my little mare’s actual feed pellets so I’ve quit the Strongid. So far no problems.
The TWH had been in a mare-only pasture and had a stall. My lone-wolf little TWH mare has become the alpha bitch now that she’s out with geldings. The only other mare is my cranky old dinosaur, who has stepped down from the alpha bitch throne to spend lazy days with her harem of geldings. The horses squeal and play-fight, but nobody gets chased more than a few yards and even the goofy annoying ones have buddies. At the last place the horses kicked the crap out of each other, but it was usually caused by one or two troublemakers in each field.
What a fantastic explanation on proper horse management. Well written and easy to understand, for those that care to. One of my early horse experiences was going to my Great Aunts neighbor, in Kansas City suburbia and finding a yearling in the garage. Sparked all kinds of wishes in my world…it was possible. Next I went to live in Missuri farm lands. People had HERDS of horses. Catching them in 200 acre pastures when they didn’t want to get caught taught me many skills, this was 6th grade.
My adult experience came in N Cal. Stalled horses. Worked in a barn of 160 stalls with only 1 lg and 1 sm arena. Steep hills to trail ride, illegal to ride on streets, suburban.
When I bought my mare I boarded there for a yr before moving to a much better envirenment, large paddack, trails galore. When I bought my mare one of the selling points was she was ranch raised. Socialized and allowed to romp as a youngster. Makes for a better mind and body.
And the continual upkeep the the paddock is an absolute must. I have scraped tons of mud and muck to get to bedrock. By hand, with wheel barrow, up hills. Moving into padducks that haven’t been kept up or creating new paddock from scratch. Tons of rock over the years, always a little every year. And the raking and trenching to keep in it place, keeping water out of the way. I would see people dump great rock int their paddock, then complain it all washed away ect. They would walk by me as I did my winter choirs, in the rain. Wondering why I didn’t have the same problems. When I left it was one of the best paddocks in the place. Funny thing is, working in the rain while the poney is warm, dry and munching was one of my more peaceful times.
Great subject and responses.
we lived in norcal on 3 acres and got up to horse number 5, way too many in that amount of space for me. we moved to texas on 40 acres. we have pasture galore, but……. morgan horses tend to be “easy keepers”, so, after 1 bout of founder(thankfully not a terrible one) we have the “jenny craig” field. this is where the cresty gals reside, no grass at all. all the horses come in at night when the grass is good, with a tiny flake of hay, to keep them from blowing up like toads. so those of you who have easy keeper types, don’t fret so much about the dry lots, the dream of those lovely green pastures can turn sour pretty quick, even with super careful management.
I have a “diet field”, too! I have a pony ride business and the ponies get way too fat out on pasture – so, they stay in the diet field in the summer – the vet always laughs when I say “I’ll go get him – he’s in the diet field!”
I was definitely one of those little girls who tried to convince my dad it was a good idea to move his motorcycles out and move a pony in
But, it never happened so when I turned 18, I saved for a beautiful horse of my own and ended up with a Quarter Horse that taught me everything and then later an Arabian. They each shared a pasture of six acres with three other horses and had a stall at night if they needed/wanted it.
I grew up in Vancouver which is not far behind places like LA for land affordability, there is a just small riding community on the westside. The barn I boarded my first horse at was on 2.2 acres and they generally had about 30 horses. All horses did have full day turnout, I never measured how big the paddocks were but I guess maybe 25ftx25ft. There was a 16 acres riding club down the road and lots of trails. Looking back it looks horrible, but my horse had lived most of her life there (her previous owner boarded her across the street), I don’t think either my mare or me really knew any different. Some of the horses that came from outside the area did go “crazy” after a little while in a place like that though. After I left they cut all the paddocks in half to put in a new riding ring (and raised board from $550 to about $750 a month too
).
I am sadly horseless at the moment due to school commitments, but the place I had been riding at recently had 2 horses on about 60 acres. Fortunetly my chosen career is rural in nature so my future horses with hopefully have something similar. I don’t think I could move back to the city again for good for my horses and my own sanity ….too crowded!
Well, the rule of thumb I always learned was acre and half for a horse and an acre for a small pony. This depends on the condition of your fields and what part of the country you live in and what time of the year it is. Where I live grass is an issue, it can burn in the summer with the dry weather. When it rains it pours, so we can have no rain all spring then have two weeks of straight rain combined with a heavy amount of clay in our dirt it makes for fun. We might have great weather and grass until december then temp drops and rain moves in and all of the grass is gone, so we have alot to think ahead for in this area…..
I currently have the smallest acreage I’ve ever had and feel sorry for my six horses on 12 acres! Five are usually together on about five acres and they have some good hills so they get some exercise from feeding area to water trough. They have no shelter other than trees and seem to do fine with basically free choice grass hay in the winter. My older mare (almost 26) comes in for grain and some alfalfa in the winter, other than that, she does well out with the rest.
My stallion is in his own corral with a lean-to off of my hay shed. He, too, has a hill to run and play on but his area is probably only on 1/2 acre or so. I ride him generally a couple times a week during the winter and pretty hard 4-5 a week the rest of the year.
My husband just built a barn for me with 4 12×12 stalls, two with runs. I have yet to use them but I know they will be nice when the spring rain hits or I’m trying to keep a horse clean on a night before a show! “Captive” horses are so much easier to walk out and get when they’re right by the tack room or trailer
During the spring, my horses are gradually turned out for a hour twice a day onto the pasture area. Once they are acclimated to grass again, I take the ones I’m not riding every day and they spend the summer rotating through a neighbor’s pastures that are between 10 and 40 acres with a creek, some trees, and varying hills depending on which pasture they’re in. I check them daily, ride them sometimes (they’re close to endless trails there), and often rotate them out with the horses I have at home. I wish they were always right outside my front door but I feel they are better off being in a larger area.
I like to have my youngsters grow up learning how to navigate. Pristine flat pastures are pretty and nice but I like to ride in rough country and TRUST that my horse actually pays attention to where his feet are and can handle himself in a tight spot! I have started probably close to 100 horses and I can always tell when a horse has grown up in a flat paddock/corral. They tend to not have the stamina, soundness, and ability to handle themselves in the hills. The paddock raised horse can accomplish the average trail ride but my horses need to have a little bit of mountain goat in them
I bought my stallion as a 3yr old from a 17,000 acre ranch in Montana and as soon as I rode him up in the hills, I could tell he’d made good use of his all-terrain raising!
When I was growing up, and before, my family’s herds ran on at least 1,000 acres. Our horses “checked in” at least twice a day and often rested/napped as close to the house as possible. The foals were born out with the herd in May/June and we never had a problem in all those years. Running off a “Man From Snowy River” hill was a daily activity for our herd! I wish I had the opportunity to keep my horses like that but there’s no way I can afford that much acreage!
I’ve got 10 acres, over 5 of which is lush pasture, all for ONE HORSE!
My horse goes into her stall every night, and out on the pasture all day during the off-show season. During the show season she is in her stall all day, and out all night. This protects her coat from bleaching, and more importantly, protects her from the horrible Nebraska flies. (When cattle are near, the flies are 10 times worse!)
During the spring thaw and wet season my horse is moved into a small “sacrafice pasture”, so that the main pasture can have a chance to come back.
The only real “issue” I’ve had, with having so much space for only one horse, is the grass that is left over in the fall. There is way more than one horse can eat, so I pay a local farmer to come and mow down the pasture before winter. Having the uneaten grass mowed down prevents the old/dead grass from smothering the fresh spring growth. The mowing costs me a whopping $25, and makes all the difference the next spring.
One of the things to remember with small acreage is the risk of your pasture becoming ‘horse sick’. That happens when the horses eat the stuff they like down and tough weeds horses won’t touch take over.
The best cure for ‘horse sick’ is to turn a goat or two out in the pasture…they love to eat weeds and will quickly restore the balance. Hand removing weeds could also help.
When I lived in the Seattle area (on Bridle Trails Park in Kirkland, for those of you local to that area) we had three horses on a bit less than 2 acres. Careful management of “the upper pasture” kept green grass/minimal mud year round even in the lowliest depths of King County’s “MEASURE YOUR GRASS OR ELSE” ordinance if any of you remember that debacle where neighbors were supposed to stool pigeon anyone who had grass longer than 3 inches. Careful management of the “lower pasture” meant years and years of accumulated playground chips for mud control and a continual war with the moss and algae on the white board fences which only wanted to stay white for a brief summer between monsoons. Still, despite spending all that time on an optimum environment for my three, in retrospect it took less time than managing my current very large acreage which doesn’t get anywhere near that kind of hoof-traffic. Less property should equal less labor, right? Riiiiiiiight. NOT!!
This is off topic, but i’m just wondering if anyone else has seen this article in the LA Times.
Apparently they are planning to round up 25,000 mustangs out of the assumed 37,000 that are still out there, leaving only 12,000 free-running mustangs in the United States. I’m shocked that they would round up so many in such a short period of time, how do you feel about it?
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-wild-horses-obama,0,5429559.story
I think they are rounding up 2,500 which will leave around 1,000 on that particular range (per BLM site). With the dry conditions the range probably can’t support more than that. Winter roundups are not ideal but many will starve to death if not removed. Those are your options.
IF they can actually find homes for 2,500 in this market, I’ll be amazed. Most will end up in the holding facilities. The article says that they estimate that there are 37,000 wild horses in the US and another 34,000 in governement holding facilities.
It also begs the question of, if the range conditions are so poor that the current number of wild horses out there supposedly can’t be supported at all, why are the beef ranchers are allowed to graze millions (not thousands) of cattle on public lands and further degrade the environment out there? Maybe it’s just me, but a million cows damages the plant life and terrain a lot more than thirty thousand horses…supposedly it’s the BLM’s job to manage the land, since that’s in their name and all, but I question that.
Good point, PonyGirl. I’d be willing to bet that high-ups in the cattle industry give large “donations” to government officials in order to get access to the land. I thought cattle ranchers were supposed to own their own land? They certainly make enough money to do so.
Now, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t ever round up Mustangs, but it seems that we are taking away all of their land. Pretty soon, we may not have any wild Mustangs, and that’s sad.
If you’ve ever wondered who’s been greasing the pockets of politicians to keep horse slaughter alive, well and mostly unhindered all of these years, look at the beef industry. They do not want ANY restraints on slaughter of ANYTHING. They think it’s all one big slippery slope. Read up on who’s donating money to who. It’s fascinating.
Beef industry, and the drug companies – pro slaughter all the way.
Ponygirl, cattle do less damage to rangelands than horses, since they’re not picky eaters. So, yes, you can graze more cattle on a piece of land than you can horses.
I’m not denying that cattle ranchers can be greedy and corrupt. I’m just pointing out a misconception.
The “one acre for a horse” rule of thumb only works where grass is lush. Here on the high plains, to feed one horse without supplemental hay, you need 35 acres. 35! A square mile would support 18. That’s assuming there isn’t a drought. I don’t know the horse per acre ratio where the mustangs live, but that’s what the BLM is using. It’s not arbitrary.
I don’t want to be a party-pooper; I love seeing mustangs running free. But they are feral, not wild. They were not “here first.” Catching them all and re-domesticating them would not be the extinction of a unique phenotype. No, I don’t want that to happen – but I do want the feral herds preserved from starvation. Being in a BLM holding pen is better than starving to death.
Don’t let your heart rule your mind. Leaving them running free and unmolested is a lovely idea, but the truth is that doing so will condemn many of them to a cruel death from starvation. So we have to go against our hearts to save them.
Carefully compassionate, Ruthie
There were wild horses in North America before the Ice Age. No, destroying the mustangs would not wipe out a unique species because all domestic horses are descended from wild horses, which evolved here, in North America. The point is that wild horses are not an introduced species, they are native and will self-manage like any wild species if allowed to. A deer population that over-stresses it’s habitat will suffer a population crash. But removing the excess animals allows them to keep breeding at maximum rates. Is starvation pretty? Is predation? No, but they are natural deaths for wild animals, and in my opinion far less cruel that the slaughterhouse.
StPetersGal, I couldnt agree more. They are feral and if the numbers are not managed and some removed, they will endure a fate of starvation. I’d love to see them running free but I also love my adopted mustang that I know will have a job and be safe with me, thanks to the BLM. Every government run organization or project is riddled with issues but I believe that every person that I have met with the BLM or the adoptahorse program truly cares for these horses and strives to make things better for them.
We are currently facing legislation that would decree that every horse have access to at least one acre of turnout, and all horses have “adequate! stabling.
Now, that is OK if you are dealing with a TB, but think about it.
At present out laws say that a trailer or lorry for EQUID transportation, must be six foot form floor to ceiling.
Even if you have one mini donkey on board!
Same with the acreage….that applies to every single equine, irrespective of it’s size, or dietary needs.
So my 10 hand, insulin resistant, foundered, pony will HAVE to have constant access to at least one acre of grazing….no dry lots in Europe, and that would not be acceptable, anyway.
This is likely to fall foul of the racing community and the armed forces, BUT we never thought Hunting (as in Foxhunting) would be banned, and it was!!
Crazy.
Heh… around here, for $359K you get: “Horse farm with remodeled craftsman home. Remodeled arts/craft style kitchen with decor dual fuel range, sub zero refrigerator, indoor/outdoor arena, 25 horse stalls. Many fenced paddock with water. Multiple outbuildings. Sellers will divide home/outbuildings & horse facility 50/50. Horse facility only $125,000.”
It’s a really nice place, too. I’ve been there. There’s probably 20 acres with it, too.
Boarding at a nearby VERY clean facility with an indoor arena, stall + turnout, washrack with hot/cold water & full care runs $300/month. Feed & hay included.
Of course you have to live in a FLYOVER STATE for these prices. But we got 4 cuttings of hay this year, and rarely see extreme heat/cold/snow/drought/flood/tornado.
I always heard 1 acre per horse. I can’t imagine how the horses of So. Cal can be happy.
You forgot to tell us where “around here” is. I am ready to move!!!! And I love Craftsman houses. Land is pretty expensive in the area of Virginia that I am in. The farm where I board has 60 acres….and trails, etc. At the last farm I boarded at someone from Southern California showed up with four horses that had only ever been on dry lots. They went nuts in the big fields….they were kept in a wooden paddock for a few days to acclimate. But when turned out in the big field they kept running through the electric fences…eventually they learned and settled down. I was shocked to learn how a lot of horses in Southern California live…I had no idea.
I also lived in Europe years ago and a lot of the stables had no turnout. I was shocked about that too. At least there was a lot of public forests to ride in and most riding schools hacked out as well. Seems like the horses definitely had a higher rate of lameness, colic, etc.
We own three acres that we plan to build on. Two acres for the horses, (just 2 horses) and one acre for the house. I wish we could have gotten more land, but my husband is pretty busy with his job and so am I so it will be easier to have to buy hay than maintain a lot of land. There’s a field next to our land that we will have the possibility of fencing and leasing if we want to. Our land was 93K just for three acres!!!
I think the turn-out thing is just to do with city riding schools. I grew up in the UK and all the ponies I rode had at least an acre, and hacked out regularly. I’ve now discovered that there are LOADS of horse farms just outsidde my current city, and often the yard owners keep them in herds. It’s just that I don’t have a car, so access is difficult.
No, the legislation would apply to ALL horses, racehorses included!!
It is crazy, but the RSPCA has got the bit between it’s teeth…..
Yeah, that’s pretty misguided. That is what results when people who are NOT animal experts start coming up with legislation they THINK sounds good.
It’s like these asshats in Los Angeles who got the ruling to make it illegal to trap, neuter and release ferals.
http://fixnation.org/2009/12/judges-ruling-impacts-tnr-in-los-angeles/
Who the hell thinks that ending TNR is a good idea? NO ONE. Yeah, let’s just let them breed willy-nilly so that we can pay WAY more money for animal control to trap them and kill them. That makes sense. We don’t squander enough money having lavish funerals for celebrity child molesters – let’s waste some more killing cats which are going to multiply faster than we can kill them.
*sigh* Idiots, everywhere.
Sorry, I was referring to the comment that all horses in Europe did not get much turn out, not to the new RSPCA thing, which is fascinating to hear.
See also the new WHW report on livery stables in the UK.
I’ve actually been researching 20thC equine legislation, and it’s pretty fascinating.
Which flyover state would that be? There are many.
I DO live in Southern California. I was at first shocked that there were horses in LA at all then shocked at the tiny corrals for horses. I now live in a horse community. I have just under 1/2 acre– which is HUGE for the LA area. I have one horse in a 75×100 foot pen- with a 3 sided run-in. My horse area is one of the biggest in the neighborhood. Most people with this size of corral would break it down to 2-4 paddocks or stalls. I clean daily and the city has manure removal service. My horse gets out 6 days a week. I do not think this space is ideal but it is what I have and my horse is a calm 13 year old.
I am envious of peole with real horse space but am really happy to be able to have a horse at all!
We have 6 horses and a pony on 8.8 acres of land in the midwest – everything fenced in wood and electric – but my horses are not fence pushers at all(I have more trouble with the dang deer). Largest pasture is about 4 acres, then there is a 2 acre pasture as well. We also have 2 paddocks, a small grass riding arena(which is turnout sometimes) and a small “pasture” that’s maybe 1/4 acre. We can gate off the big pasture and create a 3rd paddock as well. There is shelter in all but the 2 acre and arena. Our horses are out 24/7 year round. I do have stalls for those who need to be in due to illness, foaling or age. Two of my horses are not allowed free range on the pasture or in the winter on the roundbales. The TWH/Perch mare is IR and the hackney pony….well….we prefer never to experience founder and she can live on air, so they have their own paddock with a “prescribed” diet year round(well they do get out to run and play a few times a week in the big pasture or arena). With this set up we are able to rotate pastures and separate horses as needed, if needed.
We do have 2 horses for sale, and if they sell, we will not replace them. But we have plenty of pasture even with them here…in fact during the summer we often have “extras” show up for periods of time. Hay is not fed in the summer – just pasture and mineral/salt supplements. The paddocks and small pasture get cleaned regularly, but the larger pastures only get cleaned in the summer (they really aren’t out there much in the winter) I would not be without my Deere lawn & garden tractor and dump wagon. That, plus heated autowaterers and roundbales are a necessity for midwest winters.
Around here they say 1 horse per acre, but lots of people have more horses than that per acre without a problem. It just depends on whether or not you want to feed hay year round. Around here hay is pretty reasonable – right now 60-80lb bales are going for about $3-3.50 a bale…for a nice grass alfalfa mix.
Down here in Miami, hay prices have dropped in the past two years — so now you can buy a decent T/A bale for about $15, or Timothy or Orchard/Alfalfa for $16-$17. Two years ago, it was $20 a bale for hay. And I remember when I lived outside Chicago not too long ago and my trainer would whine and moan if hay prices rose to $5 per bale. He doesn’t know how good he has it!
Maybe a dumb question, but how can you tell the quality of a pasture? My husband and I moved onto 80 acres last year, about 1/2 treed with 2 large meadows (and many smaller ones). We were told it all used to be used as cattle grazing, and once upon a time the pastures were seeded. But there hasn’t been a cow out here for about 20 years, and nothing’s been done to the grass (other than mowing) in that time. The front meadow all looks to still be one type of grass, for the most part (other than some thistles, wild roses, and some shrubby weeds). Would we actually have to get someone knowledgeable to come out and have a look? Or are there other means to figuring out pasture quality?
Around here you can call you County Extension service and they will come out and make recommendations regarding your pastures. They can take samples and give you nutritional info regarding the grasses and weeds you have. They can also help you figure out how to get rid of/which are noxious weeds. In my area – thistles are a real problem and we fight them every summer. They do not charge for services here and are very helpful. I would recommend having them come out if you have that option.
You have NO Idea how happy I was to see that book! It was one of my favorites growing up. It’s been HOW many years since I read it but lemme tell you what I got out of that book as a horse crazy absorb anything I could get my hands on, girl.
First, you can kill a horse with kindness when refeeding it, take your time and don’t think dumping a bunch of grain at the animal is a good idea. Second, store your grain in metal containers, it keeps the rodents out. Third, if you are using split rail fence, make sure you nail them in! Fourth, make sure when giving a horse a bath to have good drainage. Fifth, a properly fitting bridle is essential. Sixth, you NEED a farrier. This is NOT optional! Seventh, don’t be an idiot and go running off all emotional on a horse, you might forget your helmet! Eighth and I think this is important: There are special angels out there who keep horse crazy girls who see dirty thin ponies, and think they are diamonds, SAFE!Lastly, colic is serious, like a heart attack, don’t hesitate, call the vet, your horse could die.
Can I ask a book favor??? I remember a story about a girl who bought a ratty black pony at an auction that everyone laughed at who ended up being a champion Hackney who got his indentity recovered? She has all kinds of trouble at first trying to ride his WAY too bumpy trot and figured out he was a terrific driver. he became beautiful under her care and soon realized how special he really was. I loved that book and my horse crazy daughter is now old enough to read it. Anyone remember it??
The book is “A Horse named Doodlebug”, (former title: Doodlebug), by Irene Brady, published by Scholastic Book Services.
thanks! I just ordered it from Amazon.com for $1.19 plus shipping! I definitely want to read a story about a hackney pony since I had the best one in the world!
I remember that book! His name was Doodlebug…. A bit of an odd name for a horse, but hey. I think I still have the book at home… All those kids pony books made us believe we could fit poines in our backyard I think!
It was called “Doodlebug” or “My Friend Doodlebug.” Glad I could help!
i seem to remember a book with a similar story line. The horse’s name as DoodleBug. The girl had been saving for a “beautiful, black stallion” and ended up getting a skinny dirty pony for a few bucks at an auction, and then he turned out to be much nicer than she thought. I remember the former owners showing up at some point. That’s about all I can remember. Gosh I probably read that story 20 years ago!
Thank you everyone!! I’ve been wracking my brain over that book for a few years now! I love being around all the other horse crazy girls again, its like saturday morning at the lesson barn all over.
Ha! I’m replying to myself. I just got done ordering both summer pony and doodlebug for my daughter to read. I remember clearly reading that book (doodlebug) in Mrs. Howard’s 3rd grade classroom. I am now 36! So does that age All of Us??? LOL!
Hmmmm….I thought I had read every horse book possible but somehow I missed the Doodlebug story. There was a similar story called “Fly-By-Night” about a girl who didn’t have much $$ and bought a pony to keep in the backyard. She even had to handgraze it a long the road a lot just to feed it as they were poor. She had a friend with a horse farm who taught her to jump and her pony eventually became a great jumper. I also loved the “Sweet Running Filly” series…does anyone remember those books about a racehorse?
I had a hackney poney as a child that I drove…plus we taught him to barrel race and do timed events and he was beating all the horses even though he was 12.2 hands. He sure was athletic…and sure had a strong trot! I’ll have to look up that Doodlebug book and read it!
K M Peyton’s Fly-by-Night is a superb book. I only just discovered the follow ups, The Team, The Beethoven Medal and Pennington’s Heir. Considerably more sophisticated and emotionally complex than most pony books, but yes… Poor Ruth and Fly, and rolling his bit in jam and sugar.
I’ve got two horses (OTTB’s) on 1 acre of pasture. Even with rotating the pasture (it’s divided up into 3) and daily poo scooping, I’m still having to supplement with hay and chaff/pellets (which is fine, totally expected that and budgeted for it too). It’s summer here (Tasmania) and our grass is dying off, very very fast. Even with half the paddock being irrigated regularly thanks to the farm next door. I don’t think I could keep horses solely pasture fed here (even if I had 10 acres!), because as soon as the summer sun hits, the grass dies.
Haha, I had the same kind of daydreams as a kid – thinking I could build a fence and buy a shed and a horse could live in my backyard. It always makes so much sense when you’re young!
BTW, Great post Fugs-IMO this is THE MOST IMPORTANT topic in managing horses.
In our area, there are several “towns” (these can be large, sprawling, rural locales) that actually have stipulations on the number of horses per acre (usu. 1 per acre or 1 per 2 acres). It is best to always check with municipal offices even if you live in a farmed, seemingly rural and zoned agricultural area.
Local county ag extension offices should have info. on stocking density for your area. Like everything “horse”, though, you must use your eyes and manage your property and your individual horses based on what you see and how it changes over time. Be observant, be critical, and get help if necessary-there are no magic formulas for every situation.
I have six horses on thirty acres, which we own. Yeah I know, I’m lucky.
We have it divided into five paddocks, a yard, stables, round yard and arena, as well as the house complex. So basically we have three large paddocks probably 5 acres then two 8 acre paddocks that we cut for hay- one this year, and four horses in the other one, then two smaller paddocks. Right now I have four out the back and then the 27 year old and a mare in a smaller paddock. They’re all easy to access, I check on them more than once a day when I do their masks and water (summer here) and it works well. We get to be a little more relaxed about poo and harrow it instead, we can make our own feed, they have plenty of room to run around (important for me as we looked at a few 5 acre properties I knocked back for that reason) This property was built for boutique breeding so we have excellent mare and foal paddocks and a foaling stall.
If someone could get the damn birds out of my stable it would be perfect. I know it might seem like a huge acreage when I only have three horses of my own, then we board three. But here’s the thing. I wanted to do rotation, it’s important to me that my paddocks are well looked after and maintained and that I get the balance of minerals and such completely right in my soil. My property supports my horses all year round with out hard feed (aside from the geriatric) so it works really well.
I have 5 acres and now 2 horses, in the Willamette valley. We had pretty good grass forage for 3 (before I had to put my old boy down). Well after going to an OSU pasture management course (worth every penny). I 1/4 fenced our largest pasture and put a track around it. The horses have to walk all the way around the property to get to water/food and the barn is on the other side. This summer I had more grass than I knew what to do with. I love the track, it keeps my crazy TB exercised (he runs from point a to point b multiple times a day), their feet are healthier and need trimmed less often, and they stay less bored. There is always something to go look at somewhere else.
I have four horses on a four acre pasture. I cut them off of most of it in the spring. I then overseed and fertilize. They have a barn but I’m not a fan of stalls. The horses are allowed unfettered access to both interior and exterior shade/shelter year round. In the winter they are blanketed with teflon coated, water proof turnout blankets and spend virtually no time inside. They have unlimited round bales and fresh water all winter. I section and rotate, refertilize and irrigate all summer to provide grazing. They spend most of the daytime inside out of the bugs and heat. I feed additional soaked beet pulp and flakes of small square bales to make up for the missed grazing time and to ensure the horses are getting a measurable amount of water daily.
My biggest problem is drainage. My husband purchased our property. We were from 900 miles away. I didnt get to see the place ahead of time. What looked to be good flat horse pastureland in photoes to me, turned out to be low lying. I have to work with what I’ve got. My farm is absolutely a work in progress.But I’m happy with what I’ve got, the horses are happy, sleek, and healthy and we’ll get there.
My first place I had my horses at, was just a little over 3 acres. We built a cute 2 stall barn with dutch doors that opened into their pasture. The pasture probably consisted of about 1/2 acre, and needless to say, didn’t sustain them. We had another area, that they were generally fed in, that was also used as an arena. The pasture was a treat for them. There were county restrictions as to how close you could build a barn ( 50′) to the lot line, but we had a neighbor, that put a stall in their garage for their horse! I questioned the county on it at the time, and was told, as long as the garage was 50′ from the lot line, it was legal to put stalls in your garage, that was attached to the house???
We then bought a 37 acre boarding facility, with a 28 stall barn, indoor and outdoor arena. We had a 12 acre pasture and 15 acre hay field. The horses ( usually about 35) were on pasture from approx. 5 a.m. till 4 p.m., from May till march. They also had 3 large square bales(3′x3′x8′) available at all times. Most were stalled at night, and the “pasture” board horses were confined to a dry lot behind the barn at night, with access to the hay. It worked well.
We sold that, and are now on 5 acres. I have a great 4 stall barn, with dutch doors to a paddock around the barn. I have 2 grass pastures that open off the paddock, so in summer, they are out on pasture during the day, and in their stalls at night. I alternate the pastures all summer and so far, it’s worked well. If we’ve had a lot of rain, they are kept in the paddock around the barn. I have 1 other area for them, that I’ve been letting the grass re-grow, since that’s where they were for 5 months until I had the barn built. I have 3 horses, and so far, I still have grass in my pastures…LOL
By the way, I’m in Wisconsin, in a rural area…
We have 125 acres but out of all of that only about 15 of it stays above water when we flood every winter (I live in Western WA on the Chehalis River). So on that 15 acres we have our house, cow barn, a good portion of cow pasture, the horse barns and fields, and my “arena” (which also doubles as an extra horse field/sick pen for the cows). Each horse has their own “run-in” – they aren’t really run-ins because they’re fully equipped stalls, with mats, corner feeders, and electricity, they just aren’t all located in one barn. Each horse also has their own fairly large field; they can easily run around warp-90 without me worrying about them running into a fence or something.
We keep them seperated so that we can keep track of who eats what, and for the most part all that gets muddy is the fence-line between fields when they run up and down it. We don’t do anything to maintain the fields other than drag it every now and then. We don’t expect the horses to be able to live off it and so we feed grain/supplements and hay year round, though for about three months out of the year when the grass starts to grow in the spring the horses will stop eating the hay and just eat the grass. I still offer them at least one flake everyday, and when they start cleaning up the hay (they always pick at it, but don’t really eat it when they’ve got grass) I know it’s time to start feeding more hay again.
Even though we could fit more horses (the “arena” could be a full time field, and two of the fields are big enough to fit another horse in each) we try really hard to keep it at just 4 horses. The fields don’t get muddy and more grass grows if they don’t have to share. For five years we kept a friends horse at our place, and he shared a field with one of my horses because they got along the best and would share a stall if it rained (they’re big stalls with an overhang), but they also ran around ALL the time and completely tore up almost the whole field, not just the fenceline. It took a year or two of the other horse being gone for the ground to recover. I also had to lock one in the stall every morning when I fed the grain to make sure no one switched places since the friend’s horse had an extra supplement.
My property is 2 acres. The horse paddock is probably about 1/2- 3/4 of an acre. I keep 2 horses on it, they have planty of room to run and buck, and a run in barn. I live in the high desert, and I have no grass on my property, but during the summer my neighbor allows my horses on her 1 acre pasture where they can munch on some native prarie grass.
My property isn’t perfect. My perimeter fencing has barbed wire- part of it I’ve taken down, but part of it belongs to the neighbor. However, my horses are kept in hot wire that they are very respectful of. Eventually I would like to replace my hot wire with something higher quality, like Electrobraid. But for now, it works, although the frequen repairs are annoying.
I also have plans, someday in the future when I have money, to remodel the barn. It was previously a workshop type barn, and I have the work bench area separated from the horse area with some field fencing. Not ideal, really. I want to rip out the work area and build 2 stalls. And the barn has an unfinished room, I would like to finish it and make it my tack room. Unfortunately, it’s not in the cards for now.
I’m probably not as good about poo scooping as I should be, but the barn and surrounding area are cleaned daily. They have little poop areas near the fences that I mostly leave alone. They are never forced to stand in their poo at all. I pile up the manure and let it decompose, hoping to use for some arena footing at some point… still working on the whole arena thing.
Everyone in this town has a horse pretty much, and I am appaled at the amount of horses that live in round pens with minimal to no shelter. My property is modest, but my horses get what they need.
Speaking of “horses in Los Angeles,” take a drive around the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank sometime. There are people with POSTAGE STAMP-sized lots with horses in the back “yard.” I knew a lady who had a huge horse. He had to turn his body before he got out of the stall because if he didn’t he’d run right into the back fence.
I live on one acre. My horse has a 12×12 stall and a 12×24 paddock, all covered. I have a 50′ diameter round pen that is turnout. I want to have the panels shifted so it’s not a round pen anymore and I have a turnout where he can eat the grass that grows in the spring. I can’t do it myself — I can’t even HELP — because I’m recovering from shoulder surgery on the right and have issues with the left (it gets fixed next). However, I’m sure the panels can be configured to make a nice turnout for him.
If I turn him out to roam the acre, he tends to run and that’s not good. He is old enough to know better, but then … he’s a HORSE.
There is no “pasture” here in the Mojave Desert, so the “grass” is actually like volunteer “grass.” It’s green and probably crab grass, if I were to have it identified. And it only grows in the spring. I don’t water it.
What I do for “grazing” is toss flakes of hay or hay I’ve raked up from the hay barn or cleaned from pallets — as long as it isn’t moldy. I keep the hay barn pretty cleaned up, so the rakings are fresh stuff from the most recently opened bale, as a rule.
When I’m able to ride, I go out on the trails or haul somewhere to ride in a dressage court. If I had a younger horse, I’d have to change things around a bit, but for my 16 y.o. TB, this works fine. He’s happy, he’s relatively fit and has no bad habits.
Good topic – my friend who had 2 of her horses founder after closing her boarding business and had less mouths to eat down the 50 acres of pasture, say “be careful what you wish for” she wants a dirt lot now! I can say her farm had the quietest group of horses with 3 fields, each over 50 acres. The horses, inlcuding several geriatrics didn’t run around, but just naturally walking and grazing all over, all day, interacting in the herd kept everyone relaxed, calm and happy. They come into their stalls (am/pm per season) and happily snooze until turnout time, or were mellow mounts when riden. when I boarded at a facility with 1/4 acre dry lots, each with individual stalls, we were required to pick lots daily. It seemed like a great set up. The place was clean, but not too pretty. But that bunch of horses sure wasn’t as quiet as those in the large pasture/herd facility. Mine 3 are now on 5 acres with what I call “busy grass” they stay busy grazing, but not enough to founder. Its is alot of work rotating between fields, mowing weeds and bathroom areas, reseeding, having a winter sacrifice area…
Cassiadawn maybe I can help you with your pasture question. First thing to do is inspect your acreage for things lying hidden in the grass such as: boards with nails, rolls of barb wire, planks that might cover an open pit well, etc. And I do mean walk this acreage very, very carefully! Be especially vigilant about HOLES big and little – those can be horse killers. Nothing to do with grazing, just basic safety. If you can get your hands on one of the large pasture magnets (they weigh about 40 lbs) and drag it behind your tractor (even a lawn tractor with the mowing gear up) on a grid marked by flagging so you don’t miss any areas, that is a great way to check for discarded dangerous metal items. Second thing you can do is check the fences for safety and I’m sure you know by reading everywhere that barbed wire which seems to contain cattle rather well can be lethal for horses – at the very least, if you have it and can’t afford to replace fencing on all the acreage either do it a bit at a time and don’t let horses on the rest of the area or try to at least put a removable bayguard-type electric tape fence inside of it to discourage horses going near the barbed wire. Third if you have an old pasture that has not been reseeded – you are in LUCK. Yes! Because much of the new pasture seed results in a forage that is too high in nonstructural carbohydrates (e.g., sugar) to be healthy for a lot of horses, particularly older geldings (please read the safergrass.org site for further info on that). If you are lucky enough to have a County Extension office – so many have closed for lack of funding – you can contact them about what sort of things are growing on your place, what they are, how to get rid of some undesirable plants preferably by mechanical or environmentally safe means as opposed by dousing the entire acreage with Roundup. If REALLY lucky you can get the Extension service to do a soil analysis which will help if you decide you want to grow some of your own hay and harvest it. If you go online and look at some of the websites for agricultural colleges there are often really good guides as to what are toxic plants for horses – those you will want to get rid of. In the Pacific Northwest we are cursed with tansy and horsetail rush, both toxic to horses though most won’t want to touch them if there’s anything else to eat. Grazing on old pastures with a lovely mix of weeds or what we would call weeds is actually a pretty good thing; for example, we might not like dandelions in our lawns but they are a very good source of Vitamin C for horses, who aren’t able to store Vitamin C in their bodies! One of the nice things you can do for your grazers (of all kinds) as well is to plant herb mixes along the fence lines; the British herbalist Hilary Self has written about this, I can tell you I have done some of the herb planting and a couple of my horses really love some of what we would think of as completely useless plants (such as “cleavers” which is a leggy messy-sticky light green herb which some horses love and is good for their immune systems, according to that herbalist).
I envy your having trees for natural cover, if you divide your pastures think about leaving areas where horses can seek shade or wind shelter as well as having grazing. Just make sure that you don’t have a really deadly tree such as we have a lot of out in my area, black walnut. Also, if the trees are what would have constituted an actual cultivated orchard you will want to have the soil around the trees tested for heavy metals contamination such as by copper, because sprays (herbicides and fungicides as well as pesticides) used to treat fruit or nut production trees from about the 1950′s til the late 1980′s were laden with toxics which tend to live in the soil forever.
One last thing to think about, if you have a separate water well which provides water in the field(s) or barn areas, that is, other than your domestic house well, you will really need to have the water tested esp. if there were crops ever grown on the fields in which case if chemical fertilizers were used you might have some toxics in the well water as well as common runoff problems such as e-coli. In my area there are natural arsenic deposits so when property changes hands all domestic wells must be tested for arsenic contamination and many people choose to get the full testing done for everything and get it out of the way.
I hope this was helpful, sorry it’s so long, Fugly please forgive my rambling!
I’d like to add to that.
Conservation districts can be a HUGE help with pasture and livestock management. Most offer free small farm management plans. They can offer pasture management, soil testing, rotation programs, weed identification/control and mud management. This is just a small example of what they offer.
These are professional employees who know their stuff. I would take advantage of their programs, especially if your conservation district offers small farm planning.
For a list of national conservation districts is the US.
http://www.nacdnet.org/
Unfortunately, Washington state leads to Washington DC on the map (a bug).
Thanks so much! I’m going to save your post so I can refer back to it later.
I’m actually in Canada, so I’ll have to see if our RM offers something similar to the County Extension offices.
We’ve been over the front meadow with a mower deck, so there’s definitely nothing big hiding in the grass. We do have small holes though, due to a resident population of ground squirrels! The trees are by and large poplar, with a few saskatoons and chokecherries mixed in. No one’s ever lived on this portion of land to our knowledge – no preexisting buildings, and we had to run power in, as well as digging a well (water quality is excellent, other than needing softening, so last year’s tests say). If any sort of crops were grown here, it would have to have been more than 20 years ago. It’s doubtful though, the whole area around us is pretty much all grazing – it’s just too sandy to grow most crops. We even get little cactus growing in the more “native grass” parts of the acreage. The only fencing is barbwire, but it’s only on the perimeter, and only on 3 sides. The vast majority of it is either down or about to fall down, too.
We’re probably quite a few years away from actually owning horses (I shall continue to add “and a pony!” to my Christmas lists though) but in the meantime it seems like it would be a good idea to get our pastures assessed and find out how much work they’ll need to be suitable grazing.
All together, we have 6 acres fenced. One acre closest to the barn is fenced in. In the summer, they stay in there at night and that’s where they are in the winter. No matter how much grass is growing there in the winter, they have a good round bale to pick at when they want. The other 5 acres is connected to one side of the other acre. It is divided down the center. In the summer they are let out on one side for two weeks, then rotated to the other side for two weeks. They are on 24/7 turn out with access to the barn at their own leisure. They are let in the larger area at about 7am and come in for their nightly brushing and snack around 9-10pm. This holds 6 horses ranging from a yearling to a 20 year old at good weight. (Sometimes a little on the hefty side) The 5 acres starts flat on the bottom half and starts rolling up a hill. The 20 year old runs and bucks to the top and back like a nut with the baby, might I add. :n) Every fall when the grass loses most of its nutrients, it gets mowed down because the bur bushes start overtaking the fence lines. That’s our biggest problem is the burs.
PLEASE can some one email me and let me know about this.
wnnahrse35@Hotmail.com
I have a coming 3 yr old appy filly I am sure was kept in a stall or on too small a turn out until we got her as a rescue last june.
The issue with the dutch warm blood foals has me concerned about her bone and the collegen stuff…
Is there a way to have it looked at by a vet? We want to send her to a 4H home.. but now I fear she may have future issues when broke out.
Carol
I don’t know that your vet could run a test to give you results that are that specific (those foals were euthanized and autopsied), but a good vet and some x rays should let you know howw everything looks and what precautions you have to take. Plus, if she’s not quite three and has been on lots of turnout her bones will have had a chance to grow properly and will continue growing properly until she stops.
Your vet would be able to tell you a lot more with some x rays and soundness tests. Good luck with her!
Yes – do some x-rays and see what the joints look like! I would not worry about it as long as she’s not going to a high-performance home. She probably isn’t going to be an eventer with that rough start in life, but I’m sure you already knew that.
Hi, this comment is off topic … if I am out of line, I am very sorry. I read this blog all the time, but I don’t post much …
… thanks a bunch for all of the well-researched info, Fugly, I have learned a lot from reading your blog. Anyway.
I’m only adding this here because I read these comments all the time and I’ve noticed people always seem to want a really safe kid/husband horse … since that’s exactly what this horse is … I thought it was possible somebody would be interested …
There is a horse on our property, “King”, that we are taking care of but does not belong to us. He is an ex-rope horse gelding, about 10, no papers. He is not competition sound anymore. He’s been turned out barefoot for over a year and we take him all over the place on trail and we ride him in the arena. He’s totally sound with us. The owner lives out of state and doesn’t want to pay for him anymore, so he is sending King to a horse trader very soon where we’re afraid he will be resold as a competition rope horse and then be broken down. I love this horse so I’m posting ads for him to try to keep him from a fate that he really does not deserve.
An online ad with photo is here:
http://www.equinenow.com/horse-ad-249086
He’s cute but $5,000 for an unregistered gelding? Good luck with that.
My horse is on about an acre dry-lot 24/7 with one other horse, which is SPACIOUS for my area! The BO would actually like four horses on the acre, but so far he has not found any additional boarders for this particular lot. 4 horses on an acre would still be WAY better than most of the places I looked at. One place advertised 1/4 acre paddocks, but each one was subdivided into four smaller paddocks with hot wire! NOT!
They seem happy enough. My gelding is the dominant one, which is strange given that his pasture mate is a HUGE warmblood mare, but I will never understand how they determine the herd order. They get along well enough, and he will even let her eat with him sometimes. They have learned to take turns and stand politely when I am giving out cookies. She gets really frustrated with him sometimes, but never challenges him (she would probably win if she did). He hardly ever needs lunged, even when he has not been ridden for a couple of weeks, so he seems to be getting enough exercise. The two of them will race around and buck and seem to have enough room.
And my BO does clean the lot daily.
I must’ve grown up spoilt. Most of the barns I’m used to have at least 50 acres broken down into various paddocks and riding areas, generally there is one field that covers at least 50% of the property and houses trails, XC jumps and general turnout.
Last barn I boarded at had 3 small turnouts (about 1/8th of an acre), two one acre turnouts and a five acre winter field (that was predictably churned up and muddy) and then the last 80 acres was split into three fields that were rotated and cut for hay (field was hayed, horses went in, field was fallow). Shelters depended on which field was in use, some had three sided sheds, two had access to the barn and the big fields just had areas with trees for shade and windbreaks (thick hedge or vertical boards mounted to the fence for 10 ft). If the horses were out and the weather turned nasty they’d open the gates to let the horses into the smaller turnouts and into the barn from there. Their barn had a large concrete area that had been hay/equipment storage before they bought the place, they bought some kind of pourable rubber flooring to make the smooth concrete horse friendly, and put a field gate across the aisle to the stalls to keep the horses out of trouble and voila! horse safe space for vet and farrier visits and bad weather. If things get really bad (ie blizzards or floods), they have enough space to safely feed/seperate field boarders for a few days as needed.
This is a great topic. I just moved my horse from Southern Ohio to Western Washington (Tacoma area). Wow, what a difference! My horse who was used to being out on pasture at least 10-12 hours a day was suddenly in a barn where “turn out” consisted of these little paddocks (I’m not good with measurements but essentially looked about the size of four big stalls put together) for maybe 6 or 7 hours a day. Oh and the paddocks were covered entirely by gravel. Is that normal out here? We stayed for about 2 months during which my horse had constant diarrhea and just looked and acted completely miserable and depressed. (Actually in my opinion all the horses there looked depressed. It didn’t help that the stalls were completely enclosed and dark so the horses couldn’t even see each other unless they happened to put their head outside their stall at the same time as another horse.) After three vet visits and many drives through the country looking for any signs of boarding stables I finally found another barn (on Craigslist no less) where the turn outs are still not nearly as big as what we were used to but they are at least big enough to allow him to run around and he even has one turn out buddy. Finally my boy is acting like a horse again. The barn I moved him to doesn’t have nearly as nice amenities, just one very very small indoor arena compared to the other barn that had state of the art outdoor arena with crushed rubber footing and a huge indoor arena. But at least I can sleep at night knowing my horse is relatively happy. But I still can’t wait to get out of this state and head back East! Maybe we are spoiled but I just hate the idea of keeping horses separated in paddocks. Horses are herd animals and I think they are happier and healthier when they have a buddy or two that they can actually touch.
asharri…
Email me at drsgjunky at comcast dot net and maybe I can help you with stables in the area. We hear you on turn-out.
Gravel is normal because it beats the hell out of mud and a wonderful condition known as “scratches” which is (a) a bitch to treat and (b) can disable your horse for months. So yeah, that’s normal.
Turnout is hard to find. One of my biggest criteria for where to send my horse for training is that I wanted all day turnout – and he’s a stallion. That was a challenge. Many show barns don’t WANT them out or only want them out for an hour in the indoor arena. They aren’t allowed to get muddy. I did find what I wanted but I wish they had bigger paddocks, too.
Hi asharri, email me too at becky987 at comcast dot net. I board at a barn close to Tacoma that is clean, roomy and safe, drsjunky is familiar with it too. For knowlegeable, hands-on horse owners, it can be ideal. I wouldn’t recommend it for beginner horse owners, you have to specify how you want your horse to be cared for and be there close to daily to make sure your horse is cared for the way you require. But if you pay attention, it’s a clean, happy safe place with lots of amenities, such as great turnout, 3 arenas with good footing, hot-and-cold wash stall, plenty of room for your tack, trails nearby, all disciplines welcome. More details and questions answered if you email me—Becky.
Feed:
The general guide in New Zealand is 2 to 3 acres per horse, if you want him to be able to live off the grass from that land year round (this does require reasonable management, of course).
More specifically, most farming areas around the world will have a recommended stocking rate of X number of Stock Units per acre, taken as an average over the year (a stock unit is an average ewe gestating or nursing a lamb). Because it’s an average over the year, you may well find that in lush times the land could carry more, but in hard times it can’t carry as much – stocking rates tend to assume that you’re ‘saving’ that excess (e.g. as hay) for the times when there is less grass growing. SU recommendations vary on the location of the land and it’s past management; in desert areas of the world it may be as low as 1 SU per 20 acres, in very high production areas you might get as high as 10 SU per acre. [NZ land in reasonable condition is generally expected to carry 3 to 4 stock units per acre, and an 'average' size adult non-reproductive horse is roughly equivalent to 10 stock units (i.e. 1 horse needs about as much grass as 10 sheep), which brings us back to about 2 - 3 acres per horse.]
So a recommended stocking rate (SU/ac) is really telling you approximately how much grass could be expected to grow on that land if it was reasonably managed. Then you need to know how much grass each animal you have needs (there are tables available to help you figure this out, taking into account species, age / growth status, reproductive status, size etc). Comparing the amount of grass the land can produce, against the amount your animals need, tells you if the land could support them, or if you’re likely to have too little / too much grass.
This is an easy way to compare how much an individual piece of land can carry (in terms of feeding the animals) – convert each grazing animal back to his stock unit equivalent, count up the total number of SU’s on the land area, and compare to how many SU’s land in your area can carry. So if you had 2 avg sized horses (10 SU ea), 3 ponies (6 SU ea), a yearling TB (12 SU) and 2 geese (1 SU ea) on 15 acres, that totals up to 52 SU with a stocking rate of 3.5 SU’s per acre. If land in your area carries approx 3 – 4 SU’s/ac then you’re probably fine, but if it’s only 1 – 2 SU’s you’re going to need extra feed. If it’s 5 – 6 SU’s/ac, you’ll have extra grass and might need to look at removing some (e.g. by making hay and selling some of it) to help manage the grazing better. Or, if you’re looking for land, you could use this info to figure out how much grazing area you require (beware of the land agent that tells you the land carries X SU’s in spring, or you may find yourself falling well short in winter!)
I currently have 16 horses and three steers on approx 25 acres (approx 174 SU on 25 acres = 7 SU/ac), so based on local stock unit recomendations, the land is currently carrying more than it can feed without additional supplies in winter. This is why I had to buy in 300 extra small bales of hay last winter and provide some more hard feed for the skinnys (I’m going to downsize the horse numbers this year so we don’t have to feed out as much next winter while I’ve got a new baby). Ideally we’ll cut back to under 10 horses plus the steers which will be much more manageable, although we’ll still need a small amount of extra hay even then.
Exercise:
One issue with keeping horses in a small area (or even a larger one) is ensuring that they are getting adequate exercise, especially for easy keeper / Insulin Resistant types where more exercise can mean the difference between healthy and laminitic even when on a strict diet. More movement for arthritic types can be a huge bonus, as well.
The best answer I’ve seen to this is setting up some sort of ‘Pasture Paradise’ system where the horse is encouraged to move as much as possible via a system of spreading the resources (shelter, feed, water, rolling spots, fresh grass pickings, etc etc), and creating barriers that the horses have to go around the long way to get to those resources. The idea is to make the horse have to go from A to X to G in order to get back to the desired resource at spot B, rather than just wandering the shortest distance. This can be as simple as up dividing up a small flat paddock with some temporary electric fence lines and spreading your hay in multiple piles, up to convoluted track systems with multiple barriers both man-made and natural and putting your hay out one handful at a time over the entire area. There are many different examples of this sort of thing on the ‘net.
I take the easy way – where possible, I let my horse groups move between two or more paddocks, setting the gates so that they have to travel as much as possible even when they are in a reduced area (yes, there is a degree of risk in this but they’re used to this sort of arrangement). It’s currently summer, so close to half the paddock area is closed up for hay or resting from the current rotation, since there is more grass than we need right now after the spring flush.
The fatty horde (nine horses and ponies) are currently down to about 7 acres at the moment to help keep their weight down, so they have one large paddock at the back of the farm, access through one small paddock to the raceway and up to another medium sized paddock near the house (I’d prefer they had slightly less grass, but this is currently the best set-up in terms of movement, shelter, shade etc until the hay paddocks are cut). They move back and forth over this area on a regular daily routine – I generally see them up near the house at least three times a day, and I try to time putting feed out in the closest paddock when they’re out the back, a) so I can put the feeds out in peace, and b) so they have to travel back up to get it – it’s lovely to watch them galloping in, ears pricked and nickering
In winter, pretty much every paddock is in use, with maybe one saved for ‘just in case’ (an injury or a new rescue coming in that needs to be given extra grass / space), so the fatty horde run over about 15 acres of paddocks with a little extra hay, and the skinneys get the rest with hay and feed. As well as keeping everyone moving, by giving them lots of room to roam and stopping them from spending a lot of time hanging out near gateways, I’ve considerably reduced the mud problem as well. Instead of the whole farm getting trashed paddock by paddock, the feed-out areas are churned up and the rest of the farm is semi-okay (I’m having to deal with the previous owners damaging the land with 30 years of major overstocking and poor management practices, so the whole farm turns to knee deep sludge at the slightest excuse – Yay).
This sort of system works very well in putting extra miles in your horses day – the only issue I have is with Woody, who is about as ‘blonde’ as a horse can get (yep, he’s a very cute chestnut TB) – he gets as far as a fenceline and then just stands there looking at what he wants on the other side… If he doesn’t follow someone closely, he gets ‘stuck’ unless the way is very very clear. If you’re introducing a horse to a PP setup for the first time, you may need to keep it pretty simple until they start to understand that sometimes they have to go away from the thing they want in order to work their way around to it (and some, like Woody, just never seem to learn).
Claire Vale
Kahurangi Equine Rescue
New Zealand
What timing, thank you for the great post! I am in the process of buying a little place for me my old mare and 2 small dogs, and have been stressing that it’s not enough room. (I’ve always boarded, for 3 decades, this will be my first home with horse housing) It’s just over an acre and pretty much all but right where the house is, will be pasture, paddock or dog yard.
My mare will be 24 in March (still sound, healthy and young at heart), and isn’t prone to wild pasture antics, but is one of those non box stall horses that loves to live outside. I am going to stop worrying that my micro mini farm is going to be too small for one aged mare and read Horse Keeping on a Small Acreage, and make the very best of it! I never plan on having more than one mature horse at a time!
My Dad was a career enlisted Navy man. We lived in Naval housing for most of my childhood, moving every year to year and a half. I have always loved horses, sleeping with the Misty books under my pillow. Charleston Chew candy bars, always had a contest. If you saved so many wrappers and submit them, you would be entered into a contest to win a pony! I bought so many of those candies! Don’t know what I would’ve done with a pony in Navy housing tho! LOL
When I was 18 yrs old, graduating from High School, I went to a hack stable to ride. The horse they brought out for me looked just like the pony in one of my books! I fell in love with him, Schroeder. A hackney cross gelding. I paid payments to the owner of the stable, became friends with his stable manager and learned everything I could from her. I built my fence around my mom’s backyard, approximately 1 acre. There was an old in-law house in our backyard, so I was able to convert a bedroom into a stall! Again, myself. Learned alot through the years, knowing you don’t really need a man, if you don’t want one! LOL Although they can make life a little easier when you do ;o) I now have 3 acres and a beautiful 3 stall barn, that also holds 300+ bales of hay. Told my hubby when he proposed, if he ever made me choose between him and my steeds, just pack first then leave, don’t even ask!
Here in Connecticut, land is going for $150,000+ an acre. So its a cute little farm, which we keep very clean and my horses want for nothing.
I grew up in SoCal on a little over 1/2 acre and we always had at least two horses. You have to feed and clean up after them daily, but they had plenty of room to stretch their legs, and it helped that we rode every day.
I now have 200 acres and 4 horses, three are 2 or younger. I am working on fencing off several pastures so we can rotate them and let the pastures rest. Yes, even on 200 acres you have to keep the horses moving and let the pastures rest. Right now the horses have 15 acres, 2 of which are directly attached to my barn, the other 13 is an old alfalfa field, and they have 24/7 access to all of it. In the two acres around my barn I pick up poop daily during the summer and once a month, I drag the field. During the winter I pick up poop and drag the fields as often as the weather permits. When the grass is good, they will not eat hay. They come in about once an hour to get a drink of water and hang out in the shade. They will also come in when I call them because I give them treats. I check them every day for cuts, scrapes, missing flesh and overall body condition. Everyone gets a good grooming every day, including manes and tails, because I hate dredlocks. Oddly enough, when the weather is crappy, they like to stand outside in the snow or the rain or whatever else there is. Today is the warmest day we have had in 3 weeks and it “soared” up to 30. The one thing they seem to hate is the wind, and they will come inside to get out of the wind. Right now it is 33 and they are sleeping outside under the full moon in the snow. So cute
The people across from us have 160 acres and allow the horses access to the whole place all the time. There is great grass out there for about three months a year, other than that, it is crap. They never clean or drag the fields. You will see great big areas of green that the horses won’t touch. If you look close, it is piles of horse shit that the grass has grown nice and green on. They won’t eat it unless they are desperate – sometimes they are.
Well, I guess I can add my own thoughts, even though everyone on here pretty well has offered great ideas and good points for horsekeeping.
Have a place for the refuse to compost. Two places is even better.
Make sure all horses have somewhere dry to stand, regardless of weather. Here in indiana, that can be a challenge during the winter.
To ensure that the shelter is only a shelter, NEVER ever ever feed or water horses under or near the shelter. Horses will share a loafing area, but not a feeding area.
In keeping with the above advice, feed a lot of hay– free choice if you can–, and feed grain at still another location, away from hay and water and shelter. If possible, feed the hay in more than one location. Even dominant ‘witches’ get tired of playing ring around the round bale feeder when there is a lot of hay in more than one place.
Forcus on herd dynamics, and make sure you don’t chase after or hit the dominant horse without a very good reason– they learn to copy your behavior, and they then chase after and bite/kick/ram the subordinate horses.
These are the tips I’ve used to take care of various horses from two to four in number, on about a half acre of land. Amazingly enough, my horses seem to get along, as long as I follow my rules.
My dream farm, btw, is a one acre mud paddock (much needed in Indiana), with a series of two acre pastures that could be rotated.
After a couple of rather hair-raising ‘boarding adventures’ and learning that the friend and mentor I was currently boarding with was putting his property up for sale, hubby agreed to bring the horses ‘home’ to live. We have about an acre and a quarter, and the horses have about a 50 x 200 ft dry lot. It’s not easy, but it’s working pretty well for us.
I have two horses on this NANO-FARM, and niether has ever put a mark on the other (both have been pretty beaten up by other horses, in the first of my hair-raising boarding situations) They have a run-in shed that is open on both ends, kind of like a shoebox with the ends removed, and they use it to get out of rain or a chill wind. It’s cool in there during summer, too, and they use it for the breeze when it’s hot. They also have a trio of trees in the back part of their lot, where they go during the hot parts of summer days. I call that area ‘the woods’, even though three trees is hardly ‘the woods’.
Before I moved them here, I talked at length about advantages and disadvantages of doing my own horsekeeping with my mentor-of-horses, Bob McLoud. It’s a LOT of work to do all the aforementioned things, and we don’t go on anything but day trips any more. That’s fine with me, though! They have enough space to run, buck, and fart safely… and during most of the year they are able to get at least an hour or so on grass. In winter, the grass isn’t growing, soooo… no turnout. They get plenty of hay, clean water, good quality feed… mostly hay, though, and when there is no ‘turnout time’ they get an alfalfa blend of one sort or another as a treat each day, in addition to the grass hay they have to munch on most of the time.
This winter, I’m trying round bales, but my bale is NOT in their run in. I put it in a little shed, and pull off sheets or cylinders of hay, carrying it to the horses bundled in old sheets. Three sheetloads of hay makes about 60 lbs per day, for two horses. That seems to be a good working formula, for now.
Bob helped me reach the conclusion that it won’t be harmful to the two I have to keep them on the land we have. They are both inquisitive, and love to interact with our Airedales through the fence, and they look forward to their daily visits from my carrot-bearing husband. I ride them each several times a week, and work with them on the ground enough that boredom does not foster equine ‘creativity’.
He told me they’d be fine.. better off than many if not most area horses. Then he put a sage look on his face and said “you know, ideally you’d be putting them on 20 or 30 acres of grass’… then a long pause… “but I know you. if you had 20 or 30 acres of grass, pretty soon you’d have a herd of 20 or 30 horses…. and that’d be worse for Paddy and That Mare than what you’ve got now”.
To prevent myself from being grossly overhorses-ed, we’ll probably stay here forever on the NANO-FARM, aka “Walk-On-Aire Dales!”
So, it CAN be done. It’s a lot of work — but for me, that work is part of the joy of having horses.
We’ve got 11 acres. About 10 of them are pasture, with about 1/2 an acre of woods in the back of the big pasture and about 1/4 acre dry lot. We’re working on subdividing the big pasture – it’s about 9 acres. Currently, we’ve got step-in posts with electric rope along the top, eventually we’d like something more permanent.
Anyway, we’ve got 3 horses and one insulin resistant/foundered pony. Pony the pony gets no grass. She hangs out in half of the dry lot all day, or a three and a half sided shelter with a 16×24 run all night. She pitches a fit if we leave her out in the dry lot all night. *eyeroll* She’s 25 or 30 years old and has to have her beauty sleep!
The three big horses get the other half of the dry lot and about 4 acres of the pasture right now. They’re out 24/7 with three three-sided shelters. Never have I seen one horse in each shelter, but they’re there just in case. I’ve seen all three in one, or the boss mare not letting anybody in any of them. She’ll go shelter to shelter evicting them.
Boss mare is 20 and has an old stifle injury. She needs to be out at least 8 hours a day or her stifle starts getting stiff. The other two are thoroughbreds. The gelding is 6 and the gray mare is 12ish – we can’t read her tattoo. They need to go out and run or they’re nutters. Luckily, the boss mare is sensible enough she just kinda watches them run, or will canter slowly in a circle while they lap the perimeter.
We’re in St. Clair, Missouri. It gets hot in the summer, usually hits 100 a few days and cold/icy in the winter, single digits for about a week. But the constant thawing makes for a muddy mess all winter. Our property has a good slope in the big pasture, so we try to keep them off the slope when it’s muddy. Otherwise we wouldn’t have any grass in the spring.
Random Thoughts: Summer Pony ruined my childhood
I dreamed EVERY DAY about getting a horse, I begged and begged. I took lessons, I wanted a horse more than anything. After reading that book I was CONVINCED that we were getting a horse. My dad use to keep hunting dogs outside. He once bought a bunch of straw to put into their dog houses and left it in the garage. I WAS CONVINCED that it was for my Christmas Pony. I woke up on more than one Christmas, ran down to the garage, and was always so disappointed. I would get SO MAD at Santa EVERY YEAR!
(More Randomness) – Putting down the foals for science just depresses me.
I live in the PNW and once had my horse at a boarding facility (if you look on my blog click on Shit Hole for photos) with NO management. It was horrible! She went totally crazy!! Three horses in a paddock that was ridiculously small. (I think I have photos of that as well.) She was there for three months and dropped a ton of weight due to stress. I moved her to a new place that she’s been at for almost a year. WONDERFUL management, and lots of room for her to kick her heals up (although she doesn’t do it much in the winter.)
even though we only have about three fenced acres for 6 horses we keep it clean we rent the farm and in the spring we have a skidsteer bought in to scrape the feild and fill low spots. it is too hard sometimes to keep everything spotless with all the snow and it freezes nearly instant here in wi!. we also feed round bales on the really cold days and when i feed small squares i put a flake here put a flake there all over the fenced area so they have to walk around to find it,
http://www.amazon.com/Quenton-Peanut-Shalles-Illustrator-Laughner/dp/1412061903/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262245142&sr=8-1
Great book for a kid to see just why ponies don’t like coming inside. Great illustrations, great story that explains to kids these things without spelling it out like a rulebook.
I didn’t have time to read each commment in detail so I hope I’m not repeating anything:
Turnout & free access to forage is absolutely paramount for colic prevention. It’s been known for quite sometime that both regular turnout (preferably 24/7 with free-choice shelter) and 24/7 access to forage greatly decrease the risk of colic. The newest research is showing that the most ideal situation is having a horse turned out on pasture sufficient for him to roam while grazing (which is their natural tendency). Apparently, the almost continual movement of the horse actually aids in keeping everything moving through the small and large intestines. TheHorse.com had a colic risk quiz available on their site, but I’m not sure if it’s still there. When I took it, my horses (I had two at the time) both had a “0″ risk of getting colic due to the combination of 24/7 turnout, 24/7 forage access, 24/7 water access, and only light work. (Of course, not long after I took the quiz, my senior TWH/Arab succumbed to colic. It was either a twist or a lipoma wrapped around the intestine though so it was not a standard impaction colic.)
Now I just have one gelding (who gets lots of attention from me, the goats, and the dogs). The pasture is about 2-2.5 acres. I have a two-stall run-in shed, but I had it custom-made so that I can use it either as a run-in or as actual stalls. Most of the time, it’s just sitting open. If the weather’s superbly bad or there’s some other reason, I can keep my gelding stalled. My favorite thing about my shed is the reflective material on the underside of the metal roof. I can’t remember what it’s called, but it’s a metallic silver and looks kinda like that layered bubble wrap. That was the best investment I made in my shed because it cuts way down on the heat in the summer (we’re in TN so it can get pretty bad). I also like how I designed my Dutch doors. The bottom is just a standard wood door. The top has a grill on the inside (there’s a latch that holds it close to the inside wall when it’s not in use) and a wooden door on the outside so you can choose which you want to use. I rarely ever close the upper wooden door (the weather has to be really bad for that), but it’s nice to have that option.
For anyone considering putting in a run-in shed, you should definitely plan it so that the open side is turned away from the worst prevailing winds. I think in most parts of the country, having the open side to the east is best. North winds (esp. in the winter) are awful. West and south winds can be very strong, and (for our area at least) are the winds most likely associated with strong storms. My shed is actually facing ESE since a wind from that direction is essentially unheard-of here. It also lets the winter sun shine directly into the shed in the morning, which helps warm things up a bit faster, and it mostly blocks the occasional NE winds. I do have drop-down windows on the north and south sides (the short sides) of the shed. I open them during good summer weather to allow a cross-breeze. My brother who helped with the site prep laughed when he saw how precise I was being with location of the shed, but it’s saved me many headaches. I also had it placed on the east side of a small forest. I did this for two reasons:
1. Natural windblock from the SW and W winds
2. Natural shade in the summer (by about 3pm, the shed starts getting some shade)
I did try to get the shed spaced just far enough away from the trees that I don’t have to worry about any big trees or limbs falling on it.
I do pick out my pasture as well, and I would love one of the vacuums. I just can’t justify the expense for one horse. I need an all-weather arena much more.
My gelding generally only poops in three places though so picking out the pasture isn’t that bad. I don’t have a harrow or drag so I just kick apart any piles that happen to show up in random parts of the pasture. So far, it’s worked pretty well.
I’ve had very limited boarding experience (one awesome place, one not-so-great), but I prefer having mine at home. It takes some extra planning and extra physical labor, but I don’t think it requires much more know-how than boarding your horse. I think that boarders should know all the theoretical stuff that non-boarders do otherwise how could you evaluate a facility or the care of your horse. To me, the only real difference in having your horse at home is that you’re the one actually putting in care/maintenance hours. Well, you do have to do some facility planning too.
Growing up, I remember many people with horses kept on small lots.. hobby farms, etc, that were not very large but still had quite a few livestock on it. The places I rode were all very well managed though, and the horses beautiful and well cared for. I never understood why my mother wouldn’t let me get a horse. It pained me that she couldn’t see that our backyard was perfect.
Now, I live on an 80 acre farm. We have eight horses total. Probably roughly 65 acres is pasture with prairie grass/brome, and we burn semi-regularly to help with weeds and volunteer sapling growth. Our house and my in-laws house, mine on five acres of the total eighty.. and then we have several acres of hayfield as well. My father in law is an agronomist, so our hay is fantastic and our grazing is excellent. We have a barn and big box stalls that we’re currently renovating, a riding arena and one stall with an attached pen.. planning to do that for all of them in time. The horses are on the pasture in the summer if they’re not in for riding purposes, and they have hay in the winter along with supplemental pelleted feed. We also have two ponds on the property, one stocked with fish.
The next door neighbor keeps cattle and heavily overgrazes his 80 acres.. I mean, to the dirt. His cows often shimmy under or plain push through ours and other neighbors’ fences in order to get at the better fields we all have. It’s a serious annoyance and while we only joke about them disappearing and us gaining a bunch of nice angus beef… sometimes I am tempted when a horse gets out due to their behavior.
We have 8 horses here on 10 acres and a 10 acre pasture at the “hay farm” 37 acres we co-own. The 10 acres here is divided into 4 different areas so we can easily rotate the horses to keep the pastures growing. We keep the old ladies (28 and 23) separated from the more active/ridiculous geldings due to their arthritic status and the risk of them getting injured trying to cavort with the boys! We harrow regularly and I pick up the poops in the small paddock near the barn. We have the pastures/paddocks top dressed and re-seeded regularly and then allow re growth where it’s needed. Our horses live out 24/7 only coming in to eat only and get meds. They stay in when we get the severe winds or ice that this area of Pa. is known for. Example: this past Tues. we had sustained winds of 40-55mph and the temp with wind chill was 7 degrees most of the day. Believe me when I say my horses line up at the gates when they want to come in!
I find overall that my horses are much healthier and happier living this way. They have very few soundness issues since they exercise and move constantly. This is a MUST for older arthritic horses and for growing youngsters. We have one paddock we call the “recovery room”. It is very level, and has grass but is not lush. It allows movement but not rip roaring galloping and foolishness ability. We keep horses in there that need to have turn out but also need to be monitored for whatever reason. It is very close to the barn and very easy to get them quickly. It also has lights to check on them at night.I’m a wheelbarrow gal but I could not live without my Cub Farm Buggy. It goes anywhere and has a dump body. Great for hauling hay and I use it to drag the ring and harrow the pastures. I am fortunate that my husband LOVES to mow and do the hay and pasture mgmt. Since we do grow hay we have all the stuff to make good horse pasture readily available. It’s the maintenance of them that is the most important.
Another thing people laugh at in pasture management is mowing them. Yes, mowing them. Naturally, you wouldn’t cut it down to golf course length, but mowing helps keep the weeds down and encourages growth. Some of the best kept pastures I’ve ever seen were regularly mowed on top of resting and not overcrowding. Granted, these were elegant barns run by people who knew what they were doing and didn’t crowd as many horses on their property as the law allowed. With the price of land these days, that’s becoming more and more difficult, but even a small facility can benefit from mowing the grass once in a while.
“A rescuer friend snatched him up”
Translation: He’ll be looking for a new “forever” home soon. Is there anybody out there willing to feed him for the next 20 years? My friend, God bless her saintedness wants to save more. Rescuing makes her feel good, however rescues are like kittens. They grow up into cats; The novelty wears off. Plus, if you think rescuing is expensive, try providing a forever home. And it’s not as much fun as rescuing. You don’t get your name in the papers or on the news either. I mean it’s just not that news worthy. By my friend in her saintedness is more than happy to take credit for saving this horse’s life. She’s even happy to foot the bill for his care for about a year or so. As long as it takes to get him a forever home, but he simply cannot stay with her forever-she can only take credit for his rescue forever. See the difference?
But, and this is very important to prospective forever homes, saving lives isn’t about glory. It’s about the horses. And as a forever home you get none of the glory. That’s how you know you’re doing it for the right reasons, see. It’s because you foot the bill, take no credit, and never complain. My rescuer friends and I agree that it’s the perfect solution. No need to elbow each other, now. I know a couple hundred other horses looking for forever homes right now. In fact we never have enough forever homes for all our rescues. I don’t know why???
Boy, you’re just Mr. Negativity, aren’t you?
I don’t believe most people have any intention of providing a “forever” home for a horse, and I don’t seek to adopt my horses out to just “forever” homes. If I rescue, which is also true of the rescue that got the trampoline horse, the goal is to (a) fix physical problems and (b) provide retraining as needed. This makes the horse adoptable, which sometimes I refer to as EMPLOYABLE because it is the same thing. An EMPLOYABLE horse may change hands, but he isn’t anywhere near as likely to wind up in a kill pen as a horse with no skills or who is handicapped by untreated physical problems.
There’s nothing wrong with tooting your horn for rescuing.
There’s nothing wrong with tooting your horn for providing a great home for your horses.
Both are allowed and welcomed here and I give many opportunities to talk about both.
I agree and disagree, I think there is a point where its “please shut up about rescuing” and I believe some people “rescue” just to brag about it. Maybe to make themselves feel better? No idea… but I also disagree because there are legit people out there that are making a difference and not just bragging “I just rescued my 1000th horse! yay for me!” ok, so where did your other 999 rescues end up? Oh… you dont know? Maybe you should have rescued 5 horses and made sure they went to good places where you can find them and keep in touch with the owners instead of “rescuing” numerous horses and pushing them out the door as fast as they come in. OH! and rescuing should not make you a profit, Its not a rescue when you buy a horse for 300 bucks from an auction then sell them for $5,000 with a hay belly 5 minutes undersaddle.
I loved this month’s article in Horse Illustrated Cathy! I completely agreed with the statement about how one of the best things you can do for your horse is train them. If you aren’t planning on riding them, they should at least know how to walk, trot, canter on the correct leads, halt, and back up. It’s not like they have to be doing impeccable flying lead switches or half passes for the average home. If for some reason your horse has to be taken to an auction because you can no longer care for them, training or lack of will make them go to a private home or a kill buyer. Your advice is something everyone should follow!
I boarded at several different places in SF Bay Area that had tiny paddocks and turnout only under supervision. It can work but you’ve got to make time to get them out to play. Not only do the young and spirited horses need it, but the older ones also need exercise to keep their joints healthy. My first farm had 5 fenced acres. I only had three animals at most on the pastures. Never 24/7. Our current one has 9 acres devoted to the horses (the rest is for our cattle). It supports them May through October, in a good year, with rotational grazing.
Forgot to say that those 9 acres support two horses, a donkey and a pony.
I have a full acre but my horse is on about 1/4 of it. There is no grass and occationaly it gets muddy, its relativley flat with some trees for shade, I have a stall in my garage for her and she comes in at night, there is always a round bale (covered) outside and square bales for inside. She goes to a friends farm every summer for 2 weeks to 2 months depending on the weather. There she has 10 acres to run on. However she is perfectly content in her paddock, running, bucking and playing as she is almost 3. She is a perfect example of a horse that is very young, not insane and is on a small peice of land. It can work if you do it the right way. The main reason I keep her home is because she was stolen from me when she was a yearling, she was stolen right from the boarding facility I kept her at. Thankfully the local police tracked her (and her buddy that was stolen too) down. I vowed to never board her somewhere again, So I have to make due with what I have. And it works if you put the effort in. As for her poop, her paddock didnt start out flat, I filled all the holes and dips with her manure and it has worked out quite well! The rest of the manure is being used to fill other holes and dips on the property as I plan on making another paddock this spring.
What a great topic! I live in central Texas, on 24 acres. I currently have two teenaged horses, a miniature and a shetland pony. We had a two stall barn with a turnout pen, that only gets used in the Spring to keep the ponies off the pasture. I also have a sacrifice field of about 5 acres for the ponies…. I have room for my round pen and I have the property cross-fenced to make four different pastures, so I can rotate the herd every two months We also have a pond for the horses to swim/roll in during our 100 degree days in the summer. We had a horrible drought the past two years, but I was prepared and my land was okay with rotating the herd. We got rain this year in October and it helped a bunch, but I have a neighbor who has 14 horses on 30 acres with no cross fence. Her horses have eaten down even the weeds and they are starting to look skinny. She could be the topic of this blog on a monthly basis….breeding her expensive stallion to mares that she’s gotten for free, then she keeps the babies and doesn’t train them. She also doesn’t do shots or worming, so when a mare came down with West Nile this summer, she spent thousands, only to have the mare euthed last month. How much hay could she have bought with THAT money? Or just saved that poor mare months of suffering with a $15 dollar shot? My horses are never sick, and never give me a problem, even though I rarely ride, because they are living as God intended them to….free to walk and eat at their leisure.
She also doesn’t do shots or worming, so when a mare came down with West Nile this summer, she spent thousands, only to have the mare euthed last month.
You’ve got to wonder what’s going on (or not) upstairs. A WN shot could have prevented this but she’ll spend thousands afterwards when the prognosis for recovery is poor (at best). As upsetting as it is, Euth the horse would have been the next proper step.
I think it’s a guilt issue (after the fact) because they were willing to take a chance to save a few bucks up front. Hardly something I’d even consider in Texas. If you’ve got mosquitoes/birds, you’ve got WN.
There are times when I want to personally clean out the gene pool. It’s become so muddy it’s hard to tell who to keep any longer.
Great post and very informative, I have a neighbor that is a new horse owner, I believe they are now on the blog, this will be very helpful to them.
I have had horses since I was 12, I was lucky to talk my parents into that horse and even though we were in the country, we only had a small lot 50×50. My poor parents knew nothing about horses but I had lots of friends who did. That one horse was fine in my not so very safe back yard (fenced with hay rope and old broomsticks for posts-boy was I a candidate for Fugly, lucky it was 40 years ago!) and a straight stall in a shed, but hey I was 12 and I rode every day.
Since then and in 7 different locations ranging from 2-15 acres I have had anywhere from 2-10 horses and/or ponies. The thing I disliked the most is the muddy spots around the barn or pasture gate area. We have a lot of clay in our soil and it really gets messed up in their usual standing place when it is wet. My advise to anyone setting up a place if they do not have sandy soil (which I am SO lucky to have now) is to dig out a good area around the barn or usual gathering spot in your turnout or pasture and fill it with material that will not get mucked up easily, and re fill it each year or as needed.
I now have 15 acres, 4 horses, with two separate several acre turnouts and another in the works. No problem to pasture all 4 all season (that’s from late May or early June to mid Oct in Nova Scotia, Canada) , then we hay them the rest of the year but they are still out every day. I do mow the pastures with our bush hog a few times a season as it helps with weeds and the spots they chose not to eat.
I just purchased this land 3 years ago and there hadn’t been animals on it for years, they did make hay though. There was not so much as 1 golden rod (yellow weeds) in the fields and I just noticed this year a few appearing, they are everywhere around the area in un-mowed pastures and ditches. I am wondering if anyone out there has any safe suggestions other than mowing to get rid of them?
Around here (RI), the law in most towns is 2 acres per horse. Of course there are some places grandfathered in at less but really, much less than 2 acres per horse is overcrowding, IMO. Horses need room to run and be horses!
I almost bought a 7.5 acre place zoned agricultural (hard to find) a few years ago. 7 acres were gently rolling open pasture, three board fencing around the perimeter of the property in decent shape and a nice little stream bisecting it. Run down house, no barn, small shed but the hubby was handy and the land alone was worth the asking price.
When I went to check the town zoning regulations it stated 2 horses only (I had three boarded not far away) and the stream would have to be fenced on either side with fifty feet of clearance on both sides (can’t pollute the water, ya know). That wrecked it.
The place was still for sale several years later.
It’s a bit OT, but a good place to reinforce the idea that ‘pasture’ is a good idea. When I got this particular rescue horse in May 2006, I was told he’d been on pasture for 3 years….he was 7. He was in fine condition. Because I board..NOT in LA, but near San Francisco, I chose a barn that had 12 x 18 stables, open on both ends. Economy was good…NO pasture boarding within 30 miles……everything close was full up with wait-lists. He appeared to adjust with no problem, but within 2 months the diarrhea started. We tried eliminating his feeds- his supplements. He’d get better, then a week or month later, it would return. Long story short, eventually last July,he was diagnosed by rectal biopsy with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, by which time he weighed 695lbs…he’s 14HH. He was a sorry sight, and SO depressed. A course of Prednisolone started him on the road to recovery, along with pure orchard grass hay, Beet pulp and pure psyllium. Down to the lowest amount of Pred. by November, and he still had the runs, although picking up weight and MUCH happier in spirit. Lo and behold, the bad economy has caused people in this area to get rid of their horses, and all of a sudden, there’s pasture spaces available! I moved him Dec 1, to a 40 acre, flat pasture that allows 15 horses, although he makes 11. It’s fed once daily with grass hay until it can support the horses without hay. He seems SO happy there. Although I can’t SEE his poop piles, I DO see that he has no dribbles down his legs and tail, and I’ve stopped the steroid.
I can’t say for sure, that confining him caused the IBS, or that turning him back out, cured him, but I DO know that he’s a happy, muddy little fellow now!! And that when he’s gained another 50 lbs of muscle, I’ll be able to ride him again.
As a kid, the guy behind us had a pony in his backyard. It was NOT a large backyard. He cleaned out the poop daily, and he rode the pony daily. (Not a Shetland, some sort of larger spotted pony, lovely disposition.)
Of course, we could smell the manure – but we could also pet the pony, and every now and then we got to go on little rides on the wagon he had. My father (a wise man) refused to call the parish on the illicit pony owner.
We loved that pony, the pony liked us, eventually the man who owned him moved out to the country and someone else got the house.
I don’t know the moral to this story – doubtless the good care Popeye the Pony got overode the tiny space he had to live in. I suspect he was an older pony too.
Reading all of these posts, I am feeling really envious. “Oh, I ONLY have five acres” or “a postage stamp, 20 acres”. Jealous!!
Which brings up another point…. where ARE you people?
I am in Western Mass, where many full service equestrian centers with indoor, etc. operate on 10 acres, or less. One well-known facility has a total of six little teeny tiny paddocks (and I mean tiny, like hardly bigger than run-out pens) and that is for a stable that houses 60 horses. Yeah there are some bigger places but they were last purchased like 50 years ago and are still in the same family.
Seriously I want to sell my house and relocate somewhere where I can get more acreage for the money! But I don’t even know where to start. I haven’t traveled much…. at all. I’m thinking the Carolinas, Virginia, Kentucky? Where’s good “horse country?”
I’m with you. It would be nice to know where some of the posters are from. Some of their locations sound VERY interesting, and for the same reasons you state. I’d like to move, too. Some of these posts are very inviting.
From wet western Washington (35 miles S of Seattle).
heh, I’m in Virginia near Roanoke. The surrounding counties have some beautiful horse properties, but the people around here don’t know what to charge for their land. Most of it is waaaay over priced.
You really, really need a budget and a plan.
I bought Cherry Hill’s book before we moved. I knew I wanted to keep my horse at home versus boarding. Board in Hobart WA was 400 a month. So I knew it would be more cost effective for her to live at home. And cheaper to buy with an existing barn rather than build it.
I found the barn, a shed row, 2 x 6 construction on an acre, but had a laundry list of things to do before bringing her home. (House was secondary)
Since it’s dry lot I have to buy hay year round. So hay storage was crucial. It already had electrical and water, two stalls, tack room with concrete floor and a hay storage that contains 4 tons of hay depending on who bucks it in.
Grading the sloping property flat so I could make a small arena, 120 x 60 & two 20 x 24 foot paddocks. Heavy duty pipe panels that will keep a stallion out. In our case there are wild horses in the vicinity. No mutt fugly’s for me. Stall matt’s for two stalls. Plywood to cover all of the walls inside the stalls because the original construction had nails sticking out all over.
Matching siding and materials to build a door for the hay room, it faced West and didn’t keep anything out, weather or critter. Upgrade the electrical box. New standing freeze pipe. Had to be painted. Solar fence charger, braided wire, t posts, t post caps, for extra turn out up the gravel driveway. (Doubles the turn out.) Railroad ties for the now terraced yard. She is Houdini so after an early morning visit to the geldings several houses over, I had to buy three gates for the circular driveway. The double gate is always chained and locked and the gate we use all of the time is closed at night. Total cost of the renovations approx. $10K. In three years it’s paid for.
Barn is nicer & cleaner than the house.
Manure management is cleaning it up every day and is/was composting. It’s very sandy here so we need to have the composted manure (if you want a garden). But the pile got to huge for me to manage without a tractor so I was bagging it and posting it to CL. Turns out a neighbor wants all of it. He leaves me a trailer now and I fill it and email him when it’s full. Otherwise I would be putting it out with the garbage. When it finally thaws out here I can go back to scooping.
Her company is the old gelding next door. She pretty much exercises herself when I can’t. Her temperament is very calm when she isn’t locked in a box 24/7. This week it’s been really crispy so she’s been really frisky. Otherwise she is now the kind of horse you can go a month or two without riding. Before she was a formidable ride when you first got on.
The downs are finding a reliable horse sitter when I want to go away for more than a couple of days. Would I trade for the rain and mud and having to drive to the barn? No way.
happy new year, my fugly friends! hubby and i were very fortunate to have found a seven acre property in 2001 which was very run-down, but in a geat location, on the illinois/wisconsin state line, just north of chicago. we offer retirement boarding to select few horses, and have done so since 1986 in our previous location and here. both hubby and i work full time, and daily maintenance/upkeep of the current four horses is up to me. horses are out everyday for 12 hours and then brought into stalls for 12 hours. from approximately may-through-october the horses who can handle pasture are on a five acre pasture for the 12 hours turnout. the easy-keepers/foundered mare are only out on drylot year around. hay is fed year around, along with pellets, depending on individual horse’s needs. i try to keep hay in front of them at all times, as it keeps them healthier.
we compost our stall waste and have enough gorgeous ‘black gold’ to landscape our property and fertilize the pasture for free. we turn our compost piles and make sure that they reach an internal temperaure of 175 degrees in order to kill all weed seeds and cook the pile down into true compost. it is beautiful stuff when we are finished with it.
i mow our pasture every two-to-three weeks from spring-to-fall. i let it grow up to eight inches tall and mow it down to four inches. we have virtually no weeds due to the consistent mowing. the pasture is an incredible asset (thank you, god) and i take care of it. besides the mowing, i will pull any errant weeds that spring up, round-up the fenceline, and drag about twice a season to scatter manure.
my drylot is either scraped with the tractor, or handpicked, to remove the manure. the key is to keep up with it on a daily/weekly basis.
we buy over 700 bales of hay for the year for four horses. we store it in the haymow attached to the barn. stalls are 10X10 matted over aglime. each stall has a bucket, which is emptied, cleaned and filled every day. the pasture and drylot each have 100 gallon stock tanks which are kept free of dirt/algae. large 50lb white salt blocks are in pasture/drylot.
hubby does all the barn/fence/heavy maintenance and building. we are very lucky. and, the harder we work, the luckier we become!
When can I move in?
And I thought I was the only one dedicated enough to do all this.
I was reading one of the papers from “back home” and came across this article.
http://www.santamariatimes.com/news/local/article_32fd6822-f68c-11de-8e01-001cc4c03286.html
Should be the top article ont he page. Some shot two Varian mares.
Hey Kathy, I have been noticing for a while ad’s on CL for a “new group of horse lovers saving horses from slaughter”. Well they finally got a website up so I figured I’d go check it out… looked good enough, until I got to the link to save the horses directly from the KB, and it takes you to a forum suggesting you use camelot farms for quarantine. Camelot farms sounded familiar so I googled it, and found the CBER rescue page, which also uses camelot farms. BTW, did you know CBER has a wiki page? you should read the Q&A at the bottom lol. Anyways seems like Sam still has her hand in the ‘feedlot’ rescue business
Imagine that! CBER has a Wiki page … which is proof yet again that one cannot always believe what one reads. Wikipedia is filled with pages and pages, “entries written by anyone.” Many entries are “without attribution” or lacking credable citations that indicate the information is not OPINION disguised as “the real deal.”
I was going to purchase a book on horse rescue from an online seller of equine books. The rescue book had a sample chapter available for potential book buyers, and when I clicked to read it, the chapter was written about a person discussing the lengthy correspondence she had had with CBER, where the price to rescue, treat and transport the horse kept going up and up, but the woman was willing to fork over more and more money to them. I think she eventually got the horse, but seems to me I have read here that one of their scams is selling one horse to multiple people but the horse either doesn’t exist or is sold to one while others are still paying and then they are told the horse is dead. No refunds, of course.
While I buy a lot of items online, I don’t buy horses. I only support those rescues that I have seen firsthand or that people I know and trust have seen firsthand.
As Cathy says, you can do a lot of research on the Internet to check out someone’s credentials. Kim, you did good work. These scammers have all kinds of tricks up their sleeves for cadging money from the unwary, and when they run OUT of tricks, they start back at the beginning of their list. Hateful people. A special Hell awaits them.
Am replying to myself regarding the CBER wiki page–it’s part of the ABR requirement to be listed as a legitimate rescue. When ABR first started, the scammers were out in droves and people were sending money to God-knows-where and then finding out the money was not going to rescue horses.
The ABR rules were changed: To be able to ask for donations, the rescue had to have a wiki page, which still doesn’t mean much because anyone can “write for the online encyclopedia” and pull information out of their nose if necessary to make the information “sound good.”
Again, if you cannot visit the rescue in person, get in touch with someone you know and whose opinion you trust before sending these people ANYTHING.
http://www.alexbrownracing.com/wiki/index.php/Columbia_Basin_Equine_Rescue
You have to scroll past HUNDREDS of rescue pics and updates and stupid crap, but you have to read the q&a at the bottom. she gets very defensive to at least a few of the questions lol. she gets into a few arguments too.
check out this link… this guy is an idiot and should be castrated so he doesn’t reproduce.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2qryfLkFh4&feature=related
my current paddock is roughly 50×50 feet for 2 horses. It’s actually worked out really well for me. their stalls open up into the paddock, but they generally just hang out in the stalls unless it sunny outside. I have gravel all around the barn, and the rest of the paddock is mud- free, surprisingly, living in the PNW! that was my real challenge, keeping the mud down. whenever we have to keep the horses in due to injuries or bad weather and then they have a bundle of energy, it’s plenty of space for them to stretch their legs and kick up their heels. in the summer, we open up our other pasture which makes the total pasture area about an acre. i also put them in our neighbor’s grassy, unused field and they live off of that for the summer/ fall. i think that i could manage one more horse on my property, but that would be pushing the space a bit. the maximum number of horses i could have comfortably on my property is 2. actually, i could get up to 3 more horses if i gave up my backyard! but that won’t happen, i only need one horse for me and one for my mom!
Great post! I can relate. When I was little we lived in a small ranch house on an eighth of an acre and I thought I was going to keep a pony in the garage. Or my bedroom closet. And I was going to fence in our tiny little backyard. My reasoning was that if I got a mini horse, I could just put a leash and collar on him and walk him around like a dog. He would be about the size of a large dog, so the neighbors wouldn’t have a problem with it, right?
It sounded like a foolproof idea at the time. But I ended up waiting 13 years until I got a real pony. A 17hh pony. And then a lovely little knuckleheaded Thoroughbred. lol I luffs them both to pieces. <33
This is an extremely useful post – hope it will still be available to review next year when I can move to my own place and keep my own horses. I’d been worried that the property I’m seriously looking at is too small for 2-3 horses (just under 7 acres, flat, already a barn and arena, in western Oregon so grass grows all year), but I see that with some proper management and elbow grease it could do fine.
Right now my two horses are boarded in two different places in northern Virginia: I chose one for the excellent hands-on care for my newly-trained Arabian even though the place is small and muddy, and the other because it’s big but it’s not a show barn so everyone is laid back and helpful, it has an indoor arena, and it will get my green AT used to lots of activity. There’s a great riding instructor on the premises who will work with the two of use together.
This post inspired me yesterday to go fetch the Arabian out of the muddy, hilly half-acre paddock that she shares with two other horses and just turn her loose in the icy, muddy but flat outdoor arena. She was in heaven. She trotted, ran, bucked, tossed her head, flagged her tail, performed huge dramatic on-purpose skids and worked herself into a happy sweat with me just cheering her on. She has clearly missed space to run, especially since she’s spent most of her life in huge pastures with herds of other horses. Even while it’s too icky and cold to work seriously I’ll be doing this for her at least several times a week.
Thanks to everyone who added to this post. It’s been a great education.
I rent on a 110 acre farm in NJ. My three drafts are on 24/7 turnout, which is the only way they are happy. April through November they are out on a 9 acre pasture with very nice grass and trees for shelter. I’d love for them to have a proper shed, but the landlords would never drop a dime for one. December through March they are up by the barn in a 2 acre area, about half hill with a little woods. They have acress to the barn for shelter. Not much grass, even in the summer. I hay them twice a day, and grain the old mare. Out side their access to the barn is a concrete pad where I feed and water them. I have to clean up the giant draft-piles twice a day, which is a workout in itself. Doesn’t help that my two younger horses are complete slobs. The alleyways leading up to the barn have terrible drainage, and the horses have to slog through mud or skate on ice to get to the barn/feeding area. I use old hay, and some maure to fill-in the mud and cover any ice. Far from ideal, but it’s the best I’ve got.
The property is great, but not that suited to horses. It used to be a big cattle operation, so the barns and paddocks are set up for cows and are a total pain when it comes to horses. The fencing is largely in need of repair. A little bit is newer three rail with electic, but the rest is a mix of four rail in varying state of repair and five-strand wire (not electric). I’m lucky my horses are respectful of fencing, although my one mare scratched her big ass on a section this summer and nearly brought it down. Landlords have been telling me since March that that line of fence has been contracted to be replaced. I’m not going to hold my breath.
My husband and I have found a property nearby that we’re hoping to purchase. It’s 8 acres total, with two barns (8 stalls), an indoor, 4 acres open pasture (needs all new fencing), and another 1-2 acres of overgrown pasture that could be reclaimed. The whole property needs work, but the price is certainly nice, and it backs right up to a 300 acre preserve. I’d love more pasture, but this will do in a pinch.
I guess I can post something a bit more relevent this time… I tried for years to get my parents to let me keep a horse in our yard (3/4 acre), I mean we had goats, why not a horse? One day I got my wish, even though it was only for a few hours. I was 12, out of school for the summer, and home alone (what a combo, right?). I was hangin out in my front yard, when I saw an absolutely gorgeous appy filly (my best friend at the time’s family bred and showed them, so I was in love
) went trotting down the road in front of my house. For a bit of clarification, we live in a neighborhood that is in between rural and suburban, nobody had horses within 3 or 4 miles until a few years ago. So I grabbed a bit of rope and followed her until she stopped to eat, fashioned a makeshift halter and lead, and took her home to hang out with the goats. I had her for a whole 3 hours, brushing her, feeding her cookies, etc, until a bunch of mexicans in a truck came by with a bale of alfalfa (not being racist at all, that is just what happened lol) looking for her. I was so sad to see her go 
my parents never found out, which was probably for the better lol
I always thought I could keep a pony in the garage, too!! It took 40+ years, but I DID finally get my pony a few years ago, and he isn’t in the garage! (I knew my Arabian wouldn’t fit…)
We have 30 acres. (Texas) Two five acre fields in front, we run the Mini broodmares and young mares on the one field and the other we cut for hay. Large eight stall barn in the mare field that we use just to store hay in and the mares use it as a run-in. 15 mares and five llamas in this field. Round bales supplement the grass in the “dead” season. We also run the mares on the hay field after the last cut for a month or so to give their field a break. Fencing is post and board, woven wire and high tensile. Trees around the barn with a pond. No trees/shelter in the hay field, though, so they don’t stay there in bad/hot weather.
Stallions are kept in a second barn with their own field attached. Six stalls/stallions. They are rotated outside one at a time for half a day. All post and board. They can come into the front of the barn for shade, but can’t reach the others to argue… grass field.
Third barn: broodmare barn. Four foaling boxes that lead to a one acre grassed “nursery”. Post and board and cattle panel fencing. Right now the weanling fillies live here. Treed on the end. Our round pen is in here, too. The fillies will move out and the gravid mares in about two months before their due dates. We only breed about four mares a year.
Fourth barn: pony barn. Four stalls. Leads to a one acre dry lot. We keep the American Shetlands and the old Mini gelding here. Round bale in for eats during the day. Trees all over. Cattle panel fencing. The Ponies need extra feed and the Mini gets none…
In between the mare barn and the pony barn is a cattle panel “run” with an attached shed that holds my show gelding most of the time. Right now it has a gelding that’s in training in it. Dry lot. Another shed/run next to it, empty right now. We have a mare that will drop weight mid winter and this is her area. She’s out with her girl-friends right now…
“Bert’s” barn: has three stalls with attached fields, two are an acre each and one is a run. The old QH (Bert) lives in the right handed one, and a boarder has the middle one and the run. There is another run with our male llama in it next to the Mini run, it has a shed for the llama. Both runs and Bert’s field are covered with trees. The middle field was an arena and has no trees. Both fields are grassed. Cattle panel/woven wire fencing.
Gelding barn: two stalls used as run in. Grassed two acre field with trees. We run the geldings and young colts here. Cattle panel/woven wire fencing.
Behind theses fields are about 10 acres we don’t/can’t use. The fence isn’t safe (barbed wire or loose woven) and the former occupants dumped all sorts of junk back there, plus it’s pretty wild and grown up.
Also, when I state “stalls” they are 14 x 14 stalls, not Mini stalls. We only have three Mini stalls and they are in the stallion barn. Our littler stallions stay in those. The other three stalls are 14 x 16 in there- lots of room for the boys! All the barns except for the gelding barn also have an area for hay and feed.
Plus, we weed and feed all the fields in the spring and fall. They are also mowed when needed. The area is sandy, so we don’t get really bad mud, either. It drains FAST. Nothing like the knee-deep mud we had in W PA… ick. I don’t miss THAT!
Theres a horse farm in FL that has roughly 30 horses that need rescuing. They are neglected from proper feed, hay and vet and farrier care. I worked at this place from end of March 09 to early July 09. And from what I’ve heard … it has not changed. Here is a little bit about this place. I also have a facebook page dedicated to the neglect of this farm please contact me if you want that link.
This farm is called Westend Equestrian Center and its located in Newberry FL (outside of Gainesville – Alachua County). It is located behind Canterbury Horsepark on Newberry Road.
THE FARM:
There is NO grass in paddocks what so ever. With 30+ head of horses it has all been worn down to dirt. Theres some in outskirts of the paddock fences and in between the 2lower barns but as far as inside the paddocks.. its all dirt basically. Which is bad. The fencing is extremely poor. Me and another worker would put up fencing everyday but it did no good. The horses would still break it somehow or itd just fall down/break on its own. The fencing posts are rotted and nasty and uneven the boards are chewed on or broken or missing. I always picked up nails from the ground (so not safe). I was constantly catching horses almost everyday .. mainly at like 2am. And it was never just like one horse itd always be around/atleast 4. One time 6 arab mares got out during the day. And since these arabs were basically never handled by anyone (including by the owner that never showed – she was arrested once or a few times for having dead horses on her property her names Holly Perea you can google her) it took atleast an hr to catch em all. But yeah basically for the fencing.. replacing a board or two doesnt cut it. A construction company needs to redo it all completely. Theres a little farm behind Westend and that guy was always complainn bout the fencing. But there was nothing I could do. I told Brooke McCauley (farm owner of Westend) that thats what he needs done.. a construction company but he says its not needed and wont do it .. of course. The barns arnt too bad .. they could use a little upgrading and a good clean but theyre not bad. Basically everything on the farm is broken … anything even little things from a halter and lead rope to big things like lawn mowers and tractors … nothing worked/works. Most of his saddles are broken and shouldnt be used at all. I think he only has 2 decent saddles (wintecs) that are useable eveyrthing else should be thrown out or repaired. Bridles arnt in good shape either. Most halters are broken (not that they get used anyway – i went thru all of them very few were intact – and theres 25-30 head of horses 4 being yealings). The farm is just a complete disaster and unsafe for horses. The rings seem ok. With all the times the horses get loose there really should be a gate at where the driveway is that leads into farm but once again that costs money so it won’t happen. So what if a horse gets loose sometime during night and runs down the driveway? Thankfully the farm is off the road a bit but still … it can happen. I been told its happened/almost happened before but not sure if thats accurate. Don’t need a horse getting hit by vehicle and hurting him/herself and people.
THE HORSES:
KEY – 20 yr old TB bay mare: extremely bad case of rainrot so bad some people think its skin cancer. and shes very skinny like a skelton. seen pics of her beforehand very beautiful such a shame. feet not done in ages (atleast 6 months when i was there probably a year now). im sure shots/coggins/etc isnt done either. tried to help with rainrot issues, gave her baths etc used what was on farm. he refused to ask vet for advice on the issue/get medicine. Nice mare.
ALI – 3/4 yr old TB bay mare: has EPM or some sort of brain issue. he refuses to spend the money to get her tested or to put her down (because he also doesnt want to pay to get her body off the property). she has lots of marks on her legs. shes also skinny. feet not done in ages (atleast 6 months when i was there probably a year now). im sure shots/coggins/etc isnt done either. Sweetie little girl.
JAXXON – Older appendix (?) chestnut gelding: his weight is ok just needs to get in shape. has feet issues needs front shoes (which he refuses to do). has some rainrot issues. Feet was done while i was there but i had to repeatedly tell him and tell him, and he never listened to me he only finally got it done because his daughter told him to. feet not done in ages until that time (atleast 6 months when i was there and probably hasnt been done since he did it done when i was there). im sure shots/coggins/etc isnt done either, i tried to pretty him up while i was there (bath, tried to take care of the rainrot stuff with stuff that was on farm). Sweet guy. I got on him a few times (didnt do much due to the feet just mostly walked around) would be a nice lesson horse once in shape.
6 TB BROADMARES: Skinny, feet not done in FOREVER (atleast 6months when I was there probably a year now). Kinda feralish. Noone works with them (i wanted to but no health insurance couldnt risk it). All pretty much sweet can touch their face and stuff but thats about it need lots of work. feet not done in ages (atleast 6 months when i was there probably a year now). im sure shots/coggins/etc isnt done either, skinny, hadn’t seemed to be groomed in ages/never groomed. Hopefully none of them end up pregnant this year.
BAY TB STALLION: Out with the broadmares. Should not be bred (mainly because brooke has NO horse exp/sense/knowledge and this horse never won a race in his life yeah brooke thinks hes a racehorse trainer or something). feet not done in ages (atleast 6 months when i was there probably a year now). im sure shots/coggins/etc isnt done either, skinny, hadn’t seemed to be groomed in ages/never groomed. Well behaved for a stud.
RAZZELS 25 YR OLD CHESTNUT ARAB STUD: Hes the worst out of them all. Skinny. Always has dirrehea i gave him some um stuff to put in feed (forget what the stuff was called) it was for horses who eat sand (since theres no grass) that helped alot but it still always went back to dirrehea. His nose is sunburned (i helped by putting him out at night instead of during day and put lotion on). Brooke talked about breeding him (haha.. yeah). feet not done in ages (atleast 6 months when i was there probably a year now). im sure shots/coggins/etc isnt done either, hadn’t seemed to be groomed in ages but i gave him a few baths while I was there to try and pretty him up a bit. Like a big puppy dog.
4 YEARLING/ALMOST 2 YRS TBS: All girls. Feet not done. was attempted to by a girl while I was there but since they are NEVER worked with it was basically impossible to do. I was able to put halters on 3 out of 4 of them .. but thats it. you can sorta work with them while in pasture (except feet) but if u take him out forget it .. they need tons and tons of work. All seem fairly sweet though (except the little bay with no markings whos extremely shy). think the chestnut has club foot. im sure shots/coggins/etc isnt done either, lil bit skinny, hadn’t seemed to be groomed in ages/never groomed.
SPARTAN BAY W/ WHITE STRIP ON FACE TB GELDING: Nice horse, its a shame. Skinny. extremely bad feet so bad hes lame/limping. probably wasnt done in over 6 months when i was there (a year now if it hasnt been done since i left which it most likely hasnt been). Trained far as i know (i think he was used as lesson horse when ex gf was on farm). This horse is/was owned by farm owners ex gf. shots/coggins/etc is most likely not utd, needs grooming. Sweet.
GOOSE BAY TB GELDING: Bad feet, skinny, needs grooming. Guess he was a racehorse or something. im sure shots/coggins/etc isnt utd. Very sweet guy. needs to be clipped(?)
PRINCE BAY W/ MARKINGS ARAB CROSS (?) GELDING: His weight is good (atleast when i was there). This guy is used for “lessons”. But feet didnt look like it had been done in ages when i was there (very bad if youre giving lessons). Needs training work but does have show potential. Sweet guy (but kinda hard to catch him in paddock at times – need to bribe him lol). Im sure shots/coggins/etc isnt utd. Can jump.
DANTE BAY W/ MARKINGS ARAB GELDING: His weight is good (when i was there). Feet not done. Has show potential but needs training. Very sweet guy total lovebug. Im sure shots/coggins/etc isnt/hasnt been done. Colics easily.
WHITE ARAB MARE: 20 yrs old or so (forget her name). Skinny. Needs eye stuff (their a bit runny/watery). feet not done in ages (atleast 6 months when i was there probably a year now). im sure shots/coggins/etc isnt done either, skinny, hadn’t seemed to be groomed in ages/never groomed other than the bath i gave her. very sweet girl. Trained (?)
BENTLEY BAY GELDING WITH BLAZE: Trained/Needs work. Was a rescue/needs rescuing again of course. Bad feet/could use grooming etc. Im sure shots/coggins etc isn’t UTD. Nice horse though. Needs experienced rider. Not sure if he jumps.
SOPHIE BAY MARE: Age unknown (maybe about 9?). Trained but could use work. Weight OK when I was there. Needs to be clipped. feet not done in ages (atleast 6 months when i was there probably a year now). im sure shots/coggins/etc isnt done either. Can jump(?)
LITTLE BROWN/WHITE PONY: Older mare. Needs to be groomed/bathed and clipped very badly. Sweet little girl. No feed for this girl. feet not done in ages (atleast 6 months when i was there probably a year now). im sure shots/coggins/etc isnt done either, skinny.
SMALL CHESTNUT MARE W/ MARKINGS AND LIGHT MANE/TAIL: Usually out with the b/w pony. Very sweet. Has potential. Weight is OK (shes probably the fattest horse on property – maybe was pregnant?) She also gets no feed/hay just grass (if there was any grass).
6 ARAB MARES: They were taken off property by owner while i was there. Most of them their weight was ok, but hard to work with (except the chestnut mare i worked with her a bit and gave her bath). Never was groomed (their manes were in knots etc). Feet never done. shots probably not done either. One bay mare (MAIZY) was left behind at farm because brookes daughter had a hissy fit and wanted to keep her (even though this girl never ever ever rides and never ever ever is in barn unless its to “teach a lesson” that she really should not be teaching since she also has no horse experience).
BAY TB MARE: Think this mare was a racehorse. Age unknown maybe around 3-5yrs. Nice girl. feet not done in ages (atleast 6 months when i was there probably a year now). im sure shots/coggins/etc isnt done either, skinny, hadn’t seemed to be groomed in ages/never groomed.
OLDER SMALL QT HORSE CHESTNUT MARE: Small. Sweet. feet not done in ages (atleast 6 months when i was there probably a year now). im sure shots/coggins/etc isnt done either, VERY skinny, hadn’t seemed to be groomed in ages/never groomed.
NIKO (DR KNIGHT KLOUD) 11 YR OLD BLACK ARAB STUD: Black with 2 back socks and strip down face. Ok this horse is acutally mine. Its a realll long story. Um he came to farm in 08. Was one ladys horse she sold him to farm owners now ex gf. And i got him off of the ex gf. Have proof of everything. But the thing is Brooke wants to claim that the horse is his. The horse is “his” yet he tells animal services that he is mine and after i leave the farm him and his lawyer send me mail saying i owe him like $7000 in backboard/care since Nikos been on the property since 08. I know right … youre probably laughing now. Because when i left I tried to get him off property but cops had to be called. they just said go to court. I had a court date for july 24th but unfortunatly I could not make it – had some other things come up and had to move out of state prior to this date. So i had to not show up at the court for it. I know i would have won. But now that i think about it its probably cheaper to buy off my own horse then sue him (even tho niko isnt worth anything and brooke seems to think that the horses on property even the old ones are worth over 3,000$). But i can go on forever about this. Niko IS utd on shots. I spent $300 on him on shots and teeth floating etc. His coggins is/was good too. His feet was done while I was there but probably need to be done now. He was skinny when I got to farm. I fattened him up a little etc made him look awesome. Probably back to seeing ribs now. He does have STIFLE LOCK in left hind. I and other farm worker was doing alot of work with him (hes fairly untrained you can ride him with halter but he bucks at cantering and stuff), his stifle lock issue was improving … probably back to crap now if hes still on the property.
THERE IS/WAS OTHER HORSES WHILE I WAS THERE I JUST CAN’T REMEMBER THEM ALL. THIS IS JUST MOST OF THEM. YOU GET THE JIST THOUGH JUST FROM WHAT I HAVE WRITTEN.
THE FARM OWNER – BROOKE MCCAULEY
Brooke buys the cheapest hay and grain he can find. I mean if he could buy a bag of grain for lets say 6 bucks he’d do it … even if he realized that it had lets say glass shards in it, hed still use/buy it just because it was cheaper then other feed. Half the time there was never any hay. And these horses need hay since theres no grass. He buys the cheapest hay out there too. And he doesnt care really if its moldy/wet etc. But there was several times when i was there that there was no hay period for a while because he wont buy it. It seems like hes very money greedy. The other guy that worked on farm he can trim horses feet. He was willing to do feet for 10 bucks a horse. I think he had done a few prior to me coming there but then he stopped doing it because he never got paid. See brooke either refuses to buy something/get something done or he just never pays the people/person. Or in like in the cases of Jaxxons feet getting done (who needs to get done by a pro cuz he gets shoes) or incase of getting medicine for Keys rainrot issue.. he will be like “ok i will look around or ask a vet and get some medicine for her” or “ok i will call the farrier” … never gets done. He said OK to alot of things when I was there and it never happened. He wont spend 10 dollars on horses feet get done BUT he will spend $250 on a puppy for his daughter. Which is really dumb because the horses need their feet done alot more badly then she needs a puppy. Its not very nice to have lame horses walking around. When u meet him, he will put on a act he will seem very nice. I thought he was nice when I first met him. Then a week or two went by and i was like “ahhh crap”. Especially when i started talking to the other boarders and other people (WHICH BY THE WAY ALL BOARDERS (LIKE 4) IN EXCEPTION OF CARYL LEFT WITHIN THE FIRST WEEK OR TWO THAT I WAS THERE – AND THEY ALL CAME IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT TO TAKE THEIR HORSES OUT BECAUSE THEY DIDNT WANT TO DEAL WITH BROOKE). I could have left. I could have driven to NJ to monmouth park, but I had too much of the “you got to settle down” thing on my mind and i didnt want to leave the horses because im the type that wants to fix things make things better. Plus finding another job was pain too since like I said i never found one (or atleast not the right one). Brooke even got to the point where he was telling me who I could talk to and who I couldn’t talk to. NO JOKE. I know this isnt part of the horse neglect thing but it just shows hes a bit.. off. He mainly didnt want me talkin to the 6 arab mares owner (nikos previous owner) and to his ex gf. The owners to the 6 arab mares came to the farm to get something that was hers (halters or something for her arab mares) and he saw her and started freakin out and yelling at me. Thats when i knew… i had to get out. Enough was enough. I dont know why he didnt want me talking to them. I guess maybe he was afraid that I would find out things that I shouldnt know? Not sure. But in his case you dont have to talk to anyone to realize that theres something wrong with him mentally. But as far as the horses go … he doesnt care about them at all… he pretends like he wants to find them good homes but then he wants like 3000 for them (BUT LIKE I SAID HE & HIS DAUGHTER HAVE NO HORSE EXPERIENCE/KNOWLEDGE/SENSE WHAT SO EVER- his ex gf was the one that did/does). I mean you could go to a slaughter house/kill pen whatever their called and find a horse thats in the same shape if not better shape for 100-600 dollars. He just doesnt get it and all he cares about is money and himself. In a way hes basically a HORDER. I watch animal cops when i can and u always see these little old ladies with 100 cats but they dont have the money to take care of them. In his case he has all these horses, I think he does have the money to get them taken care of he just doesnt care … same with the farm maintenance. Which is a real shame because the farm is in the most perfect spot ever it could be so nice. It being behind Canterbury horse park he could have so many boarders and riders etc if he did things right. He could be making money instead of not making money. I so wish i had money to buy the place off of him (even though he wants like 3 million for it and its probably not even worth 50k with the condition its in). I dont hate him … i just shake my head and think its a shame.
And YES .. animal services was/is called ALOT on him. They were out there every week when I was there. I reported him and others reported him. Unfortunatly it did no good – they didn’t ever do anything really when I was there – they would come out every week, talk to brooke a bit and leave. I guess Brooke has them in his pocket or something I dont know … guess these cops rather eat donuts then actually do something.
The website for this farm is totally false advertisement (www.westendequestrian.com). None of the people that are said to work there actually work there they probably did previously but most likely quit. No horses are being trained by anyone period. The pics of the farm and the horses were obiviously taken when the farm was first bought or something because the farm looks complete opposite of that (and sadfully he has only had this farm for a few years its amazing how run down the farm could get in that little time). So dont let the website fool you! The only thing that is accurate is the address and phone number.
NEW: Apparently this guy has some new people working for him .. or new girlfriend whatever. One by the name of Laura Beikes and one is Jeanette. Him and or these girls have posted for sale ads for the horses on craigslist … ocala4sale/gainesville4sale.com … floridahorse.com (as well as job opening ads). Needless to say its all inaccurate SHIT. Them saying that these horses are beginner safe etc etc is totally off .. theres only ONE beginner safe horse on the property and thats JAXXON. Everyone else (atleast for those who are rideable) needs a intermediate/advanced rider. Horses like PRINCE … who occasionally will throw riders off … should not be called beginner safe. Saying that the 4 TB yearlings thats there (well 2 year olds now this year) that they are easy to handle when they have no training what so ever .. you can put a halter on 3 of them and thats about it (one of them probably has had less handling then the other 3) … one of them has a club foot. Saying these horses are utd on shots … that they’re sound etc is off because a horse limping/that is lame is obiviously not sound. Why does this man lie? I mean if a person comes over to check these horses out they will see the complete opposite by just looking at them … and will know they’re not beginner safe if they try out the horse and get thrown off … or in like the TB broadmares case they can just handle them on ground and see that they are not beginner safe etc (since the tb broadmares are basically kinda feralish since noone handles them). And depending on the horse… he wants $1500 each for the 2 yr old tbs … 1700$ for Spartan (whos not sound), $500 for the tb broadmares, etc etc … its like dude .. with the condition these horses are in (feet not being done in 6+ – a year), skinny, not groomed, not trained/properly trained, etc) .. none of them are worth over $1. Dude is so money greedy its ridiculous! But other than only caring about money/himself its also of him having 0 horse experience (as well as his daughter).
I don’t know why alachua animal services isn’t doing anything. They obiviously need to be fired for not doing anything. I have emailed FL horse protection and never got a response from them. What the hell is going on? I mean they rescue 50 or more horses in Ocala from Trackside Farm yet not these guys? Like stop stuffing your face with donuts and get into your cop car and do something for once!
Anyway for more info/facebook page/pictures please contact me ….