# Horse keeping in a flood plain



## Frieda (May 17, 2014)

I'm planning on moving and am looking at a place that is partially floodplain. I know nothing about horse keeping in that type of environment (I spent most of my adult life in Arizona!)

There's about 10 acres where the house is that's high and dry, and 30 acres that is flood plain. 

I would want to be able to consider boarding horses on the property.

Is it feasible to keep horses on property that may flood a few times a year? What do I need to know? 

What questions do I need to ask?

What don't I know that I don't know???


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## NBEventer (Sep 15, 2012)

When I boarded at a barn in a flood zone we have an evacuation plan set for just in case situations. Roughly 80 percent of the property was flood prone so the BO had the area that didn't flood saved for flood season and we moved the horses to that area. But just in case the BO had arrangements with one of the show parks to relocate the horses there if the property was going to rise above flood levels.

We had a telephone chain set so she would call a few people then they would call others and so on so everyone could get to the barn to move the horses. In the 10 years she has been there there was only one time she came close to having to move everyone. But it has yet to happen. I haven't been there in almost 6 years but I keep in touch with people and they said its been good so far.


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## Frieda (May 17, 2014)

Thanks, NB. That is great info. So being in a floodplain didn't put you and other boarders off?

I'm waiting for more info on how often and how much the property has tended to flood in the past.


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## NBEventer (Sep 15, 2012)

Nope! Her barn had a waiting list of boarders and she had 40 boarders at any given time. 

There is another barn local to me that has a full barn of boarders and they do usually end up evacuating every spring or are on notice for evacuation.


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## Chevaux (Jun 27, 2012)

If you're waiting for info, Frieda, I assume you've talked with the local zoning, planning and development agency? They'd be in the know with regard to statistics and more importantly what they will allow to be constructed and/or kept in the flood plain area. I suspect they would say you can build on your 10 acres (house, barn, etc.) but the only thing allowed in the flood plain would be fencing and perhaps a shelter. If that is the case and the 10 acres is indeed high and dry, your set up would have to be designed to accommodate all the horses in that space until the water recedes.


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## Frieda (May 17, 2014)

Chevaux said:


> If you're waiting for info, Frieda, I assume you've talked with the local zoning, planning and development agency? They'd be in the know with regard to statistics and more importantly what they will allow to be constructed and/or kept in the flood plain area. I suspect they would say you can build on your 10 acres (house, barn, etc.) but the only thing allowed in the flood plain would be fencing and perhaps a shelter. If that is the case and the 10 acres is indeed high and dry, your set up would have to be designed to accommodate all the horses in that space until the water recedes.


It's very rural. The county only cares where you build a house, not agricultural buildings.


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## kenda (Oct 10, 2008)

I've lived in a flood plain and boarded in one. In the boarding situation the barn and arenas and small paddocks were built on a high spot that was mostly gravel footing. The barn itself was actually another 3' above the ground level with a concrete ramp. The fields would flood whenever the rain got heavy and would stay pretty mucky throughout the winter.

The potential to have to evacuate my horse if the water got to high did not put me off as a boarder as I've lived in this area for 25 years and only once has their been talk of the kind of heavy flooding that would require evacuation, however if the barn had no turn out options when the fields were submerged and my horse would be stuck in the barn all winter, that would put me off for sure. Same goes for use of the arena.


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## SueNH (Nov 7, 2011)

I live on a flood plain. My house stays high and dry but most of my field has gone under several times since I've lived here.

I'm surrounded on 3 sides by water, bend in a small river and a stream. The river and stream have flooded enough where I've become an Island.

I now have temp fencing where I can block the horses in the back yard directly behind my house if I have too. I can have it up in minutes. I often put it up and call them to come graze and just chill. They come when I call now because its a safe, relaxing zone.

The worst is winter flooding. Just above me there is a spot in the river where an ice jam forms often. One year the river backed up behind it enough to jump the road headed off down the hill on the road using as a second river bed. The town popped a hole in the snow banks and it sent the river into my yard with all its chunks of ice. I woke at dawn to the sound of the river just outside my house. My horses had made it to high ground (just barely high enough) out back. My goats had to be evacuated by the fire department in wet suits with a boat. Most of my poultry drown. Sad part is the highway dept. did the same exact thing a few weeks later when the river started flooding again. This time neighbors warned me the highway dept was going to do it again and I got all the animals up behind the house.
Heavy rains can make the river and stream flash flood into the field. I watch the weather like a hawk. The worst part of the flooding is flash flooding and it's down to soggy ground in a day or two.

I don't really have a plan beyond the temp fencing. When I flood I become an island. There is a piece of property across the street from me that is a big hill, that has been cleared but no house yet. If I need to put the horses up there I will and trespassing be ****ed. But the owner seems reasonable and I think he'd understand. Phone and power fail here often enough where I can't count on it and have to be ready to do it myself.

My husband was thinking when he built my barn. The field can be real wet in the spring. He set pieces of telephone poles in the ground and put the sills on that to prevent it from rotting out fast. That leaves a gap of 4-6 inches at the bottom but I bank sawdust around the gaps in late fall to block the winter winds. Works very well. If I had the money a cement foundation that went up an extra course would have worked against the worst flooding. I've been here about 12 yrs now and I've flooded some every other year. Highest was water that was probably to my hips. The clean up is no picnic either. You would think with an active river current moving through the wet sawdust would float away. No such luck. The river seems to leave most of it and deposits a bunch of mud on top of it in the barn. Makes for some very heavy cleaning.

My house is over 250 yrs old. No signs of it ever flooding on it's little knoll.

No such thing as zoning or planning here. None.


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## JCnGrace (Apr 28, 2013)

If you haven't bought the property yet I would keep looking for another place. My first place wasn't in a flood plain but it sat low and all the rain water drained onto it. It was a pain to deal with.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

Most of the UK is like a floodplain in the winter!!
As long as you're prepared to put up with the higher numbers of mosquitos and flies that always get attracted to wetlands you'll be OK if you have a firm evacuation policy and space to keep all the horses and exercise them if you have to take them off the land for any considerable length of time. 
Any boarders would have to understand that they would likely never have 24/7 turnout and you'd have to work out who would be responsible for giving the horses some daily workout and where if the land got too wet to turn them out


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## karliejaye (Nov 19, 2011)

I would highly encourage you to make most of the area the horses will be on the 10 acres that are high and dry. Pastures can be set up on the flood plain for use ONLY when they are not inundated with water. This is for the health of the soil (and thus the pasture grass health and vigor) and for the hooves.
Also make sure your manure pile is out of the flood plain to avoid contaminating the water table and/or surface waters. You could get major fines depending on your state statutes. 
It is plausable, but you will need to do a lot of careful management.


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## karliejaye (Nov 19, 2011)

Also, if you have access to a soil and water conservation district, or a university extension office, they may have some great tips and could possibly (depending on workload) help plan a layout to keep the horses and the land healthy!


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## GeorgiaGirl (Jun 16, 2014)

SueNH said:


> I live on a flood plain. My house stays high and dry but most of my field has gone under several times since I've lived here.
> 
> I'm surrounded on 3 sides by water, bend in a small river and a stream. The river and stream have flooded enough where I've become an Island.
> 
> ...


Wow! A 250 y.o. house?!!! How cool is that?!!


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## SueNH (Nov 7, 2011)

In February it's very cool!

It's been in my husbands family since before the revolutionary war. Largely original and very drafty.


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## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

Make a map or ask the county if there is one that shows how water moves across your property and where it sits until absorbed if that is the case. Once you have that then you can arrange pasture and fencing as well as water sources for your horses in a flood. Know the highest it can/has gotten and prepare for the worst. All surrounding property drains across our property long ways splitting it in two. Pastures are set so we can close off sections if needed and all have water available in emergency situations in two sections water is provided by a neighbor. Those two are the last spots when water would actually be in the house and we would have to leave. It has only been that high once in the last 100 years and not while we have lived here though it has come close to the house. Have an evacuation plan in place if you need to go that route and my rec is not to have so many horses that you can't keep them comfortably on whatever you have set as your emergency pasture for an extended period; this of course would be including supplemental feed and hay.


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