# Horses per acre?



## wetrain17 (May 25, 2011)

Wow. My county requires 1.5 acres for one horse and one acre for each additional horse. Personally, I dont put more than 4 horses on my ten acre field, and have one dry lot for the "easy keeper" I wouldnt put 5 horses on 2.5 acres, but I've seen a lot worse. My friend kept her horse at a place that had 16 horses on about 2-3 acres. The BO's hay bill was outrageous. For me, its just not worth it. I think they should have room to move and run around a little. 5 horses on 3 acres is doable, but practical/worthwhile? To each their own!


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## PaintHorseMares (Apr 19, 2008)

I see no problems...more horses just means more hay and mud. We have 3 pasture areas (5 acres total). The main one has their round bale and the associated foot traffic/mud around it. We turn our 4 mares out, morning only, in one of the other 2 in order to keep the grass going.


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## Cat (Jul 26, 2008)

The horses per acre differs per region - if you want the land to maintain the animals for part of the year. Some regions can handle more horses per acre than others. Also sometimes county laws come into play as to how many horses per acre are allowed.

If you are not restricted by your county and you don't plan to use grass as a main food source then 5 acres per 2.5 acres is doable. In fact - that seems about norm (and sometimes worse) at boarding stables.

If you want any grass at all you will need a dry lot/sacrafice area and only allow them out on the other pastures for part of the day and rotate. This will allow you to maintain some grass, but you will still have to have their main feed source being hay. On the other hand if you only had 2-3 horses on 2.5 acres then the grass could be a larger portion of their diet due to less stress on the land. 

Its doable but the more horses per acre you have, the more time and maintenance is requuired.


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## maura (Nov 21, 2009)

I don't think this is workable. 

The zoning in my area is 3 acres for the first horse, an acre for each additional horse. 

I have 5 and a half acres split in two paddocks and 2 1/2 horses (the half is a 10.2H pony who weighs aprox. 350 pounds, he's really 1/3 of a horse), animals are out 24/7 and I rotate and drag pastures. I consider this the minimum to keep decent grass and not to have to pick manure, and I am in a warmer climate with a longer growing season than you. 

5 horses out in 2.5 acres, no matter how you rotate, are not going to have any grazing and are going to reduce each section to a dirt lot pretty quickly. And 1 bale among 5 horses per day is no where *near* enough forage, it should be 1/2 - 2/3 of a bale per day per horse. Or did I misunderstand and are you giving *each* horse an entire bale? 

Also, that number of horses in that small of an area will produce more manure than can be managed by dragging and rotating, you will have to pick manure out of the paddocks. 

To make this workable, you will either need to decrease horses, increase pasture acreage, stable the horses at night or all of the above. Even with intense pasture management, meaning "sacrifice" area, rotating, removing manure, seeding and fertilizing, I'm still not sure you'll end up with any grass with this many horses on that acreage.


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## Country Woman (Dec 14, 2011)

I would love to have room for a horse 
I would say 1.5 acres for 1 horse


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

Even if one has to feed year round, the area should be large enough that a horse can outrun, outmaneuver dogs that opt to give chase. Dogs allowed to run loose can be the greatest danger to horses in a semi urban setting.


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## PaintHorseMares (Apr 19, 2008)

maura said:


> And 1 bale among 5 horses per day is no where *near* enough forage, it should be 1/2 - 2/3 of a bale per day per horse. Or did I misunderstand and are you giving *each* horse an entire bale?


With 5 horses you're much better off feeding a round bale free choice....less expensive and easier to manage the grass available.


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## Corporal (Jul 29, 2010)

Your 5 horses will turn your acreage into dirt in about 30 days. EVEN in a good year, where I live where every seed dropped in the topsoil sprouts, you can't do it.


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## Rancher6 (May 9, 2012)

I'd say at least an acre a horse with good fodder...but they'll tear it up near the gate no matter how many acres they're on. Rotational grazing if possible.


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## Endiku (Dec 6, 2010)

We have a 35 acre farm with 39 (including three boarders, seperate pens) horses, Ofcourse, 24 of these are under 40" tall (miniature horses, donkeys, and a few ponies/shetlands), and we do not permit them to graze. All of our minis live on a dry lot with free choice hay and grain- and a short amount of grazing time in the summer and fall. 

Our farm is divided up into three group pastures, a quarentine stall, and three stud pens. The first group pasture is 3 acres and holds 9 miniature mares. It gets very muddy at times though.

The second group pasture is our full sized horses- its 14 acres and has our ten full sized mares and a filly. Its divided into three and we rotate it weekly. It isnt a dry lot.

Our other pasture is about 12 acres and has our mini geldings and full sized geldings in it. Thats seven full sized geldings and ten minis. Part of it is sacrifice lot, part is pasture. 

Stud pens (for one jack and two stud miniatures) are each 3/4 of an acre.

It works for us, but remember that one pasture is completely dirt and most of our horses are under 300 pounds. We also go through four round bales of hay a week. If you're wanting grazing land, theres no way that 2.5 acres is going to work. If you're willing to pay a lot for hay, go for it. If not, you need to really rethink this.


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## maura (Nov 21, 2009)

As far as hay, I feed good quality round bales that are 800 - 1000 lb each. I use a covered feeder to control waste, and from November - March when there's no nutrition in the grazing. I feed one every 10 days. So that's 80 - 100 lbs/day, or the equivelent of 1 1/2 - 2 square bales. For 2 horses and a tiny pony. Call it 2/3 a bale a day for each horse, and 1/3 bale or so for the pony. 

So I think you need to seriously rethink your hay estimate as well, unless you plan on feeding lots of beet pulp or some other sort of forage substitute.


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## calicokatt (Mar 5, 2012)

If the bales are 65 pounds, and the horses average 900 pounds at an ideal weight, then they are being fed approximately 1.5% of their body weight daily, which for a horse that is not a hard keeper is enough, especially as she said she also feeds grain. Without seeing the horses, I don't think its possible to say that she's underfeeding just from her statement.


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## maura (Nov 21, 2009)

??????

Nowhere did I, or anyone else say, that she was underfeeding. 

As I understand her original post, she's asking if her hypothetical future pasture and feeding plan were adequate. 

Again, as I understood it, she was saying she was planning on feeding *one* 65 -75 pound bale per day for 5 horses turned out 24/7 on 2.5 acres and being fed grain one time per day. 

Since 5 horses on 2.5 acres will mean no useful grazing or forage, I am saying that the proposed hay isn't adequate. I stand by that. If she is, in fact, saying she's feeding one bale *per horse per day* then the hay is adequate, but the rest of the proposed situation is still not workable. 

If it's the lower amount of hay, and they're only being grained once per day, even with beet pulp or other forage extenders, it's still an iffy plan because you'll have extended periods when the horses have nothing in their digestive tracts. 

If I've misread the OP's original post; or if I misunderstood what was being proposed about hay; then I'll revise my opinion.

ETA: Check your math. A 65 # bale is 7% of a 900 # horse's body weight. And the 65# bale divided 5 ways is 13# per horse, or 1.4% of body weight - still not enough forage, IMO and IME.


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## dbarabians (May 21, 2011)

How many units per acre you can have is up to the area that you live in.
A unit = a cow/calf or horse.
I do not like to have my horses crowded and allow 2 acres per horse.
That many horses on that small a place will not allow any grazing.
Even dividing it and rotating pens will not allow the grass to recover.
We feed 1 bale of hay per 4 horses of good quality hay from late Nov. to early Mar. Plus grain and our horses maintain thier weight.
The older horses and pregnant mares get more grain. None get more than 3 scoops divided in the morning and afternoon. Good luck Shalom


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## Cat (Jul 26, 2008)

maura said:


> ETA: Check your math. A 65 # bale is 7% of a 900 # horse's body weight. And the 65# bale divided 5 ways is 13# per horse, or 1.4% of body weight - still not enough forage, IMO and IME.


Minimum forage requirements on a horse is 1% to keep the gut healthy. Depending on if the horses are easy or hard keepers, quality of hay, and how much grain is fed 1-3% is typically what is required to maintain the body weight of a horse. 

This year I fed rounds, but in past years when I fed squares I never fed more than 1.5% per horse unless it was really cold out. In fact, in order to keep my haflinger in ideal weight and not too "fluffy" I really need to keep him closer to 1-1.25% and no additional grain unless he is being regularly ridden. 

So without knowing her horses there is no way to say that is not adequate - especially for hot weather forage. Winter time I would suggest feeding a bit more. 

BTW - I have 5 acres and that includes the land our house and barn is on. I've had up to 7 horses here. It takes a lot more time and management but it can be done and you can still have grass. And if you have a sacrifice area (i.e. an area of dirt where they can be most of the time and tear up with still room to work up a trot) then there is no reason to stall because the sacrifice area works just as well. And the person before me had 13 horses here. I'm now down to 3 and its much easier but adding a 4th here shortly.

There is also a book out there called Horsekeeping on a small Acreage. Its a wonderful guide on how to do it. Totally different than how to manage a large acreage.


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## equiniphile (Aug 16, 2009)

I don't think you could manage a pasture that size with that number of horses and keep the grass growing strong. I have 7 acres of grass and 4 horses plus 3 miniatures. They stay in a large dirt pasture with free access to stalls but are put out on grass daily. We rotate the four grass pastures.


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## Speed Racer (Oct 21, 2009)

Depending on your zoning ordinances, this could all be moot.

Some places will let you have up to 3 horses on 2 acres, but other places require 10 acres for _any_ kind of livestock. There are 5 acre requirements, 3 acre, and sometimes depending on the ag zoning you can have up to 10 units (horses/cattle/sheep/goats) per acre.

Your first step is to check your zoning ordinances. If your area isn't zoned for what you want to do you can always petition for a zoning change, but it'll cost you upwards of $300 just to bring it before the zoning board, with no guarantee of success.

I currently live in a designated agricultural zoning area so can have as many horses as I want on my 5 acre property. However, for various reasons I'm looking to move, so have been trying to find the zoning requirements for horses in certain areas. 

It's not just that each state is different, but each _county_ within the state can have differing zoning requirements and restrictions, and you can't count on what one county deems appropriate usage if you're moving to another one.


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## caseymyhorserocks (Apr 5, 2010)

Pasture land? Then no. Unless you graze them for 3 hours.. Everywhere I have been if you want to keep your horse out 24/7 you need a minimum of 2 acres. Dry lot? Yes.. And it probably will turn into a dry lot.


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## calicokatt (Mar 5, 2012)

maura said:


> And 1 bale among 5 horses per day is no where *near* enough forage, it should be 1/2 - 2/3 of a bale per day per horse.


^This is what I was referencing, but maybe I misunderstood what you were saying, or read something into it that you didn't mean. 

The way I read the OP was that she was already feeding this regimen, already had this number of horses, and they were already on this amount of land, I didn't think it was a hypothetical situation.


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## usandpets (Jan 1, 2011)

Is it doable? Yes. Like others have said, you'll need to have one area as a sacrifice area, wich will end up dirt. The other two can be grazed on but they will mow it down quickly if left on there for more than an hour or two a day. Our six horses mowed a two acre pasture down in just a few days. That became their sacrifice/dry lot. 

Now we have two more horses, total of eight on about five acres. That also includes the house and hay shed and whatever else. We have three other small pastures that they mow down with only being on them for just an hour or so a day. So yes it can be done. They just will have to eat mainly hay with little grazing. 

As for the hay, I agree one bale for all five is not enough. One per horse would be more than enough. We feed about the same size bales and ours eat 3 to 4 a day in warmer weather and 5 to 6 in the winter. About 1/3 to 1/2 bale/horse in the summer and 1/2 to 2/3 in the winter.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## PaintHorseMares (Apr 19, 2008)

Considering all the opinions in this thread, I want to follow up on my previous post to show how we operate our small place. We have 4 mares on 5 acres, divided into 3 pastures.

1) Most important. They have a free choice round bale (~800 lbs) of quality fescue/orchard available at all times, and this is their _main source of food_. It lasts between 6-7 days in the winter to 3+ weeks in summer.
2) The pastures for grazing have benefits other than nutrition. It gives them a variety of forage and keeps them moving and busy, good for the feet, gut, and mind. It also keeps me from having to mow all that.
3) The mares 'live' in the main pasture, and we limit access to the other 2 to 4-5 hours a day.
4) How much grass/forage you can maintain is _very dependent on your location and weather_. Where we are, feeding hay and limiting grazing to 4-5 hours a day keeps them from becoming dry lots/mud pits.
5) Our pastures are 'natural', i.e. not seeded or fertilized and have plenty of weeds/less palatable grass. Again, the good side is that this keeps the mares moving and busy rather than standing in one spot eating lush grass all day. I do mow the stuff they don't eat to prevent it from choking out the 'good' grasses.
6) Even their main pasture maintains enough ground cover to keep it from being muddy/dry lot except for the area around their round bale and shelter. In practice, the most 'destruction' is from the horse foot traffic, not over grazing.

Main (24x7) pasture (before mowing the spring pesky buttercups)










The 'sacrifice' area around their round bale (just out of the pic on the left) in the main pasture.










The 2 limited access pastures



















As you can see, they are not lush grass pastures, but they are not dry lots or mud pits, and the mares are ready at the gate every morning to get turned out in them and enjoy their grazing.

Bottom line...with the _right climate and management_ it can be done _if you feed hay_, and it is _not hard_ to do/maintain.

BTW, in our county, there are no government limits/restrictions on farms animals/acre. Some areas do have HOAs and/or covenants/deed restrictions that may impose limits.


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## maura (Nov 21, 2009)

FWIW, I've never used the percentage of body weight method for determining amounts of forage and concentrates. 

I prefer to feed free choice forage/hay and supplement with concentrates only as needed per the individual horse's work schedule and metabolism. However, my preferred method doesn't mean it's the only method, or the only good and workable method. I just hate, hate, hate to ration or limit forage. Doesn't mean it can't be done and still result in healthy horses.


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## dbarabians (May 21, 2011)

I'm with maura on this one. Most of our horses are fed hay in conjunction with grazing. Or they have access to round bales, To ensure they are getting all they need we supplement with grain that is at least 6% fat.
Senior and pregnant mares get 8%.
However we do not overgraze our pastures. We also plant winter rye for forage. Shalom


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## karliejaye (Nov 19, 2011)

If you have a land grant university in your area, check with their extension agent. They will be able to help you understand the details of your particular microclimate. The Soil and Water Conservation District may offer some help as well, depending on their focus in your area.
Getting someone knowledgeable to your area in particular to come out and see the land first hand is better than throwing out hypothetical situations via the internet where people have great knowledge of their own areas, but not necessarily yours


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## karliejaye (Nov 19, 2011)

For example, I grew up in Western Oregon, where it rains a lot and the soil holds water well. A 5 acre pasture easily maintained 8 horses. I am in central Oregon now where the precip is around 9 inches per year. There is no way in hell I could put 8 horses on 5 acres even with an irrigation system here because the soil is only about 18 inches deep and full of sand and ash, which does not hold water even for a week in the heat with wind.

Even just 120 miles away, the situation can vary greatly. Please get local advise.


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## karliejaye (Nov 19, 2011)

sorry to post 3 in a row, but here are some resources available in Wisconsin:

Wisconsin Land and Water Conservation Association, Inc.

UWEX Cooperative Extension--County Offices


Best of luck!


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## busysmurf (Feb 16, 2012)

I'm back:wink: As far as the current feed situation/health of our current herd...VERY healthy. Vet is very happy w/ Odie's (hardest keeper) condition. He's the oldest, arthritic, and on the bottom of the pecking order, but has good weight and coat/skin condition. And yes, we do increase what they get fed during the winter to adjust for the lack of grass.

Right now, 5 horses on the 2.5 acres is a hypethetical. There's 4 currently, and the 2 grass fields are good, as we have the 3rd sacrificial field (dry lot). 

I tried talking to dad last night & got shot down I'm just sick of having horses on opposite sides of the county, and if I had them together I could get Odie out more. Not that he's complaining, he loves retirement!

As for the book "horses on small acreage" I think my parents have that around somewhere, I'll have to go look for it.

I've been lucky in the past, in that I've "managed" larger barns where I always kept my horse. So determining #horses per acre was never an issue. 

It's amazing what you realize you've never had to deal w/ after 25 of dealing with a lot:lol:

Oh, yeah. We would *LOVE* to use round bales!!! We just don't have a way to get one there, unload it, and get it in the field. But I'm working on it


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## Cat (Jul 26, 2008)

maura said:


> FWIW, I've never used the percentage of body weight method for determining amounts of forage and concentrates.
> 
> I prefer to feed free choice forage/hay and supplement with concentrates only as needed per the individual horse's work schedule and metabolism. However, my preferred method doesn't mean it's the only method, or the only good and workable method. I just hate, hate, hate to ration or limit forage. Doesn't mean it can't be done and still result in healthy horses.


See - that all depends on the horses in your care. I would LOVE to feed free choice hay/pasture but when I tried it my haflinger ended up with a cresty necked blimp.


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## BigGirlsRideWarmbloods (Mar 28, 2010)

Our country requires 1 acre per horse or "livestock unit" theres a table of animals other than horses, BUT if you implement some best practices like creating well drained sacrafice areas, have a manure management plan and develop a farm plan you can get a waiver to get 2 or 3 live stock units per acre. They also provide cost sharing programs if you want to implement any of these things so I would def see if your area has a similar program.


Check out their website for really good information on how to keep animals on small acerage: King Conservation District Home
Also: Horses For Clean Water


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