# horse on 1 acre?



## catsandhorses (Aug 6, 2011)

We're in the early stages of looking around for a horse property. If we find something in town it could very likely be on a 1 acre property. That would include our house. I know this creates challenges with turn out and grazing. Does anyone here keep a horse on a very small property? How do you manage it?


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## Joe4d (Sep 1, 2011)

lots of hay, lots of poop scooping, Id look for something bigger or you are gonna have an acre of mud. Even a 2 acre field supplemented with hay can keep growing grass.


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## Cruiser (Aug 28, 2011)

I have a horse with a half acre field. It is really wet here so I don't turn out when the pasture would be mud. She has a 60 by 30? dry lot with her run in, inside of that. I use temporary fence and let her graze a section than back in the lot at night. And so on. With a 15.2 hh horse I've had grazing every day for her through late summer to fall, I have grazing from May, to November depending on the weather (this depends on where you live). I clean up two times a day, and make sure she gets lot of exercise (the field is also my arena).

Mind you I have another 1/2 field and an acre field I can rent if I want to or my field doesn't produce enough. Also when I let her out to graze, I fence off a strip about 20 wide and as long as I can make it, that way she can get a good canter in if she wants. 

It is really worth the money to make a good dry lot before it is mud, with some sort of barrier than a small gravel, it is expensive at first but your horse won't be standing it mud.


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## catsandhorses (Aug 6, 2011)

We actually live in the desert. So mud is only an issue for about 1 month during the rainy season. The bigger challenge is growing grass! It just requires a huge water bill. Can I just put bins of hay out in a smaller turnout pasture that is dirt? That way he can run around, but he would graze on hay rather than grass.


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## iridehorses (Oct 22, 2007)

Have you considered the neighbors, the smell, and the flies as well? 1 acre including your house is not enough. Can it be done, yes, but it isn't going to be the proper thing to do regardless of someone else doing it.


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## Cruiser (Aug 28, 2011)

If your in an arid place, it may not be worth the money to spend on trying to grow grass, but hanging hay in nets or having hay spread out in the paddock for the horse to walk about.

Like IRideHorses says make sure you can get rid of the manure, I personal have a large garden and use all of the manure, you probably can find someone that will take it off property. 

Good luck


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## AQHA13 (Apr 19, 2017)

My neighbor does it! She has an awesome set-up, but her house isn't very large. I'll try to sketch the layout she has for you.


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## catsandhorses (Aug 6, 2011)

iridehorses said:


> Have you considered the neighbors, the smell, and the flies as well? 1 acre including your house is not enough. Can it be done, yes, but it isn't going to be the proper thing to do regardless of someone else doing it.


Yes, there are housing communities and properties zoned for horses and those that are not. So we would only consider a zoned horse property near neighbors who also had horses. Fly control would be a consideration and I assume there are things I can purchase to put around the stall and around areas where flies might accumulate?

This is all incredibly helpful feedback so please keep it coming! THere is only so much I can learn from a book .


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## catsandhorses (Aug 6, 2011)

AQHA13 said:


> My neighbor does it! She has an awesome set-up, but her house isn't very large. I'll try to sketch the layout she has for you.


I would be SO grateful if you would!!!:hug:


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## catsandhorses (Aug 6, 2011)

Cruiser said:


> If your in an arid place, it may not be worth the money to spend on trying to grow grass, but hanging hay in nets or having hay spread out in the paddock for the horse to walk about.
> 
> Like IRideHorses says make sure you can get rid of the manure, I personal have a large garden and use all of the manure, you probably can find someone that will take it off property.
> 
> Good luck


My husband seems to enjoy gardening so maybe this would be a way to reduce the manure. But to use it ALL? I'd say we'd need a pretty big garden?!


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## Cruiser (Aug 28, 2011)

Yeah my gardens aren't that big, but I live it is marsh (think peat moss it doesn't grow anything because it is to wet), or rock (used to raise peoples properties out of the marsh and bogs), so I have to "make" my own soil out of manure, old hay, shavings and saw dust as well as good old sea weeds and eel grass. All my beds are raised as well. 

Manure once dried and composted is only 20 percent (something like that) organic material, the rest is water so I need a lot.


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## Tianimalz (Jan 6, 2009)

A couple pet free-roaming chickens make for great fly control. Just a suggestion if it's possible to look into for you... I live out in the country, so nobody really cares if we have chickens running around LOL. They tend to stay in a certain area anyways.


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## AQHA13 (Apr 19, 2017)

I tried to make it as true to size as possible. My diagram is representative of an are just under one acre in size and each square represents 7ft. Even though she has 2 small horses on 1 acre, she has virtually no flies, because she is constantly picking up manure and old shavings, and then puts them in a dumpster to be hauled away.

If you can't read something just let me know! I'll be happy to explain it to you. 

LINKS:
http://oi40.tinypic.com/2j0gyrt.jpg

http://oi42.tinypic.com/307rwp3.jpg


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## AQHA13 (Apr 19, 2017)

Just a side note, My parents just got back from a 3week vacation in Ireland!  A MR. O'BRIEN gave them an old horseshoe from his foxhunting cob. He owns a Bed and Breakfast by St. Patrick's Rock of Cashel.


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## catsandhorses (Aug 6, 2011)

AQHA13 said:


> I tried to make it as true to size as possible. My diagram is representative of an are just under one acre in size and each square represents 7ft. Even though she has 2 small horses on 1 acre, she has virtually no flies, because she is constantly picking up manure and old shavings, and then puts them in a dumpster to be hauled away.
> 
> If you can't read something just let me know! I'll be happy to explain it to you.
> 
> ...


This is awesome! There is even room for a pool!! Thanks for posting this!!!


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## AQHA13 (Apr 19, 2017)

catsandhorses said:


> This is awesome! There is even room for a pool!! Thanks for posting this!!!


You are very welcome! Let me know if you have any Questions, or like I said, if you can't read something!


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## caseymyhorserocks (Apr 5, 2010)

I think AQHA's neighbors setup is great! I think thats one of the best setups. Hey, you mentioned watering a field is obviously to expensive, what about just watering like say, a 20 by like 20 area? Then you can give your horse just a little hand grazing time to enjoy some grass. Good luck ;-)


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## ponyboy (Jul 24, 2008)

OP, you should get the book _Horesekeeping on a Small Acreage._ It has layouts as small as 1/2 acre, plus a lot about manure composting.


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## maura (Nov 21, 2009)

OP, 

It is possible to do an excellent job keeping horses on small acreages, but the *key* thing to remember is the smaller the acreage, the more labor and cost intensive. If I were going to keep a horse on less than an acre in a arid climate, here's a couple of things that I would consider "must haves" -

Excellent quality fencing. Someone with good grazing and companion animals might get by with electro tape, but smaller acreages require excellent, secure fencing because the animals are much more likely to challenge the fence. 

Cross fencing. You need to divide the are into 2, 3 or even 4 grazing areas to manage the mud and mess. One of the areas needs to be a "sacrifice" area that the horse goes out on in bad weather, the others need to be managed carefully to maintain some limited grazing. 

Manure removal or composting. Even if you know a very serious gardener, on 1 acre, you will need a very well maintained manure compost pit or regular manure removal. The smell of the manure composting other than in a well maintained pit will be ... interesting. 

Reliable sources for hay and bedding and storage for both. This is a tough balance. You can either pay more for regular small deliveries of both products, or sacrifice some of your precious space for storage. 

Another area close by for exercise, or a truck and trailer to haul somewhere for exercise. A horse will not get its basic exercise needs met wandering a 1/4 or 1/2 acre paddock. 

A tiny companion animal, like a mini goat. Most horses just don't do well by themselves, while there are exceptions, I would try to find a tiny, low maintenence companion animal. 

For me, in the SE US, it made much more economic sense to buy a larger property and have lower horse maintenence cost and labor. But that's me, and the SE US - your mileage will definitely vary.


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## catsandhorses (Aug 6, 2011)

ponyboy said:


> OP, you should get the book _Horesekeeping on a Small Acreage._ It has layouts as small as 1/2 acre, plus a lot about manure composting.


I bought this book at the recommendation of someone on these boards and it is excellent! I didn't see anything about a place under 2 acers, however. I'll def. go back and look again! Thanks!


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## ponyboy (Jul 24, 2008)

Hmm, it might have been an older version I had. I borrowed it from the library... no sense buying it since I don't have a horse property. I read it cover to cover though.


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## catsandhorses (Aug 6, 2011)

ponyboy said:


> Hmm, it might have been an older version I had. I borrowed it from the library... no sense buying it since I don't have a horse property. I read it cover to cover though.


 I found it!  Thanks again!


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