# Where to fence...



## DraftyAiresMum (Jun 1, 2011)

We are moving to a new house and it's zoned for horses. We're talking about bringing Aires to the house once we have created a suitable place.

So, this is our property:


The top of the picture is roughly north. The property is just over an acre in total.

So, what we're thinking is that we can fence off the section on the south side. Use the arm on the south as part of the "pasture," then fence straight off the corner where the fence turns to the house (there's a double gate between that corner and the garage) to the back of the property (on the west). I was thinking put the shelter/"barn" right where the existing fence turns toward the garage, but put it on the inside of the pasture to keep the gate clear (like the back of the barn would create that part of the fence line heading toward the back of the property). Then, fence across from the west end of the barn to the south existing fence line and use the more western part as an arena of sorts, or as a separate turnout when we get a second horse.

Does this sound like a good plan? There are trees in the "arm" of the property that would be fenced off, which would be nice for shade/protection. I'm also looking at a double stall pre-fab shed for a barn.
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## Horseychick87 (Feb 5, 2014)

That plan sounds good to me.

Maybe you can load the picture onto paint or another program and draw out your plans in color to see how they look in a mock blueprint style. I always find that helpful.


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## Nickers2002 (Nov 25, 2009)

Without knowing where you well/septic is if you have them or any other land issues this is a rough idea of what I would do.

Red is fencing and yellow is the barn. I tried to follow where you were talking about putting it but I'm bad at reading things and then figuring where they are lol. If you want to upload a photo with circles or markers of what you had in mind I could modify it


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## karliejaye (Nov 19, 2011)

What direction does your winter wind predominately come from? And what is the existing fencing like? 
Assuming the Perimeter fences are safe, and that West winds are predominant, I drew up a little suggestion. I may have the perimeter wrong...kind of difficult to see exactly where the fences are


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## karliejaye (Nov 19, 2011)

Well and septic are VERY important considerations!


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## DraftyAiresMum (Jun 1, 2011)

I'm on my phone, so using Paint and such is impossible.

The perimeter fencing is 4-foot no-climb with a strand of barbed wire strung along the top. It is nice and tightly-strung.

Karlie's representation is the closest, but I can't take the entire property for "pasture". We can let Aires out to graze on the rest of the property once a week or so. Also, the shelter can't go there because that is at the bottom of a slight hill. 

Where Karlie has the "Pasture 2" access beginning off the dry lot is where the gate is. Directly north on the opposite side of the house is a second gate.

Nickers, where you have the barn is on the opposite side of where I was thinking of putting it. The side you have it on is slightly smaller than the other side, plus the neighbor on that side has his house closer to our fence line, whereas on the other side, it's further away.

I'll see if I can play with it tonight and figure something out to show what I mean.
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## DraftyAiresMum (Jun 1, 2011)

Ok, it's not great, but here it is.



Red is the existing fence line. Green is the proposed new fencing for the horse area. Blue is the barn. The large area to the right created by the new fencing would be the "arena"/dry lot. The barn would be fenced off from the pasture and the arena. The pasture area (to the right) is on a slight downhill and has a few decent-sized elm trees for shade.
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## Chevaux (Jun 27, 2012)

I'm curious about what is happening on the adjoining properties? Other livestock? Overly friendly children and/or busybodies that would like to visit with Aires?


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## DraftyAiresMum (Jun 1, 2011)

So far we've only seen two neighbors. The one behind us (to the west) is an older couple. The one to the north is a very friendly older couple with a fat black lab. Have yet to see the neighbors to the south. I've seen two people walking their dogs so far, both were very friendly. Haven't seen any kids, but two very nice boys found my boyfriend's phone in a ditch by the house and returned it to his mom (her number was the last to call the phone). 

There are other people with horses within a quarter mile radius. In fact, the lady I bought my new headstall, halter and sidepull from lives one street over and has two horses (a full Belgian mare and a WB cross mare). My best friend lives about a mile and a half to the southeast with her three horses.

I'm not overly worried about people saying hi. Aires has been boarded his entire life, so is used to cars, dogs and strange people. There's also not a lot of traffic on this road-mainly just the people who live on it.

Also, any access to the pasture, arena and barn would be through the gate next to the house (the red line between the barn and garage) and the dogs will be loose in that area (they are VERY protective of the property). If anyone wanted to go over the fence, there's barbed wire to contend with.
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## Phly (Nov 14, 2012)

What I see, just my preference, is you have your pasture on the "off" side of the house. The garage side, where there's no windows or even a way to check on the horse/horses without going outside. 

Me personally would pasture on the north end of the property and around the back. All visible from the house, keeps the garage from becoming a barn, and could just as easily be divided in 2. Put the shelter in the northeast corner between the pastures and done. 

But heck I don't even know what color my horses are. Lol


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## DraftyAiresMum (Jun 1, 2011)

Phly, I can't take that much of the property for the horse(s). Boyfriend already vetoed that. I don't mind having to go out to check on him, really.
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## stevenson (Sep 12, 2011)

I would put the hay shed near the driveway and garage - easy access. 
I would put the barn in the back behind the house in between the two pastures , and be able to have access for the horses to come in and out as they please , dutch doors in the back that could be left open or locked if needed to be stalled only. 
the area west of the garage and hay shed could be a dry turn out or arena. You would need to keep them fenced off from the back of the house .


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## DraftyAiresMum (Jun 1, 2011)

I'd love to take that much of the property for the horse(s), but it's just not possible. They'll be able to graze the majority of the property once a week or so, but I can't fence it off for pasture. We have two high energy 60lbs dogs who need space to run and play, too.
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## Phly (Nov 14, 2012)

I always forget that not everyone gets snow up to their elbows lol. 

Just figure in for sun shade and wind and you'll do just fine I'm sure.


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## stevenson (Sep 12, 2011)

You do not want animal Poo near your well . You do not want the horses over your septic or leach lines. if you are only on an acre, you have about 46,500 square ft , how many feet from the road is the house? How many feet from the exterior fence to the planned fence line. ? also what is the size of barn are you doing? are you just doing a rain /shade cover or box stalls ? I would do the rain /shade cover and have more money for fencing. You are in AZ and you will not have a lot grass in most months unless you are irrigating. the dogs will take lots less area than those horses. with the front yard fenced and the back yard fenced would be enough room for 2 60 lb dogs, and if you are out with the horses then dogs could go with you.


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## DraftyAiresMum (Jun 1, 2011)

I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure the well and the septic are straight off the back of the house. 

As for the "barn," there is a place here in town that sells pre-fabricated sheds and one of the sheds they sell is a two-stall barn with a tack/feed room. I don't want to build anything on-site because building permits in this town are ridiculously expensive (have a friend who wanted to put a 12' by 12' open-sided shade/porch off her back door...the permits alone were going to cost her $3K :shock: ). If I put up a pre-fabbed "shed," there's no permits to buy.

I know I'll have to feed hay year-round. It's a given where I live. I'm not worried about that at all. Even in the summer when you would expect us to have grazeable pasture, it's tough chino grass, unless you actually seed the pasture with something else and, as you said, irrigate the hell out of it. With the cost of running the well that much, it'd be cheaper just to buy hay.

As for fencing, I was planning on duplicating the perimeter fencing: four-foot no-climb, just without the barbed wire on top.
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## Horseychick87 (Feb 5, 2014)

Yeah, I didn't bother to mention the well and septic because in the photo they looked out of the way of where the horse(s) would be.

I like the pre-fab barns also, typically no permits required and pretty easy to haul in and unload. Just make sure you get the ground leveled off really good before having it unloaded.
(I forgot one day in a hurry to level the ground where I put a new shed (Tropical storm took out my old one and had to throw one up fast to keep from losing valuable items) Well now it's leaning and I've got to go out and unload it, move it and level the ground out properly, so a lot more work for me now if I'd have done it right the first time, but it was storming and it had to go up...so it is what it is..)

I like your layout, but I do want to ask, what are your plans for manure removal? Will you compost it or have it hauled off? On just over an acre it will build up quickly.


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## DraftyAiresMum (Jun 1, 2011)

I'll compost some of it (there's a raised, self-plumbed garden that is fully fenced out the back door...you can kind of see it in the pic). The rest of it, I can probably dump with my best friend's manure on their property (they have 11 acres that backs up to state land).
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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

Are you not able to utilize the gable end of the garage for part of the wall for the shelter? I did that on my barn, ran a 2x8 horizontal, lag screw it into the studs then made a low slope roof with 2x6's (snow load) birdsmouth cut to fit the 2x8. I then used metal brackets on each side to screw them together. On the front edge I used 2x4, rough so a full 2x4 and placed 2x4 blocks in between the rafters to keep them upright. Again I used small metal brackets to hold them so the roof didn't take off in a wind. It was then strapped and metal roofing put on. Helps the snow slide. Mine is approx. 16 wide (barn wall) projecting out 12 '. It can hold 200 bales of hay or one horse very comfortably.


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## DraftyAiresMum (Jun 1, 2011)

No snow to worry about here. :lol: IF it does snow, it's usually only an inch and it's melted by noon the next day.

I could do hay storage off the garage, but there is a gate right there between the garage and where I want to put the "barn" that I don't want to lose use of. Even though there's another gate on the other end of the house, the gate on the garage end would be used to unload hay and to load/unload the horses.

During the "cold" months, the wind is predominantly out of the east, so the placement of the "barn" should be good. Not that I expect Aires to use it. But the other horse might (when there's another horse).
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## Cruiser (Aug 28, 2011)

Where you don't have a full use of the whole acre, I wouldn't bother making two paddocks, maybe a small one around the shed/barn to confine one horse while working with the other. Its not a lot of room to ride on the property, so do you have trails or public/private land you could use? I don't know what your weather is like but I would make sure the paddock has suitable footing (if it's dry something to prevent lots of dust and wind erosion?) and let the horses use it all at once so there is room to self exercise a little. You'll probably end up cleaning up all the manure daily I'm guessing?


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## DraftyAiresMum (Jun 1, 2011)

There are trails about a mile down the road and my best friend has a decent-sized arena on her property about a mile and a half away, as well.

Even with as small as the turnout area seems, it's bigger than what Aires is in right now with two other horses. I would probably end up leaving the gates between the turnout, barn and "arena" open when I'm not riding in the arena area, so the horses would have access to the entire area the majority of the time.

And yes, I would go out and pick up the manure daily. It's great exercise, which I need. 

As for the size of the riding area, I'm not going to be jumping (yet) or doing anything more than basic schooling, so it doesn't have to be huge.
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## Nickers2002 (Nov 25, 2009)

I would add in the space that I made in yellow as well.

It's not the whole property, but still more room for the horses. The horses are going to need more room than the dogs - that's a fact. I have 2 aussie's and they don't even have 1/4 of an acre as their yards. But they do come to the barn with us in the back of the property and go for walks.


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## DraftyAiresMum (Jun 1, 2011)

Ok. Assuming I can get the fiancé to go along with it, I have a new fencing plan.



I just noticed I forgot to mark the existing fence line, but it's the same as before.

Ok, so green is the new fence. Blue on the upper part is a two-stall "barn." Blue on the lower part is a run-in shed. Red is gates.
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## Aigoo (Jan 8, 2014)

I just thought that I'd give you something different. 

There is only one field. The barn will have 12 x 36 fenced paddock for each stall. 

blue - barn 
green - fences for paddocks
yellow - run-in


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## stevenson (Sep 12, 2011)

I would still fence off the house . The dogs can under fences , mine duck under the hot wire . 
the cross bars etc. Make sure the hay storage has the easiest access.


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