# How many horses on how many acres



## ClassicalRomantic

My rule of thumb is usually acre per horse. If you are worried about pasture I would fench off a dry lot area and turn them out only part of the day. Especially winter coming (i see you are in FL) the grass wont grow back as fast!


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## Lucara

Not sure as to what part of FL your in but right now with all the rain we've been getting around in Polk County we can't keep up with mowing it before it starts to get over grown!

If your grass is already short with 2 I think 4 would completely wipe you out.
You may have to purchase extra hay to compensate and stall them at night.


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## Kentucky

It varies form area to area and in my home state the rule of thumbs is 2.4 to 3 acres to horse. I know that doesn't help you in Florida. But you never want to push the limit of your land.


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## Jillyann

If there was some way you could give them some extra hay once of twice a day, I would say go for it!


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## Pidge

I usually go with atleast an acre of grass per horse...though around my part of texas sometimes it has to be more like four per horse cause there are some places with no grass....

To help thicken it i would seed and spray it every spring...but in order to spray it you will need a rig and a place to keep your horses for about a week.

As for how to preserve the grass you have...well penning or stalling them up at night would def help...and perhaps throwing hay...square bales...a flake per horse once in the morning and once at night...

Thats everything that works for me...hope it helps you!


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## Sunny06

In GA the rule is one per acre. I think that is acceptable.


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## eventerdrew

I have 3 horses on my property and I have 22 acres, though, not all of it is fenced. This is including the barn, house, round pen, garage, and a whole bunch of trees. So I would say I have 3 horses on about 10 acres


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## Twilight Arabians

we have 7 on 5 acre's, 5 of the horses are kept in stalls and 2 are in a 1/8 acre pen. we are adding 4 more pens but only have 2 about half way done.


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## QtrHorse

I've always been happy with the 1 horse/2 acre ratio.


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## Crimsonhorse01

It all depends on how much your land can sustain. Here on 40 acres you cannot keep 9 horses. Its steep and rocky, good for building QH butts but not for maintaining a larger herd. So it all depends on the land.


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## dee

We have five horses on 15 acres, and they have grazed it down to the ground. We used to have that many horses and still had to mow - but since we sold the horses and my hubby had his stroke, we kinda let the place go. Now we have horses again and are clearing the pasture. We will be reseeding and fertilizing in the next couple of months because we can keep the horses in a smaller lot because we will be haying them. Once the pasture has come back, we should be good to go, but I wouldn't want any more horses than we already have!


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## xkatex

We have about 75 acres of land (most of which is forest) and 5 horses (had up to 8). But I have worked for farms that kept their horses in 15 meter round pens giving them 2 large flakes (from those giant bails) of hay. All the horses were healthy and worked regularily. Personally I feel if you have horses you should have a confinment large enough that they can get a good run by themselves.

If your having grass issues (as we did during one ridiculously hot summer) fence off a section of your field (in half usually). And alternate from side to side. But by the sounds of it you have two large horses and plan on getting 2 more large horses. I recomemmed saving up for lots of hay to keep up an adequate diet. If you can do that you should be perfectly fine.


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## Beau Baby

General rule in my moms opinion and I believe the gov't in Strathcona County is 1 horse per 1 1/2 acres. 

I have 3 horses on about 7-8 acres. We own 15 but we have a house, barn and not all fenced.


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## NordicJuniper

Where I ride there are four horses on seven acres. They pretty much mow it down by themselves...but if you can feed extra hay when it is needed I say go for it!


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## masatisan

I know someone who keeps six racing standardbreds on ~1/2 acre (possibly less) and gives them hay and grain because their paddock is dirt/mud. They dont have much room to run and they don't race very often now that the local track is shut down.

I would say do a rotation program, keep two in small seprate enclosures (something like a large outdoor stall) and let the other two graze and switch them on a regular basis. Supplementing with hay and possibly a little grain would help quite a bit, especially with drafts.


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## ogledrillrider02

We have eleven horses, 28 acres. Not all is fenced. And some of our pasture isn't on our property. During winter they are in a dry lot with free choice hay. In bad weather (all year) they are kept in our "barn" Also they are in our dry lot at night. And we rotate them through eight different pastures. Two days per pasture at most.


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## shortbusgeek

Sunny06 said:


> In GA the rule is one per acre. I think that is acceptable.


I believe that's on a county by county basis if I'm not mistaken. Fulton county (where we live) is 1 horse per acre. However, you can get a variance to have more. Many barns around Atlanta do, keeping 2 horses to an acre or more. You just go through a bit more hay.


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## My Beau

Here in MD you need 2 acres to have horses, but after that it's 1 horse per acre. So, 2 acres = 2 horses.

We have 3 on 5 acres - but it's not all cleared, so it's more like 3 horses on 2 acres. We have 2 fields that we rotate - one is more of a dry lot, but there is some grass in it. The other field has verrrrrrry nice grass. And they're stalled when it's raining and they go out when the ground has dried out a bit.


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