# New farm... need paddock layout help!



## Thundering Hooves (Dec 16, 2019)

I have a few questions about that farm 

1, are you ganna build a barn if so were?
2, whats the future lot and dry lot?


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## AnitaAnne (Oct 31, 2010)

Nice place! In the future, you might appreciate having access to water, sheds and pastures without walking thru a pasture...a "lane" that the pastures open off of will save you time and steps. Also would want the shed accessible to the lane with people doors, so you could place hay or feed in there easily. Also easier to clean. 


The shed needs to be oriented to face south, otherwise the horses will rarely if never use it.


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## candice and mateo (Mar 4, 2011)

Future use would just be for my horses. I'd like to have gates around the perimeter so that i could open them up and ride all 12 acres. The dry lot i'll use just for when i need to pen them up for whatever reason and the future lot will have fencing done for another paddock. i havent decided on a barn. if i did, i'm thinking about here...


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## candice and mateo (Mar 4, 2011)

AnitaAnne said:


> Nice place! In the future, you might appreciate having access to water, sheds and pastures without walking thru a pasture...a "lane" that the pastures open off of will save you time and steps. Also would want the shed accessible to the lane with people doors, so you could place hay or feed in there easily. Also easier to clean.
> 
> 
> The shed needs to be oriented to face south, otherwise the horses will rarely if never use it.



i've got the run in facing southeast right now. They seem to like it so far. if i do a lane, i can't have a waterer for both sides of the fence. That's the only issue i see with that.


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

Trouble with restricting horses to small paddocks is they lack the exercise they need. What I would do... I'm assuming that big brown patch is an empty dam? If that regularly has water in it, I'd probably incorporate that into the track, as I've drawn, so you don't have to supply water, at least not all year. I'd probably have internal fences in the middle similar to what you have drawn(but maybe smaller areas), so I could open up just one of them at a time for the horses to 'rotational graze'. Or you might choose to manage the middle in some other manner to be able to cut hay on some of it at least. Or have an arena or trail course in there or such. If you had the fences as you have drawn, you could have one auto drinker in the corner of the 3(I have an old bath with a ball cock, under the fence between 2 paddocks). Or you could have the drinker at some handy point along the track. Put the shelter wherever appropriate on the track - presume the red box is where you were thinking of putting?

I'm guessing your house is down the bottom of the pic(below your future paddock) and the road thru the middle to the other houses cannot have fences across it. So your future paddock would just have to stay separate like that. You could make that your 'play area' if you were going to make an arena or such. Being in a dry, sparse 'pasture' environment myself, a lot of those details would depend on the land & what might grow where, too.


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## AnitaAnne (Oct 31, 2010)

candice and mateo said:


> i've got the run in facing southeast right now. They seem to like it so far. if i do a lane, i can't have a waterer for both sides of the fence. That's the only issue i see with that.


Southeast works fine too. 

I meant a lane leading to the three pastures. Just wide enough to lead a horse or drive a vehicle when needed. 10' should do it. 

I'll see if I can draw over your picture...


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## AnitaAnne (Oct 31, 2010)

Ok, not sure how this will look! 

Red shape is barn/shelter which meets all three pastures. Lane leads to shelter, giving access to all

Can store hay and/or shavings in lane side of shelter, making it easy to feed hay and bed area. Should be able to access horses that way too. 

Run water line to shelter, and can fill multiple tubs. Would not share water trough for two pastures under a fence as that is very difficult to clean!


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## candice and mateo (Mar 4, 2011)

The bad thing is that it’s very hilly. U can’t tell from the pic but the future lot is a big hill and the back field is up and hill and down a hill. The brown area is an old pond if absolutely love to rehab but it only holds water on a hard hard rain right now. 😞


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

Just to give you an idea, this is how my main piece of land is fenced. It is also mostly hilly, which partly governs where fences are, as does the creek. The only flat area is on the other side of the creek - hence me choosing that area for the 'arena'(a small, fenced paddock with some jumps etc). Can't(yet) afford to fix a fallen down bridge for vehicle access down there tho. There were some existing fences I made use of, so if I was starting with none, it wouldn't be so... convoluted. They're mainly on the track, but when there's grass(enough not to be overgrazed), I have different 'paddocks' open for them to graze instead of feeding hay.

The track - Depends on whether creek is running as to whether it continues across creek & back over, or I shut that bit off. Depends where water is as to where I put the hay, but only 3 spots appropriate for a round bale feeder. Usually feed is up the top, so they have to walk over & down the hill, if no water in creek, cross it twice & back up a hill for water - that way they're getting a little exercise daily, whether I have time or not.


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## Cynical25 (Mar 7, 2013)

You will want your run-in shelter(s) to be easily accessible, not at the mid or far back of a field. Otherwise your horses will inevitably stand in the shelter watching as you trudge through the pouring rain and mud to halter them. Also, it's easier to see a cast, sick, or colicking horse if they are nearby.

You will also want auto-waterers or troughs to be easily accessible, so you can regularly check to ensure they are working/full. Those that serve multiple pastures are more difficult to access to clean, and aggressive horses in one pasture can still prevent timid horses in an adjoining field from drinking. Also, a sick horse in one pasture will contaminate the water source in both pastures.

You will want easy access to gates, and you will want twice as many as you think. Walking through one pasture to access another is a PITA and wastes time. Creating a lane (wide enough for a tractor to mow) between pastures looks pretty, allows separation of incompatible horses, and offers a small grazing strip if a horse needs turnout to stretch the legs without gorging on too much grass. If creating a lane requires too much fencing, look for a place to cut-off/angle pastures so the gates all meet in a similar spot - you will appreciate this when mowing, as well as if you need to quickly collect horses from multiple fields. That said, long, straighter pasture/paddock fencelines are easier to install, and more efficient to mow than those with a bunch of random angles.


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