Clearing land woes

[reignthealarm]

I just bought my first house last week (yay!). The lease on the farm I am renting was good until December so I had planned on taking my time clearing brush at new house, getting fencing and shelters set up BUT my landlord threw a wrench in my plans by putting the farm up for sale and giving me 60 days to vacate.

So now I need to get the horses moved over ASAP but I need the clear a lot of overgrowth and a decent amount of (small) trees. Another wrench, the county requires permits for any land clearing over 10,000sf, (which is about 1/4 acre).

My plan is to clear the 1/4 acre, make it a dry lot and keep the horses in that until I get my permits to clear the rest of the land (5 acres). Not knowing how long that will take, I see a 100’x100’ as a tight space for 3 horses (2 bigs, 1 little) to share 24/7 for at least several weeks if not months.

My question(s):
1.) Has anyone used this small of a space successfully? I know places out west have limited turnout so I’d love for those people to chime in. My guys are coming from 10 acres so this small space will definitely be a shock to them.
2.) If I grind the stumps, level the soil, lay mud control grids, then lay footing, will I have any issues around stump holes sinking in? Or would it be best to try to dig them all up and fill, them lay grid and footing? I need a method that I can apply to safely get the horse over as quickly as I can.
3.) If I am able to clear the remaining 5 acres and seed by fall, would the grass be ready to put horses on by spring or would I need to wait another season? I could always expand my sacrifice area at that point if needed.

Sorry for so many questions in one post! I figured it would be better than creating 3 new posts.

[DoubleDown]

I can chime in a little here, hope it’s helpful!

Last summer I cleared out about 800 trees in roughly 2 acres for my barn, outdoor and a little pasture area. Trees were planted about 6-8’ apart, and a crappy pine variety. We bought the property 2 years ago, and I think the old owner had them planted to eventually sell, but I couldn’t find anyone who wanted them even for free, so I had them taken out and eventually burned. For reference, they were about 4-8" in diameter, so easy to remove.

I had a logging friend spend about 10 hours taking them out, root ball and all, and put them into a HUGE burn pile that we torched in Nov. Because I wanted the stumps gone, the remaining ground was super uneven and rough. Over the winter we regularly had mini ponds forming (we’re on clay) from the holes. A few weeks ago, my arena guy spent a few minutes smoothing out the burn pile, it looks great. Over the winter a section that was relatively smooth did get grassy, and I’ve used it this spring. My plan going forward is that area is going to get discd and planted for next year.

[Simkie]

My sacrifice area in Minnesota was about 100’ square, and it was just fine for my four full sized horses. The shelter was adjacent to that area (not within it, taking up room) but 100’ square, with shelter, for three horses, one of which isn’t even a big horse, sounds very doable

[wsmoak]

Don’t grind the stumps unless you have no other option. They will sink and you will be forever filling in holes.

A contractor with a backhoe and bulldozer will be able to create a nice flat area for you. It’s not cheap though!

You’re correct, out west horses often do fine in small pens with shelters. They will survive.

Here is a picture of my ‘arena’ (which is just a flat area with crushed granite, it doesn’t have a real compacted base or anything…)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wsmoak/39407934731/in/dateposted-public/

It used to look like the areas to the left and right – pine, sweet gum, poplar, all kinds of vines and bushes.

[reignthealarm]

@DoubleDown

I can chime in a little here, hope it’s helpful!

Last summer I cleared out about 800 trees in roughly 2 acres for my barn, outdoor and a little pasture area. Trees were planted about 6-8’ apart, and a crappy pine variety. We bought the property 2 years ago, and I think the old owner had them planted to eventually sell, but I couldn’t find anyone who wanted them even for free, so I had them taken out and eventually burned. For reference, they were about 4-8" in diameter, so easy to remove.

My trees are about the same size, so they will be relatively easy to remove. I’ll likely also do burn piles as I go. I do have some connections to people with logging equipment, its just about scheduling time that they are available to bring it. In the meantime, I may have to pull out the chainsaw to get small stuff started.

@Simkie

My sacrifice area in Minnesota was about 100’ square, and it was just fine for my four full sized horses. The shelter was adjacent to that area (not within it, taking up room) but 100’ square, with shelter, for three horses, one of which isn’t even a big horse, sounds very doable

How did you handle mud? I have all clay so I really like the idea of placing the mud control grids but looking at prices, I think they may have to be a project later on down the road!! Would just landscaping fabric work the same? I’ve read on other threads stories of the fabric getting dug up and played with but none of my horses are diggers and would likely be more afraid of it than curious enough to play.

[Guilherme]

Doubledown and msmoak give you excellent advice.

When we bought this place 25 years ago there were two large areas of cedar tree incursion into a hay production area. The prior owners had stopped hay production in that area and the trees were up to about 6" in diameter. I costed out the price of using a couple of guys with chainsaws against hiring a guy with a 'dozer and backhoe. The 'dozer approach was less than half the cost of manual removal. And it took just a bit more than a day and we had everything in a nice burn pile to dry and we torched in later that year. After the winter rains took care of the ash we put some extra lime in the area to deal with the acidity left by the cedars. It was never the most productive area of the field but it did produce.

Moral of the Story: get a professional to come in and do the job right the first time. It will be cheaper than even a DIY job because your time is valuable and you will spend months, if not years, working on a project that big.

Best of luck as you go forward.

G.

P.S. A pen as you describe is just fine as a short term measure. Unless contraindicated in the rules and regulations of your local Authorities you can also make more than one. Stock rotation is good, don’t you know!!!

[reignthealarm]

@Guilherme

Moral of the Story: get a professional to come in and do the job right the first time. It will be cheaper than even a DIY job because your time is valuable and you will spend months, if not years, working on a project that big.

Best of luck as you go forward.

Yes when we though we’d have 6 months we had planned on doing it ourselves just getting 1 acre ready first then doing the rest but now with a 60 day time crunch its probably a good idea to hire it out. I have connections to logging people who will give us a good price but I have to work around their schedules to get those prices, otherwise I pay for expediting! (or have to go to another company)

[Simkie]

@reignthealarm

How did you handle mud? I have all clay so I really like the idea of placing the mud control grids but looking at prices, I think they may have to be a project later on down the road!! Would just landscaping fabric work the same? I’ve read on other threads stories of the fabric getting dug up and played with but none of my horses are diggers and would likely be more afraid of it than curious enough to play.

We really only had enough mud to be an issue for a few weeks in the spring, and we just lived with it. If we’d been there longer–moved after two years–I would have dumped a large load of lime screenings in the worst area. Heavy duty landscape fabric does work to prevent your rock from mixing with the soil. I’ve also read that old carpet works (and that can often be had for free!)

[Kmacht]

Go rent a mini excavator for a weekend. Make sure it has a thumb. They are the best machine for this type of work. You can not only use the mini excavator to pull up and pole the root balls but also use the blade on front to push the dirt around to fill the holes back in and grade the area. A 100x100 area with a separate run in is plenty big enough. That is what we have for our three horses while we clear woods and setup pasture. They are perfectly content in an area that size. We do trailer them out for lessons twice a week and let them out to mow the lawn by the house once a week just so they don’t get bored in there.

[NancyM]

It is OK to turn horses out in treed and bushy areas. They can actually HELP to clear an area. They make trails through bush, eat what is edible, and are just generally helpful. If your land is securely perimeter fenced, you are OK with this. You just go through it checking for any old wire fences, make sure that there are no old wells, or septic tanks hidden. My horses have done this here, this 160 acres was a mess when we moved here, and my horses have been a huge help in opening it up, we have worked together to make it into lovely pasture, with trees for shelter in the pastures.

[reignthealarm]

@Simkie

We really only had enough mud to be an issue for a few weeks in the spring, and we just lived with it. If we’d been there longer–moved after two years–I would have dumped a large load of lime screenings in the worst area. Heavy duty landscape fabric does work to prevent your rock from mixing with the soil. I’ve also read that old carpet works (and that can often be had for free!)

I like free!! I’m sure I could get my hands on some carpet somewhere. That actually sounds like maybe it would work better- since carpet is thicker than the landscaping fabric. Heck, there’s even some old carpet in the house that I want to pull up anyway!

@Kmacht

Go rent a mini excavator for a weekend. Make sure it has a thumb. They are the best machine for this type of work. You can not only use the mini excavator to pull up and pole the root balls but also use the blade on front to push the dirt around to fill the holes back in and grade the area. A 100x100 area with a separate run in is plenty big enough. That is what we have for our three horses while we clear woods and setup pasture. They are perfectly content in an area that size. We do trailer them out for lessons twice a week and let them out to mow the lawn by the house once a week just so they don’t get bored in there.

This is also something we had looked at. It’s not terrible… Sunbelt has mini exs’ in my area for ~$350/day and we could definitely do the small area pretty quickly. Maybe a couple days?

[clanter]

Another wrench, the county requires permits for any land clearing over 10,000sf, (which is about 1/4 acre).

is there a specific time interval between clearings?..if none stated just do tracks that are less than 100 by 200 in a checkerboard pattern that are not connected

[TMares]

Likely you can rent it for a week (pick up (or delivery) on a Friday and you can get the whole weekend to work on it and then pick at whatever remains to be done the first part of the week and be done for not much more than their daily rate. BTDT - we rent a backhoe once a year or so for big jobs.

My arena is 125 X 80 and many times I stick my three in there while I do work in the pasture and want to leave gates open. It’s ample room, esp if they get along.

[horsepoor]

Little trees like that, I’d have pulled up rather than cut and grind stumps. Our property was logged of the big timber in the early 90s and we cleared again to build in 2000. That involved big fir trees, so they cut and pulled stumps, plus lots of dirt moving to fill things in. But when we had more recent clearing done, most of it was small stuff like you are describing (here it is mostly red alder that grows like a weed in cleared areas) and our excavator guy just pulled those out, then smoothed everything back over to be ready for pasture. I’d have an excavation guy come take a look and see what they recommend, given your plan. It isn’t the kind of thing that I would try to rent equipment and do myself as neither my partner or I would be particularly adept at running the equipment, and part of why I use my guy is that his expertise has proven very useful in figuring out the how/where on things.

I’m in a super wet climate so my sacrifice area is hoof-grid covered with gravel. But lots of people have good results with fabric and gravel. 100x100 doesn’t sound too small for 3 horses to me, especially if they get along well already. And it is temporary until you have permits to do the rest of the place.

Do think about how you will handle things when you do proceed with the rest of the clearing/work. I actually had to move mine off the property for a bit when that was going on close by as one was scared to death and I couldn’t spend all day holding on to him to keep him from trying to leap out (this is the same horse that flipped over a fence on the 4th of July due to fireworks, so we know he can do some stupid things). But my other horses didn’t care at all and actually loved having the workers around as they brought them treats like peanut butter sandwiches and celery sticks for the IR horse!

[reignthealarm]

@horsepoor

Do think about how you will handle things when you do proceed with the rest of the clearing/work. I actually had to move mine off the property for a bit when that was going on close by as one was scared to death and I couldn’t spend all day holding on to him to keep him from trying to leap out (this is the same horse that flipped over a fence on the 4th of July due to fireworks, so we know he can do some stupid things). But my other horses didn’t care at all and actually loved having the workers around as they brought them treats like peanut butter sandwiches and celery sticks for the IR horse!

Yikes! Luckily all 3 of my guys are pretty decent around equipment. They might run for a few minutes but they’ll settle down and watch when they realize the machine is staying!