If you are USING your equines, doing equine things with them, 16 acres sounds like an excellent size to manage. 3A is about what our house, backyard, workshop and both smaller barns, take up by themselves!
Depending on the layout, which you get to CHOOSE with no fences, you have many options. Are all the acres usable? I have about half an acres in a woods, runoff for seasonal deeper, standing water, ditching, so it is not “horse usable”. I am planting MORE shade trees to replace what was rotted and cut down, adding some fruit bushes along the edges, have trailers parked at one end between the bigger trees and backyard. I do mow the ditches, drainage area in there for easier runoff of water, mow fence line of the perimeter fence, but mostly leave it alone. So monthly over summer and fall. I weed-whack the fence lines, to keep the electric hot in the wires. That is walking work, needs doing a couple times each summer and fall.
The rest of the acreage is pasture and paddocks, gets mowed as needed, which might be weekly in spring, not so often in dry weather and I quit mowing except for the arena on Labor Day Weekend. Want the grass longer for fall and winter grazing.
I also have a brush hog for doing outside the fencelines, neighbors are nice and let me mow there to keep weeds down and out of the fences. They use the mowed area for exercise since it is long beside the fences, saves them mowing past their backyards, still nice looking not weedy. The finish mower is a NICE one that came with the Kubota we bought, does and excellent job of keeping the pastures neat and productive for the horses. There are two small wet spots that only get mowed to keep the fences hot. Usually have standing water, so you can’t always get them cut regularly. I have planted trees and water-loving bushes in there for the long-term hope of trees using MORE water to grow so it quits ponding up. Willows, Burr Oak, Plane Tree, Winterberries, so they will be quite lovely in time. Not much in shade trees otherwise, they were rotten or fell, so we removed them. No shrubbery inside fences with constant field mowing.
I am going to say you will need some kind of tractor, a lawn mower is not going to work well on that size of property. With only three animals, maybe you can rehab the barn for horse uses, storage for your hay, before planning to build a more modern stable. We had our fence posts pounded in, sure went FAST and they are still solid years later, for putting our wire on. Might not have survived as a couple, digging and putting in posts for all the fencing we put up! Worth paying to get the fences done!! Got it done and horses home much faster than if we had done things ourselves.
I would say you could probably “manage” the bigger size yourself, some help from husband now and again, enjoy not being so squeezed in. You could do some things in steps, partial fencing, not the whole place at once. Having barn fixed and useable is for horses is most important (to me), should horses need weather protection, and solid hay storage so it stays dry. Plan your gates to get best usage from them, with minimum effort. Sometimes extra gates, two ways to get into a field is REALLY handy, like last winter with 4ft drifts (or deep mud) on our one gate. Or the ability to access the field around horses who are turned out for mowing or other maintenance jobs.
Think about it, ease of use, step saving, before finalizing your layouts.
I think in my area, about 20 acres would be perfect for us and our (usually) half dozen horses. Sometimes we have more, but not less than 5. We get good rain most years, so grazing is pretty good all season. They usually all get used often and pretty hard, depending on age. At present we have two young ones, just turned 4 and 2, still quite the babies. Other 4 are worked, 3 are older and working the newly trained one in, have to get her fit still to go with the three trained ones. Sure WISH I had those extra few acres, but not going to happen.
Husband is a horseman, so no quibbles about time or needed $$$ spent for the horses or their needs as some ladies have to deal with. No custom saddles here, just workmanlike stuff, sturdy, looks nice. Most things we purchase are used, still the harness and carriages are pretty nice! We do have MUCH LOWER standards of care, to make life easier, than many on COTH. Still get each horse handled twice daily, stalled and stalls cleaned daily. We agree on (most) things done in training and handling of the horses. Variety is good for the horse too, he is more adaptable and not silly with changes asked of him. He and I came up the same way in horsekeeping as kids, young adults. That helps us see things the same way. We can enjoy the working time using the horses together on most days, which is pretty nice.
Never easy starting a new place, so making a list of what order to do things and costs, might be a first step. Sure can’t get it all done fast, even if you work hard and hire help. Money could be limited, so things take longer doing it yourselves. Best to know that going in. Our present set-up happened over years, not a short term project or investment of money and time. You may not want to do that much work over time. Kind of like how I used to go to compete. One horse, all the accessories to go was busy, but not bad. Now it looks like a piece of cake, compared to taking 2 or 4 horses and ALL THAT EQUIPMENT out to compete, even with help from husband and sometimes DD giving a hand.
It is more work, but if you are saving time (and gas $$) by not having to trailer out multiple times a week, you might be ahead of the game purchasing more acreage.
