Putting aside any money or cost considerations, the one thing that you will need to decide on is, with the extra sometimes-round-the clock-work and commitment that it needs, what time are you willing to give up to have your horse(s) at home? You will need to find about an extra 2+ hours a day (this does not include your fun time with your horse) for the chores and maintenance/management that having you horse at home will require. If you do not have spare time to give up, then what is it that you will do without? Sleep, or time with your family, cooking meals and sit down dinners, or other hobbies, or not working overtime if you work outside of the home, doing housework, gardening, visiting friends, going out in the evenings etc, etc. Finding the extra(?) time was the biggest challenge for me. Our children were already out of the house so that wasn’t an issue. The gardening that I loved to do, isn’t done anymore, no time for knitting anymore, housework is done when company is coming over, vacations/travelling isn’t a problem as it doesn’t happen - we are happy now with doing daytrips. It has been a big change to our lives, but it is not one we regret at all. You just need to understand that until it happens, you have no idea what the impact will be. Oh, and most of your non-horsey friends will think that you should be committed 
Amber Ridge,
My response to that is, it depends on how you set it up. My horses require much less work than that during the week. They live out 24/7 with matted run ins and are feed grain only as a treat. From November to March or April, they have a round bale in a round bale feeder.
So I give them a pet, a scratch and checkover in the AM before work in , and that’s it. On the weekends, I muck their run ins, top up water troughs, fly spray, swat ears, rotate paddocks, harrow paddocks, mow, put out a roundbale, etc.
In grass growing months I might jump on the tractor after work and mow; but most of the time, they take a half hour or less during the week. Some years I’ve blanketed, some years I haven’t, you do have to allow time for that. And my clipped all the way out, triple rugged system is a thing of the distant past.
If you’re determined to keep them up in stalls at least half the day, then, yes, your estimate for time is accurate. Or if they have complicated feed/supplement/medication needs, that would be accurate.
Which leads me to McGurk’s law of home horsekeeping: the smaller the property; the larger the cost and time commitment. As I said earlier, my old riding buddy’s 3 and 1/2 acre farmette with two horses cost her MORE per month than boarding, now that she’s on a very well set up 10 acre property, she’s added a pony and has cut her cost in half.
As a non-farm owner, I hope my input is still valuable.
My farm is not built but I bought land. Two things I looked for which I think were valuable (those who are actually living on their own farms can chime in on how important these are or aren’t).
-
Buy in an area which has lots of other horse owners, preferably with zoning to prevent lots from being chopped up for developers. Living in an area with like-minded people will help preserve public spaces such as parks which allow horses and riding trails because it is in the interest of the community. It will also provide a pool of neighbors who help each other out, and a pool of hired help who can do more work themselves or recommend someone.
-
Choose a location next to a park or trail system. This has several advantages. The obvious one is that you can ride without trailering out. If you are adjacent to a trail, you can also avoid crossing roads and competing with cars. If you have public space for riding, it can substantially reduce the size of lot or acreage you need.
[QUOTE=McGurk;8907591]
Which leads me to McGurk’s law of home horsekeeping: the smaller the property; the larger the cost and time commitment. As I said earlier, my old riding buddy’s 3 and 1/2 acre farmette with two horses cost her MORE per month than boarding, now that she’s on a very well set up 10 acre property, she’s added a pony and has cut her cost in half.[/QUOTE]
Can you elaborate? Is this because the added acreage provides pasture for feeding the horses? Spends less time picking up manure? Is there another savings I’m not seeing?
Yes, and yes. Less time doing pasture maintenance, less time mucking, less time feeding. Less/no money on grain, less money on hay (rounds are much cheaper than squares, and I only feed them ~5 months a year) bedding (I don’t routinely buy bedding AT ALL - I have five bags of baled shavings in storage in case I need to bed a stall for a lay up or foundery pony or bed the trailer.)
I do recognize that this is very region/climate dependent.
[QUOTE=McGurk;8907613]
Yes, and yes. Less time doing pasture maintenance, less time mucking, less time feeding. Less/no money on grain, less money on hay (rounds are much cheaper than squares, and I only feed them ~5 months a year) bedding (I don’t routinely buy bedding AT ALL - I have five bags of baled shavings in storage in case I need to bed a stall for a lay up or foundery pony or bed the trailer.)
I do recognize that this is very region/climate dependent.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for answer.
Yes, I think it is very dependent on region/climate as well as horse usage. I have retirees, so I’m thinking in terms of 24/7 turnout on a large dry lot, since we don’t really have lush pastures where I am. Full turnout means none of the labor or products associated with stall care.
In our dry climate I don’t see a savings advantage in having more land, because whether you have 3 acres or 30 acres you will still feed hay/feeds because it so barren. Even large acreage will require some manure removal since it accumulates near the hay and water.
A big time saver here is the fencing. Welded pipe with V-wire seems ubiquitous here and it is very low-maintenance. No horses eating it, no sagging, no painting, and the dry conditions really reduce the need for weeding along the fence line. But because it is costly, a larger lot is more expensive to fence.
So I think you are right that the relative costs and benefits of a small vs. large farm depend on the region, with the biggest differentiator being the availability of grazing.
[QUOTE=Amber Ridge;8907537]
Putting aside any money or cost considerations, the one thing that you will need to decide on is, with the extra sometimes-round-the clock-work and commitment that it needs, what time are you willing to give up to have your horse(s) at home? You will need to find about an extra 2+ hours a day (this does not include your fun time with your horse) for the chores and maintenance/management that having you horse at home will require. If you do not have spare time to give up, then what is it that you will do without? Sleep, or time with your family, cooking meals and sit down dinners, or other hobbies, or not working overtime if you work outside of the home, doing housework, gardening, visiting friends, going out in the evenings etc, etc. Finding the extra(?) time was the biggest challenge for me. Our children were already out of the house so that wasn’t an issue. The gardening that I loved to do, isn’t done anymore, no time for knitting anymore, housework is done when company is coming over, vacations/travelling isn’t a problem as it doesn’t happen - we are happy now with doing daytrips. It has been a big change to our lives, but it is not one we regret at all. You just need to understand that until it happens, you have no idea what the impact will be. Oh, and most of your non-horsey friends will think that you should be committed ;)[/QUOTE]
Am I doing it wrong? I dont spend 2+hours extra a day… maybe 30 minutes? Maybe 2-3 hours extra on the weekends, but not daily.
My horses go out as much as possible and when its nice out, they only come in to eat. I prep feed, clean stalls and dump buckets at night. I only have two horses so maybe thats the difference in time?
trying to buy!
I can’t speak to the experience of living on a farm/farmette - but can tell you what you are likely going to run into trying to purchase in this area.
I currently live in Plano, work in Dallas and have my horses (2) with a trainer up near Aubrey. Have been actively looking for a house with about 5 acres - hopefully with a barn and fencing already in place. Have upped the budget three times already and still haven’t been able to purchase what we want.
I will admit to being kinda particular about the house. 
And I need something within a “reasonable” commute to my office. Currently, anything up around HWY 380 would mean leaving the house at 6:00am in order to beat the worst of the traffic and arrive at the office by 8am. Yuk. And our realtor has admitted that’s what it would take.
I’m scouring realtor.com almost every day and as soon as a property “hits” - we try to schedule a showing immediately. So far, everything we’ve been remotely interested in has sold or has a contract on it (or multiple contracts) within one or two days. Those buyers coming in for Toyota are desperate for housing, have large amounts of cash and are many times buying sight - unseen. From pics!!! So pretty much anything within a decent drive from their new campus is selling immediately, for more than listed price.
Hopefully, you can look outside the area they are interested in. If not - be prepared for a pretty difficult (buyers) market. On the positive side - selling our current house should be a breeze. Realtor told us to expect numerous offers within 2 to 3 days.
[QUOTE=Rosie;8907731]
I can’t speak to the experience of living on a farm/farmette - but can tell you what you are likely going to run into trying to purchase in this area.
I currently live in Plano, work in Dallas and have my horses (2) with a trainer up near Aubrey. Have been actively looking for a house with about 5 acres - hopefully with a barn and fencing already in place. Have upped the budget three times already and still haven’t been able to purchase what we want.
I will admit to being kinda particular about the house. And I need something within a “reasonable” commute to my office. Currently, anything up around HWY 380 would mean leaving the house at 6:00am in order to beat the worst of the traffic and arrive at the office by 8am. Yuk. And our realtor has admitted that’s what it would take.
I’m scouring realtor.com almost every day and as soon as a property “hits” - we try to schedule a showing immediately. So far, everything we’ve been remotely interested in has sold or has a contract on it (or multiple contracts) within one or two days. Those buyers coming in for Toyota are desperate for housing, have large amounts of cash and are many times buying sight - unseen. From pics!!! So pretty much anything within a decent drive from their new campus is selling immediately, for more than listed price.
Hopefully, you can look outside the area they are interested in. If not - be prepared for a pretty difficult (buyers) market. On the positive side - selling our current house should be a breeze. Realtor told us to expect numerous offers within 2 to 3 days.[/QUOTE]
That is exactly what my problem is. And I am not in this with a DH and my SO is not even remotely interested in cohabitating. So my price range is limited and the market is hot. I cannot make a 2 hour commute without losing my ever loving mind. I would love to leave the state but I don’t think my boss would like that and I have a very niche job here.
Jersey Fresh and I are in similar situations, then.
PeteyPie, your explanation makes sense to me now - if you have to buy all your forage anyway, a larger property doesn’t change the equation.
Also, where JF and I am; if you have a large enough property and rotate grazing, dragging and rain take care of 75% of the manure problem (When the ground is frozen I pick the paddocks because I just HATE seeing manure sitting.)
[QUOTE=Rosie;8907731]
I can’t speak to the experience of living on a farm/farmette - but can tell you what you are likely going to run into trying to purchase in this area.
I currently live in Plano, work in Dallas and have my horses (2) with a trainer up near Aubrey. Have been actively looking for a house with about 5 acres - hopefully with a barn and fencing already in place. Have upped the budget three times already and still haven’t been able to purchase what we want.
I will admit to being kinda particular about the house. And I need something within a “reasonable” commute to my office. Currently, anything up around HWY 380 would mean leaving the house at 6:00am in order to beat the worst of the traffic and arrive at the office by 8am. Yuk. And our realtor has admitted that’s what it would take.
I’m scouring realtor.com almost every day and as soon as a property “hits” - we try to schedule a showing immediately. So far, everything we’ve been remotely interested in has sold or has a contract on it (or multiple contracts) within one or two days. Those buyers coming in for Toyota are desperate for housing, have large amounts of cash and are many times buying sight - unseen. From pics!!! So pretty much anything within a decent drive from their new campus is selling immediately, for more than listed price.
Hopefully, you can look outside the area they are interested in. If not - be prepared for a pretty difficult (buyers) market. On the positive side - selling our current house should be a breeze. Realtor told us to expect numerous offers within 2 to 3 days.[/QUOTE]
We were in a similar boat. Even though this is a horsey area, small quality farmettes are hard to come by. We looked at everything that was 5-15 acres, but we were picky about the house and the location. That limited us quite a bit.
We got luckily in that we ended up buying a place that had been listed for almost year. Our realtor had sent the listing to us a few times, but the pictures were so bad I couldnt be bothered with it. Eventually a friend suggested it as he drove by it on his commute, so we looked at it.
The house was awesome and the land was perfect to build on. We got luckily, but as they say you have to kiss a lot of frogs. So hold out for the right place! It will show up
[QUOTE=McGurk;8907591]
Amber Ridge,
My response to that is, it depends on how you set it up. My horses require much less work than that during the week. They live out 24/7 with matted run ins and are feed grain only as a treat. From November to March or April, they have a round bale in a round bale feeder.
So I give them a pet, a scratch and checkover in the AM before work in , and that’s it. On the weekends, I muck their run ins, top up water troughs, fly spray, swat ears, rotate paddocks, harrow paddocks, mow, put out a roundbale, etc.
In grass growing months I might jump on the tractor after work and mow; but most of the time, they take a half hour or less during the week. Some years I’ve blanketed, some years I haven’t, you do have to allow time for that. And my clipped all the way out, triple rugged system is a thing of the distant past.
If you’re determined to keep them up in stalls at least half the day, then, yes, your estimate for time is accurate. Or if they have complicated feed/supplement/medication needs, that would be accurate.
Which leads me to McGurk’s law of home horsekeeping: the smaller the property; the larger the cost and time commitment. As I said earlier, my old riding buddy’s 3 and 1/2 acre farmette with two horses cost her MORE per month than boarding, now that she’s on a very well set up 10 acre property, she’s added a pony and has cut her cost in half.[/QUOTE]
4 horses on small property in the frigid cold north, 2 boarders, and horses are inside at night. Facility includes tackroom, indoor and outdoor arenas to maintain. Between my husband and myself we do all the work. I stand by my ~2 hours/day which would be 15 hours week. I think of a small property when referred to as a farmette.
I’ve gone back and forth, and am now back with three at home in the backyard on a very small farmette. There’s advantages and disadvantages to both, but overall I think I prefer having them at home. We have a trainer who will come to us and I have a friend who comes and rides with me a couple days a week, and neighbors who ride, and we can go for 20 miles on the trail network. That part is great. The downside is that you can find yourself doing the barn work and then feeling too tired to ride, so you have to be disciplined. It’s cheaper for me, but the house cost is the same as a comparably sized non-horsey property in our area, and board is very expensive here (SF Bay Area). I find if I sign up for events and clinics then it motivates me to get myself and the horses in shape, and I’ve been able to compete at Prelim level eventing. It’s harder for my daughter, who I think misses having buddies at the barn, but we try to trailer out for a jumping lesson with her friends once a week. Although our place is small I spent the money and put in an all weather arena with decent drainage, and I also use that as turnout, so the horses get more turnout than the hour or two they get at the boarding places around here. I get nice hay and put it in slow feeders, so overall I think the horses are happier. I hire a guy to come once a week for four hours to help with moving hay and other heavy tasks, as well as yard work. My daughter and I share the mucking out duties, except for the days my friend comes, when she does the mucking out. I probably spend less time on barn work then I did driving to the barn, but I admit I sometimes miss having access to a big covered arena when it’s rainy. We used to have an in-law unit that we rented to a friend who kept her horse here, and that was great because she did the stalls most days, and we also rode together. She eventually bought her own farm, but it made it easier to go out of town.
Amber,
I think you’re pretty amazing that you get it all done in 2 hours per day.
Difference in regions and climate, I guess. I’m in Virginia, otherwise known as horse heaven. And your experience may be more relevant to the OP whose trying to do this in Dallas/Ft. Worth.
[QUOTE=McGurk;8908009]
Amber,
I think you’re pretty amazing that you get it all done in 2 hours per day.
Difference in regions and climate, I guess. I’m in Virginia, otherwise known as horse heaven. And your experience may be more relevant to the OP whose trying to do this in Dallas/Ft. Worth.[/QUOTE]
Actually it barely ever freezes or snows here. So my horses would be coming in to eat and occasionally during iffy weather. They would more likely be given access to stalls in the summer for the fan and shade due to the excessive heat then during the winter. So Virginia weather would be a little more relevant for me except here with it being dry, round bales are necessary during the winter and dead heat of the summer.
[QUOTE=imapepper;8908036]
Actually it barely ever freezes or snows here. So my horses would be coming in to eat and occasionally during iffy weather. They would more likely be given access to stalls in the summer for the fan and shade due to the excessive heat then during the winter. .[/QUOTE]
Because we are prone to grass fires I suggest you consider using Hardi siding or a similar product which is fire, moisture and insect resistance… and some cities consider the product to be masonry
Because we rarely have prolonged periods of freezing temperature the frost depth is measured in inches which makes running pasture water lines easier. We buried our pasture water lines at little more than one foot. Never have had any freeze (unlike when we were in Kentucky we had water lines at a little deeper than three feet and they froze)
Actually I would consider the areas you are looking at as urban not rural… but give yourself less than ten years “the city” will be north of you leaving wondering where will it stop. Remember when Frisco was out in the far north all by itself with its great claim to fame being what was painted on its water tower?
[QUOTE=Rosie;8907731]
I can’t speak to the experience of living on a farm/farmette - but can tell you what you are likely going to run into trying to purchase in this area.
I currently live in Plano, work in Dallas and have my horses (2) with a trainer up near Aubrey. Have been actively looking for a house with about 5 acres - hopefully with a barn and fencing already in place. Have upped the budget three times already and still haven’t been able to purchase what we want.
I will admit to being kinda particular about the house. And I need something within a “reasonable” commute to my office. Currently, anything up around HWY 380 would mean leaving the house at 6:00am in order to beat the worst of the traffic and arrive at the office by 8am. Yuk. And our realtor has admitted that’s what it would take.
I’m scouring realtor.com almost every day and as soon as a property “hits” - we try to schedule a showing immediately. So far, everything we’ve been remotely interested in has sold or has a contract on it (or multiple contracts) within one or two days. Those buyers coming in for Toyota are desperate for housing, have large amounts of cash and are many times buying sight - unseen. From pics!!! So pretty much anything within a decent drive from their new campus is selling immediately, for more than listed price.
Hopefully, you can look outside the area they are interested in. If not - be prepared for a pretty difficult (buyers) market. On the positive side - selling our current house should be a breeze. Realtor told us to expect numerous offers within 2 to 3 days.[/QUOTE]
Hey, Chip and Joanna work in Texas! Maybe they could do a beautiful remodel for you.
Totally random, because I don’t know the market or county requirements… But if properties are selling like this, would it be feasible to buy a larger parcel with a house you do not like, divide it and build a house you like? Like buy 10 and divide into five each?
[QUOTE=Rosie;8907731]
I can’t speak to the experience of living on a farm/farmette - but can tell you what you are likely going to run into trying to purchase in this area.
I currently live in Plano, work in Dallas
And I need something within a “reasonable” commute to my office. Currently, anything up around HWY 380 would mean leaving the house at 6:00am in order to beat the worst of the traffic and arrive at the office by 8am. Yuk. And our realtor has admitted that’s what it would take.
I’m scouring realtor.com almost every day and as soon as a property “hits” - we try to schedule a showing immediately.
.[/QUOTE]
As a suggestion go to Google Earth Satellite View to locate the areas within the city that are currently open with horses… we are in the middle of about thirty lots on multiple acre tracks zoned for horses and livestock… NONE of these houses ever get listed as everyone of us get unsolicited offers every month …then if they are sold the sell is commonly with the family of the owners
Looking at the multiple listings will only catch the spur of the moment sell forced by divorce and those listing are usually gone in the matter of minutes
[QUOTE=clanter;8908069]
Because we are prone to grass fires I suggest you consider using Hardi siding or a similar product which is fire, moisture and insect resistance… and some cities consider the product to be masonry
Because we rarely have prolonged periods of freezing temperature the frost depth is measured in inches which makes running pasture water lines easier. We buried our pasture water lines at little more than one foot. Never have had any freeze (unlike when we were in Kentucky we had water lines at a little deeper than three feet and they froze)
Actually I would consider the areas you are looking at as urban not rural… but give yourself less than ten years “the city” will be north of you leaving wondering where will it stop. Remember when Frisco was out in the far north all by itself with its great claim to fame being what was painted on its water tower?[/QUOTE]
I do remember when Frisco was far out. I would look in rural areas if I could manage the commute. This might be all a pipe dream because I just can’t imagine commuting 2 hours a day to work. To give folks an idea of how bad the commuting is here, I only live 25ish miles from work. If I want to make a 7 a.m. workout class by my office, I need to leave no later then 6:05 to be on time. Not early but on time. It’s ridiculous. If I leave at 9:05, it takes me 35 minutes to get to the office. I tend to work from 9:30ish to 7ish to avoid traffic. Which leaves me no time to ride. Getting frustrated with this adulting thing.
