In addition to many excellent points made so far… Two dwellings probably means two septic systems that shouldn’t be driven on or turned out on. You will definitely want room to turn around not just your current rig but also a dump truck (gravel, footing), feed truck etc. If you are not going to pick paddocks that will significantly increase the acreage needed. I keep 4 horses on 9 acres of which about 4 acres is steep and wooded and not accessible to horses. Doable but alot more work than the 20 acre field I leased at a farm with all the infrastructure. Truthfully, you sound like you may be happier boarding. Considering the price of land in that area and the installation of a decent ring, the economics may not be there either. Tough decisions!
I was thinking the same thing. OP sounds like a prime candidate for boarding, with all the stipulations, priorities, and “wasn’t planning on”s. No problem with that, trust me! But a reality check might be in order. It might actually be a good idea to just have some paddocks and a run in, for retirement or layup purposes, but plan to keep the riding horse(s) boarded. Best of both worlds, there!
Dragging a big ring, setting jumps, maintaining pastures, keeping up with all the feed/farrier/vet appointments, and not making the SO hate the whole thing is a balancing act. Unless OP works from home on a flex schedule, is planning to hire staff, or doesn’t work a regular job, it might just be impossible to also ride (especially to keep a mid-upper level event horse fit. Let alone more than one).
I don’t see where OP is being super rigid or why their situation would make work + horse/farm care + riding any less possible than anyone else’s? I also don’t know anyone IRL who picks paddocks except for dry lots or maybe medical-sized paddocks.
It’s perfectly doable. In the last two weeks I worked 110 hours, rode my eventer 11 times (including a hunter pace, a schooling HT, and an off-site lesson), rode my young horse 9 times (including two off-site lessons), did daily care of my three horses, and still ate, slept, sprayed weeds, etc. My DH did some mowing and dragging, which is a big help this time of year. I just don’t see the reasons for pessimism about OP’s plan…
In most of Tennessee (exception being the mountains), the rule of thumb is 2-3 acres per horse to have enough pasture to provide 100% of the horse’s forage during the grazing season. 5 acres per horse will result in A LOT of mowing and/or overgrown pastures.
I have 5 acres fenced for three horses, including a ~1/2 acre dry lot. During the growing season, I have to have the pastures mowed at least once every few months to keep the grass low enough for good grazing and weed management. I rotate between two pastures but would prefer to split the same amount of acreage into 3-4 pastures for a more efficient rotational system.
Agreed; that is an odd comment to make. Because while I only ever boarded in one place, I took lessons at 3. I wouldn’t have wanted to board at the other two either. Maybe I just can’t afford the kind of boarding I would like.
And I’m not super meticulous on my own farm. My stalls need cleaning as we speak and I’m not going to do it. But mainly because I know my horses won’t bother standing in them anyway, since they have 24/7 turnout. It rained last night so I’m sure they were in; they will be happy to be out today.
One thing I will say about owning a farm v. boarding is that it is a whole lifestyle, not just a “sport” like riding if you are a boarder. Which is what some people want, and others might endure but not love. I wanted a farm, whether I had horses or not. But there is never a day when I think “I’m bored, I wish I had something to do.” Quite the opposite. I think instead about what I have to do, and what can wait or not be done at all.
Also - going away is hard. You need reliable barn sitters (unless you tend to go away with your horse(s). It’s definitely doable, but needs to be considered.
Where I was raised, in NE Ohio no, it was not due to bed rock problems, it was called common sense, if one did not want to destroy the land.
Maybe the beef folks have a different philosophy but my parents were a small dairy operation sandwiched in between some big dairy operations. Over loading the grazing land with cattle was not something anyone did.
I’m retired in Middle Tennessee so bedrock may be an issue, I didn’t ask because I can see how fast horses and cattle can graze an area down to the dirt:)
Well said @S1969. One has to be willing to be married to the farm. Those who board and “don’t see” how land owners don’t have time to ride need to “walk a mile in our shoes” as the saying goes.
I chose to live in 25 acres and maintenance it myself because that is who I am. I am a lifelong trail rider so my horses stay broke until I get a minute to load up and haul to the good trails, or I can throw a bridle on and go down my road here and there. Informal riding takes a lot of skill but not near as much daily discipline as formal riding:)
Part of the reason I was always so apt to help every BO out with “farm stuff” is because I love it. I am aware that I might not love it so much when I have to do it (lol) but I don’t think I will have any problem with land when I get it. I’m already a homebody, so not being able to easily travel will not be a huge pain.
I’m mechanically inclined, and at the moment able bodied.
My current BO is not mechanically inclined at all, and calls her SO out to do the simplest things. I can see on his face that it frustrates him quite a bit. Her full time job is caring for the property, his full time job is more of a 9-5. So he comes home from work and has to repair XYZ that broke. Edit: I think this is where a lot of people may struggle, too - not just my BO. The tractor is not working and they have no idea what’s wrong or how to fix it. Or even the annual maintenance. When you pay someone to do that stuff, it adds up FAST. With the invention of youtube, other than “I don’t want to” there’s no reason to not do general maintenance on power equipment yourself. Lawn tractors, chain saws, etc. It’s honestly not hard at all.
That will not be me and my SO. If I literally can’t do it alone, I’ll ask for help. Otherwise, I’ll tackle it myself.
I’m hoping to get 2-3 acres shortly, and 10-20 when I move to Iowa in 5 or 6 years.
I have 3 horses (well, one full size, one large pony and one mini) on about 2 1/2 acres, divided into 3 mostly equal fields. I’m able to keep grass but honestly, it takes a bit planning. I would prefer at least one more full acre, to make it work more easily. I have a 40x48 barn, and a 75x145 outdoor.
I had the luxury of planning from start to finish. So what I did was I placed my barn as like the middle of the pie, and everything came off of it. So they have little/no grass turnout in winter, but they have a large stonedust paddock off of their stalls that they can move freely in/out all day. Not 1000% ideal, but I at least wanted them to be able to move all day. When the temps were below freezing they got some turnout in one of the fields to really stretch their legs and get a good gallop in.
In the spring, I ease them back onto grass, so its paddock until about 3 pm, field turnout until 6, in/feed/ride whatever, then on paddock for the rest of the time. Again, not my ideal, but my area is so expensive that properties with more than 5 acres are in the million dollar range.
I’m not sure yet what to do with summer. I will probably do like 6 hrs of grass turnout, and the rest on paddock.
I would say very rarely are they locked in.
Not being pessimistic. OP asked for input and stated she would rather board than spend all her time managing the limitations of her land. I spend alot of time managing the limitations of my land. It’s a question of personal preference, not right or wrong.
Given that many many places have a much lower stocking rate than 1 horse per 5 acres, with lovely pasture, certainly not “destroyed”, I wouldn’t say it’s common sense or even a requirement.
Overloading is not what you want, for sure. that’s over-stocked on a regular basis. In a whole lot of places it doesn’t take 5 acres/horse to not overload a pasture.
What she actually said was:
She doesn’t want 2 acres total, and then spend all her time buying and stacking and feeding hay, picking manure daily, cleaning stalls, bringing horses in and out so they aren’t 24x7 on grass, maintaining a dry lot (with more manure picking) for the wet months, etc.
Things like fencing maintenance exists regardless, BUT, you can choose fencing that takes less time (and $) to maintain. My Horseguard tape is SO low maintenance. Grass maintenance exists no matter what, but you can spend smaller amounts of time more often mowing a smaller pasture you’re rotating out of, or spend more time less often mowing a bigger space.
As I’ve mentioned, we have maybe 7-ish acres of pasture, with 3-4 horses (currently 3, was 4 for a while) I mow the pasture, seed, fertilize, and drag, I ride, I trim their feet, I’m here for the vet. Hubby weed eats the fence line a few times during the growing season, mostly more because it bothers him than it actually needs to be done. He mows the yard and outside the fenceline. BUT, the things he does allow me the time to mess with the gardens which are a choice, not a must-have, and even they don’t take so much time I couldn’t do the work he does as well. All while working full time, both of us, away from home before covid.
If you have 15+ acres, I would probably divide into 2 if mowing for 6+ hours at a time isn’t your cup of tea. It takes me 4-ish hours to mow with a Ford 4000 and a finish mower, some of that is having to go slower in some areas, and some areas end up driving over mowed areas a few times, so it’s just not always efficient.
I think it’s also worth noting that just because you have a long list of “wants” or “requirements” doesn’t at all mean you’re going to find all those things. When shopping, you’re really at the mercy of the market and inventory.
I certainly would’ve loved to have more pasture space, a bigger arena, more ground level storage, and a more updated house. But those things 100% didn’t exist in the market when we purchased, and didn’t exist in the market for at least the next several years after we bought. Although I’m not watching real estate as closely now as I used to, I still haven’t seen a property that would be a better fit than what we did buy.
Especially if you’re buying in an area with a lot of land pressure, expect to compromise. Either on your list, or your price, or your location. Know what you want, but also know which of those things are MUSTS, and which of those things are just nice to have.
So true. When I bought my farm with ex DH, commute to our jobs was a priority. Certain directions would have added huge commute times due to traffic. When we narrowed the search there were exactly 2 properties available.
I’m considering resale for this farm now…but it’s impossible to really know the value because there are so few comparable properties.
There are a lot of variables as folks have pointed out already. From my POV, Gulf Coast Native, to keep 3 full size horses with the least amount of pasture management etc I’m thinking 6 acres of dedicated horses space, subdivided for rotation. More acreage if you don’t want to rotate. I personally think an overhang (run in shelter) over Dutch doors going into stalls situated in a barn yard / dry lot that has gates to the pastures is the easiest for the human. IMO being prepared for both solo and group turnout is helpful. So depending on how much yard space you want could be a total of 7 acres.
I keep 2 big 1400lbs horses on my 3.37 acre farm. I do a lot of paddock maintenance but to have a bigger property I would have needed a way bigger budget or to live further away from civilization. It works for me but would be way harder if I lived somewhere that I couldn’t ride on native turf / soil year round.
This brings up another good point, too…
Without recently sold comps that support the offer price, getting a loan can be tough. The bank will write the loan for what they can comp on the market.
Land and farm banks, or local banks, might be more willing to extend more, but often at a premium on the rate.
We walked away from one property because what the bank thought it was worth (and was willing to loan) was nooooooowhere near what the sellers wanted. They did wind up getting that price, eventually. Probably with a lot more cash down, or from a bank willing to take more risk.
We had an issue with value when we purchased 9 years ago. We were recommended to use a large bank in the area (we were moving in from 800 miles away), and this bank was VERY unfamiliar with farm values. Their appraisal came back at $50K less than purchase price, and that estimate was supposedly taking into consideration that we were gut rehabbing the house and putting $60K into that renovation.
Our realtor went to bat for us finding comps within a 10 mile radius of the property, whereas the company that did the appraisal found nothing within 20-30 miles.
We initially had a construction loan, which local banks in our county did not offer at the time. Once the renovations were done, we financed a conventional mortgage through a highly recommended bank in our county. Their appraisal for the mortgage came in well over $100K over what the original bank had estimated.
We have never had another issue with getting a good appraisal, but now know you need to find the right appraiser, and comps support the numbers. Finding an appraiser familiar with farms can be tricky!
Okay so now that I have more time… here’s why only 3 of my 9 acres are in pasture and why it’s hard to say what’s useable or not without visiting a site (at least IMO):
Just looking at the satellite map you might think that everything east of the house and around the old barn could be used for turnout. In real life there’s a slope down to the middle of the property from both sides, which creates that marshy area in the middle. Then west of the old barn is the septic drain field. Accounting for those two things I am down to about 3 acres of turnout when I would prefer 5-6, which would seem totally doable with 9 total. I had to get underdrains installed to make the bottom acre useable and I still can’t turn out there during a normal spring. (Side note: because that paddock is used the least in my rotation and doesn’t get used when wet, the grass is way better and there are fewer weeds there than everywhere else—another pro-rotation observation. 
)
I also would have liked to put the barn close to the paddocks (ideally set up for turn in/out without leading, as others have suggested) but due to the topography and drainage there wasn’t a good site for it that wouldn’t subtract a lot of turnout space. Plus it was a lot less expensive to use the old house foundation, and that site has good vehicle access for vets/farriers/deliveries.
So even though 9 acres seems like plenty, the portion usable for horse facilities is much smaller and this is the layout I ended up with:
ETA: I’ve considered fencing the backyard area but avoiding the various swales I would only end up adding about 1/2 acre of turnout, with no access to existing sheds, dry lot, or water. Not worth it.
I’m pretty happy with what I made of it though, especially since this wasn’t actually purchased as a horse property.
Also for whatever it’s worth regarding only having an outdoor, I’ve found it pretty doable, especially the past few years when we’ve had drier winters/springs. When I first brought my horses home I was competing one at Grand Prix (dressage). Now I have a Modified-level eventer and a 5-year-old. Looking at my riding journal, the winter of 2020-2021 I had about a dozen days in late Dec/early Jan when I didn’t ride due to saturated or frozen footing. Then I gave my horse 2 straight weeks off at the end of Jan, partially due to weather and partially as a winter mini-break. There were another 4 days in Feb 2021 when I would have ridden if not for the weather. The winter of 2021-2022 there were less than 10 days that I noted not riding due to weather, all in Jan-Feb. This past winter there was a super cold, frozen week around Christmas and other than that just a day here or there (like today…when honestly I am glad to have an excuse to sit around the house). Disclaimer: I do ship out for lessons so there are some days I rode indoors off-site that I couldn’t have at home. Obviously if we get slammed with snow I’ll be out of luck, but overall I think it’s been very doable. I really prefer riding outside and I like to give my eventer at least a month off over the winter anyway. The 5-year-old will get time off whenever is most convenient for me to have less on my plate.
You make a very strong point regarding existing layout and topography and useable space. An acquaintance of mine has a slightly larger property, 4.5 acres, but less turnout than I do bc of the existing buildings, driveway and creek she has. On the other hand, I had a previous neighbor that kept her riding horse and two minis on a grand total of one acre that she built from total scratch that was grassy and immaculate year round.
This is good advice - thanks. I was looking at houses the other day just out of curiosity. The housing market is crazy right now. Zillow listed my farm at $525k and a new construction house in a suburban neighborhood for $475. Similar size home as far as square feet, bedrooms etc but mine is a 1980 log home. I was pretty disappointed to think that’s all I could afford with the sale of my 20 acre, 3 stall barn property.
Of course I realise that until it’s appraised it may not be remotely accurate it I haven’t tried yet. I still have 3 horses so nothing is happening anytime soon. It’s more of a question of what improvements and how it will affect sale price.
E.g. definitely replacing some sections of fencing this year, some exterior landscaping. But thinks like new windows? Not sure. I nixed a full kitchen reno last year because I’m certain that will not be recoverable. You don’t buy a horse farm because it has a new kitchen. I replaced the floor which made a major impact.
Sorry for the hijack. Maybe I should start a new thread - things that add value to equine property.
