Someone on another thread said something along the lines of “you don’t have to manage every inch of your property’”. This is so important! Let sections return to nature. The people who owned this house mowed 20 acres. That is way too much work. Our goal is to get that below 5 (area around house and barns). We will plant the other 15 with good food plot grains and grasses at let it return to nature. We will just mow paths through it.
Lots of good points here. In warmer climates I have found that the bugs in warmer weather can be the worst. A deep three sided run-in shed with electricity and mounted fans in the summer helps if you want them to live out. Also things to consider are storage and management of manure, hay, bedding. How frequently you will need delivery/removal of those things as well. How often do you travel and how easy is it to find someone to take care of things when you do. Water availability in each location where horses are is key so no need to run long lengths of hose etc. As was said before, if you are starting from scratch a well thought out plan and layout can minimize the work and maximize the efficiency of the operation.
If you have a fear of physical work, you are not a farmer- even just a “hobby farmer”. The more pasture you have, the less work it is to keep horses, so the smaller the farm, the more work is required to keep things tidy and neat and clean, IMO. Horses do a surprisingly good job of looking after themselves, if you give them the opportunity to do so. But there is always work for the human to do, things break, usually at the most inopportune times. Our “hobby farm” is 160 acres, and it’s a breeze LOL (cough cough). But if you enjoy the work, it’s the perfect life. Covid isolation is normal life for us, no changes here.
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It all depends on how much acreage. At least that is what we have found. The more land the more upkeep.
If you just want the horses out to retire, if you don’t mind buying hay, and if you have the place fenced so that pretty much everything is either eatable or really easy to mow, then it’s not that much work. Especially if you get hay delivered right to your hay barn.
If you also want to ride and maintain a riding area, then it’s a lot more work.
If you have to get hay a few bales at a time or if you need to maintain viable pasture year round then it’s a lot more work.
Also it’s really easy to make more work for yourself by having other animals show up.
If you like pretty fences, landscaping, that adds to it, as does every scrap of grass around trees or unfenced. If you have creeks or woods, more so.
The other thing is: it is a constant commitment. If you’re someone who loves going on spontaneous weekend trips, having horses at home is not for you. If you travel regularly (business or pleasure), you’ll need to find someone you trust who can come horse-sit.
Bringing the horses home is a good way to really appreciate how much work it is to run a boarding barn.
Hello
I had a very small hobby farm 3 acres and it was very manageable by myself. I had 2 horses and a 2 goats and as others have said it can be as much work as you want. I had a 3 stall that was attached to my dry lot and had about a 1 1/2 acre in pasture. My guys were in the dry lot most of the time and went out on the pasture 3 days a week for several hours (weather permitting). They could come and go as they wanted from the stalls and since they would only go in to eat or if the weather was bad I didn’t bed the stalls they were just matted and I would pick any piles daily if there was any. My routine was…Feed x2 and throw hay if I didn’t have a round bale. I had a auto waterer so I just made sure it was filled daily and then checked for any injuries and made sure they were over all ok. On days I worked total time was about 30 a day. Then once a week I cleaned the dry lot, cleaned water, did any maintenance that was needed and that may take a few hours.
In addition to the daily chores …
Give some thought to how you will handle unexpected urgent situations. Something broken, something a horse did, something a person did … but it has to be addressed right now, or the consequences will be unpleasant. From a busted pipe to a bleeding horse to paid barn help who doesn’t show up to feed. You need a general plan of how you’ll divert your day, and a list of important phone numbers. And a stash of funds for things you didn’t know you’d have to pay for right now.
This is one of the principal reasons why I’ve never seriously looked into being a horse property owner, and have instead boarded for decades. I’d just rather not be the one who has to deal with whatever has to be fixed right now. With such a large of collection of things that can go wrong. My one horse at a board barn is about all I can deal with, myself. :lol:
Their is an unpredictable financial aspect of unplanned fix-it situations. Nothing happens for a year, then three big ones in the same month.
As a boarder I have a certain monthly cost, and the barn owner deals with the urgencies and pays those bills, God bless 'em. I try to let them know how much I appreciate how well they do their job. 
There are people who handle all of this just fine and prefer doing it themselves to boarding their horse(s). And there are people who prefer boarding. It’s just figuring out what suits you best.
If you feel comfortable doing it financially, you can try out farm life for a year or two, and if it doesn’t work, change course. If it does work, you will have made one of the most important moves of your life.
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This. And also, how much you work off the farm. This time of year I can’t keep up with mowing, literally. Sometimes it’s raining, sometimes it rains on my off days and is beautiful on my work days, but 12 hour work days means no time to mow then. I skipped a week due to weather and mowed last week and it left giant haymows across my yards. I had hoped the weather we had this weekend would include enough wind to blow it away, but not enough to snap my starts… it was teeny breeze. So starts are all fine, but haymows are now yucky browning wet lumps.
And paddocks haven’t been mowed yet because it’s wet. They need it. Horses started going out but are back in due to wet for a few days. Maybe I can spend all day Tuesday mowing before it maybe rains again that afternoon, and I took Friday off just in case (we work 3 on, 3 off). I also have a good-size garden in addition to three horses and two donkeys, the two dogs, and the 15 chicks I just got a month ago. I’m hiring out my arena and hoping it’ll get put in soon, but right now the time to ride doesn’t exist. Maybe once the coop and chicken paddocks get done?
Today I got held over an hour to get some paperwork done, then had to go to my Dad’s to pick up my pups, hung there maybe 30 min and got home 8ish, did a five min tour through the garden because I didn’t yesterday, then barn chores, then caught all the chicks for inspection (I am now thinking three cockrels, but hoping still for just the one) and to put them in a box so I can clean out the trough they are living in. I just got inside 15 min ago, it’s nearly 10pm, I need to shower and crash but thankfully tomorrow is my first day off. Gardening is a fun thing I love and I devote a lot of thought energy and physical energy (and money) to it, and this time of year it’s busy getting going. I always wanted chickens so it’s a financial investment and time sink to see if I like the actual as much as the thought (so far I wuv them). My Dad helps but he does one of the feedings on my work days and then stuff like building the coop, he might mow for me once or twice, but he has his own house and projects too. So how much work is it? However much you want it to be. Limit your other hobbies.
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Generally, more than you might think and less than you might expect! Depends on your work ethic.
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With your proposed setup I think you could keep your time/labor commitment relatively low. When my horses are outside a lot, my chore time goes way way down. Some days it can be literally just 15 min twice a day to feed grain and while they eat check their condition, change blankets, throw hay if needed, check that auto waterers are working, pick manure from the dry lot and shed, etc.
But there are also the weekly or monthly chores that I tend to save for weekends, like mowing, weedwhacking, dragging the field, moving hay, and other maintenance-type stuff. Sometimes these things take an hour or two, sometimes it’s most of a day. And obviously every now and then you go outside to find that a major disaster has ensued, like an injured horse or downed fence or broken pipe or whatever. You do need to have flexibility in your life to deal with stuff like that.
I did find that the first couple years of farm ownership were way, way more labor- and cost-intensive because I was getting everything set up to my liking and making improvements. I’ve had my farm six years now and do major projects relatively rarely.
Also, I know this isn’t exactly what you asked about, but since you mentioned it I’d caution you about having a mini-donkey as your third herd member given your proposed setup (24/7 turnout on grassy pastures). Donkeys in general can’t handle full turnout on grass very well, especially minis. You would almost certainly have to muzzle the little guy full-time and even that might not be enough to keep him healthy.
My mini-donkey was a great third herd member until my horses started living out more and more of the time. (The first few years I stalled during the day in summer and overnight in winter, then I built a dry lot that allowed me to turn out more. My horses are currently only stalled during the day in summer and live out the rest of the year.) The donk was getting fat despite muzzling, and I hate muzzling them 24/7 because no matter the muzzle I don’t think it can be comfortable or pleasant. So, this year I got a second donkey to keep my companion company :rolleyes: and the donkeys now live in their own area with limited grass. They do still provide some form of companionship to the horses, but it’s not quite the same and I now have another mouth to feed.
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Everyone here has made excellent points. As a farm owner with ~7 acres and 3 horses on pasture with stall access 24/7, I agree that it’s about an hour a day minimum for horse care, plus weekly chores.
One other thing to add though, is that if you have your choice of properties, find the one with good neighbors. We didn’t realize how lucky we were when we bought our place, but we hit the jackpot. One neighbor rides endurance (she’s very good - been to WEG and ridden Tevis) - she has an arena, round pen with lights, walker, and every piece of tack and vet care accessory you could imagine. We also trade farm sitting on a regular basis. Neighbor up the hill has multiple tractors, used to weld professionally, and has lived here for 35 years. If something is broken or we need a car pulled out of a ditch 🙄 he’s always there. Across the street we have a guy that rents out large equipment (bulldozers, tractors, etc) and that will sell us water when we spring a leak and lose 5,000 gallons (yay California!).
Conversely, I’m sure you know what awful neighbors are like. Choose wisely (if you can)!
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