How Big is Your Turnout Space?

[Guilherme]

[QUOTE=Beaudacious22;8775913]
Thanks for the replies, 1 acre dry lot is pretty much what I had envisioned. I know keeping grass on that small of a space with horses out for more than a couple hours a day is unrealistic. We will hopefully have the opportunity to purchase the adjoining proprty in the future which would open up more space for turnout but I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch.[/QUOTE]

This very much depends on where you live. In a arid climate you’d be quite correct. In East TN where we get close to 50" of rain per year during the late spring through late autumn an acre of well maintained grass can support a couple of horses almost continuously. In winter it’s going to be very wet and muddy in some places and that, too, requires management.

Like any question that amounts to "high high is “up?” the answer is “it depends.”

G.

[Bluey]

Depends on the horse you are turning out.

We have an older Cushings horse that needs to be kept off much grass, so he has his own pens under the barn and an 80’ x 250" “pasture” trap to run in and feel he is not in jail, right along the main pasture, that is almost a mile long with lush grass.

He is doing fine for now, relatively happy there, but being out would kill him, so that is where he has to stay.

Hard to have rules of thumb, size depends on your pasture, the time of the year, the kind and condition of the horses that will use those, what else the horses do, how much ridden, go to shows, how many horses in a group.

[Pocket_Pony]

As others have said, it depends where you live and how you manage it.

My last place, the main turnout area where my three horses spent a lot of their time was a 1/2 acre dry lot. Then when I’d take them out to graze, it would be on 1-2 acres that had been split with HG fencing for rotating purposes. That worked just fine.

Now we have a couple dry lots (one is 1/4 acre, maybe, one is 1.5 acre) and 5 acres in irrigated pasture. Considering they don’t go out on the grass too much (metabolic worries for one of them), it is way too much grass for us to have and for the horses to keep up with eating. I’m considering getting goats to keep the pasture down!

What I do when they are out on the dry lot, no matter which size, is spread all the hay into a bunch of piles - probably 10 piles or so - so that they are always moving around to get to the hay. In between they may munch on some brush or tree branches or wild grasses. I don’t think they are any worse for wear when on dry lot and are actually probably better off.

[SAcres]

I think it greatly depends on your management style and how you fence that acre. I would probably do a stone dust or gravel dry lot around the barn, maybe the size of a riding ring. This would give you a multipurpose area to ride in and turn out in bad weather. You could tuck the barn into the corner to increase space. I would have no problem with keeping horses in something that size over the winter to save the rest of your land, with a few hours a day in the big area to stretch their legs a bit. A 80x140 area is enough room for a horse to work up to a full gallop and will take up about a quarter of your available space. I would divide the rest into two equal size paddocks that you can rotate between. This will help you maintain at least some grass in the spring and will keep your land healthy.

With correct rotation and management, you can do just fine with 2 horses on an acre. But if you get lax with land and horse management, you will end up with a muddy mess your first winter.

[chantel]

I have 2 horses in a field of 1.25 acres or so. They are turned out approximately 10 hours a day ( 8am -5 ish in winter, 8 pm to 6 ish summer) ,throw hay in winter but there is always grass, never dirt only except at the gate. On really wet days I do try to save my fields by only turning out 4 hours or so ( 2 hours in am/pm) . These are 16h young tbs and do more damage to the turf running then grazing. My field for the most part always looks good, although i do maintain it pretty intensely. I pick it a few times a week, trying to eliminate “bathroom only” areas. This time of year I’m mowing once a month to control weeds. I overseed 2x a year. I’m in south east Pennsylvania, we have pretty good soil, no wet areas, fairly flat. When farm shopping we were really looking at 4-10 acres but this place popped up and the layout was perfect. I dream of winning the lotto and buying the 100 acre farm behind me but for now this is do able.

[candyappy]

[QUOTE=Beaudacious22;8775913]
Thanks for the replies, 1 acre dry lot is pretty much what I had envisioned. I know keeping grass on that small of a space with horses out for more than a couple hours a day is unrealistic. We will hopefully have the opportunity to purchase the adjoining proprty in the future which would open up more space for turnout but I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch.[/QUOTE]

We have moved several times in the last 12 years and every time my horse keeping set up was different.

1. 3 horses on 5 acre pasture. I put them out for about 8 hours a day. the rest of the time they shared a 1.5 acre dry ( weed ) lot.

2. 10 acre pasture out 24/7.

3. 6 acre pasture out 24/7.

4. 1.5 acre dry lot only --with enough grass to keep they looking most of the time.

5. 2 horses now on a 5 acre pasture out 12 hours, small dry lot 12 hours. They have thrived in every living situation ( amazingly) and seem completely content and happy.

[littlebaypony]

My neighbor has her horses on dry lot and it works very well for her in part because she diligently picks the poop every day. She doesn’t have “roughs and lawns” where her horses poop only and graze only. I, on the other hand, have a dry lot that I use in the spring and I don’t pick the poop. I have 2 big areas where they do all their pooping so it grass gets tall there and must be mowed. On the other hand, those roughs help reseed the hard grazed areas when the horses are not in the dry lot.
If you have the time and energy I’d definitely recommend scooping the poop.

[Mukluk]

I know my two do not consider their turn out to be big enough. They want to be able to run top speed for a spell. In the current turn out they can run for a little but then have to slam on the brakes (ever see an OTTB do a sliding stop?). BUT it sure beats what a lot of poor horses in CA live in which is a 12 x 24 pipe corral!!!

[JoZ]

I thought I had about 3-1/2 acres in “pasture” (in quotes because the grass is sparse). That was based on knowing that this rental property is 5 acres, and eyeballing what is and isn’t fenced. But I have to do some fence rework so I used Google Earth to measure the perimeter – it’s so cool, it also gave me the area in square feet! Converting that to acres, it seems like the pastures only total about 1.75 acres. I have five horses in that space and it seems perfectly fine for their running and cavorting. It has quite a bit of variation: flat area, slope, dip, trees, etc. But I guess it lets me know why there isn’t grass.

[gingerbread]

I am estimating that I have 1.5 acres for my two horses. It is fine! They have room to run, roll, poke around. That’s what’s important! It doesn’t support grass enough to feed them properly (hay is always needed)but most of the grass remains for them to nibble on, keeping them happy. You can plant more resilient varieties for your area that will at least survive being overgrazed…Ours have actually taught themselves to poop on only one spot so they can nibble freely on all the rest. The important thing though, for their psychological health, is freedom of movement, as much as possible. That’s what horses were designed to do.

[swgarasu]

I have a tiny place, about 3/4 of an acre- I have a dry lot and a riding area (grass grows in the middle of my “arena”) so we hand graze there. I’d love to have a few acres but I have no rich relatives and our location has become far too popular for us to have more land and still be able to commute to work.
My dry lot is 4500 sq ft, with a 12 x 20 shed that opens onto it. It’s dry here most of the time and my lot slopes very slightly so it’s only really muddy after a huge snow/thaw or continuous rain for several days. I feed hay every day and clean it 2x a day. Horse is happy and healthy. As much as I’d love an acre or few more, I know some horses live in a 12x12 stall 90% of the time and do ok. She has plenty of space to roll and canter around and buck and kick.

[AKB]

I would definitely plan on having a big overhang/run in on the barn with stone dust. That will keep the entire paddock from turning to mud. Small acreage always seems to me to be more work than larger pieces of property.

My neighbors have 3 horses on 1 acre. They have to pick the paddock daily. Manure disposal is a problem. They do not have an overhang on their barn so they always have deep mud around the barn after a rain.