I have been contemplating the idea of bringing my horse to my home and am interested in hearing from others who may have horses on small acreage in this climate (southern ca specifically) on the pros and cons and maybe anything I haven’t thought of.
I live on a relatively flat acre inland southern CA. I rent and my landlord is totally open to the idea. While it would require a bit of investment, I know we will be here for at least two years, probably closer to three, and our long term goal is to own acreage and have horses at home, so my thoughts are that this might be a good test run.
I have space for two 12x24 stalls and a roughly 100x100 space that could be used for riding, but it would need to be leveled/graded, and footing added. It rarely rains and the area wouldn’t see very heavy use so I’m not sure I would go to the trouble and expense of putting down a base layer for the riding area, rather just tamping the clay down and adding a couple inches of washed sand— but have yet to hear any educated advice on this so I am not sure if it’s feasible. Also unsure of what I would do for the stall area footing, though was thinking a layer of road base, stall mats and then a layer of dirt.
I also am aware it isn’t ideal to have only one horse, and am not ready to buy another horse yet (time-wise) but could consider a mini/goat or even letting someone keep their pasture pet/retired horse here for company.
Waste removal wouldn’t be a problem as the neighbors use yard waste bins and have no problems with it so I would probably do the same.
This is still very much in the “dreaming” phase and we aren’t ready to make any moves yet, but I’d like to hear some feedback from others. Is it even doable on an acre?
