How big are your turnout areas? We want them big enough for 2 or 3 horses to go out together and we are doing 4 for rotation purposes. Suggestions?
We have a practice roping arena, 300’ x 120’ and have turned up to three in there without being crowded.
They come into an 80’ x 60’ smaller pen, then we feed them hay in the 40’ x 28’ barn overhang, with a pen that is 50’ x 40’ in front of it.
All that is fenced with commercial 6 bar panels and connected thru it with 14’ gates on each corner.
How much space do you have to play with? Are you trying to keep grass living in your turnout areas?
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We have about 8 acres to use but I want to keep some of that as pasture. And yes, I want the grass to stay.
Size matters. So does location. If you are in FL or So. TX your program will be different than if you’re in Middle TN or Middle MN. Or in So. AZ or Southern CA.
Talk to your local Extension Agent. They can advise you for your specific area on size, grass type, rotation program, etc.
G.
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If what you want is pasture, well, as above, it depends on how many acres to the horse you need where you are, even rotating.
We use two traps for the horses and we have to figure 30 acres per horse year around and that means, they will have green pasture about 8 months in good years and we complement dormant grasses the other months with alfalfa.
Those horse traps are one mile long and about 1/8 of a mile wide, so 120 acres each and we rotate thru them.
We can have up to 5, pushing it 8 horses in there, but have never had more than 6 at any one time and we have to feed all thru droughts when it doesn’t rain.
Where you are, if you get dependable and much rain, you may be able to carry a horse an acre or more.
Your USDA office also has the NRS, Soil Conservation offices.
There they will figure stocking programs for your area, is what they do, free, your taxes at work there.
They also have the neatest aerial maps for you if you go ask them for some.
My 2 horses & 1 milk cow share a 5 acre pasture. They have grass all year round and I don’t rotate. They are dry lotted overnight off the barn ( cow in milk is not off pasture) which keeps their weight in check and gives the pasture a rest from their constant eating.
I do have them off completely right now to let the pasture grow . I do this every Spring to let the shorter grazed areas recover, we drag the pasture and will fertilize soon.
If you split up your 8 acres into 4 rotational areas as well as having a pasture I don’t see how you will have grass anywhere? I would have a large pasture and several dry lot or sacrifice areas for when they need to be off.
I am in southern Maryland.
I only have about 3 acres of my property dedicated to horse “pasture”. I have a 40x80 dry lot connected to a 16x24 lean-to shelter. The 4 horses can be locked into the dry lot, or allowed into one of five “sections” of pasture that I rotate through. The sections range from 40’ to 80’ wide, and all are ~300’ long. I do overseed, weed spray and fertilize every fall/spring. In a good precipitation year, I have GOOD grass 9 months of the year, and “grazable” pasture for limited turn-out the other 3 months. The horses have 24/7 access to one lot at a time, weather permitting, from mid-spring to late fall.
Are sections bigger in Texas? The ones I own in Kansas are 640 acres, 1 mile x 1 mile square, which would make a 1 mile long x 1/8 mile wide pasture 80 acres???
Not all sections are 640, some are a little more or less, because here they were surveyed initially, as Capitol Lands, as if they are flat, then had to allow for topographical differences later.
Some of the later surveyors were honest and told the owner of the sections there were more acres, go apply for them to the court house.
Others were not so honest and applied for those extra acres, then sold them to the owners of record for that section.
The horse traps are not quite rectangular, that is where we get more acres in there, not all along 1/8 of a mile.
One is 112 acres, the other 122, I was approximating the 1/8 of a mile wide.
I have a 10 acre farm. 1/3 acre encompasses our house, yard, driveway, and garages. About 2/3 of an acre is the barn, manure bin, outside washrack and trailer parking.
I have 3 horses and all 3 of my stalls have 24’x36’ all weather paddocks attached to their stalls. I leave their doors open all the time so they can come and go. All of my paddocks open up to a 36’ x 60’ gravel pad and then grass pasture.
I have roughly 9 acres of pasture for turnout. My three horses only run around occasionally. Mostly just walking and grazing.
The grass is really rich in the spring and summer, so they have grazing muzzles and limited turn out. Since I haven’t cross fenced my pasture I can have my neighbor cut it for hay. The first cutting he takes as round bales for his cattle and the second cutting is regular aware bales for my horse. I usually can get about 375-400 bales (about a years supply) of hay put up.
​​​​​​​I really am glad that I never cross fenced my pasture. I get hay, the horses can really run if they want to, I can ride in the pasture and it really doesn’t get torn up over the winter.
