Hi! So, what are you paddock sizes? What about larger pasture?
I have not dealt much with smaller paddocks, just 1 acre+ pastures and smaller dry lots for turnout. Usually 1/2 day turnout for dry lots and either all day or 24/7 for pastures. Smaller paddocks are a “new” concept for me ( I have seen them done and managed, but not done myself ), and I would love to hear your advice on size, management. Is it possible for grass to grow if managed and rotated? Limited turnout, of course.
So, what is your ‘ideal size’? Small sized 25’ x 25’ or 50 x 50’? Medium ‘runs’, say 25’ x 50’ or 75’?
I would love to hear how your farms are laid out with sizes of fields, or even what you did and regret, wishing it was ___ bigger or smaller, etc.
Your question may be geared towards those with larger spreads, but I have a two stall run-in attached to my paddock, which houses my retired small horse and older pony. The paddock is roughly 40’x70’, but is fenced with round pen panels, so it is not square.
I’d love to have a bigger space for them, but this size allows them to trot around and get in a few strides of canter (which they don’t do too often :)) They use the whole area without being too cramped. No grass grows, so I offer them hay 24x7. Besides pulling stumps, rocks, and grading, we didn’t do anything to prepare the footing, so it’s just dirt and some topsoil. I’ve been wanting to scrape it back and add stone dust, but it’s only slightly muddy for a couple weeks out of the year and hasn’t been much of an issue.
I’m diligent about cleaning the paddock at least once a day, though. It’s nothing super fancy, but it’s safe, and I love having them at home!
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I have posted before, but here’s my close-to-the-house spread: https://scontent-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xta1/v/t1.0-9/10365765_10154987473410215_4660616583636995163_n.jpg?oh=bc8e841e866701f09af8e9885ff924ae&oe=55C81E91
The orange section has the run-in shed, and works out to a 1/3/a half of an acre. I’ve had three calm geldings in that space, I don’t think I’d put more in there and when they get to running it can be a little nerve wracking.
The red section is now all grass, it’s about 80x180ish, I use it as my ring, and for working them onto grass in the early spring.
The yellow section is 50x100 or 130 or so, and has a run-in in the basement of my hay barn. The grumpy, IR mare goes into this section, in fact you can see her standing there. It’s fine for one horse, probably even two calm ones.
There’s a three stall barn in there, the blue lines are 12’ gates, the grey line between the yellow and red section is a little 6’ person gate. Everything can be opened up in various configurations, a full-size 80HP tractor with harrow can get into any section easily.
This is where my horses spend their whole winter, and most overnights.
I have two pastures fenced in as well, a six acre field, and one closer to four. But they require a bit of walking, just due to the set up of the (working) farm.
I would not go smaller. I boarded at a place with 50x50 paddocks, that one or two horses went into, for a year. Horses popped splints on the regular from trying to run around in the small spaces. I understand space restrictions, particularly when you start cramming a lot of horses into small spaces, but when I build up another property, I will make sure that I can have more room.
This is one of my favorite local facilities: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Stone+Pony+Farm/@42.4497687,-72.5291444,216m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x89e12d5a6313c951:0x9ba3499581b8472f
They have the huge pastures, that 8-10 horses go into. The larger front paddocks are about an acre, and support 2-4 horses. Then you can see a few scattered true dry-lots squeezed into empty spaces, that still give the horses a decent amount of space. The property supports 40-50 horses.
What we have fenced so far is 42x75’ dry lot. 2.27 acres additional fenced pasture. 1 horse, 1 donkey, 1 mini donkey. Evening turnout only so far (rain has kept us behind increasing), otherwise on dry lot (no barn). I am mowing.
One 10 acre pasture, one three acre pasture (that has been divided into two with electric as needed), a 120 x 100 paddock. All for one horse with a muzzle. 
When mine are at my house, we have a run in that can be gated closed. It goes out to about 1/2 acre that’s bordered by woods and has a creek running through. It’s basically a dry lot, no grass grows anymore. I don’t mind the size at all, I’m woken up to pounding hooves many a morning as they gallop around and jump the creek or splash through it. I feed a netted round bale so they have forage 24x7. In the summertime, we’ve been letting them go to their “grandmothers house”. My daughter’s grandmother has a hundred acre, beautiful facility where they rule as the grandkids…they go in a 20 acre lush grass pasture with a creek running through and big run ins. Truthfully, I prefer them at home, in their much smaller pen- it works for us!
I have one larger field (about 2 acres) a smaller field (about 1 acre) and three paddocks. I use the paddocks for rotating, or keeping the horses I’m going to ride up near the house/barn, so I don’t have to trek all the way out to catch them in the big field. We have four horses, who are out at night, in during the day, this time of year. We usually just put 1-2 at a time in the smaller paddocks (maybe 80’ x 100’?) and generally if they’re there all day, the grass is eaten down in 2 days, maybe 3). then I give the paddocks a rest for a week or so before using them again. I like having the paddocks. They are convenient when weather/timing/etc means it’s not ideal to put the horses in one of the fields. But if I only had the small paddocks, I’d have to have more, or be more limited in the time horses spent in them, or they’d become dry lots in no time.
I have two small one acre paddocks I use in the spring/winter and two ten acre paddocks I alternate for grass in the summer with shelters. I find this is a perfect set up for me and my six horses. I also temp. fence off aprox 4 acres of an old hay field if my two large pastures need a break.
I wish I had one more 1 acre paddocks since I find three horses is a tad crowded in the winter.
We have a small turn out by the barn that leads to a 12’ wide path that circles our perimeter for them to run on 24/7/365.
Then we have the small half acre turn out for winter.
During the summer we rotate the two pastures that are approx. 2 acres each.
4 horses and a pony. 5 acres for the horses.
We have 2 x half acre paddocks, one is grass and though its fenced its pretty much just lawn as its at the front of the house - my husband doesnt want footprints in it. Oh the horror!!
The other half acre paddock has a run in shed and we use it for the winter and muddy seasons. Our sand riding ring is attached to it and I leave the gate open so they can use the turnout paddock and go into the sand ring to run around. We have 4 pony geldings and they run/play like nobody’s buisness.
We also have 1 x 4 acre grass paddock that we use for the summer. I only turn out during the day (7am to 9pm) to limit the grass intake and give the field a bit of a break. I also don’t like leaving the ponies out at night in case the break out of their field and decide to head down the road. It has happened before, though during daylight hours, so the cars were able to see them thank goodness! My guys have this thing about busy trafficky roads and must simply go down them. No idea why as I have TONS of grass everywhere…
Anyway, this set up has worked great for us and our 4 ponies. Grass lasts all summer long and the dirt paddocks are ideal for the wet/cold months. I do wish I had one or two more paddocks so I could do some individual time if I needed to. My dirt paddock and grass paddock are fairly far from each other and if I seperate a pony, they are unable to see each other and run a lot. I like to do this once in a while as my 4 guys get quite attached to each other and it can be hard to seperate them when I want to work one. I like to put them on individual turnout once in a while to get used to being alone or get used to the idea of going to a show alone. Which I believe is important for the pony.
This was after a rainstorm, apparently - in the desert, green pops up instantly, so the arena is on the left - and growing some vegetation. My riding horses haven’t been home in a while, so it’s more overgrown now. 
The barn is 6 stalls but right now we have hay in one and tack/feed in the other, so each stall with a horse opens to one of the runs. The biggest two are about two acres combined, so one is a little over and one a little under. The smallest (to the north) is 24x80, and the next smallest is 36x80. In the desert we obviously don’t have pastures, and the smaller pens are large enough for the two lower energy horses. My two dressage horses get the larger pens. My thoroughbred especially likes to run; during the winter he runs his pen during the day, and during the summer he runs it at night. He typically makes up a circuitous route which involves practice cross country jumping but also plenty of room to leap and buck in glee. 
We also now have a track around the outside of the horse pens which is 30’ wide which could be a run for a horse some day, but right now is because it’s a “fence out” state…
ETA: We feed grass hay basically free feed. With three of the horses there is always some hay on the ground, and with the other one, well, if she had a pasture she’d also have a muzzle…
Such a great question. Been thinking about this lots lately as I get ready to bring another horse home. The horses " home base is about 6 acres of mixed stands of junipers, thorn bushes, grass clearings, and a pond. It quite naturally has created a paddock paradise. The gang is active and happy in there and it’s close to the house. There is a three acre front field off the pond field.
Turnout in the front field is one week on one week off. It gives the pond field a break using it and we only got about 5 big bales of hay off it prior to horses being here.
They also have a ten acre field out back. (getting them back there is a half km walk and we have to truck water back - they ho out there about 2 days a week in the spring and their pond field rests - I am lazy about riding them out there or I’d use it more - once a better gate is there it should help. ) I may split them up and leave retires out back longer soon. It’s a lovely field too. Gentle Swales lots of shade.
This years major fencing project involves fencing a winter yard around the barn it will be a big L shape two arms of about 200 by 100 each.
Once hay comes off the fields I also graze it through the fall. Last year we didn’t need hay until mid Nov. I suspect my last two big bales are out now and the horses haven’t touched them really in two weeks.
We have small paddocks off each stall, they are only 12x16 but are covered, they open directly into 8 acres of pasture. Pasture is not divided, there isn’t any need for rotation in our area; however, if ever needed I can panel off a smaller area about 1.5 acres if ever needed. Pastures grow fast and continuous a good bit of the year. The horses are on 24/7 turnout so they can come and go as they please. DH does mow the pastures about once a month during the warmer months, more if needed.
I have a paddock of approximately one acre that is accessible to the horses at all times (the shelter & water are located in here). Then there is a gate that opens to a pasture of approximately 4-5 acres. I sometimes also put them in the “barnyard” area to graze when I’m home to supervise, which is maybe 1/2 acre.
If you could ‘do it over again’, would you change anything?
For us, I can’t say I would. In our new ‘farmette’ (going from a large 40+ acre farm to a 5 acre farmette has been a challenge these past several years), we have room for just our 3, and their stalls open to a 4 acre field. I am going to put in interior fencing to accommodate the paddock paradise system with the main 4 acres split to two fields for rotating, and plan to feed hay year round to maintain something that will hopefully resemble grass in the fields. pleaseeeee They all are sport horses and work hard, but I have worked to get them all able to be turned out together and out 24/7 for the most part. They have never been happier or more content, so I don’t want to change that.
In my previous farms, I had 1-5 acre fields that allowed various turnouts and rotations that were easy. The stalls opened to some of the fields, or could be closed off for leading back and forth. I had a 24x24 ‘outdoor stall’ for rehabbing injuries, and had planned for a few longer 35x75 runs for individual small turnouts, but didn’t get around to it.
My barn has stalls with dutch doors on the back, 3 on one side and 2 on the other. Each side of stalls opens to a small paddock that is 60x40 foot. Perfect for one horse on layup or for my 2 joined-at-the-hip retirees to go in/out of a stall when the weather is bad.
The small paddocks and the barn open into the paddock which is roughly 150x200. That’s fine for 2-3 horses. I am about to fence the rest of the property into a pasture which is about a 5 acre rectangle. The paddock opens into it and there will be a separate way to get in down an aisle on one side past one small paddock (aisle can be closed off on both ends). For now I am doing it all as one big rectangle but the way I laid things out, I can divide it and still have easy access to gates/water in the future.
I have 5 stalls so don’t plan to exceed that number of horses. I have my retirees, 2 stalls for when/if my current riding horses need them (the surest way to ensure your riding horses stay sound and don’t ever need stall rest is to spend $$$ building stalls at your farmette for them… NOT THAT I AM COMPLAINING). I plan to board a retiree as well. So I have mostly quiet/laid back/older horses that don’t have issues with one another and don’t really need separation. When they’re in the pasture all of them can go out together. When it’s time to rotationally rest the paddock, one horse can have the small paddock/aisle (the aisle is about 20x40 and can open right into one small paddock) and the other 2 horses can have the pasture.
At the moment I am doing one cutting of hay on the pasture before the horses go out on it, so chopping it into smaller segments would make the process harder.
Also, my long term pipe dream is to buy one or more of the 8 acres parcels on either side of me, and if/when that happens I’ll have more pasture and can do another one for rotational grazing. So, for now, I am trying not to chop that pasture area smaller. If I need to, I figure I can always use a line of electric to separate it.
5 stall center aisle barn with feed room, hay room, wash stall and tack room. two 12X12 stalls on the right let out into their very own 1.5 acre paddocks.
There is a broodmare (12X24) stall on the left and one more 12X12 stall on left. Both have back doors that let out into a 6.5 acre pasture.
Plan is to divide the big pasture so I can rotate/rest each half. I also ride in the front half of the big pasture.
The individual paddocks are a great size for one horse. I love the attached stalls. This keeps my riding horses from getting stupid injuries from being turned out together. Plus I don’t have to turn out/bring in and rarely have to clean a stall. They learn quick to pee/poo outside.
I drag all pastures about once a week. I mow when necessary. Recently I added an herbicide to the front of the larger paddock. Fertilizer will be next. It’s a lot of work but I love the property and its fun to try and make it better.
I have 5 paddocks, though only two are ready and in use. They are roughly 100 x 200. I have used electric tape to make section off the lower part where the grass is, so I have roughly 100 x 40 in dry lot, while the other 100 x 160 has grass. One of my horses can’t be on grass, and now in the spring I can limit their grass. I’d LOVE to cross fence that permanently with a gate at either end of the cross fence (where it meets with the perimeter fence), but since we’re here only a few years it just isn’t worth it.
The idea will be to get all 5 little fields into rotation, all roughly the same size.
