I live in Central Georgia, USA. I have 5.5 acres on which I keep 3 horses and a donkey, some chickens, geese and dogs. My house and barn sit on part of it. I keep the horses mostly on around 3.5 to 4 acres. I have grass and don’t usually need to supplement with hay for six months of the year. The other six months I have no grass and need to feed hay. When I’m feeding hay I feed round bales free choice throughout the day. My horses stay turned out all day and are in the barn overnight. Only one horse is confined to his stall all night. The other 2 horses have access to roomy paddocks and the donkey has access to a 12x20’ run. I am at the maximum number of horses for my acreage and for my horse keeping practices. If I had one more horse my pastures would decline. I could keep more horses but I’d have to feed hay and rotate the horses more and possibly keep them in the barn more which is not something I’m willing to do.
I have 4.5 acres and two horses. The land is fenced with four paddocks - no really large pastures. I would guess my largest is about a half acre, the medium sized one is probably 1/4 acre, and the other two are basically runs.
For my two horses, it works fine. I rotate them between the paddocks and they never go out on the grassy ones when it’s muddy.
That said - we just bought this property and it has a barn with FOURTEEN STALLS. I could not imagine having 14 horses here! They had 9 living outside full time and at least 10 in stalls. Obviously there was zero grass and trying to keep the paddocks clean and safe with that many horses in them would be very challenging. And what they did with manure is beyond me. There was no pile when we moved in.
The most I would feel comfortable with is four horses (not to mention, per the zoning laws we can only have four). I would probably not have much grass for grazing but at least the paddock sizes could accommodate that number safely.
We’ve talked about fencing in a couple larger pastures but the way the property is laid out, that would be quite difficult. The entire lot is fenced and there is electric wire in some odd places (the deck?), so I think one of the previous owners let horses loose on the entire property, but I don’t feel safe doing that. You never know when the UPS truck will come zipping up the driveway and then leave the gate open when he leaves…
@PNW: if you ever feel you have too many horses for your acreage, I’m sure there will be plenty of people lining up to take them off your hands :winkgrin:
[QUOTE=SnicklefritzG;8589673]
@PNW: if you ever feel you have too many horses for your acreage, I’m sure there will be plenty of people lining up to take them off your hands :winkgrin:[/QUOTE]
:lol: Wellllll…one of them is for sale and I heard he really wants to live on the East Coast… 
I should add that if I could have afforded more acreage, I would have bought it in a heartbeat! But at 10-15k an acre for bare land, 40 acres or more wasn’t really an option when we were looking…
[QUOTE=Parrs Gold Bar;8589493]
We currently have 8.5 acres of paddock, but will be building the barn/rings on some of that in the future.
Mind telling me how your paddocks do with that many horses? I know you said it isn’t big enough; do you find your paddocks get chewed up to mud, or are they just always super short and you need supplemental hay despite the ground still being green?[/QUOTE]
PGB,
The paddocks hold up mostly okay, no mud, but not much grass. In spring (April/May) the grass grows like crazy and keeps up, and stays good for most of the summer if we get enough rain. But the horses keep the grass short the rest of the year. We do plant winter rye, and that helps in Nov/Dec and March.
We have two turnout groups. Group one is out 24/7 in the big field (paddock 3, with gate open to paddock 2 w/ run in), and doesn’t rotate much, as they will eat down a ‘fresh’ paddock in 1-2 days. Turnout group 2 is smaller, and spends 1/2 time in stalls, and moves between two smaller fields (paddock 1 and paddock 4), which hold up decently. We are lucky that we have very sandy soil, so it drains well, and doesn’t get trashed when the horses are out after rain.
I use the little paddocks 5 and 6 for injuries, foals, or quick access to whomever I’ll need for vet/farrier/riding. We have gates across the driveway, and a fenced backyard, and we’ve been known to use both of those spaces for short-term turnout. Afterall, mowing one’s lawn is a grazing opportunity lost 
Eventually the little red outlined future area next to the road will be a drylot for wet-conditions turnout, and we’ll fence in the cleared area above paddock 3 so the larger 24/7 turnout group can get rotated, and still have access to their shelter.
Really, it depends on so many different factors. Soil type, climate, north vs south, irrigated vs nonirrigated, type of grass, type of equine, hours/day on pasture… The only constant in my experience is that more is better, within reasonable limits.
I’ve got a total of 3 equines on a total of 5 acres (that includes house, outbuildings, and a forested area that is not fenced for pasture). It’s sufficient, but I do supplement with hay all year, more in winter, less in summer. My ideal would be 20 acres.
In my county, you need a minimum of 5 acres to have horses/livestock on your property.
There are different setbacks, etc for livestock fencing verse property-line fencing.
Also animals are considered ‘units’ and the county allows
so many units per amount of acreage.
We actually own 40 acres, but only have about 10 fenced in,
I only have 2 horses.
I have one large pasture, with a small run in shed,
which I have set up to divide in half, with step in posts,
when I want to rotate.
I also have a small ring off of my barn, and a small pasture adjacent to that ring.
I use the small pasture to keep them handy when the farrier is coming,
or I’m working in the other pasture, etc. etc.
We also have a small forest of about 25 acres, which is lovely.
Its a very beautiful setting
I looked up the zoning laws for the town my horses currently live in, and it is 1 horse on no less than 3 acres, 2 horses allowed on 5 acres, and then 1 horse per acre for land exceeding 5 acres.
Thanks again for the insight guys! I don’t know how to describe the soil in my area right now. The horses are out 24/7 and get free choice hay. I don’t care about grass or maintaining pasture as they will have hay year round and I prefer it that way. We have had a lot of rain in the past few months and their field has gotten disgustingly muddy in the high traffic area by the gate and under the run-in shed, but the rest of the field is not too bad.
I’m thinking I would probably have to lay something down for the high traffic areas, and would maybe do rubber mats in the run in shed so that they are not constantly standing in manure. It would also be easier to clean out that way vs. shoveling out manure + dirt all the time.
Please note this is me theorizing based on their current field setup. I board at a farm that I do not own right now, but will be buying my own property and figuring out my own setup. It’s just helpful to take ideas based on what they are dealing with now as I will be living in the same area/close to this area when I do buy a house/land.
We are on 10 acres and that includes house, barn and large run in shed. I’d say we have 6-7 fenced into two large pastures, and one small paddock around the barn. We have 2 ponies - one is a 10hh shetland, one is a large pony, and 2 horses. I feel maxed out with 4 on this acreage and would love more someday. We still hope to add an arena but will need to eat up pasture space to do it because of slope. My ideal would be 15-20 but I’m afraid with more acreage we’d only end up adding more horses
Im on 13 acres of sandy crappy wetland soil. Water table here in winter is at ground surface level. Technically i can have 2 horses with no supp feeding. I have permission currently for 4 and once stables and retic is added am planning to reapply and get permission for 10-13.
Im big on land management and have loads of clay, gravel etc coming in and try and keep soil coverage at 70% or higher. Im also setting the property up as predominantly a track system and putting gravel in all the high traffic areas.
Go to the local Extension agent and see what ratio of horses/acre they recommend in the area. Management can of course influence that ratio. Having a sacrifice paddock helps, as you can rotate/rest paddock areas.
3 horses, one 12 acre paddock and one 1 acre paddock (winter paddock) and 1 small sacrafice area for the spring thaw. Mine are generally out 24/7 except in the spring as I don’t like them standing on mud too often.
My 5ac was zoned for 2 horses when I bought it - the Rule was:
1 large animal for the 1st 3.5ac, then an additional animal for each additional acre.
A couple years later (with subdivisions encroaching) Zoning Board changed it to 5ac for the 1st animal. I am grandfathered in & hopefully a buyer would be too.
The Reality is I am surrounded by small acreages & neighbors with over-the-limit# horses & as long as there are no complaints you can pretty much do whatever you want.
No hoarders, just folks with more than the legal 2, well-managed from what I see.
Zoning also changed so that lots less than 10ac cannot be subdivided.
However, my neighbor to the North petitioned & was permitted to add another house to his 5ac.
He has not built that yet, so I suspect he got the permit to make the acreage more attractive for a future resale.
I have around 3ac in pastures including an approx. 50X100 sacrifice paddock that attaches to the 36X36 pole barn.
Barn attaches to 60X120 indoor.
Pastures attach to the sacrifice area - larger ~2ac, smaller probably 1/2ac.
I have had 2 horses (now 1 horse, 1 pony) on this arrangement for 12yrs.
Horses have free access to stalls from sacrifice & free access to pastures from there year-round.
They come in to be fed, but are Out a lot more than In, no matter what weather.
I had the smaller field drill-seeded the 1st year I was here & kept horses off until grass got started.
But aside from that all I’ve done is hand-spread seed in the big field Year 2 & since then, Nada.
You cannot call the pastures “lush”, but they supply enough grazing so my hay consumption drops off radically when grass is there.
I purchased 200 small squares - 45-50# - orchard/timothy mix last July and still have near half of that left.
Horses keep the grass short, but I generally have to mow to keep down roughs & weeds once or twice a season.
For mud I finally went with COTH Wisdom & had geotextile put down 3yrs ago with gravel on top - large gravel: anywhere from a couple inches in diameter to fist-sized rocks.
Now my only problem area is where horses exit the stalls - that turns into an ankle-deep morass over Winter.
Hoping to solve that problem by adding a 4X6 lip to the stalls.
In hindsight I would have perimeter-fenced more of the place, leaving me lots less lawn to mow & more pasture.
I could probably get by on 3ac total if Zoning allowed me to have the same # of horses.
Your property acreage and number of horses …not enough acres and too many head… but per zoning I can have more than what we have
But while in college I worked for a saddlehorse operation were we had 35 head on a two acre complex… all were kept in stalls and worked five/six days a week. The barns had been the homestead that was subdivided into a housing development leaving just the old house with the barns surrounded… one good thing we never had to buy a newspaper as the barn dog would bring one in each morning that it would retrieve from a nearby house
I have just over 73 acres and 2 horses. Approximately 6 acres of (crummy) pasture, a one acre sacrifice paddock, then about 25 acres hay fields, and the rest is wooded with trails. And I guess the house/driveway/yard is about an acre.
My advice is to buy as much as you can possibly afford! I love spending all my free time on my property… and neighbours are so far away I might as well be on my own planet. I love it.
We have 40 acres and two horses. I ride a lot, I can’t really imagine having less than what we have. About half the property is used for crops, but I can ride the edges. I don’t know how people do it with less, I wish we had more !
We live in middle GA where land is pretty inexpensive, we have 43 acres with approximately 23 of it in pastures. I have an 11 stall barn but only 7 horses in it right now (have had a total of 12 horses at one point). My two big fields (10 acres apiece) never get eaten down, in fact this past two years I have closed one to cut hay off of it. My horses are so fat that I have to either keep them in grazing muzzles for TO or keep them in smaller areas that I keep cut down to limit their intake (I have several who are houdinis at getting their muzzles off). I had a ag extension agent tell me 3 acres of land per horse and I laughed at him. So for me caring for easy keeping horses I would rather have much less pasture during growing season. Am cutting one 10 acre field in half for this summer so 15 of 20 acres I will be able to cut hay off of.
I have about 16 acres, but only about 5 in pasture, and that’s for 3 horses and 2 donkeys. I rotate the horses through the three fields, and use sacrifice paddocks when it’s wet. Grass is good most of the year, but I do not leave them out 24/7, mostly because they are all FAT. We are talking to neighbors about buying their property, which would add another 4 acre field. Many years ago there were 8-10 horses kept here, and apparently it was nothing but mud and weeds. I’ve seen the pictures and that is not the way I would keep horses.
I have 3 horses on 5.5 acres. Probably only about 3 acres in paddocks (5, with connecting gates). I rotate and also tape off a smaller area as a sacrifice space for the time needed in spring and fall.
