Limited Acerage Questions

[Gizzmoe]

I know there are or were a few lb members around that only had around 1.5 acres or less. I had saved pics and descriptions that they had posted on threads. However most of what I have found has been picture less. I would love to hear how those with limited acreage has their setups and would to see pics. I am trying to gather all the info I can before I make plans on what to do. We are getting closer to needing to get a different set up done and I want to get outside ideas first.

Edited to Add: If this doesn't make sense or whatever feel free to ask as many questions as you want. My current pain meds have my mind a little loopy so can't think 100% right.

Oh and Crabby-Chicken if you read this I haven't forgotten about you. Planning on taking care of you next month

 

[muffntuf]

I have around 3 acres. One acres is still yard/hay field. I have a 50X100 barn and 4 paddocks built around it. One paddock is almost an acre, the other two are about 1/2 acres and the one behind the barn is like a 60X100. I have a round pen and just make room for a walker on the lawn. It's a tight fit, but works and everything is easy to get to. Love my set up! Most important to me was a good perimeter fence and a good gate on the driveway - that way if anything gets loose I just run down the driveway and shut the gate and its contained in the perimeter fence. Voila`, it works for me!

 

[JaiteraMiniatures]

We have a little over 5 acres with two homes and about 1/2 an acre is unusable (washout)...five miniatures, one foal, and two average sized horses. We have it set up so there is a 2 acre pasture in the back of the property, one 1 acre paddock, and another 1 acre area split into three (the largest part is used as a riding arena usually), and another pasture that's probably about an acre (only for the large horses because we don't trust the fencing with the minis). Alll our pastures conect to each other, so if we opened all the gates they would have the whole property...it's really confusing xD

In the summer we put the Miniatures on the 2 acre pasture during the day and a dirt paddock at night. The average horses stay in the stalls (we have three below one of the houses) during the day and then go on the 2 acre pasture during the evening. Right now we have a mare and foal so they occupy the 1 acre pasture all day, then stall at night. During the winter we usually have all the Minis on the 1 acre paddock during the day (dirt paddock at night), then large horses one the 2 acre paddock during the day (stalls at night). Sometimes we let the big horses have the 2 acre paddock and the 1 acre paddock together and the Minis have the rest of the property.

Okay, well pretty much someone is ALWAYS on the 2 acre pasture and the rest are kind of open for wherever we want to throw them

I'll try to add pictures later.

 

[wpsellwood]

I know you said an acre or acre and half. We have 2.5 acres. Its all usuable, flat. I must admit its plenty of room for our horses and we have right now 14. I can easily invision losing the back half for you and still have plenty of room. Our house sits back from the road about 120 ft. We have a side pasture that we turn the mares out on. Its irrigated. So I have 5 mares and a foal the rest are in the show barn. I have the mare run directly behind the side pasture with 2 loafing sheds for them. Then the hot walker the barn with attached round pen. On the other side of the barn 2 loafing sheds with 2 runs. The back 1.5 acres fenced for pasture. Its the only picture I have loaded. We put the barn close to the house. I would say about 60 feet is all.

 

[targetsmom]

My experience with small acreage is to create a "sacrifice" area/dry lot close to the barn so you have a place to turn out even if it is icy, you need to catch horses for the vet, etc. Or if you have one or more that can't have grass for whatever reason. Then, depending on how much extra room you have, you can have one pasture or split into 2 or more. Our first turnout area is a dry lot (of course) with a huge overhang in it so the horses can go out in any weather. Our sand ring/work area is attached to that but can be closed off for working or just to separate horses. In our case, this area is also next to the stall/turnout/pasture for Target, our big horse, and we use his area/pasture during the day when he gets turned out into our "north pasture" across the pond. We also have a turnout for our stallion whose stall is at the other end of the barn. Except for Target, we do most horse moving just by opening and closing gates & stall doors.

 

[~Dan]

we have and acre and a quarter on which we keep 2 minis, we have a small barn attached to our shed where my tools and grain and the lawn mowers etc are kept, and a small 6x6 shed used for hay (we only buy 12 bales at a time and lasts us about a month and a half) we have a small dry lot which i am planning on expanding as our land is very wet for part of the year so its very muddy at times, and for grazing we have a round pen made up of those goat panels which i graze my horses in for about 3-4 hours per day during the summer months and move it every other two days as it mimics nature where the horses move to fresh grazing, and also my father wont let me fence in an area for a sizable pasture that wont be grazed down to the dirt in a day or so, i will take pictures this evening when i turn the horses out so you can see that and also of my barn.

 

[Echo Acres]

We have 9-12 minis on maybe 1 1/2 acres including the round pen area. But almost all of our horses are show horses and are in dry lots. Here are some pictures of our new setup. I really like how we have the paddocks and alley way. The alley is 4 feet wide and big enough for our zero turn lawnmower to go up and down.

If you want paddock sizes or more details let me know.

We have 5 paddocks. 2 on each side, one side the stallion and geldings and the other all mares. Then we have a long narrow one across the end that now holds 2 horses as well. This would be where you see the gate at the end of the alley.

 

[shannonw]

We have 1.3 acres on which our house sits and we keep our animals. It is small but I think we have it set up nicely. We have 3 minis, 4 dwarf goats, 3 rabbits, 3 turkeys, 2 ducks, and 4 chickens that all reside in the area we fenced off for the animals. We are working on a new barn for the minis, as you can see it is not quite done but you get the idea.

This is our old mini barn. One side of it is where our rabbit pen is and the other side was built with 3-1/2 walls for a run in and behind it is a little area for the goats. Once the horses are moved to the new barn we are going to do some rearranging out there though.

We also built a 50-foot round pen that we leave the gate open to so they have plenty of room to run.

We eventually want to fence off part of our front yard so that we can let the minis out front for something different. Our ultimate dream would be if the neighbor north of us would sell us one more acre (or more) but I don't see that happening any time soon.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Without wishing to hi- jack your thread, could I add a question?

At what point would you (anyone) say "I do not have the facilities, therefore I shall not get horses?"

Bit like, if you live in an apartment you know that Newfoundlands are not going to be in your future anytime soon?

For me, all horses, irrespective of size, need room to run and play and stretch their legs.

 

[Echo Acres]

Without wishing to hi- jack your thread, could I add a question?

At what point would you (anyone) say "I do not have the facilities, therefore I shall not get horses?"

Bit like, if you live in an apartment you know that Newfoundlands are not going to be in your future anytime soon?

For me, all horses, irrespective of size, need room to run and play and stretch their legs.

Our paddocks are 38x40 (I am guessing) or something like that. I have 2 or 3 minis in each. When I first moved here I was concerned that the areas would be too small. Not the case. All of our horses run and play and have a great time. We do have an 8 acre farm, but have other animals and things to put on the acres. I previously had our horses out in bigger paddocks and honestly most of them did not use the whole paddock.

 

[shannonw]

Our area for the animals is 180 feet long by almost 100 feet wide. They have plenty of room to run and play and are much more active than most of the horses I see around here that have 10 acres to be out on. Our horses are happy and healthy. I would love to have the acre next to us mainly to let them graze on. As for exercise we also have the round pen which I work them in. We have some friends down the road that have full size horses that spend most of their days in a 12 x 12 stall with a 40-foot run and only sent out to pasture every other day or so...given that contrast I think the set up we have is plenty of room for minis.

 

[tifflunn]

We have 6 acres and actually only use 1 acre or so for the minis- We have our driving sand ring 60' x 76'. we have two dry or sacrifice section one is 120' x 60'( has grass for the first part of the season, the next one is 45' x 76' and a small grass grazing section 50' x 76' - and we hand graze. We are opening anther section next year another 60' x 120' We have currently have no out door huts- except the shade from the buildings- so our guys go out at 5:30- 6:00 come in around 11-noon and back out for dinner until we close up for the night- in the winter weather pending they can stay out for most of the day and come in for dinner.

 

[Gizzmoe]

Thanks to everyone that has responded. Appreciate that.