Is there such thing as TOO MUCH land for horses?

My family recently bought a 64.21 acre estate. It has our home, a pool, a basketball court, my dad's barn that has the tracter, atv, tools, bikes, etc. It has one 12 acre pasture, four 5 acre pastures, and three 3 acre pastures. It has a 12 stall barn, a sand arena, covered arena, a pond, and miles of trails. Our family owns 10 horses, and 3 dogs. There are five of us in the family; my dad has 2 horses, my mom has 3 horses, my brother has 1, my sister has 2, and I have 2.





A friend of our was trying to discourage my parents from buying it because she said "that's way too much land for 10 horses!" I was like "what??". I have never heard of having ''too much'' room for horses, but she was completely serious! My parents were explaining to her that all that land wasn't just for the horses, we have our home, the pool... everything I explained in the previous paragraph. And my parents explained how they want us to have a good childhood with memories that involve the family and outdoors, not technology and media.





Anyway, I was so shocked that she said that because she has horses herself and I was just taken back by the fact that someone could say that we have too much land. I know people have issues with too little land for horses, but too much?? Am I crazy? lol|||You can't really have too much land.


If you had a couple of small ponies and 6 acres, you'd need to section it off as they grass will grow quicker than they eat it so they would be at risk of laminitis and becoming overweight.|||Pfft I wish I had that! There is no such thing as to much pasture land, unless you can't find your horses lol. No I think that much is great since each pasture can be rotated on being used and allowed to rest. Also it is nice to have land to ride on.|||No, you cant have to MUCH land for 10 horses!


Just think of the wild horses, they have hundreds of acres.!





That barn sounds awsome though :D - lucky you..


the only problem ive found with having a big field, is not being able to find the horse quickly, and cleaning out the field.. :D


xx|||There is absoutely never "too much land for horses. However, you will probably need to make sure that the horses don't get too much spring grass and get laminitis. Also, the bigger the area, the more abboying catching the horse will be.|||Too much land is when you walk twenty miles and still haven't found your horse. You, my friend, do not have too much land for your horses. Honestly I am jealous, growing up in a place like that... I can only imagine the fun you'll have.|||think the only way you could have to much land for a horse is if you had 1 horse on 100+ acres mainly because it would take forever to find if it didn't want to come it.|||lol.





Tell that to the ranchers who let their horses roam over hundreds of miles. Chill, your pastures sound awesome.|||As long as they don't get lost, lol. but for 10 horses I think you're fine...|||You can have "too much" in the sense that if you put 3 easy keepers on 12 acres, they're going to get fat. But a 12 acre pasture, as you said, for 10 horses is pretty much ideal. You would also have a chance to rotate-you could put 2-3 horses on each of the 5 acre pastures (3 easy keepers in one pasture, 3 easy keepers on another, 2 hard keepers on the 3rd, and 2 hard keepes on the 4th), then move them all on to the 12 acre lot, or split up the 12 acre lot. If you're using the stalls you could put half of the horses on the 12 acres, then split the others amongst the other pastures. The opportunities are endless. I mean I don't see how this wouldn't work, really. There's never too much room as long as you have the opportunity to fence it off so the horses don't get enormous.



edit: okay, really? either I've got TD stalkers or people got up on the wrong side of the bed. What's wrong with this answer? Just pointing out how this could work if she needed to show her friend or whatever how this would work out. Sorry, next time i'll just answer OMGZ YES THIS SOUNDS SO0o0 kewl!





edit: well i found a math error and the fact that instead of writing easy keepers, then hard, i wrote easy again. That's what I get for answering right after I wake up lol. Maybe that explains some of the TD's....woops!|||I'll trade you! I will suffer this horrible sounding property with obviously far too much land and a nice barn and places to ride...... No, but seriously, that sounds amazing. Your friend is insane, that's way more land than I have (And I'd kill for that kind of property). Lucky, lucky, lucky. So what if your horses have pastures to choose from or you have empty pastures? It means you can rotate them so you'll never have a run down lot.


So jealous, your land sounds amazing and your parent's rock. Lucky, have fun and your horses are sure to be thrilled! Maybe your friend just wants to talk you guys out of it so her family could buy it? That's about the only reasoning I can think of...|||You are a very lucky girl, and so are your siblings. I'm surprised that your parents are wealthy enough to afford such a place- they must be involved in professions which pay really well. Either that, or this has come about because of inherited wealth from someone. As for your having too much land, that's total NONSENSE. All this simply means is that you can practice pasture rotation (which is actually a good thing that helps PROTECT your land from damage due to erosion and will keep your horses healthy) and that you have enough space to be able to expand your barn or even start a business if you want. There's nothing wrong with that, and your "friend" is out of her gourd. She's probably just jealous because your parents are successful enough professionally to be able to buy such a place and give you and your siblings these all these advantages. I'm sure she probably wishes she could do or have done the same thing. But you have nothing to hang your head about, nor are you in any way obligated to explain either your own or your parents' motivations to this girl. And NO, you are NOT crazy.



Congratulations on your new home- it sounds like a really lovely place. What are you going to call your new farm? It needs a name, you know. All properties of any size have names- and this one is certainly in that category. Perhaps you could name it after a geographical feature such as mountains, if there are any around your area. Just a thought.|||I think your friend is a little nuts. There is no such thing as "too much" land. Horses will stay where the food is... so if they are out in the pasture and you feed them inside a stable, they will know when feeding time is and come regardless of where they are in the pasture. I currently board my horses on a 1900 acre plantation. The pastures have got to be 10-15 acres big, and they usually stay up close to the barn unless they are searching for more grass. :D Technically, there should be about an acre per horse, but being as you have 64 acres, I wouldn't worry about it!



I'd LOVE to come out and see your place... it sounds extremely nice (like my dream barn). haha. Your lucky. Have fun with your horses (your parents are right, you should enjoy the horses/outdoors), and don't listen to your friend... she obviously doesn't know what she's talking about!



Even though we board our horses on this nice plantation, there is a downfall. I can't really bring any friends out to ride, and the barn manager most times always has something to do so I can't really ride all that often unless I do it alone (which obviously isn't any fun). :(|||I was in great shape when my mare was on 30 acres of rolling hills, so there is more then just the benefit for the horses to have the room to romp around as they pleased.. She was also only with 9 other horses... I guess by your friend's "standards" the world was going to blow up. The geldings also had 30 acres to putz around upon AND there was an additional 27 acres that the pasture horses were rotated on every other day to prevent over grazing. That's close to 100 acres for approximately 20 horses BUT segmented off.





Other than having to search around endlessly at times to find your horses, there really aren't too many problems provided that you still monitor ALL the pastures, fences, horses, etc. Head counts should be done once or twice a day as well as a good once over to make sure no one's bleeding or near death.|||its not. for each horse there should be 2 acres of land. now if all the land was filled with rich sweet grass then thats too much. theyd founder in a heartbeat. but theres never too much land as long as the perimiter is secured and the fence is stable then you dont have to worry. horses were orginally wild remember? we domesticated them. theyre gonna have a ball with all that land.