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How many horses on how many acres

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How many horses do you have on how many acres? I have 2 draft(1 retired and one 5 year old)

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Old 09-03-2009, 09:50 PM   #1
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Default How many horses on how many acres

How many horses do you have on how many acres? I have 2 draft(1 retired and one 5 year old) on 4 acres. I have had a deal of a lifetime given to me but I'm not sure my pasture can survive.
I have the 2 drafts and have the oppurtunity to get a team of well trained drafts with everything to drive them.
As I stated I'm worried about the pasture, my guys are on 24/7 turn out and the grass is short, could my grass survive if I was to keep everyone is a smaller section at night and let them out in the morning? What do you do to keep up the grass?
Anybody have any tips on thickening a pasture?
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Old 09-09-2009, 08:37 AM   #2
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My rule of thumb is usually acre per horse. If you are worried about pasture I would fench off a dry lot area and turn them out only part of the day. Especially winter coming (i see you are in FL) the grass wont grow back as fast!
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Old 09-09-2009, 08:49 AM   #3
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Not sure as to what part of FL your in but right now with all the rain we've been getting around in Polk County we can't keep up with mowing it before it starts to get over grown!

If your grass is already short with 2 I think 4 would completely wipe you out.
You may have to purchase extra hay to compensate and stall them at night.
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Old 09-09-2009, 09:57 AM   #4
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It varies form area to area and in my home state the rule of thumbs is 2.4 to 3 acres to horse. I know that doesn't help you in Florida. But you never want to push the limit of your land.
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Old 09-09-2009, 12:10 PM   #5
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If there was some way you could give them some extra hay once of twice a day, I would say go for it!
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Old 09-09-2009, 03:29 PM   #6
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I usually go with atleast an acre of grass per horse...though around my part of texas sometimes it has to be more like four per horse cause there are some places with no grass....

To help thicken it i would seed and spray it every spring...but in order to spray it you will need a rig and a place to keep your horses for about a week.

As for how to preserve the grass you have...well penning or stalling them up at night would def help...and perhaps throwing hay...square bales...a flake per horse once in the morning and once at night...

Thats everything that works for me...hope it helps you!
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Old 09-09-2009, 04:32 PM   #7
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In GA the rule is one per acre. I think that is acceptable.
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Old 09-09-2009, 04:50 PM   #8
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I have 3 horses on my property and I have 22 acres, though, not all of it is fenced. This is including the barn, house, round pen, garage, and a whole bunch of trees. So I would say I have 3 horses on about 10 acres
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Old 09-10-2009, 03:36 AM   #9
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we have 7 on 5 acre's, 5 of the horses are kept in stalls and 2 are in a 1/8 acre pen. we are adding 4 more pens but only have 2 about half way done.
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Old 09-11-2009, 10:20 AM   #10
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I've always been happy with the 1 horse/2 acre ratio.
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