Limit on How Many Horses You Can Have and Are Minis Considered Livestock or Pets?

Someone said that there is a limit on how many horses you can have (one per acre) where I live in Indiana. We called the courthouse, Extension Office (they do Agriculture stuff), 4-H Horse and Pony Leader, the animal management and another man who knows a lot about Agriculture. None of them could tell us anything. I currently have two minis (in some places they are considered pets not livestock?) and I am going to buy/adopt a large horse. I would not be too worried about the law but we have a very nosy neighbor who does not like our animals and has it in for us and I am afraid that she will find a law saying that we can't have as many horses as we are going to have (2 minis and a regular horse on a little over 2 acres). Than I would have to find a place to put my horse and that would cost money plus be a pain to have to go somewhere else to ride. Does anyone know about a law like this (Is there one like that in your area?) or know where I can find out? I also am wondering if my minis are considered pets instead of livestock or at least one horse instead of two since they are miniature (does anyone know). Thank You!

I know that where I am in NC it is 2 horses per acre. We at one tme had a nosy neighbor like you have , man this guy was a jerk thank god we moved, he called Animal control about me having to many horses. He came over saw that we had 6 acres and where permitted the 6 horses and 2 minis that we had. He even told me that they normally count minis as 1/2 a horse cause they where so small.
Thankfully I found a better place to live and a wonderful 30 acre pasture to put my horses on.

Sometimes it goes by the zip code you live in. When I bought this place, the realtor knew how many "hooved" animals were allowed per acre.
Good Luck!

All counties are unique and your MUST check to see what ordinances are on YOUR particular property. Check with your Extension Office AND with your County Clerk's office to find out. You will also find out things you didn't know, too, and I discovered that it's illegal to use the water in my cistern. (Doesn't stop me from draining it on my garden, but I am aware of it.) I don't know HOW many horses total that I can keep on my 5 acres, but, I have an AG2 listing, which enables me to keep livestock, and yes, your miniatures are livestock, and my town has a nuisance law which includes keeping odors to a minimum. Since I graze my small herd of 3, and have had as many horses (full sized) as 5 on this property, I know that I could probably keep as many as 8 before encountering any problems. MY neighbors like and visit my horses when I'm there and away. A problem neighbor can make keeping any livestock difficult.
IF your neighbor becomes too troublesome, you might start looking to move, sorry to say.

In Pima County, AZ it is based on zoning. The zoning rules tell you how many horses (if any) you can own. It may differ between sides of the street.

The Pima County code can be found here:

Municode

In my case, I need chapter 18 (zoning) and specifically 18.21 "CR-1 Zoning". It tells me "On lots of not less than thirty-six thousand square feet not more than one head of cattle, horses, sheep, goats, or other similar animals more than six months of age per ten thousand square feet of lot area, excluding swine..." - so 1 acre can have 4 horses.

I use this as an example because the courthouse wouldn't have a clue. The zoning people live in a different building.

As mentioned above, your County Clerk is the person to call. In our county here in NC there is *no* acre limit for any farm animals.
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My Grandfather thinks it's 1 horse for 2 acres and an additional horse for every other acre. At one point I had my two minis and a mini colt out there. My neighbor has called animal management asking them to "Check on my ponies" and complained that my dog barked all day and night (which is not true). We weren't home when animal management came out but we did call them and they said my dog didn't even bark and they walked up to the privacy fence where she was and said that they looked back at the horses and could see that we had it together. She also called the city to make sure we had a building permit for the barn we were about to put up (were in the process of getting it up) and said the poles are dangerous and it's not even near her property. She's complained about our cats, yells at our dog if she barks even a little bit. However, I find fireworks, GOLF BALLS, trash and pool toys in my pasture all the time. Anyway, sorry for the rant, she just really angers me. We don't bother her but she can't keep her nose out of our business. One of my neighbors had 9 or 10 horses on 5 acres. So I'm hoping it'll be OK. I'm going to do some more research. Thanks for your help :)

Maybe your annoying neighbor will move, far away.

I found out that the only limits concerning animals where we live is that you can't have more than 5 dogs or you are considered a kennel. Which means that I can have as many horses as I want!
@waresbear We're hoping she'll move but they've lived there for years and their family lives on the other side of us so I doubt they'll be leaving anytime soon.

Here where I live, you can have 500 horses on an 1/2 acre if you want.

It's also a reason you see so many dumb rednecks with starving horses.

I have 7 horses on 6 acres, but three of them are in the barn most of the time.