Anyone keep horses at home?

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I grew up riding, with a long chunk off in my twenties and early thirties, and now I'm back at it, just with weekly lessons.

We've recently bought a house with room for horses, though there is no stable, no fencing etc. but we plan to install that over a couple of years.

Has anyone started from scratch in turning their home into a horse property? Any useful tips? Anything you would do differently a second time around?

I used to have three at home and it was far more work than I ever imagined!

Make sure the yard is compact and has good lighting. Make sure you have good place for the muck heap that is easily accessible for a grab lorry to come and take it away.

Good matting round the gates will help the fields in winter (although I did not actually turn out during the winter months as only had three acres on clay, so used to divide the sandschool up with electric fence and they went out there a few hours a day)

Make sure you have easy access for hay/shaving deliveries. A good size barn will help and its much cheaper to buy in bulk.

Good lighting in the sandschool is a must if you work in the day as I do. The winter months are very long. A good surface/drainage will help prevent freezing (sand is not the best as I found one year with the school being frozen for over a month)

For the fields, get a small tractor, harrow and roller. This will keep the fields in good condition. Poo picking daily will ensure the whole field is grazed.

Pay for good quality fencing and keep it well maintained. (I used to paint mine each year which was a bit like painting the forth bridge!)

Good luck!! I did love it in the summer...winter, not so much if Im honest.

So love to have them at home, to look out my bed room window and see them

Im looking into this at home - see my thread on fencing/stables on a budget, had some useful advice.

Denman gives great advice. I'd add that water supply is important - not only in the stables (where hot tap is luxury as well) but in the fields. We have running water supply in our "Summer" field but have to cart water up in the Winter which is a real pain.

I would also suggest that electric fencing is a fantastic way of getting the best from your fields to strip graze, create "starvation" paddocks etc.

Think about shelter in the field. Do they have trees/hedges which can help out against rain and bright sun?

We have room for a 4.5 acre paddock and a 2-acre paddock, plus I was thinking of putting in a sacrifice paddock of half an acre for winter (the house is in Connecticut, so think frigid winters).

Does the above grazing sound enough (with supplemental hay feeds, if need be) for 24/7 turnout from May-October/November.

We're hoping to put in a four-stall, centre-aisle barn. There are modular kits available that make this (relatively) affordable.

Boarding around here is incredibly expensive, plus turnout is lousy, which is my chief reason for wanting to keep them at home (likely two Quarter Horses and a mini).

I keep mine at home and we do up houses which we sell and move onto the next wreck so we've put in yards/facilities three times now.

In terms of building:

• do you have electricity and water all the way to the yard? If not this can be quite expensive to do (esp electricity).
• think about storage and access. Will you need lorries to deliver hay/straw?
• think about security? Will you keep your tack in the yard?
• do you need space to park a lorry?

In terms of planning:

• you want your field entrances close to the yard so you don't have to walk miles to turn out/bring in.
• you want your stables with their backs to the prevailing winds.
• if the fields have no shelter you may need to provide field shelters. The ideal yard lay-out for me is where the stable open up directly to the fields so the horses can choose where they are, but it's not always possible to do.
• if you put in an arena you may want it within sight of the stables as the horses are more likely to be settled working in it that way.
• put in the best fencing you can afford, ideally post and rail with one line of electric on the inside of the top rail to avoid chewing and scratching.
• consider hard standing around gates and high use areas.
• where will you put your muck-heap? How will it be removed?

In terms of every day life:

• will you be able to do the horses in the winter when the days are short? If you work F/T you may need some help.
• who will look after the horses if you are ill? What about when you go on holiday?
• how will you manage the fields? Is there a friendly farmer who might be able to do some topping, weedkilling and fertilising for you?
• one horse on its own will probably be unhappy, two will probably bond with each other like crazy, three is not a bad number!
• where will you ride in the winter?

watching with interest.

For three horses you have plenty of land. I second the advice re keeping the paddocks small so you can rotate easily and rest the grazing.

Sounds like it will be rather cold in winter!! (and I thought we had it bad!) Good shelter will be essential therefore. I imagine you will need a good school if you are to keep riding during the worst months..if you can afford an indoor one than even better!!

For three horses you have plenty of land. I second the advice re keeping the paddocks small so you can rotate easily and rest the grazing.

Sounds like it will be rather cold in winter!! (and I thought we had it bad!) Good shelter will be essential therefore. I imagine you will need a good school if you are to keep riding during the worst months..if you can afford an indoor one than even better!!

i have mine at home, and you have more land than me
we have decent enough wooden stables, though elderly (were here when we moved in and we have been here 14 years). We have 2 main paddocks, and a small grazing area around the stables, plus small occasional paddock (nowt wrong with it but DH prefers to keep it for the kids to play in )
I tend to keep one for winter, one for summer.
Do not underestimate the work involved, daily poo picking, mending post and rail fending, painting stables, pulling ragwort (do you get that in the US?)
I also have no arena (first world problem )
however it is literally the best feeling in the world to roll out of bed and see your horse grazing in the field next to the kitchen, or happily chewing haylage over their stable doors.
In terms of what i would do, big stables (can't stand going to friends' livery yards and seeing 17hh in 10 x 10 stables)
electric and running water essential.
Post and rail fencing at least for boundaries.
An arena if you can afford it, however i am managing to compete well affiliated without one.

Others have given you some great advice OP. The only other thing I can think of, is to think about water drainage when there is a downpour. I used to have my horse on a property that was set up from scratch, and this is something they did nothing about. When it poured, every single paddock was a quagmire, and it would take a good couple of weeks to dry out.