How many acres are required for 1 horse in Michigan?

Answer 1

I'm afraid I can't offer you a direct answer to your question, but from my own experience, I can say this: the answer will vary depending on your grass. Here's how. We just got a horse and put her on one acre of what was formerly our front yard. While it didn't help that we had one of the worst droughts on record last year, so our grass was at the lowest possible point, it wasn't great grass to begin with. What's good for a yard is not necessarily good for a pasture. This was obvious when our horse tore up about a third or a little more of the pasture and turned it into a mud pit. Mind you, it didn't help that we got all of our summer rain in the winter, plus our winter rain as well, but comparing what our pasture looked like to what neighbors had made me realize we had a grass problem as much as a rain problem. My husband has said that it's important to have a thick matting of grass--almost like a sod--to support the wear and tear of a horse. We just recently fenced in a second acre on the back of our property and you can't imagine how fast that rough field got tore up with just one horse on it. It's nearly as bad as the front yard and she's only been on it two weeks--and it's not rained as much! That's because we didn't have the right grass back there. We did overseed it with a horse pasture mix of seed, but it still wasn't enough. I am coming to find out that making a pasture takes more than one bag of grass seed. We have just reseeded the front pasture with Kentucky fescue (recommended by the TN agriculture extension office for our climate), but we may need to try and reseed it once again this summer, not to mention overseeding with a fall grass at the end of summer. We're getting ready to open up a bit more of our yard and the grass in part of it is even worse (and part of it is the best grass we have--right over the field lines!). For that we have bought some weed killer so we can kill off most of what's back there and reseed in fescue. At the moment, despite great grass-growing weather, two acres is not quite supporting our one horse. However, I have heard that you can sometimes do an acre per horse. But certainly you can't do that unless you have good grass. A thick mat of grass is essential to keep the horse from simply trampling it into the mud (where it won't grow back). Also, grass your horse will eat is important. We apparently have two different kinds of grass in our best part of the yard. Our horse will mow one kind of grass down to a nub, and leave these odd islands of grass tall and untouched. To us it looks like exactly the same kind of grass, but she says no, it's not. Needless to say, if you have a pasture full of grass your horse won't eat, how many acres you have of it won't matter! Also, you notice we have two separate pastures. That's essential because you have to put the horse on one while reseeding and/or letting the other one grow up. If you let your horse mow the grass too low, it will struggle to grow again and may die all together. When grass dies, it leaves holes in the grass matting and those turn into mud holes pretty quick--and have a tendency to grow beyond the original size. So you have to rest a small pasture pretty often. Although you can relieve some of the problem if you have a barn where you can stable your horse. Our horse is turned out all of the time, so she's on the grass 24 hours a day. Even if she eats the exact same amount of grass as a horse that may only be turned out 12 hours a day, the extra hours of just walking on the grass causes damage. You might could keep an acre of grass going for longer before rotating off of it if you stable your horse at night. Personally, I'd say no less than two acres for a single horse--divided equally into two separate pastures. I don't know that having more pasturage will help reduce your hay bills any because it's so cold where you live, I imagine when winter hits, the grass is worth nothing. Here, even in the winter, horses can graze grass if it's still available; it doesn't die to the point of being completely worthless. The only benefit in the winter to having more acreage is that the horse is less likely to tear it up. If it's very wet where you live, then more acreage helps this problem. An acre is a bare minimum for keeping a horse turned out; don't make a pasture smaller than that unless it's only going to be used for a day or two before rotating the horse off. Otherwise you get a mudhole REAL quick. each horse usally needs two acres a piece.for example if had ten horses then you would need to have twenty acres.

Answer 2

You must have 3 acres for 1 horse, an additional acre for each horse after the first. also you need to check your zoning of your property. If zoned in a residential area you need a permit. The application fee $150.00 and it has to go into a public hearing at the township hall.

Answer 3

Well, you need enough space so you can go out riding... I would say at least 100

I am not sure how much grass grows where you live, so I cannot tell you how much land you need. However, in most situations a horse can live on less than an acre if you can give him free-choice hay to make up for the grass he lacks. At least 2 acres is ideal, and 5 would be wonderful. More than that would be horsey heaven. Just make sure that the grass is never grazed right down to the ground, because the horse could end up getting sand colic from ingesting too much dirt/sand while trying to get the little bit of grass there is off the ground. If the grass gets that low, then you should get the horse more land or hay.

Answer 4

I would recommend getting two acres for a horse. It has been said that a horse needs at least an acre but two acres is great. If you are getting more than one horse:

1 horse - 1-2 acres

2 horses - 4-5 acres

3 horses - 7-8 acres and so on.

Hope this helps!

Answer 5

You will need to check your state, county, and even city laws about if you can keep a horse on your land at all and if so how much land they set as a minimum amount. Typically no less than 1 acre is recommended. However if you intend to put the horse or horses on a dry-lot then no less than 400 square feet per horse is the typical recommendation. Again contact your local agricultural organization and they should be able to tell you the exact minimum requirements.

Answer 6

On average, you should have at least 2 acres per horse.

Answer 7

Horses generally need at least one acre each.

Answer 8

This is not a state issue but a county one. Check with your county code office and they can tell you what is required to keep a horse in your area.

Answer 9

2 per horse