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Keeping horses in close confinement, in a subdivision, or on small acreage brings with it a different set of issues and challenges than keeping horses on a large facility. In an urban/suburban setting, important considerations include building codes, waste management, adequate space for healthy horses, and good fences. Before you start to create a facility for horses in your backyard or on small acreage, check local regulations first to determine if horses are allowed and how stringent the rules are.

Nathan Wells, farm manager at Oregon State University, notes that when a horse is spending all or most of its time in a small area, the box stall or paddock should be of adequate size. “For a box stall I recommend nothing smaller than 12 by 12 feet. Anything smaller doesn't give a horse enough room to lie down and get up. A 10 by 10 stall would be too small, unless it's used as a tie stall in a barn where horses are confined for only part of the day, for instance,“ he says.

“Here at our facility we have more than 40 boarders. The majority of those boarders are in our main barn, which has 38 stalls. Twelve of those stalls are strictly tie stalls for our own horses, that we use in our program. Those lesson horses are inside from 8 a.m. until about 4:30 to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday. They typically go out at night and on the weekend, into a pasture. We bring them in from the pasture in the mornings and feed them, and they are used for lessons and classes during the day. In the evenings they eat inside, and once they finish, they go back out.“

“On the weekend and during the summer break and winter break, when we are not running classes, they are fed in a group situation out in the pasture. We position the feeders far enough apart that they all get a chance to eat. Right now we have a group of 12 horses—a mix of mares and geldings—that we use in the school program. Our philosophy is that since these horses are lesson horses, being used in an arena for lessons, we run them all together so that they have their differences worked out.“ They already know each other and have their pecking order established; this makes for less problems when they are being worked together in the arena.

“We try to do it in that way, just to get those issues resolved, that they might have among themselves. We feed approximately three small bales of grass hay twice a day to these horses, and spread it out in the pasture enough to make sure they all have plenty of room to eat. The same with grain; we try to spread it out in individual rubber tub feeders,“ says Wells.

“We have used buckers that hang on the fence, but we found that the tubs are easier to move around. Here in Corvallis, it's so wet during part of the year that horses tromp the area around the grain feeders pretty badly. The buckets are tied to the fence and the horses make a big mess because they are always in the same spot to eat. With the tubs, you can just move them to a new place fairly often, so they are not trampling out the same area.“

Even though the horses have several acres, there's not enough room for proper pasture. “We just take it for granted that we're going to sacrifice some areas for turnout, since those are not very adequate for pasture or hay production. There's some grass in these areas during the spring but, with the limited amount of space, they graze it pretty quickly. Conditions here are not ideal for keeping a good pasture; it's so dry during the summer, and then once it starts raining, it's so wet that the horses tramp it into mud. So, we have to separate the areas that are strictly for hay and we don't run horses on those.“ It's more efficient to put up the hay and then feed it to the horses in a more confined area.

“We have some outdoor runs with shed row barns, and these runs are 15 feet wide by 30 feet long. We have several horses that stay in those full time. They have a roof over one end, but no walls; it's like a breezeway type barn. So they have room to move around, and can interact with the neighboring horses on each side. The horses we keep in those situations are the two year-olds we use in our colt training class. They are kept in these pens from the time they get here in January until our sale in June; so they are only in that type of confinement for part of the year.“ The two year-olds come from a ranch in eastern Oregon, where they've had a chance to grow up in a normal environment.“

“We start riding them in the colt training class, start then on cattle, then sell them in June. But the situation we keep them in would give plenty of space for year-round horse keeping, for horses on small acreage. A lot of people also run brood mares like this. I come from an area in New Mexico where a lot of the mares are kept in a breezeway type barn—called mare motels.“ This way, they are separate for individual feeding and management purposes (rather than all together in a pasture situation) but the horses have enough room for a little exercise. The 15 by 30 foot pen enables them to run a bit if they wish. Especially at feed time, they run back and forth,“ he says.

“Regarding turnout space, our group turnout area for the boarder horses is about three acres, and we put no more than four horses in that group. They have plenty of room to run around, and it seems to work well. We might run some yearlings together in one pen of two to three acres, and run three to four mature horses together in the other pens,“ he says.

“For the riding string (the 12 lesson horses), we have two pastures that they rotate back and forth between. One is 11 acres and the other is about 13 acres. So they have about one acre per horse. They have a little grass at some time of the year. With the spring rains, they have really good grass for awhile, but by July they've grazed it down and we have to feed them,“ says Wells.

Regarding waste management, the farm has a compost pile for the manure and barn cleanings. The pile is turned periodically for ideal composting conditions, and then it is hauled off two or three times a year. “During the summer we spread it on our own pastures, but during the winter you can't get out there with any kind of vehicle. During that time of year, the manure would also leach down into the soil too much, and the environmental agencies would not appreciate that. From early November through mid-April we are composting it so it can be hauled off,“ he says.

The barns are cleaned out regularly, and the runs next to the barns are cleaned as often. “In those runs we use a material called hog fuel; it's like a bark and when you put a lot of it down (and the horses travel on it) it packs down and makes a very soft footing. At the same time, it drains fairly well; most of the moisture will drain down through it. We have to redo those about every two years, going in and taking everything out and putting new material in. We pick up manure in those pens, however, at least three times a week. When the two year-olds are in there, the pens get picked seven days a week, but the rest of the time I use those pens for overflow—for horses we need a place for—and then they are picked about three times a week,“ he says.

Different states, counties and subdivisions within counties have varying requirements on waste management, so it's important to check with local authorities to know what is acceptable and what is not allowed—whether you can compost the manure and barn clearings or must haul it away. “We have a really large area to keep our compost, and we constantly have people who are wanting composted manure for their gardens. This can often be a good way to get rid of it—advertising it for gardens,“ says Wells.

In addition to waste management, consider your county's wetland regulations. If your horses will have access to a stream, pond, or even season run-off, you may need to fence off those areas to meet environmental regulations.

Fencing, on it's own, is another important consideration. “You need the best fences possible. We try to have at least a 60 inch, no-climb horse fence for all our perimeter fences. Any type of non-climb netting will work. In New Mexico they use a lot of old oil drilling pipe, because it is so easy to obtain, but you can't get it everywhere.” The pipe fencing is very strong, durable, and needs very little maintenance. Many horse owners use hot-wire to “reinforce” wood or mesh fencing—but be sure to maintain your hot-wire on a regular basis. Good fences make good neighbors; you don't want your horses getting into the neighbors’ yards or onto a busy street or highway.