The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Pets & Working Animals => Horses, ponies, donkeys & mules => Topic started by: Fieldfare on May 15, 2013, 10:50:38 pm
-
Hi all- I am thinking of renting 2 acres to a horse person this coming season. How much per week should I expect to get (or is a fair price) per horse or per acre for day grazing? What grazing regime should I insist on? I am assuming that 1 strand of electric tape is sufficient to stop horses eating my trees/bashing my walls?
Thanks
-
Hi Ff
Not got any 1st-hand experience of this myself, but ...
I do know a woman was renting-out a 4 acre field for horses - insisted on only an acre being used at any one time & rotated on a monthly basis, with a maximum of 6 horses. Owners had to provide their own eleccy fencing & couldn't use it between November-March. Think they paid £108 pcm. Don't know how realistic this is, it was 2 years ago near Glasgow.
I know a few farmers who said they made some useful cash renting fields out to horsey folk, but insisted they were taken off in the winter months to try & stop the ground getting too churned-up, they would then tack it with sheep until the spring.
I think 1 strand of tape is ok for horses, but sure someone else on here will be able to advise more.
-
If its just grazing around £15 per horse per week. As for grazing regime I would leave them to their own devices unless you know about horses otherwise knowing the typical horsey person you wont have them there long. Your other option is to insist on it being split into 2 1 acre paddocks and rotated and insist on poo picking. Double strand your trees to stop them being debarked. Wouldn't worry as much about the walls, a single strand would be more than adequate with them.
-
The girls who rent fields next to us pay £300 per month for 11 acres if you can pro-rata that. They have 7 horses at present (soon to be 5)
They pay extra for haylage but water is included.
Their horses do not respect electric fence tape and i have lost count of the number of times i have had to untangle it from tails and legs and re fasten up so worth finding out if they're trained to it.
hth
Mandy :pig:
-
About £20 a week for 2 acres is average in our area (north wales). That's for just a field and water.
If you care about your walls and trees definitely go for more than one strand of tape. You may find that the horse owner may need electric fence 'lessons' too. Some of my liveries didn't understand that electricity doesn't flow through wood (tying electric fence to a tree and expecting it to work) or that batteries need changing (but it was charged when I bought it) or that leaning a pallet against it might stop it working at full belt.
Horses seem to 'know' when the charge in the fence is low and take advantage - eating trees, pushing through bushes, rubbing their bums on walls/fence rails and breaking them!
Definitely get them to poo pick regularly and depending on how wet the land is you might want a clause to get them off if it gets too wet?
You might also want to get references from where they have been before (unless you know them).
Hope that helps.
-
Hi all- all that info. is really useful! I'll ruminate over it over the nexxt few days. Thanks and all the best :horse:
-
Depends where you are in the country as to what grass livery makes.
I've never paid more than £10 per head per week for grazing, and some farmers charged me £4 a head for grass or £2 for stubbles as that is the rate they charged for cattle of similar size/intake/ground damage. When renting acreage rather than per head the going rate is around £90-100/acre for the season but I had 20 acres of hill pasture for £110-150 pcm (over a 9 year period) including running water, year round. The landowner responsibility for maintaining stockproof fencing and promised shelter/storage never materialised and I supplied my own fodder over winter, but
If you're not experienced in keeping horses then I wouldn't impose too many rules in case the owners actually do know more. Some are numpties sure, others will try it on, but knowledgeable horse owners will be put off by rules that make no sense or are not open to negotiation if they have a good reason for a request in terms of welfare etc.
Many horses will respect a single line of electric fence, but some won't, usually youngsters are the least likely to stay where put. If your wall is a stonewall and securely built, it would be better wind and weather protection without a tape, if it isn't secure then a stock fence would be better. Trees may get rubbed on or nibbled but most grown ones will be safe enough other than the likes of willow which is medicinal. Any conifers should be completely fenced off as poisonous to horses - particularly leylandii, and if you have oaks then they should be fenced off when acorns are present as those too are toxic to horses. Mature sycamores, ash, beech etc I've never had damage to.