Adding On To Your Estate Country Horse Ranch: Three Uses For Those Extra Acres You Just Bought
Posted on: 29 December 2015
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When you own an estate country horse ranch, there is always room for improvement and additions. Discovering that neighboring parcels of land are for sale is akin to striking gold in a mine because you know there is so much you could do with the extra acreage. If you purchased the extra parcels adjacent to your ranch, but you are having a difficult time deciding what to do with the extra land, here are some ideas.
Seasonal and Rotation Pastures
Horses have a tendency to clear the grass from a pasture in a very short time. Unless you can afford to drive hay or grain out to feeding troughs in the pasture the rest of the year, your horses are going to be scrounging for what nibbles they can find. At least with the new acreage, you could have extra pastures "on rotation" so that your horses can be moved out of the grass-less pasture and into the new pasture. You could effectively keep the herd moving around pastures all year and keep your herd well fed. You may even reserve one section of the new acreage as a seasonal pasture where the horses only go to feed during the summer or fall.
Stable Expansions
To the horse lover and ranch owner, more land means more horses! Unfortunately, it may mean more stables to keep the horses before you can buy more horses. Stable expansions into the newly added and adjacent acreage will allow you to buy and keep more horses in the future. The expansions will also allow you to separate horses of varying temperaments who do not get along and do not make good barn mates. If you have purchased a substantial amount of acreage adjoining your property, then the stable will not seem to take up quite as much space.
Broodmare and Breeding Barns
If you are planning to take your ranch to new heights by breeding horses, then you will need broodmare and breeding barns. The best breeder barns have rooms for mating horses to cavort and safe, comfortable delivery rooms for mares who are giving birth. The rest of the barn is dedicated to making the pregnant and in-heat horses comfortable. The extra land you just bought will also help situate the broodmare and breeding barns away from the rest of the horses, including your stallions, who might find the mares quite distracting and cause a lot of problems if the mares in heat and pregnant mares are too close to the rest of the stables.