Although I am not actually planning or buying a new farm, recently the following things occurred to me as I was walking around and thinking about what I like and don't like about my current set up.
1. Perimeter road: If you have the acreage, plan to leave room for a lane or road so you can drive a truck or tractor all the way around your pastures. This was originally for easy fence checking and maintenance, but it's also useful if you have an injured or downed horse at the far end of the pasture you need to get to. And I wound up adding fencing to the actually perimeter of my property and a couple gates, so I can turn the horses out onto the grassy "lane" area to graze at times. Oh yes, and I also put up some jumps around this area, which works great!
2. Barn close to house: I know this isn't always practical or advisable, but I noticed the convenience when my older horse Judge was injured and stalled. The master bedroom is on that side of the house, and the house and barn are only separated by the farm lane / driveway. We could hear if he was thumping around in his stall, or coughing. Of course, the downside was, when we were worried it interfered with sleep because we were listening for him. I think this was more an accidental, "It's a good thing...." and not sure how one could plan for it. Maybe use a baby monitor instead?
The other advantage, is when I was also sick and had to treat him 3 times a day carrying hot water from the house, it wasn't very far. Which reminds me of something I don't have, but everyone should....
3. Hot water in barn! So many times this is needed.... mixing medicine for drenches, making a hot mash, soaking a hoof abscess, etc.
4. Round pen! This wasn't a requirement on my original list when I bought the farm, but I am very glad I have one. Aside from being a great tool to work youngsters or exercise horses that haven't quite gotten the hang of the lunge line, it's the perfect place to turn out an injured horse without confining them to a tiny stall. Of course, this only works for a sensible horse... if you have one that tears around like a nutjob, it isn't ideal. But where my round pen is located, the horse can see all the others and not feel quite so isolated.
I also found that my round pen was the perfect "foaling stall" when I had pregnant mares. I added small hole poly hardware cloth to the inside with zip ties to prevent a foal from getting a leg stuck between bars, and a 3 sided shelter made from one of those hut garage kits. I didn't like the idea of a mare foaling in one of my stalls, imagining her squishing the baby between her and the walls and other such horrors. This actually worked really well.
5. Sacrifice Area: I am about to create a new one so the horse that can no longer eat hay can be down with the others. Basically, a place you can put all the horses if you are spraying or liming your pastures, if it is crazy muddy or wet and you don't want them tearing up the fields, if you need to collect manure for analysis or testing, so on and so forth.
Plan so that the horses have easy access to shelter and water here. This is my diagram of how I placed my run-in sheds with an eye to being able to separate the fields and create a dry lot / sacrifice area:
I would love to hear ideas and thoughts from others on this list! Please add a comment below!
