Choosing a horse property

Long time no blog, along with my pastures and motivation to ride (or do anything else) winter seems to have killed my blogging voice.
This idea for this post has been with me for a while and now that I have been through this process twice on 2 different properties I guess I am now semi qualified (but not really) to roll out some tips on choosing a property for horses.
First of all, a disclaimer: If you are moving your horses home to "spend more time riding" and "enjoy quality time with your horses" DO.NOT. DO.IT. Once you are the proud owner of acerage you will spend more time mowing, weedwhacking, doing pasture maintenance, fixing problems, digging drainage etc. etc. than you ever will riding.. This post will focus only on the acerage itself, I may do another on buildings and fencing later on...

Lay of the land: Is the property hilly or flat? Hills allow for more drainage and water will tend to settle in low spots on flat land and create mud. If you live in an area with crap weather like I do you will need to consider the lay of the land and how it will effect your ability to get to the horses to feed and care for them in mud/ice/snow. If you need a flat area to ride or put in an arena, scope one out ahead of time. This is one of the biggest things I wish I would have known when we bough our PA farm. There is not a square inch of flat ground on our place and carving out a flat spot is bizarrely expensive, even without the additional expense of adding footing and drainage.

John drives the tractor on one of many hills

Water access-Properties with access to a natural water source such as a creek should go to the top of your list, these rarely freeze and do not stop working during a power outage. Barring natural water access know where water line access is or can be obtained for installing automatic waterers or additional hydrants to fill troughs. If the climate is cold these water sources will require electricity as well to run heaters in the auto waterers or stock tank heaters in troughs. Don't be like me and realize after you get the place that your horses are in a field that requiring 300+ feet of hose to fill the trough. Consider a generator to run the pump in the event of a power outage if you are on a well.

Creeks are good!

Pastures: Even if the property has existing pasture, make sure you take a close look at what is growing, remember green does not equal grass! What seems like lush green pasture from afar can be full of weeds up close. If the grass is a very old stand or has bare spots and weeds some pasture renovation may be needed before you move horses to the property. Lay of the land factors in here as well, extremely hilly pastures are tricky to mow and low lying bottom land can turn into a muddy mess.

It took a lot of work to get the pastures to this point!

Trees: If your chosen property does not already have fence installed, remove trees that can be a hazard to the fenceline BEFORE installing the fence. Also be sure to remove trees in pastures that can be toxic to horses such as sour cherry and red maple. 

I hope this was helpful! And hoping to get riding again if the weather ever improves!

Remember when green grass was a thing?