Paddock size

[hb]

I have a 16' by 70' overhang on the back of my barn. Off of one side of it is a 40' X 80' gravel paddock, making an "L" shape. Would this be a large enough area for two horses for a winter "sacrifice" area?

Right now the founder-prone draft-cross retiree lives in the gravel paddock with access to half the overhang, and my new able-to-eat-grass-as-the-good-lord-intended appendix QH lives in the pasture with access to the other half of the overhang for shelter/company. I was planning to gravel another paddock with access to part of the overhang to have separate turnout in the wet muddy winter when the pasture is not usable. But they get along better than I expected and I'm hoping I can save 2-3K on gravel if the current area is big enough.

Opinions?

[deltawave]

I'd say the more room the better, but to a point--mine have a 1/2 acre sacrifice paddock where they spend a LARGE amount of their time; mostly all of it, in fact, unless I let them out on the big grass paddocks. And that only happens when the grass is OK, the footing is OK, and I'm there to make sure they aren't out there too long. I have 2 horses and a pony.

The honest truth is that, in the winter, they only typically "use" (as evidenced by footprints in the snow) about 1/3 of that space. They hang out in the two sheltered areas and eat hay. Not much else unless it's a clear, calm, sunny day (these are rare in winter here) when they play and go silly for 10 minutes every now and then. :D If the snow is deep and the ground safely frozen, I'll let them out to really play in the big paddocks and they love "foraging" under the snow, which is good exercise.

40 x 80 is probably smaller than I'd like for my small herd, but if they are getting a decent amount of exercise they might be OK, especially if you can find a way to let them go out on the bigger paddocks now and then for play time. :)

[MistyBlue]

My main paddock is also my sacrifice paddock. It's 75x220 I think. I keep two horses in it. I have a grass paddock off of that that's about 150x250 or so, but not fenced yet.
Last place I boarded kept horses in paddocks anywhere from 60x80 to 90x90. Each paddock had 2 or 3 horsesin it and they did just fine. Could canter around enough if they got the wind up their butts but mostly they just hang around the shady spots in summer and where ever the hay is thrown year round.

[Calvincrowe]

I keep two older TB geldings in a winter sacrifice area that is similar in size to yours, OP, though probably a bit smaller. I do occasionally toss them out on our "driveway field"--literally it runs the length of our front field (400+feet) and 36 feet wide with the road in the middle, grass on either side, during the winter months to "stretch their legs" without ruining our fields.

But, they are quite happy on their sacrifice lot, and I've had 3 horses in there as well.

I think yours is plenty big enough.

[hb]

Thanks! Our issue in the winter is the mud more than snow. Three feet of clay for topsoil, turns into mud past the knees very quickly if horses are on it during the winter. Sounds like the one paddock will work at least for this year. Eventually I'll gravel one of the other paddocks also but I'm almost out of money this summer...