I agree if you have weather like the UK - i had 11 acres in UK and that was fine with enough rain to make the grass grow. Its a bit different here in SK.

I know 40 acres is probably too much - but you know how it is - Its the right house close to good school and hospital (again rare in rural SK) and not too far away from city but far enough to make it affordable etc, and acreages here don't stay on the market for long.

A friend of ours was told they could not buy any more than 5 acres on a TWP by their solicitor here in Alberta.
On the other hand it was never mentioned to us when we bought our acreage of 6 acres, just recently. Seems to be a lot of variation on this subject.

Good luck

Find acreage with a well or irrigation rights then. I live in pretty much the hottest and driest part of Canada, with gravel as subsoil, and easily kept enough grass to support 1 horse per acre (32 acres, 40+ horses).

Finding an acreage has been hard enough let alone adding irrigation rights. but thanks for the advice - time is not on my side as horses are due to fly out next month!

For those that are interested it looks like you can apply to the Farm Land Security Board for an exemption as a non resident -Saskatchewan - I don't know about other provinces. http://www.farmland.gov.sk.ca/

Buying no land and renting stables is better than buying the wrong piece of property. Buy the wrong piece and consider the consequences. Land without water, not much use for any equine or ag purpose.

Thanks again for all the advice - I consider everyones opinion valid and take all comments on board. The horses have to do a quarantine period which means renting stables with other horses is not acceptable and acreages to rent are like hens teeth - hard to find. The property i am considering has been subdivided and the house comes with its own 180ft well which served 400 head of cattle so I don't think supply will be a problem. I have not gone into this blindly and had originally planned to rent for 12-18months before committing to buy - but there is very little about to rent for our specific needs - family, stables(stalls), etc,. and this one fits the bill.

The quarantine can be served anywhere deemed appropriate. Even a different province. Horses can be shipped once that's over. I've known plenty of people (friends and clients) that have done this. Buy quickly, repent at leisure. Are you really likely to get purchase exemption and buy/take posession of the property within a month?

That wouldn't work in Ontario. I doubt it would on the Praries. Here, local legislation typically says something like "no horses to be kept on less than 10 acres, no limit after that" so, in theory, 40 horses on 32 acres but that's a warehousing density such as at a pasture boarding facility and it assumes buying in all feed.

If you want to be able to sustain the horses independently then I think the horse-per-acre calculation might go something like:

Produce 40 small squares per acre per year. That's very conservative, just one cut. Even with missing the good day due to the day job and the baler breaking down bi-annually that should be possible. Suppose you want to have 100 bales per horse to be safe for the winter then you need 3 acres in hay per horse, you might want to fallow some acres and, of course, you also need paddocks so I'd guess 15 acres is needed for a couple of horses and a donkey. I have seen properties where the owners claimed to keep two horses on 10 acres without buying in feed but they were some skinny horses.

Still, all of this seems like masochism, at the very worst a winter's worth of hay is $500/horse.

Wow, horses fly out next month and you haven't yet established if you can buy the property

My point was its a hell of a lot cheaper to sell Horses in the UK and buy again here than to transport them over.

Opinion will be devided about prospects for kids in the UK vs Canada at a guess. my view is do it for yourself. Unhappy parents make for miserable kids.

I would cancel the flight for the horses myself, and wait till you have PR before getting an acreage without all these hassles. YMMV.

Rural Saskatchewan vs. the UK with enough money to be keeping horses? Unless there's religion involved, I don't think this is a move anyone could claim is "for the children".

40 horses on 32 acres

we got on our family farm in egypt, 50 pure bred arabian horses on less than 5 acre's :S, the only problem we have is with the stallions needing a paddock each, but the mares we put 30 or so in about 2.5 acres.

but as its hot there everything is feed, the best thing we found was to work with barley fodder, that bring the cost down heavily for the feed. we make our own feed that does work's out alot cheaper than buying ready made mix, we mix in what we want at the % we believe is best then feed.

im probably moving to burlington, ontario some time end of 2013, i know guelph have horse farms there, anywhere near burlington where i could find a small acreage 2 acres or so, or where would best to search?


hamazz

Most municipalities in Ontario wont allow you to keep horses on anything that small Im afraid. Zoning laws etc.

MLS.ca is the place to search for properties.

Purely from a space point of view, do you believe that 30 in 2.5 acres is appropriate?