Originally Posted by dbd33

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.

Originally Posted by dbd33

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.

Originally Posted by iaink

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.

Originally Posted by Almost Canadian

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