Customer Reviews

Horsekeeping on a Small Acreage: Facilities Design and Management

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book helped immensely when I went from never having owned to owning 3 horses in western Washington State. On our 4 acres, we managed, with the help of this book, to not only find ways to work with space conflicts, but with a small budget. She offers many good suggestions to use everyday things, or common things in place of over-priced "horse" items, buckets, feed tubs, fencing, etc. Someone else commented on the "vagueness" of the book, but I never found that to be true, except that it didn't have phone numbers for your solutions. The point of the book in my opinion, is to show that with a little creativity, one can find perfectly good ways to do things in a small space and with a small budget. The book's suggestions also have held good through my moving horses down to CA and dealing with climate and weather changes. Very useful for the small budget/space horse person.

This common-sense guide, by a horse care expert, has information on planning your property, building design, fences, paddocks, fire safety, pasture and hay-lot management and much more. The book is packed with photos and with illustrations, plans and useful details of stable designs.

I bought this book when we first talked about having horses. We knew that we would have limited acreage and wanted to make the most of it for our new horses.

Cherry Hill givens direct to point, no fluff information to use every single day. From fencing to feeding, you get sensible strategies.

In fact, I mistakingly forgot this book while on vacation. Disheartened to lose the book, I mmediately ordered another copy. This book is a reference for every small farm or horse hobbiest.

Give wise details with small acerage, land useage, water supply, turnout space and essentials for the horse to survive but be comfortable at the same time. Goes down to as small as 3 acres and as large as 100. Legal aspects to consider. Composts to deal with and so on, worth buying for sure.

I found this book to be a honest look at what it takes to maintain a horse, and the related facilities. It helps paint a very realistic picture of what will be needed to setup and maintain a horse facility. If you are unsure of your level of commitment, this book will help show you the real deal. The book provides a nice general overview of most aspects of horse keeping, however you may still want/need additional refrences for more detail in specific areas. All in all a great general refrence book.

When we moved to the country and were faced with transforming an old milking barn into a functional barn for our horses, I bought this book. Six years later, I still refer to it on a regular basis. It's been indispensible guidance in all kinds of decisions, ranging from fencing, to stall flooring, to placement of overhead lights, to automatic waterers, to manure management, to bedding, to concrete aisleways, and much more. The book isn't usually the last word that makes my decision, but it's almost always where I start when I take on a new project around the farm. It's saved me time, money, and frustration by warning of common errors and guiding me to an informed decision. This book has payed for itself over and over again, and I will continue to reach for it first, before making any decisions on my next barn project.

I just received this book and I skimmed through it briefly, and I'm already thrilled that I bought it. It has excellent examples, charts comparing different things/cost/durability...

I'm planning on building my own barn in the next 5 years or so, and this book will help me tremendously!

Highly Recommended!

THis was a wonderful book. It was my first book from Amazon.com as well as a book for my very first horse purchase. I was curious about small acreage layouts and how to get the best use of your limited space. This book provided everything I could have asked for besides the actual blueprints of the barn. This is a must-see book!

My husband picked this one up for me at the library one day and I read it and know that I must own one to refer to when we are ready to start our horse farm!! I am ordering a copy from Amazon today! It contains very useful information for the novices, like we are.

I am in the process of purchasing an acreage and this book has become my bible. It has the best and most thorough information I have seen in regards to what is needed for an acreage. Definately a book for new owners, or those who are in the process of fixing up their land for horses.