You have decided that you are going to take your love and knowledge of horses and turn it into a small business by creating your own small horse ranch. However, the place where you currently live does not offer near enough pasture land and you need to find small horse ranches for sale. Buying a property for such a unique purpose will always take careful consideration, and mistakes made during the buying process can make your business endeavor challenging. Take a look at some of the things to consider when buying a horse ranch for sale for your small operation.
Consider opting for a ranch that does not have an excessive amount of land.
Acreage is important when buying a horse ranch. Your horses will need room to roam and you may want the room to ride. However, one of the biggest mistakes you can make if you plan to keep your operation small is to buy a ranch that has way more land than what you can feasibly handle. Taking care of land you are not using can be an expense to your ranch operation, and if the expenses offset the profits too much, you won't make enough money from your small ranch to pay for the property.
Consider how much pasture land you will need if using available pastures as a feed source.
Some ranch owners feed from outside sources, so massive amounts of pasture land just is not as important. Yes, the horses need room to roam and exercise, but if the ground is not used for grazing, you won't need nearly as much land. If you're going to be using the available pasture ground as a feed source, you should have 1.75 to 2 acres per mare and fowl. Yearlings need about 1.5 to 2 acres and weanlings can get by with 0.5 to 1 acre.
Consider native water sources near or on the property.
Keeping water to your horses is always going to be important, and horses can use and consume a lot of water on a day-to-day basis. It is desirable to find a property that has its own native water supply on site or nearby. Something like a natural spring can serve your small ranch really well and keep operating costs low. Even a nearby creek can be good to use for keeping the pastureland irrigated so grass stands are nice and healthy for grazing.
