Guides
The numbers behind the tools.
Every calculator here makes assumptions. These guides explain them, show the working, and point at the published research rather than asking you to take our word for it.
Horse fencing: how high, how much, and which type.
Height, rail spacing, post depth and gate widths from Penn State and the University of Georgia, how many feet of fence your acreage takes, and how the fence types compare on cost.
Winter water for horses: how much they need, and how to keep it open.
Horses drink less when water is cold, just when hay makes them need more. How much they drink, the 45 to 65°F range, and how to keep the trough open, from eXtension and Montana State.
Hay shortage 2026: how to plan, buy and stretch your winter hay.
Drought, fuel costs and a new pest are tightening supply. Count what you need, stop waste at the feeder, buy by the ton, and cover the cold snaps, using Penn State, Maryland and NDSU figures.
The dry lot: how big it should be, where it goes, and what to put under it.
400 to 500 square feet per horse, and a build of geotextile, crushed stone and fines. The sizes and layer depths university extension services publish, ahead of the wet season.
Rotational grazing for horses: how many paddocks, and how long to rest them.
Move every 3 to 7 days, rest 20 to 30, and work out the paddock count from those two numbers. The grazing heights and rest periods extension services publish.
How much hay does a horse need? Per day, per winter, per bale.
The daily figure is 2 percent of bodyweight. The figure you buy is higher: waste ranges from 1 to 57 percent depending on the feeder, and cold weather adds more.
Choosing arena footing: sand, shape, and what to ask your supplier.
Why the material that makes an excellent base makes terrible footing, what particle shape does to the ride, and the one document to ask every supplier for.
How many acres per horse? Why the answer moves.
Two acres is the usual answer. What actually sets the number is how much a horse eats, what your acre grows, and how much of it gets trampled before it reaches a horse.
What is coming
Guides are published roughly weekly, and each one is tied to a calculator so you can move between the reasoning and the arithmetic. Planned next: what an arena actually costs to build, and a paddock-rotation calculator to go with the grazing guide.
If there is a number you keep working out on the back of an envelope, tell us and it will go near the front of the queue.