1. The smallest acreage to keep a horse on really depends on where you live, what is around you, and how much work you are willing to do.
Horses are herd animals, so really it is best if you have at least two horses. If you have small acreage, you are probably going to have to have your manure hauled away because you will not have enough land to spread it on, so that should be taken into consideration. Depending on where you live, people may come and get it free for their gardens, or even pay you for it, but in places where there is a large supply, you may have to pay someone to remove it.
The smaller area that you keep horses in, the more often you have to do manure removal.. if you had a 20 acre pasture for just a few horses, you would really only need to clean high traffic areas, where as on a 1/2 acre paddock, it should be removed daily.
Horses are also hard on the ground. If its wet, they make mud, if its dry, they pack the ground down and kill all the grass, so that is another thing to consider. Mud is very unhealthy for a horse so, you if you have a wet season, especially with smaller acreage, you may have to haul in footing as well as install french drains, dig trenches, etc to make the horse area dry. Depending on where you live, your county or community may have laws regarding run off water, and that may cause you problems.
Some area's also have laws regarding how many horses can be kept per acre, so that would be something to check out also.
I would say that 1 1/4 acres would be really pushing it, but 2 1/2 would be do able. What you would want to do is make a smallish area with your barn or shelter and a turn out paddock with improved footing that wont get muddy and then a bigger pasture.
2. It depends on a lot of factors, where you live, how lucky you are, etc.
Feed: a horse need about 20 lbs give or take of good quality hay a day. around here hay is about 200-300 dollars a ton. So, you figure you will need about 3 1/2 tons a year. If you don't have enough storage to put up all your hay for the year you may have to buy from the feed store, which is more expensive, but not as expensive as having ruined hay. Hay quality is EXTREMELY important, horses get sick and colic on moldy hay, mold and dust can cause breathing problems, toxic weeds can make horses sick, or kill them and horses fed good hay usually need less supplements, which are expensive. If you have pasture for part of the year you can reduce the hay bill, but some horses cannot be on pasture, plus it costs money (and time) to maintain a good pasture.
Most horses should also have at least a vitamin/mineral supplement, which you could budget about 20 dollars a month for, but other horses, depending on their age, work load, and if they have any special needs can require more grains or supplements. I have one horse that eats 150 dollars a month in extras.
Farriers..approx 25-50 dollars for a trim, 50-200 for shoes depending on where you live, and what your horse needs. This should be done every 6 weeks, like clockwork.. and a good farrier is worth his weight in gold.. you do not want to skimp here.
Vet care.. Teeth should be floated yearly, fecal (to check for parasites) and yearly vaccines.. this is going to cost at least 200-500 dollars. If you horse gets injured, colics, gets ill, etc one vet bill can easily add up to 1000 dollars.. The best insurance is very safe fences, no junk laying around, safe stalls, good feed, good care, good grooming, etc but even with the best of care, horses find ways to hurt themselves, or get ill. You should always have a vet fund. Its also a good idea to bite the bullet, and have the vet do the yearly teeth, and do the vaccines even though you can do vaccines yourself, and many will tell you that teeth don't need done yearly because that allows you to form a relationship with your vet so if you have an emergency, you know who to call. Poor tooth care is also a leading cause of colic, plus, horses with good teeth make better use of their food, which saves on the feed bill, so it is very important.
You will also have to have your horse on a deworming schedule, which will depend on where you live and how your horses are kept.. your vet would be the best to help you set that up, but your horse will need to be dewormed anywhere from 2 times a year to every 6 weeks, costing anywhere from 5 to 15 dollars a time depending on what drug is used.
There will also be your random expenses like tack, grooming products, fly spray, etc.
you are looking at about 2000 dollars a year not counting any injuries or extras. The best thing to do would be to talk to other horse owners in your area, talk to your vets, your feed store, hay growers, etc and find out how much things cost in your area and add it all up.
3. Almost any breed of horse can be good with kids, it just depends on the amount of good training and experience that the particular horse has had. Quarter horses tend to have very nice dispositions, but so do a lot of other breeds. The individual horse is going to be more important than the breed. It is very important, even with the most reliable, safe horse, that children are supervised, and taught correct safety around horses. Horses are prey animals, and do react to things, even the best horse can be spooked, and could injure or kill a small child.
4. There are a lot of safe fences. Wood, post and rail, vinyl, electric rope or tape, this plastic belt type stuff, no climb woven wire (woven not welded, and small enough holes that a foot cannot fit through) with a top rail, etc. The most important thing about fencing is no barb wire, preferably no wire period, and preferably no metal t-posts. If you do use t-posts, make sure they are capped. Also make sure they are properly installed. The safer your fence is, the less likely one of your horses will be injured on it.
The draw backs of an electric only fence, is that they require maintenance, and can short out, stop working during a power outage, etc and depending on your horses, they may escape. Some horses will respect almost any fence, and others are constantly testing it. Probably the best thing would be a post and rail (wood or vinyal) with no climb to keep animals out, and top strand of electric rope to keep the horses off it. That, of course is very expensive. Most people have good luck with a properly installed electric rope/tape fence, and that is probably the most cost effective option, but you have to make sure it is properly installed and maintained, and checked often. The nice thing about electric fences, is you can easily add temporary interior fences to manage pastures, or for whatever reason, just using two strands.
Training horses...
Training horses is something best left to people who are experienced. As to how "hard" it is, it depends on the horse, the trainer, and what specifically you are trying to train the horse to do. The best thing for a beginner to do is take lessons to learn how to ride and handle horses and then get a very safe, bombproof, trained, finished, older proven horse. Even well trained, bombproof horses can be ruined with improper handling. As for training, there is so much feel, and timing involved that while there are beginners that manage to safely muddle through training a horse they are lucky, and one of the few. If you do get a rescue horse with a questionable background, I would suggest that you find a trainer to put 30 days on you and the horse together to make sure the horse doesn't have any issues that you cannot handle, and to make sure that you know how to ride and handle the horse property.
Source(s):
years and years of owning horses