A sacrifice area is a small enclosure, often called a paddock, corral, or pen, meant to be your horse’s outdoor living quarters. Technically it is called a sacrifice area because you are giving up use of that small portion of land as a grassy area to benefit your pasture. Horses should be confined in sacrifice areas to avoid overgrazing and especially in winter months when plants are dormant and soils are saturated.

In past posts I’ve talked about several aspects of setting up your horse’s sacrifice area, or paddock. One thing I’ve not discussed–and you’ve asked about–is size. What is the right size for your sacrifice area?

The size of a sacrifice area can vary greatly. It can be anything from that of a generous box stall, say 16 feet x 16 feet, to a long, narrow enclosure where your horse could actually trot or even gallop about to get some exercise. If you want your horse to be able to run or play an enclosure of about 20 or 30 feet wide by 100 feet in length is needed. There are also some interesting ideas around for “track” sacrifice areasÐlarge, long corridors that circle the perimeter of a pasture or other area. The goal of a track sacrifice area is to encourage the horse(s) to move about more freely and to play or interact with each other. Other creative ideas include having smaller sacrifice areas along with a large turnout area that you rotate horses through. If your arena is fenced in, perhaps it can be used as a turnout area