Anyone else got a ridiculous amount of grass?!

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southerncomfort

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I swear it's taller than me in places!

Unfortunately, the rain hasn't held off long enough for my land owner to get the tractor on to the land and top the grass.

Bit of a worry when you've got three native ponies and one of them is missing several teeth and can't chew long stalky grass.

Been considering buying a strimmer just so I can cut a path to the gate to make it easier getting the ponies in and out. I've got the two younger ones on a track around the perimeter which is awfully boggy in places, and the oldie is in a pen outside the shelter with buckets of 'soup' to keep her going. :(

Anyone else having similar problems? (with huge apologies to those with a lack of grazing....you are welcome to bring your horses to eat my grass down!). ;)
 
Me, sigh, but it's the same every year. The upside is that in the winter I don't need to give the horses anything extra, and I can always ride in my fields, so I shouldn't complain!
 
My livery yard has far more than we know what to do with! I'm having to keep a very close eye on the Welshie. I've had him coming up to three years and he's never had laminitis in that time, but I know that he has in the past so I always have to be extra careful. At the minute he's in from 9-4 to keep him off the grass for a bit, but he's starting to look a little round so restricted grazing might soon be the order of the day.
 
Yes, but we're lucky in that we have 2 TBs who need lots of good grass to avoid the need for constantly stuffing them with hay and high calorie feeds!
 
Yes - but my horses are making a concerted effort to resolve the situation for me!
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Yes, we have recently moved yards from barely any grass to now having a field completely full of long, luscious grass! My cob is out from 8am to 6pm everyday and so we have a muzzle on her as she doesn't really understand the concept of grazing, it's more like "ooh, that's all there for me, I may aswell make the most of it!"
 
Yes, we have a ridiculous amount of grazing, but I am loving it! Hay will be cut from one field which I will have for the winter, and I pretty much have the run of the place with regards the grazing, so can manage where she goes and how much I give her with no worries of running out of grazing before the summer is over.

Plus it means that winter will be a lot better grazing wise, so reduces the need to put extra out there for her to eat.
 
I have loads of grass in my pasture fields ... but my lot still want their hay. I think they are too lazy to go out of their paddocks and into their big grassy pasture fields tbh. That's okay, I like them to have hay adlib all year round, as do they.
 
Grass , we are never happy there's either to much or too little that's life .
After a slow start my grass is going crazy .
 
Yep, we have loads more than normal here!
In fact so much, that we have sectioned off half of the turnout field and going to cut it for hay - the fatties don't need the extra grass :p
 
Spring Feather said:
I have loads of grass in my pasture fields ... but my lot still want their hay. I think they are too lazy to go out of their paddocks and into their big grassy pasture fields tbh. That's okay, I like them to have hay adlib all year round, as do they.
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Mine are still getting a bit of hay thrown in as well - they seem to like having something other than grass. Beats me why they'd leave lush green grass for hay, but if it makes them happy...
 
Auslander said:
Mine are still getting a bit of hay thrown in as well - they seem to like having something other than grass. Beats me why they'd leave lush green grass for hay, but if it makes them happy...
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I don't understand it either, but hey if they want it, then they will have it. My crowd are funny though, around August time they don't want their hay so the bales sit there for weeks and then just one day they'll return to it and off we go again feeding hay regularly again.
 
Loads, and I BEGGED OH not to fertilize. But, he did and it is no longer a safe and happy play pen for a competing horse trying to stay slim.

The only consolation (not that it is one really) is that it is still so wet that he is not turned out on it yet!!!
 
I am abandoning 2/4 paddocks and will cut them for hay instead. May have to be haylage though as we won't have space to store it all.
 
Yes!! Moved yards 1st Dec due to lack of grazing so this is first spring at new place and can safely say there is an abundance of the stuff! I don't worry too much about weight as have a TB and ISH who came out of winter lean and fit but they have turned in to complete nightmares. Weathering the storm in the hope they adjust and calm the ******* down!!

Ha - they're prob not getting too fat due to regulaly tearing round an 8 acre field like lunatics!
 
I've just put an ad on the local FB page and someone is now cutting mine for hay :) deal is that they can take half the cut. Last people here got 48 4ft bales so that's saving me a fortune :)
 
Fides said:
I've just put an ad on the local FB page and someone is now cutting mine for hay :) deal is that they can take half the cut. Last people here got 48 4ft bales so that's saving me a fortune :)
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Yes one pair of fields the grass is up to their elbows so we had to close the field so they have 1/2 for a whileer
 
I only have 2.75 acres for 3 natives which they live on all year round, for the past 5 years I've had no grass and I normally go through a round bale of hay a week all year round to keep them happy and their weight down. However this year is a different story and my cleveland bay x moorland pony and her mum (who is the moorland pony) have gotten HUGE in recent weeks and I've cut their hay down from a bale of hay a day to just a 1/4 a bale a day. Think there's a lot of goodness in the grass this year! My bank balance is certainly happier!! Was going to move them to rest my field for a bit but can't risk it until they lose some chub!
 
We have a lot of grass too, we have about 4 acres for two TB's. For one as much grass as possible is good, but the other looks pregnant right now! (He definitely isn't, he's a gelding!) We have divided the field in half but it's still growing so fast. We didn't even fertilise it this year. Last year we cut half for hay so will probably end up doing the same this year.
 
my fields

We use 2 pairs of paddocks = 4 acres while the other pair also 4 acres has 3 months off, the jump fields are resting now. We have 8 horses on 4 acres and the grazing speaks for itself. Who says you can't have more horses than land if you maintain it correctly.
This is the bottom of the grazing field so much grass they trampled it flat, we closed the top field till they eat this down.
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the next picture is the top end of this
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this jump field is the one they came out of 2 weeks ago
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and in the past we have also used one pair for hay and got 250 + hay.
 
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