Do you graze all your land in winter?

Achinghips

Achinghips

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Or do you let them roam the whole lot? I have two paddocks starting to go muddy and three that are fabulous, that I was keeping for rotation. Starting to think if I let them have it all they will graze it all evenly ......
 
yes they are allowed onto all of it, there are 2 on 5 acres. however with less land eg 2 acres with 2 horses on it I would have a sacrifice paddock and save the rest for better weather
 
Yep, 3 horses on 6 acres. Wasn't planning to but 4 acre field has no grass now and a good 25% of it under water so they are now in the summer field as well. At least there won't be much grass in there either once it starts growing. Usually have too much grass come spring!

Edited to say I agree with poster above that if less land I would save some and just use a small bit for turnout (assuming they have stables, shelter, hay, somewhere they can get out of mud etc)
 
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We'll my two "winter" paddocks aren't terrible at the mo, but another three weeks and they will be! Hmmmm .... What to do, all or sacrifice two ..... It's my first year managing my own land ....
 
I keep rotating mine through the year, but give them less time on each paddock in the winter to avoid too much churning. Bit of a fail really, as the whole place is underwater - but I generally have too much grass in the spring, so Im not too concerned. 10 acres/4 horses.
 
I used to let them have the lot between November and February. It meant that there was much less carnage and it was easier to manage spring grass. I now have two paddocks of about 1.5 acres each on a hill, but a spring comes up in one, so it's shut off until the weather dries up (oh what a laugh...). So how you do things depends on a lot. Soil type, layout of boundaries, drainage....Another reason I can't give mine free rein is that the grass hasn't ever stopped growing!
 
No I have a 5.5 acre sacrifice field and three resting paddocks waiting for spring .
One will be used from mid to end of march while the other to get going as it warms up then I move them and sort out the first one which then gets rested .
The winter field gets a lot of care and rested until September at the earliest .
 
do you have harrows? last winter during the very cold feb and march we shut our 2 into the 1 acre paddock to save the rest as it was very eaten down and not growing [horses were stabled at night]. the paddock was a terrible mess but we harrowed it twice in April and it came lovely, and this after thinking we would be needing to re-seed.
 
No - 2 horses have a 3 acre winter paddock for 10-12 hours a day that they can wreck.

I keep the other 4 paddocks (1 x 1 acre-currently wrecked from early winter and 2 x 2 acres looking good) for the rest of the year as turn out 24/7 as soon as I can and for as long as possible.

I can often use the winter paddock again by early summer if needed as always recovers. We are on heavy clay here.

Yes - always harrow them a lot and roll. I don't poo-pick the fields ever.
 
They have all of it until March /April when I half it and they stay on the winter bit until November then move onto the foggage bit to eat it off up to christmas when it is all opened up again until March again so theoretically they are always on short grass. We have sandy soil and no mud too We only usually feed hay from January to April this way and thier weight stays good the field is 4 acres and there are 4 ponies on it
 
Nine acres will not be grazed over winter as it is kept for hay. The rest will be grazed in rotation. When the poos cover 50% of the field, the ponies are moved and the field harrowed and rested. Fortunately, I am on sand and keep the ditches clean so it is well drained and doesn't poach much. I used to poo pick but except for small areas, the above seems to work.

If you graze a field all the time, especially with horses, you will eventually lose all the taller/more palatable species as they are grazed out. Of course, that might not be a bad thing for natives, but not if you want hay.
 
3 currently on over 4 acres and have been since early November - we tried to tape off but one of my mares was having none of it and would just take the tape down over and over so we opened it up. F;at section to the left and right of main gate is a mud bath (about 1 acre in total but after that it slopes both sides and this is well drafined and still has some grass. They dont however seem to be grazing it at the minute (they just hang around their hay piles, which i dot around the flat muddy section, in the driest parts). We have another 3 acre paddock currently being saved - im itching to move them but i know it will end up trashed so holding off until March.

This year we will split the 4 acre paddock in two (and perhaps split one side in half again) and put hard standing on a section of the right side for next winter - aim being that that paddock will become the winter paddock going forward. Whilst clay is a pain in winter it came good last summer (after a serious trashing from 4 horses before we bought it) so roll on spring!
 
I have 3 large paddocks, one is always shut all year round. In the winter it is to give them a fresh field to mooch in and in summer to save the grass for later. There are only two of them on 6 acres now so works well.
 
No - we are lucky to have separate summer and winter grazing.

The winter grazing is on a hill side and approx 4 acres, with the summer paddocks lower down and split into 3 x 1 acre plots.

The winter field has poorer grass but drains well, and stands up to the rain better. The horses get turned out on it from when the clocks change - they come off it at the end of march and then left to rest.

The summer paddocks are more fertile so better grass for the drier mnths and rarely need to supplement with hard feed or haylage. They are rested all winter so have some grass ready for spring.

This acreage is for 3 x 15hh native types.
 
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We live on a farm so obviously not, although the two horses are on the same field as every year and are churning it up something serious but it's being ploughed and re-seeded this spring so nobody is too bothered.

OH has four fields - one of which has been purposefully left as spring grazing. Looking at the state of the other three fields, I'm glad I managed to convince him to leave it empty.
 
No they do not roam over all of it we would not like/allow/cater for that

Yes we always let horses go out 11 horses we will not keep horses in more than a max of 4 days in any one year.


2 fields rested 2 in use.
 
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