Field help

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Kirstd33

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So, its my first winter of land management as after 2 years on a livery yard and 8 months at a friends house, we've been renting approx 4 acres of grazing since End August. It hadn't been grazed for aprox 12 months so was basically standing hay and weeds/rushes in sections due to the land being very low lying, adjacent to a brook and predominantly heavy clay. Not ideal but beggars cant be choosers and it gave us a lifeline for retired coblet to live out his days 24/7 turnout and off a livery yard with their rules and regulations. It's in a good geographical location for home/work commute, good hacking and affordable rent.

We set about tidying it up as the land owner had moved off quickly and left a lot of cr*p lying around, we fixed some fencing, topped the rushes and weeds at the end of August when it was dry and generally made it safe, cleared 2 million tonnes of fallen acorns and 3 horses soon made short work of the standing hay which basically meant we didn't really have to supplement feeding until a couple of weeks ago, which worked well and co-incided with the wet weather and getting them up onto the hardstanding/mud mat area.

Basically I need advice on resting land now, the 4 acres is sub divided up as shown and at the moment I'm resting the 2 "paddocks" both of which are approx 3/4 acre each. My next question is should I be subdividing the large 2 acre field and resting another acre of that, esp. given that the horses aren't really spending much time in their now as the grass is so dead and they are spending most of their time around the mudmat area around their round bale! field.jpg
 
I pnly have 2 acres (for 2 horses) but our land is sand (blessing in wet weather, but not so good in drought conditions like we had this summer). I divide mine into four - 3 summer and one winter paddocks. I can open up the gates between them so they can have access to more than one paddock, I just like to have the option of being able to rest and rotate.

The winter paddock is basically a sacrifice paddock though. It gives them space to mooch (or gallop if the mood takes them) about and pick on what grass there is, they have a shelter and I put hay out once the grass is gone. I feel sorry for them in there, especially when the weather is miserable and they're just standing about looking equally miserable, but come spring the rest of the land will be all shiny new and ready for them again.

Then comes the issue of spraying/overseeding and is it worth it for how long I have to keep them off the new grass.
 
How wet is the 2 acres? If it's very wet I would leave as is this winter and see what you find out about the experience in your first year.

If it's not too bad personally I would probably divide the big bit diagonally from the hardstanding corner to the opposite (top right) corner so you have 2 fields to swap between relatively easily while keeping access to the hardstanding area. It's your first winter on the land, so I wouldn't do anything permanent till you've had time to assess how it works for you.
 
I'd wait until next year too, once you've had a full winter on it. If they are mostly round the bale, you could leave the field as it is and section off in Spring, before the grass gets going. If they've got more space, it shouldn't get as muddy in theory. Mine have the whole of their 'summer field' over winter, and then I make a track in the summer as they are
fatties. I find that the smaller the field, the deeper the mud, so that works for me.
 
I'd build an inner fence (with rounded corners) so that most of the field can rest but the horses have a track around it that invites them to roam the property and to trot and canter as well.
 

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What’s the ground like? I’m on clay and even with two ponies I can’t split it in winter. I now rent an extra 3 acres on top of the 2.5. Too much in summer, not enough in winter. I should probably buy a 3rd.
 
Tiddlypom said:
Grass tracks aren’t suitable for winter use even on good ground let alone on clay, they get too cut up and boggy as the traffic is concentrated on a small area.
Click to expand...

That depends on the terrain, I guess. We keep our horses on clay and a track works fine here. Hilly ground, though. The higher areas never get too wet. And we have grid mats on the lowest, most frequented area.
 
is the ground pretty consistent across the 2 resting paddocks and the 2 acres?

If so, it would almost make more sense to me to have the larger 2 acres as your summer grazing and then to use the 2 smaller paddocks for winter. One open when the ground isn’t frozen and will end up a trash paddock. The other could be saved from frozen ruts and only used sporadically when solid?
 
I'd leave the 2 acres for now. Resting now isnt doing a lot. It gives them more room to move about and they are unlikely to trash it totally. Come spring I'd section an acre of it off to rest and then rotate between paddocks till next winter.
 
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