Grazing sheep and horses together

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catherine22

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The field my horses are in is split in 2 and has sheep in the other half, the yard owner wants to mix them all in together. I'm sure they'll all be fine as they've been next to each other for a few months and don't seem to care and I know it's good for the land to mix the grazing, but I just wanted to be aware of any possible problems. there will still be a 'horse' fence between the 2 halves but the sheep will have access to both halves
 
I have grazed both together with no problems. I find the sheep keep away from the horses.
Only thing to be careful of is if one of the horses takes a dislike to them! They should settle though and get used to it :)
 
The occasional horse will take exception to a sheep. I've had horses and sheep together for about seven years now and have known one sheep get it's head kicked (trying to muscle in on horse's feed) and one sheep get picked up by it's wool and moved out of the way (again trying to get to horse feed). Both were "attacked" by different horses.

I suppose from that yes there can be problems - when the sheep go for the horse feed!
 
Excellent, as they've been next to each other for months i'm hoping they will be ok.
The horse that is fed is fed in a coral away form the other horses so hopefully there will be no food stealing! I guess they will be ok when the horse have haylage in the field? or that they'll learn to be! it should only be for a few more weeks anyway then wont be having haylage
 
I graze our sheep with my horse , it works very well, never had any problems, apart from when the lambs are born my horse's maternal side appears and she seems to become attached to 1 of them :)
 
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I had a livery here a few years ago now and we turned out her horse in the sheep field to run with them.

She assured me he was "fine" with sheep, no problems!

What happened was awful, and totally surprising. This particular horse was always a bit riggy in his behaviour, and could get very possessive over his pair bond, to the extent that if anyone else went into the field to get the other horse (his pairbond) out, he was quite capable of coming at you pulling faces (and meaning it).

Anyway, as soon as he was turned out into the sheep field he cantered into the flock of sheep, which predictably all scattered, but there was one a bit slower and didn't get away the same, and he started lashing out at the poor thing with his front feet, trying to basically kill it by banging his forelegs into it and then biting it and snapping at it with his teeth; then as the sheep was lying there, went off to do the same to another. It was awful, and totally out of the blue.

We managed to catch the horse - and checked the sheep. Miraculously they were all OK, BUT after that incident I became very nervous of turning out horses and sheep together!

Fortunately the horse I've got now came from the moors and is fine with sheep, loves them in fact, which is a huge relief.

But I never take it for granted when someone says their horse is OK to turn out with sheep - what I'd do now is to put up some electric fencing and contain the horse first; then that way at least you can see whats likely to happen, plus the sheep will have an escape route.
 
I've kept several horses together with sheep over the years and th only problems I've had was a youngster chasing the sheep and an old artritic shetland who,quite out of caracter took an instant dislike to lambs and killed one. So you need to be there and watch what happens when the horses and sheep are put together, but usually, so long as neither species is getting mix/bucket feed there are usually no problems.
 
Beware some may not mix, my sister TB mare takes a dislike and bites them ! But then she is a bit of a bully anyway....
On the other hand had a little Dartmoor mare who was best buddies with one :)

Beneficial though -excellent for tidying up grass around the toilet areas of the field that the horses leave.
 
I think you have to worm horses for liver fluke if they are grazed with sheep. Also, do not let sheep eat any horse food as it contains copper which is poisonous to sheep.
 
my vet didnt mention anything about worming the horses for liverfluke when we were discussing horses and sheep, she said they are very good for eliminating each others worms as they graze as the eggs/larvae from one species wont live in the other. Might be worth ringing your vet to check up though OP.
 
We have sheep wandering in and out of the horses fields with no problems. Ours have hay out in the field over winter and the sheep do get pretty interested but they've learned it's not a good idea to try and pinch it! One of ours will chase them away and all three will nip bums if they try to push in but unless they're after the hay they tend to get ignored. It's good for the grazing and they're great for hoovering up any hay that gets left too. :)
 
We have kept three sheep with our horses for over 10 years. The last of the first lot teamed up with the retired cob and was stabled with her overnight for the last three years of her life :) The old lady sorted out the introductions to two different new horses, telling the 16.3 ID mare that the sheep was NOT to be messed with! The current 3 (pet lambs from last year) have only been in with the hoirses a couple of times so far, but with no incidents, other than the sheep legging it into next doors field and having to be returned by a neighbour! But that is because the sheep are a pain, nothing to do with the mixing with horses :D
 
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