In hand grazing how long??

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amandal

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Mollys paddock is pretty bare and although she is a good doer I dont want her to drop any more weight. The track leading to her paddock has loads of grass so after riding I have started to let her graze there before turning her out, My question is how long should I stand there? Molly would graze all day but what is the optimum time?? x
 
How long is a piece of string? If her paddock is completely bare and she isn't getting any other forage than the grass that is coming up each day then she would be unlikely to hold her weight for very long. Maybe for a few weeks yet but once the grass stops growing up each day she will need more obviously. My mare would hold her weight on a bare paddock but then she can live on fresh air (but it makes her sad so I don't make her :) )

Half an hour of hand grazing for example will probably have little effect....
 
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She is a good doer but getting very grumpy because shes hungry, I am quite happy to stand with her just wondering how long is effective :D
ps I'm also grumpy when hungry :D:D
 
Me too. My good doer fatty cob mare was in a bare paddock last summer. At this particular yard I had no choice but to strip graze her as she gets colicky if left to her own devices on long grass, so while the grass wasn't too lush it was long as they didn't top it and so I had to ration her. I didn't realise it at the time but she was heartbroken. I thought that she was just hot and bothered and miserable the whole time but it was my first summer with her so I didn't know any better. After moving her to another yard where the grass is kept short because it is a large paddock grazed by more horses she is like a different horse. No more miserable standing asleep by the gate with her nose on the floor or fussing me for food at the fence line. She is now able to graze in the natural way. When they move paddocks I just muzzle her now until the others eat it down a bit. I had no idea how much of an effect it was having on her. So I can understand what you are going through.

Why is her paddock so bare?
 
Our girl has been 'banned' from the big field as the mud is so awful it just drags her shoes off and her feet are a mess, there's just chunks missing where her shoes have come off. There's next to nothing left in the field anyway, so she's happy with a mix of in hand grazing and stabling with a hay net. She has anything between half an hour and 1 and a half hours of just mooching along the lane grazing and she is more than happy with that :)
K x
 
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