Lawn to grazing - is it possible?

E

Evie91

Well-Known Member
Joined
12 May 2012
Messages
2,172
Location
Warwickshire
Visit site
Hi all,

I have approx 1 and a half to two acre piece of land. We call it a paddock but its not! Grass is made up of mainly moss, butter cups, purple trumpet flowers (in summer). If left to grow long looks like a pretty flower meadow - not grazing land.
Surrounded by various trees- backs on to a wood. Rubbish drainage in parts - mainly in middle.
My question is could it ever be suitable for a horse ( and companion) If so, what do i need to do and how long will it take?

Also what permission would I need to obtain to keep a horse?

Thanks for reading :)
 
i have no experience, but my bf is a gardener and sometimes talks about lawn maintenence... i think it would probably need to be churned up and re-seeded to create proper grass rather than the mixture you describe. however, although 1.5 achres is ok, but probably not all year round if two of them, im not sure what your access would be like for machinery needed to do this. cost wouldnt be massive though as not much land so wouldnt take long
 
Thank you - really helpful. Have another bit too so would have enough to rest it I think. Enough access for machines etc
Nice to know it might be possible :)
 
depends what kind of grazing you want.. unless you want/need really lush stuff there is no reason you cant just turn out on it! I did the same with a 1/2 acre paddock here that was 'lawn' and its been fine, ok its rough grazing but we feed hay anyway.
 
Ask at your local council about change of use to agricultural/grazing, all councils are different( unless you have no neighbours , then if it were me i would just do it! )
have a look on the Accidental smallholder forum, it has good information and friendly people who will help you!
 
Just off to look at accidental small holder now.
Interesting - horse is a very good doer and was muzzled last summer to try and keep weight off!
Only thing is there are millions of buttercups and daisies, daffodils - worried about photosensitivity due to butter cups if I turned her straight out......
Thanks for info, please keep it coming
 
Evie91 said:
Just off to look at accidental small holder now.
Interesting - horse is a very good doer and was muzzled last summer to try and keep weight off!
Only thing is there are millions of buttercups and daisies, daffodils - worried about photosensitivity due to butter cups if I turned her straight out......
Thanks for info, please keep it coming
Click to expand...

google paddock maintenance companies locally, or agricultural contractors. they will advise you about spraying the buttercups - i got a back back pump sprayer and stuff to do mine, it only took an afternoon. If you have good dooers, the worst thing you can do imho is plough it up and re-seed, you will end up with too much grass. Mine is perfect for my good dooers and you'd be amazed how it comes up by being grazed anyway.
 
Evie91 said:
Hi all,

I have approx 1 and a half to two acre piece of land. We call it a paddock but its not! Grass is made up of mainly moss, butter cups, purple trumpet flowers (in summer). If left to grow long looks like a pretty flower meadow - not grazing land.
Surrounded by various trees- backs on to a wood. Rubbish drainage in parts - mainly in middle.
My question is could it ever be suitable for a horse ( and companion) If so, what do i need to do and how long will it take?

Also what permission would I need to obtain to keep a horse?

Thanks for reading :)
Click to expand...

If it's 2 acres it would be fine for two smallish horses/ ponies.

I would want the flowers topped to remove the seeding parts (buttercups again).

Check it over for any debris etc - ours had a bunch of corrugated iron, a big sleeper type plank and a huge amount of plastic sheeting in one area, I think there used to be a lean to sort of building there.

Is there fencing?
Is it suitable?
I.e: it should not be barbed wire!
Are the posts secured firmly?
Is the fencing in good repair?
Is it high enough?

Is there a water source i.e water trough?
If so is it mains fed or is it rainwater fed? I'd not be keen on rainwater fed as it could go stagnant in summer especially.

Or will you have to lug in water from miles off?
If so it won't be a viable option unless you own a fire truck or plan to do a million runs up there with water per day or have a huge pickup and massive water buckets/ jerry cans.

Think about your field management in advance if you can, for example my mum and I drew up how we would arrange our paddocks with electric tape showing where we would put our gates and how we would sort out access from each paddock to the single water trough we have in our field.

What will you do with your muck, 2 acres isn't huge and we've found that if we poo pick at least every 2nd day it takes about an hour (two horses on roughly 2 acres) and we've already got a sizable heap (been there since january). For ages we agonised over what to do with it till our hay farmer offered to uplift it for us for free if we continued using him as our hay supplier.
I think if you left it lying (as I know some people do) on such a small amount of land you would quickly find that you had a field of poo and pretty much nothing else :o

How accessable is it?
For things like hay deliveries/ muck uplifting.

Are the horses you have or plan to have the types that could live out in all weathers or will you need a shelter?

Is there an area of hard standing for vet/farrier visits?

What will you do if one or the other needs stabling due to illness or injury?

What will you do with your hay? We have ours up on pallets with tarpaulines tied over the top so it does get air but no wet from top or bottom (if we ever get horizontal rain we are in serious trouble! ;))

I'm not sure about the permission bit though I'm afraid, we got in touch with our local estate and got our field through them.

I'll have a think and see if I can think of anything else but that's just off the top of my head ha ha!....
 
Brilliant information here - thank you all very much.
Currently lawn so short grass - spongy and very mossy. No fence but would go for post and rail and gate, then electric fence for dividing up.
No water supply so will need to lug it - but will use the lawn mower to pull trailer with water barrel in!
Horse would need field shelter - plan on getting one with gate - she is a bit of a diva and does like her stable/ creature comforts.
Surrounded by trees - laurel bush that will have to go - oak that I will fence off or pick up acorns/ leaves
Good access for vehicles - down a track
Hard standing for farrier - would just need tie rings
Old coach garage to use as storage.
Getting bit excited now as seems doable!
 
Liming it will get rid of buttercups ... i think! not sure about daffodils but i think they are poisonous to horses ! Also check what hedging you have growing, (if any) for poisonous plants!
also if a lot of it is spongy and mossy it will soon get poached, so best thing is to scarify it to get rid of the moss now and aerate it so the grass has more of a chance1
 
Last edited:
I used to use my back garden for grazing in spring when the grass was yet to come through and if anything was being nursed at home.
First you have to look closely at what sort of grass is there. If its seeded lawn the chances are its mainly rye grass and may have a fair amount of clover which makes its very full of calories. If you are lucky its self set and will have the normal grasses that are in the surrounding old fields with a small amount of the finer rye grasses which ponies love.
I would invest in an eletric fence and strip graze, this also allows you to fence off any trees, at this time of year they will strip the bark and kill them and it there any that are toxic to horses they can be removed.
What ever you do don't dig it up or it will be two years before you can use it. If you strip graze it divide and get someone to spray half and then the other. If you are really lucky you may get someone to harrow and over sow with a paddock mixture.
If you are not sure what grasses are in it do not fertilise as that encourages the coarser grasses and it will be like rocket fuel. If they get really fat I would mow and take away the cutiings.
If you are going to do this start as soon as possble grazing or you will end up wilth long lush grass which is harder to manage.
I had a few daffodil bulbs in mine and they never touched them but they will head to wards anything you like and strip it bare, my pony and goat loved natural pruning.
 
Have a look at the "Paddock Paradise" idea - you could make a very nice circular track system, avoiding the poorly drained bit and making sure the horses got lots of movement. That way you're using it as all weather turnout rather than grazing, so not dependent on a small area of grass that would poach in the winter.
 
I had a paddock area, probably less than an acre that was ungrazed and I let ponies onto it in November, they took out the bramble and some really long grasses and I am hopeful it will be better this year!

Just wanted to say the buttercups are a problem for horses they are on list of poisonious plants, I don't think moss is, as the ground dries in summer it tends to receed. Part of our field is very wet and full of reeds and moss, but the ponies have eaten it all off this winter.

You talk about talk purple trumpet flowers, if they are foxgloves, you will need to remove them, and watch for any seedlings. However there are other plants which match the description as well like Rosebay willow herb which is a favorite of goats, not sure if it ok for horses.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top