New small pony living out - grazing advice please

[EssexMum]

Hello,

I'm getting a lot of well-meaning but conflicting advice and dire warnings about lami and colic so was hoping for some recommendations please.

I have just acquired a healthy young Welsh A, she's currently on a sectioned off piece of field, section is about 1/6 of an acre. She is living out un-rugged (although she can come and go into her stable as she please) the field is old grass planted a long time ago and it's cut for meadow hay annually and has never been grazed / fertilised / chemically weeded, although its been weeded by hand and as there is a lot of grass I am not feeding hay or feed but I was planning to give her a handful of happy hoof if she's in.

The section is part of 1.5 acre field and ideally I'd like to get her a slightly bigger native friend (right now she has horses the other side of the fence out 24/7) so that she has plenty of room to run around in and I have another field she can go in if it gets trashed and the grass needs to recover - but i have been told that because of her size 1/6 of an acre is to much and its putting her at imminent risk of colic and lami, so my questions are is 1/6 of an acre to much? should i mow her section when the grass is growing?
would it be a terrible risk to just go with my original plan of letting her and one more pony, probably a 14.2 native have the whole 1.5 field?

Thanks for any replies

 

[be positive]

Without seeing the pony or the land it is not that easy to advise but if she is not carrying too much condition after the winter then with careful management she should not be at any more risk from laminitis than any other small pony, in other words she must not be allowed to gain too much weight or get onto lush grass otherwise she may get it, rough unfertilised grass is ideal, having plenty of room and company to play with is better than being on a tiny patch alone, being really active is helpful for keeping the weight off.
My sec a is a busy pony always on the go, into everything and despite getting a bit tubby at times has never had laminitis and I think it it due to her active life as much as me trying to diet her, regular exercise will help burn off the calories and be better than starvation to keep them slim and healthy.

As for colic I don't see that being an issue if there is not too much grass, they can sometimes get it from gorging but more often it is ones being very restricted with not enough fibre that get colic.