Paradise Paddock

[Yellow Hill Equine]

Can anyone please offer a little advice on the systems used for creating the paradise paddock systems. I have a client who has asked me to look in to this system for her lamanitic pony. We will be doing the standard fences to create the track-way but what material have people used for the track? There is only 1 mini Shetland which will be on this track so for it to work it will need to be a constructed hard surface i guess? Anyone who has actually got experience of these i would really appreciate the advice.

Many thanks

 

[southerncomfort]

I use a track system for my 3 welshies but I haven't altered the surface at all and haven't found it necessary to be honest. When I've had less ponies and felt that a track around 3 acres would give them access to too much grass, then I've used an L-shaped track around two sides of the paddock which worked just as well.

For one mini shetland I don't think you'd want a bigger area than half an acre for a complete track. If you have an acre you can shorten or lengthen the track as you need to but will obviously take longer to eat down initially. If you use temporary electric fencing rather than wood fencing then you can also widen the track in Winter if need be.

If they do decide to go with a surface I'd be wary of using stones as I've heard stories of ponies not using the water trough as they didn't want to walk over the stones to get to it if they were feeling a bit footy though I'm sure it can work really well for some.

If it's a new field or very grassy, I'd be inclined to borrow a couple of horses to eat it down first and try and encourage weeds if at all possible to make the grazing a bit more 'scrubby'. As the grass becomes sparse you could also dump a load of wood chip over the top to help suppress grass growth though it would probably need topping up every now and then.

You also need to try and work it so that food, water and shelter are as spaced out along the track as possible so that the pony needs to keep moving. I'm lucky as my water trough and field shelter are directly opposite each other plus the field is on a slight incline so my ponies are constantly on the move and have developed really good musculature!

I've kept mine on this system for several years now and highly recommend it. However, I don't find it works for us in Winter as it gets too muddy. In Winter, I dismantle the track and divide the field in to small paddocks and let them eat one down before moving them on to the next.

 

[OLDGREYMARE]

Echo the above,mine is grass only and my 3 do very well on it,could do without the hay bill though.