Pasture Management advice...

[humph]

I have a TB who is in good condition (but only because i've worked hard to get him there) and a 12hh pony. The 12hh pony isn't laminitic (I work hard at this too! He's muzzled in spring/summer) and lives out 24/7 at any time of year. The TB lives out in the summer/spring and is in overnight in the winter. We have tried a pony for our children (the 12hh we have is too naughty) and she's ideal but she has been diagnosed with EMS and is therefore more susceptible to laminitis. So, my thinking is that she should live out during the winter to help keep her weight in check and my TB needs to be in in the winter to keep his weight up. The naughty 12hh pony was due to go back to where we bought him from but I'm now wondering whether we ought to keep him as he could keep whichever horse is out company.

We have 3.5, maybe 4, acres, separated into 4 paddocks. I poo pick daily and get the land topped and harrowed so pasture management is good. Would you keep the naughty pony or are we too tight on land? If we don't keep him, how would you manage the other two - I don't want to increase the pony's risk of lami by having her in in the winter and I don't want to stress out the TB by having him in in the spring/summer when hee needs to be fattening up in lush paddocks.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

You sound like you take car of your land.


I would say no you are not tight on land :


It depends on your drainage
type of soil if you fertilize etc.


We have 9 acres divided into 5 paddocks . We use the front for the reduced grass animals and they are all muzzled and the back we use two and rest two.

When we are full we have 12 animals about , (some going to comment on land to horses). Our fields are depoo ed every day harrowed weed killed and fertilized every year . We even got 250 bales of hay from one pair for many years. One pair of paddocks at the moment is long enough to get hay off the other has way too much grass. So in your case I think your fine.

Personally without knowing the size of each paddock. I would use the smallest for the 12hh pony cut in half with electric tape and use one side and rest one side. Then you still have enough for the horse and new pony. And use the three paddocks and rotate them . This is what I would do also fertilize the other 3 every year ideally or every 2 years.

I would forget the topping and weedkill this will increase your amount of grass and decrease the rubbish.

Our Land guy said we should fertilized every two - three years for the laminitic paddock.

 

[humph]

Thank you for that Leviathan. I wondered about fertilising but thought that perhaps it might be a case of increasing the nitrogen levels and likewise weedkilling would obliterate any other good herbs, all of which can help towards laminitis and mineral deficiencies. Naughty pony is being particularly naughty today and has also recently managed to cut out the base of his muzzle, so that at a quick glance I felt happy that his muzzle was on but only on closer inspection could I see that it was ineffective. So today, I'm veering towards handing him back to where we got him from. Ho hum, decisions are so difficult.