Separating paddocks - winter / summer or rotating?

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Esme2015

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Hi there

My friend and I are about to set up our own private yard. We have just under four acres for three horses. Our initial thought was to separate the grazing and have a smaller winter paddock and then two summer paddocks, where they will live out 24/7 except when the grass is at it's most lush (two of them are really good doers). In the winter, they will be stabled at night. A very knowledgeable person advised us to rotate the paddocks every two weeks rather than have summer/winter, but what worries me is having a winter like this next year and ending up with the whole field being trashed.

What do people who have their own yards do? I'd be keen to hear opinions.

Thank you so much. xx
 
we have about 4 acres for two ponies who live out 24/7, with access to the yard & stables in the winter. We have a winter field and four summer ones. Our summer fields are quite steep so we don't use them at all in the winter unless it's very frosty as the ponies would just slither down them and make a total mess. The winter field is used from about Oct to March, rested until mid-summer when the ponies go on again to eat the grass down, then left again until the beginning of winter which gives enough grass to keep them happy but not get too fat.

I honestly think that if we rotated all year round that by now every single one of our fields would be a mess and we'd be feeding hay for much longer into spring than we currently do. Also, this way, when it gets very frosty we have fields without rutted mud to turn them out on.
 
Tapir said:
we have about 4 acres for two ponies who live out 24/7, with access to the yard & stables in the winter. We have a winter field and four summer ones. Our summer fields are quite steep so we don't use them at all in the winter unless it's very frosty as the ponies would just slither down them and make a total mess. The winter field is used from about Oct to March, rested until mid-summer when the ponies go on again to eat the grass down, then left again until the beginning of winter which gives enough grass to keep them happy but not get too fat.

I honestly think that if we rotated all year round that by now every single one of our fields would be a mess and we'd be feeding hay for much longer into spring than we currently do. Also, this way, when it gets very frosty we have fields without rutted mud to turn them out on.
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Perfect, that was my thought too, thank you so much! Will do what we thought we should do initially.
 
I have three on four acres. I let them have access to the lot by the end of winter, then restrict them and rotate during the summer. It is further complicated by the need to fence them off from the oak trees for part of the year.
 
I have a livery yard with 8 horses. I have two very large hill fields and I choose to rotate. Ground recovers quicker than you think :)

I don't have specific timings but I find in the winter I change every 1-1.5 months, this gives enough time for a field to recover without the used one getting too trashed.

In the summer it can be up to three months in one field depending on the grass growth.
 
I have 3 on about 5 acres, they are all good doers.

I have a grass track around the edge of the field and one also through the middle of the field, in the summer they live on the track and then get supplemented with about 1 small bale of hay a week between them.

Then in winter they go on the two paddocks within the track, one of them in early winter and one later on, this second paddock is then a sacrifice winter paddock, it gets wrecked!

This way I need to feed a little hay in the summer but I didn't need to feed hay then between October and the end of December
 
3 on 4 acres isn't good - the BHS recommend a minimum of 1.5 acres per horse. This is for good grazing, poorer grazing and you will need more.

It is 'doable' but it isn't ideal for the horses and will be hard work for you.

If you are setting out I would highly recommend finding somewhere with more grazing. I had two on reasonably good grazing and 5 acres was only just enough. I currently have 5 on 16 acres and this is almost perfect.

ETA - I top, roll and Harrow in spring, fertilise, lime (when needed) and weed kill and reseed, to maintain my grazing. The reseeding is the key - the more the paddock gets trashed the less well the reseed will take and the worse the weeds will get. Typical horse pasture at is overgrazed ends up horse sour and the biggest clue to this is masses of buttercups.
 
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I would let them graze the whole lot in winter and then strip graze in summer - start them on a reasonable sized area and then just extend as required. this makes their weight easier to control during the growing seasons but gives you the flexibility of giving them a bit more as it dies off. We have done that this year and we have only just had to start feeding hay...
 
I think the method of frequently rotating (in an attempt to never poach any of the areas entirely) simply doesn't work if you have any good doers that need their intake seriously restricted. It may work if you have an all weather turnout area/yard to use in conjunction with the fields (so you can restrict intake by letting them out only a few hours at a time).
If you have good doers, you will need to "sacrifice" some of the field to be grazed down all the way to have some space that you can keep them on without too much grass intake, and the use strip grazing to regulate access to more grass as needed.
We do as CBFan suggests - use the entire field in winter, section off half once spring gets going to rest until late summer. Strip graze the remaining half over the active growing season. I think a key part of a well-working strip grazing system is that as you add more ungrazed area on one side, you should also move the fence at the rear to rest more of the already-grazed area. The problem with this concept is logistics - you still need to make sure the horses always have access to water, shade and shelter. It also takes twice as long to move both sides of the fence as it does to move just one side to increase the area. But good planning and layout of the electric fencing can really help.
 
EQUIDAE said:
3 on 4 acres isn't good - the BHS recommend a minimum of 1.5 acres per horse. This is for good grazing, poorer grazing and you will need more.

It is 'doable' but it isn't ideal for the horses and will be hard work for you.

If you are setting out I would highly recommend finding somewhere with more grazing. I had two on reasonably good grazing and 5 acres was only just enough. I currently have 5 on 16 acres and this is almost perfect.

ETA - I top, roll and Harrow in spring, fertilise, lime (when needed) and weed kill and reseed, to maintain my grazing. The reseeding is the key - the more the paddock gets trashed the less well the reseed will take and the worse the weeds will get. Typical horse pasture at is overgrazed ends up horse sour and the biggest clue to this is masses of buttercups.
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Thanks for this, they aren't big horses, 14.2, 15.1, both extremely good doers, and one is a yearling, and they will come in at night in the winter. We were worried about the grazing as it was advertised for four horses, but 1-1.5 acres is the range recommended by the BHS and judging by what my horse is on currently and was on at her old place, they should be ok (I hope!). We do need to look after the pasture though so I have taken note of what you said about the reseeding. We are only renting so we also have to be mindful of the owner's conditions of contract if that makes sense. Private yards with decent stables don't come up very often in our area, and this was a rarity. We have already discussed resting the pasture if need to but it will involve moving them elsewhere for a few months, which isn't ideal. Hopefully we will manage it ok though.
 
supsup said:
I think the method of frequently rotating (in an attempt to never poach any of the areas entirely) simply doesn't work if you have any good doers that need their intake seriously restricted. It may work if you have an all weather turnout area/yard to use in conjunction with the fields (so you can restrict intake by letting them out only a few hours at a time).
If you have good doers, you will need to "sacrifice" some of the field to be grazed down all the way to have some space that you can keep them on without too much grass intake, and the use strip grazing to regulate access to more grass as needed.
We do as CBFan suggests - use the entire field in winter, section off half once spring gets going to rest until late summer. Strip graze the remaining half over the active growing season. I think a key part of a well-working strip grazing system is that as you add more ungrazed area on one side, you should also move the fence at the rear to rest more of the already-grazed area. The problem with this concept is logistics - you still need to make sure the horses always have access to water, shade and shelter. It also takes twice as long to move both sides of the fence as it does to move just one side to increase the area. But good planning and layout of the electric fencing can really help.
Click to expand...

Thank you for this, really useful.
 
To follow up: we have four horses on about 3 acres year round (3 native types, 13-14h, one 15.3 horse). We poo pick, but the field is never harrowed/reseeded/fertilized (farmer doesn't care...). From the point of view of maintaining a "nice" healthy field of grass, this is surely poor management. But from the point of view of being able to manage our horses' forage intake, it works very well. We do have a lot "weeds" amongst the grass, but these are a fair mixture of different grasses, flowers, some clover, a few docks and a bunch of other stuff I don't recognize. I sometimes wish we had better managed, healthier fields. On the other hand, my pony absolutely wouldn't be able to cope with any sort of well-fertilized, lush pasture. It's not my land, or I'd look into maintaining and reseeding with a good-doer friendly kind of pasture mix. But I'm sure if we put up a stink and finally pressured the farmer into doing something, we'd be left with rye grass and a load of NPK fertilizer, and a bunch of laminitic ponies.
 
supsup said:
To follow up: we have four horses on about 3 acres year round (3 native types, 13-14h, one 15.3 horse). We poo pick, but the field is never harrowed/reseeded/fertilized (farmer doesn't care...). From the point of view of maintaining a "nice" healthy field of grass, this is surely poor management. But from the point of view of being able to manage our horses' forage intake, it works very well. We do have a lot "weeds" amongst the grass, but these are a fair mixture of different grasses, flowers, some clover, a few docks and a bunch of other stuff I don't recognize. I sometimes wish we had better managed, healthier fields. On the other hand, my pony absolutely wouldn't be able to cope with any sort of well-fertilized, lush pasture. It's not my land, or I'd look into maintaining and reseeding with a good-doer friendly kind of pasture mix. But I'm sure if we put up a stink and finally pressured the farmer into doing something, we'd be left with rye grass and a load of NPK fertilizer, and a bunch of laminitic ponies.
Click to expand...

Both of us have to watch our mares on good grass, my friend is already worried about hers and that's with the winter we have just had so I completely relate to where you are coming from. My yearling is the one that needs the good grass. I believe the field was fertilised a year or two ago and the owner doesn't want to fertilise it every year anyway. I guess we will have to try one method and then if it doesn't work, try it again a year later. This puts my mind at rest about the size of the field though!
 
CBFan said:
I would let them graze the whole lot in winter and then strip graze in summer - start them on a reasonable sized area and then just extend as required. this makes their weight easier to control during the growing seasons but gives you the flexibility of giving them a bit more as it dies off. We have done that this year and we have only just had to start feeding hay...
Click to expand...

I should add that we are still strip grazing!! I think we have a week to go! but come end of feb / march time we are going to start restricting again... maybe starting them on the part of the field that was rested for much of last year, to give the heavily grazed section a bit of recovery time... but then we have water trough logistics to think about...
 
Blimey!! I have 11 on just under 5 acres!!
2 donks, 13hh, 13.2hh, 14.2hh x2, 15hh, 15.1hh, 15.3hh, 16.2hh and 17.2hh, ranging from good doer natives, TBx and a shire!
I obviously feed hay all year round but I also have grass most of the time too. Mid summer I was using less then a round bale of hay a week and they were all huge!!
Donkeys have a stable and pen and a small paddock for summer.
I then have 1 stable and pen which shire and 13.2hh live in together.
The rest share a yard with double field shelter.
The grazing is split into 6 pretty much equal sized paddocks.
During the summer the good doers have 1 paddock which is strip grazed so lasts weeks and weeks.
The middle doers have 3 paddocks which I rotate 2 weekly between.
My mare is poorer doer so she has her own paddock. Rest 1 paddock for the whole of the summer every year to re-seed itself.
I chain harrow once a year, roll once a year and never poo pick.
Winter - I use 3 paddocks, 1 had 3 out on 24/7 until xmas and now they go out every other day in that paddock. the rest then have alternate days out on alternate paddocks. I normally then bring them in for whole of march to give everything a head start for summer.
1 pony never has turn out as he is a massive Houdini and is a danger to himself! Will attempt to jump anything or climb through it regardless of what it is and after hefty vets will he lives in yard and is perfectly happy with that!
 
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