Transitioning onto spring grass

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Walrus

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My pony is due to move yards next week due to me moving house. My current yard have been turning out over winter so our fields are well grazed (and a bit knackered!) which suits me fine.

New yard have all weather turnout in the winter and particularly this winter with it being so wet have kept their horses off the grass. They also will fertilise before turning out sometime in March.

So it's likely my boy will have a couple of weeks with no grass and then go out on their well rested paddocks. He's a native and a very good doer and so I am getting a bit concerned.

The yard are very helpful, they have already said I can have a small paddock and strip graze it and I can also arrange to have him brought in whilst I'm at work.

Am just trying to work out the best way to handle this transition; I'm considering restricting him to literally an hour a day for the first week in a tiny strip of his paddock and then moving to 2 hours in the second week etc. until it is grazed down enough for him to stay out longer.

I'll be working him 6 days a week and he'll probably go on the walker for half an hour maybe 3-4 days a week.

Any ideas on how best to handle this?

Thanks

:)
 
How is his weight at the moment? Has he ever had signs of lami? I think he could go out for longer and you don't need to make the transition quite that slow (might as well let him be out since you've got the opportunity). I would maybe put him out for half a day on the strip grazed section for the first week, see how it is, 6 hours the next week and then as long as is normal for you.

Will he be in with any other horses? You might find that plan goes to pot a bit if he wants to be out with the others!
Remember grass is less sugary when it is long so it might not be that bad, if it looks like astroturf be more cautious!
 
He's 7, has never had lami and I would say he was slightly on the tubby side at the moment but not terrible (can just about feel ribs). He's not had a particularly hard working winter due to saddle fitting issues (on which I could now write a thesis!) so is a bit flabby and needs toning up rather than being drastically overweight (IMO, but he is a fell so does tend to err on the round side!).

He will go out by himself - so long as there is grass he doesn't care! And he will be near the other horses.

Am desperate for the lighter evenings so I can hack him more as that's what he needs. I'm just so unbelievably paranoid about the grass and and his weight I am concious that a. I tend to go for overkill and lock the poor boy in his stable and b. I don't want my new yard to think I'm a crazy paranoid lady (they will work that out soon enough but hopefully by then pony will have won them over with his floofy-ness!!)
 
If he is used to sparse grazing be very carefull, I moved my old mare to a yard where they fertilized the fields and she got Laminitis and she had never had it previous, quite a few other horses also went down with it while I was there.

I would start out with a few hours a day turnout and increase slowly until most of the grass is gone, failing that can you not go on a bit that is already grazed down, now I have my own place I never rest fields for spring I think it is the worst thing to do is take your horse from zero grass then turn them out on rich grass, although I know many yards do this so I appreciate its not your fault.

Also meant to say riding as much as you can will help keep the weight off, and you might find cutting his hay and hard feed down would be a good idea, I am a bit of a worrier with lami as I have had one with it but always to be safe than sorry in my view hope you get on ok.
 
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I would agree with your first post OP, start off very slowly, an hour a day would be fine; I do this every year with my native ponies, infact they start off with only 20 mins on the spring grass, then increase over a few weeks, they then go overnight on a track system coming in from 8am to 5pm ish

You can never be over cautious especially after all the wet weather we had last year, the grass grew like crazy
 
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