Who on H & H strip grazes their horses?

Tnavas

Tnavas

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Interested in peoples opinion on strip grazing - why do you use it?

Me - I'm not a fan for several reasons

I prefer my horses to have plenty of space to be horses and play, gallop around etc - I hate seeing horses cooped up in dressage arena sized spaces

I find it very hard on the ground, pugs up fast and destroys the grass - where I graze the other grazer strip grazes and her paddock is really churned up after only a couple of weeks in the paddock - mine have had the same number of horses on the same area, same size as the other paddocks all winter and is barely damaged except around the gate.

I find I don't get injuries like others do - mine can gallop around and stop well before the fences, as they have plenty of space they don't scrap so no one gets kicked.
 
From what i have seen those that strip graze are those with good doers...if they didn't have to watch weight they would be able to turn out onto large fields.

Think it is catch 22, can wreck the grazing, annoying having to constantly fiddle with posts but better than fat ponies!

Out of interest how big is the strip?
I would always start the strip wide enough for them to have a good gallop and don't think its a good idea if you have more than one pony on each strip.

I am kind of doing it now but its more that i've split my large summer field in half.
 
I strip graze - tho part time in the summer from early spring till prob end of October.

2 tubby-fuzzies have a 'diet' paddock with mobile field shelter in for daytime and spend about 12 hours a day in there mooching about & finding blades of grass that they missed the day before.
At night they have a gate opened into another paddock which is strip grazed (tape moving a certain amount each day). When this paddock is pretty well down & the tape has got to the other end, this will bcome their 'diet' paddock & they will move onto another to start strip grazing at night.
The old diet paddock will then be rested.

This means they DO have room to hoolie about if they wish.
I tell non-horsey friends they are either in a 'diet' paddock in the day, or are 'outside stabled' in the day :D

I have 6 paddocks used in rotation like this, and 2 tiny ones (about 80m x 60m each) which are used in really wet or horrid weather as they both drain really well, out of a total of 4+ acres.

No strip grazing over winter tho, just 1 complete paddock to trash.
 
mine and another 2 yard fatties have been strip grazed for about 6 weeks now - not ideal but with the lush grass and my boy being a grazing muzzle houdini id really no choice -
now hes lost 50 kg (gulp) hes only in it overnight - tbh i couldnt have done anything else to get the weight off
 
I have the problem of the 'fatty' a Clydesdale mare that only has to inhale the smell of grass and she expands. She sulked terribly when I put a grazing muzzle on her and in the end I couldn't cope with her distress and took it off.

I've now resorted to stabling her at night - she gets stabled for about 14hrs with a small high fibre feed and a haynet with very small holes! Finally she has reduced in dimension.

One of the things that has put me off strip grazing is that she eats everything whether it is good or bad for her and the dust seems to bring her glands up. Catch 22 :(
 
I expect everyone hates seeing horses in dressage arena sized paddocks but most people would also hate seeing horses rocking back on their heels in agony with laminitis and would hate having to impose the lifelong savage restrictions on turnout that ex-laminitic horses need. For the health of the horse, there has to be that compromise. If you're lucky enough to have a large area of crappy, scrubby grass/weeds/you name it then great, it may be safe to turn good doers out on. But most people don't encourage their fields to look like that! My 2 porky shetlands, that can gain weight on half a daisy a week, have to be strip grazed all summer. Come October/November ish they can rejoin the main herd but I simply cannot control their weight otherwise. They are fine with it even though they do stand in the corner of the paddock watching the rest of the herd. It's worth noting here the results of some recent research that broke a group of horses into 2 herds. One herd had 24/7 turn out, the other group only had access to grass for a couple of hours a day. Within a very short time the restricted grazing group had learned the routine so set to with a vengeance for the short time they WERE out. They were able to stuff 40% of their calorie intake into just a couple of hours. Restricted TIME at good grazing isn't that effective!
 
If you have a track system like I do, then they have plenty of room to run around; I use this from early April to late October depending on weather.

My track runs around a large pond, its about 8ft wide; it then goes into a quarter acre paddock which is strip grazed; once eaten down I close it off and they strip graze another quarter acre paddock. They are both very fit and the right weight. I love seeing them run around the track, in fact I sometimes chase them round it!

The track is bare, but it doesn't matter, less grass! ( always recovers ) and at the end of October they get four acres to play on.

After having a severe laminitic, anyway of managing it is better than the pain and guilt you feel when they can barely move :(

If you keep your horses on large fields in herds without them getting fat then great, but some of us can only do what we can.
 
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