Ideal pasture for minis

[opie7441]

Should minis have grass in thier pastures? What kind is best for them? We live in Michigan and was going to seed in the spring, was talking it over w/ a farmer, he said, that he heard from...... ( a long list) that "those" small horses aren't supposed to have grass at all, just the hay you give them. Is that true?

I do have two EASY keepers.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Well....you are going to have to explain that to my 11 girls and three boys who are living on the stuff.

Having said that Rabbit is past grazing (due to old age) and is as happy on his paddock with Senior Citizen feed. The two weaned foals have a paddock too, as opposed to a field, and they are perfectly happy. I do think horses should have grass, mine will never be without, and I could not think of any reason why I would prevent them from grazing.

As with any horse you have to be careful they do not founder. So long as, as with any horse, the amount of grass they have is in keeping with their size, there would be no problem

Many Forum members do keep horses perfectly happily without grass.

 

[justaboutgeese]

Being able to look out the window and see them in their pasture is one of the pleasures of ownership. Horses are sure happier of that I am sure. One trick is to keep them active enough to prevent them from looking like little blimps. For me thats always been hooking them up to drive. I would just chek with the local extention service and find out what seed they suggest for your area.

 

[Farmhand]

We're in MI also (thumb area). Some of the horses are on pasture and some on dry lot during show season. I planted a timothy orchard grass mix on my pastures. If you plant them in the spring, the horses woun't be able to use them right away or they will pull the roots out of the ground. You will have to let it get established before you put them out on it. We also keep it short. That's the way we do it.

 

[Margaret]

I have burmuda grass in my acre plus pasture for my 3 minis. It is devided up for the purpose of irrigating and rotating the horses on each side.. With-out mowing it is easy to grow too much grass on a given lot intended for grazing. (unless you have many minis) My mini's are nippers, and really prefer to nip at the shorter blades of grass anyway, so by "mowing it down" whenever it gets too long then it is doing them a favor "in more ways then one",as it controls their intake. (Plus mowing keeps the weeds from seeding when they are abundant) The shorter you mow the grass, the less they take in.

I think it is good for horses to graze, as it was the initial way they started out, and I also think it is good for their teeth.

 

[Marty]

Horses are grazers and that is what God put them on this earth to do.

In the spring, grass is lush and plush and they can founder on it, so I do ease them onto it very slowly and not for a lot of hours. Then they spend part of the day on grass and part in dry lot. In the dry lot they get hay there so they are still grazing, but the amount of intake is controlled.

 

[Getitia]

Well all of our horses - including our show horses during the off season - are turned out on pasture for 8 to 10 hours a day and then brought up to the barns at night - All of them.

A few years ago, we reseeded all of our pastures. We planted Kentucky blue grass, timothy, and several types of orchard grass. Annually we treat the pastures for weeds, fertilize twice a year and mow them as needed. And we have been very pleased with this mixture.

Here is a photo taken a few weeks ago of some of the horses grazing on one of the back pastures.....

Edited to add: Here is a photo of the mare/foal pasture in the early spring- our favorite view from our back deck.

 

[CAM]

Getitia,

Isn't that a beautiful sight? Your pastures look so big and pretty!

 

[Farmhand]

Getitia, those are some beautiful shots

 

[opie7441]

That is beautiful, thank you for sharing that! and the grasses.

 

[attwoode]

I live in Michigan too and think that it would be ideal to have horses on short pasture for most of the day and in a barn at night. This limits the amount they can eat and makes it safer at night. As mentioned, you want to introduce minis to grass slowly in the spring so that there will be less problems with the fresh green grass. I think that orchard grass, timothy, and bluegrass is a good mix - but consider adding some other warm season grasses (maybe bluestem or indian grass) that grow well in mid summer so that the pastures have grass throughout the summer.