wingnut
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- Apr 16, 2009
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In early November, I started giving my 4 horses more and unmuzzled on the pasture. They currently have nearly 24/7 access to the 1 acre pasture. Obviously there's not much of nutritional value out there so I'm giving them the standard hay amount each day, more when the temps are lower (either real temps or wind chill). The 3 younger horses are given a ration balancer once a day and they have free choice salt and mineral blocks. All the horses are *so* much happier right now, so much more relaxed.
When we put in this pasture in the fall of '09, my husband was concerned about it being "right" and what we ended up is a VERY lush pasture that gets over knee high on a 6ft person in the blink of an eye. Even with muzzles it can be too much for my horses. My husband has always fought me on the winter grazing because he's afraid it will damage the pasture grass.
Here's where I need some help:
1. Is his concern regarding the winter grazing doing damage to the pasture? My thinking that if its true, it actually would be a good thing because it needs to be about 1/2 as lush as it has been the last couple of years...at least!
2. The pasture is one acre and roughly square in shape. What kind of dividing and rotating would you do in this situation? I'm thinking that we limit them to a smaller area of the pasture every day and keep it mowed short thereby keeping it "chewed down a bit" so they can graze without getting too much of a good thing.
My goal is to have happy and healthy horses and maybe use less hay in the summer!
When we put in this pasture in the fall of '09, my husband was concerned about it being "right" and what we ended up is a VERY lush pasture that gets over knee high on a 6ft person in the blink of an eye. Even with muzzles it can be too much for my horses. My husband has always fought me on the winter grazing because he's afraid it will damage the pasture grass.
Here's where I need some help:
1. Is his concern regarding the winter grazing doing damage to the pasture? My thinking that if its true, it actually would be a good thing because it needs to be about 1/2 as lush as it has been the last couple of years...at least!
2. The pasture is one acre and roughly square in shape. What kind of dividing and rotating would you do in this situation? I'm thinking that we limit them to a smaller area of the pasture every day and keep it mowed short thereby keeping it "chewed down a bit" so they can graze without getting too much of a good thing.
My goal is to have happy and healthy horses and maybe use less hay in the summer!