Transitioning to Grass

[Jenny]

Well, it's that time of year! I started letting Breaker out in his pasture for some grass. The grass is well established, but not super lush. I'm wondering how all of you transition your horses from an all-hay diet to hay and grass. How long of a period do you transition? How gradual do you make the change? I've started letting him out for an hour a day for the past two days. I want to eventually be able to let him out for 4 hours a day as that's what we did last year and it worked out really well. He hasn't shown any signs of having IR or anything like that. He's an easy keeper, but not one of those horses that blows up on air, so don't want to use a grazing muzzle as he just doesn't need it. So, how do you all do it?

 

[chandab]

I usually start with only 1/2 hour for several days, increase to an hour for several days, and keep increasing by 1/2 hour or so every 4-6 days til I'm upto the full amount of grazing I want to go with. Just watch as you go and see how he's handling it.

 

[Marty]

Yup just increase slowly. We also keep our pastures mowed too which helps.