Rotational Grazing for Horses

 

Many horse pastures suffer from overgrazing. You can tell if your pasture is overgrazed as it will show areas of bare earth or very short grass which looks like lawn , often coupled with longer grass which horses seem to avoid eating. Weeds will also be apparent and horses will sometimes even start digging the ground up trying to get to tasty roots beneath the soil.

There are several options for managing the grazing of horse properties and you need to work out which one is right for you. There is no black and white answer as all properties are different and what may suit one will not necessarily suit another.

The options are:

1. Continuous grazing – Grazing throughout the year. This is most suited to people with large areas of land where they can limit their stocking rates to approximately 1 horse per 1.2 hectares (3 acres). In this way the pasture is unlikely to be eaten out quicker than it can regenerate.

2. Seasonal grazing – This is where the paddock may be given rest periods throughout the year, particularly in winter when grass growth slows or becomes dormant or in periods of sustained wet weather when paddocks can become inundated.

3. Limited grazing time – This is when horses may be locked up for some period of the day. For example, only allowed out to graze in the mornings, but kept in a stable or holding yard for the rest of the time (with adequate feed and water)

4. Rotational grazing – This is when pastures are divided up into smaller paddocks and horses are confined to one paddock at a time. Once that pasture has been eaten down to a length of about 5cm the horses are then moved on to the next pasture, while the first one is resting and recovering. Again, when the second pasture is eaten to around 5cm the horses are moved on to another pasture and so on.

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The size and number of individual paddocks will vary according to your particular circumstances. You can set up your internal fencing using electric tape. This will give you the flexibility to move it around to get the best result. Start by giving pasture a minimum of four weeks to recover between grazing bouts and see how it works out.

Work your way consecutively through the paddocks until you get back to the initial paddock. If it is not ready to be grazed ( not 15 – 20 cm), keep horses in the sacrifice area/holding yard and hand feed until the pasture has reached the desired length. You can use the sacrifice area/holding yard to give you a buffer while sorting out the best time period to graze each paddock. It can also be used in wet weather to help protect the pasture from hoof damage when soils are soft.

 

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