Poorly managed pastures provide insufficient feed with low nutritional value. The right paddock management is therefore critical for maintaining a healthy, vigorous pasture. This benefits the horse, the owner and the environment.
Advantages
- Horses exercising in the field put a lot of stress on the grass so it is essential that it is strong enough to recover. Harrowing, rolling, topping and fertiliser application will all help to provide the perfect base for an active horse.
- Horses have limited ability to utilize poor quality, long grass. Topping will encourage healthy nutritional grass and also prevent weeds going to seed and spreading.
- Rolling provides a level surface for your stock to graze by removing ruts caused by out wintering. This also reduces the risk of horses losing shoes and becoming lame.
- Bare patches and poached swards may lead the horse to ingest too much soil with the grass, which can lead to colic. It is therefore a best practice to over seed these areas.
- Weed control provides a safe grazing area by removing unwanted weeds and poisonous plants such as ragwort.
- Reduce the risk of laminitis by ensuring the correct grass seed is applied and regular topping undertaken.
- Haymaking to provide winter feed.