"God will forgive me. It's his job."Heinrich Heine
|
| |
Horse Training: Who's Way Is The Right Way?
© 2004 Andy CurryAll Rights Reserved The more I listen to others, read books on the subject, look at different articles, and watch and listen to tapes, the more I discover how different people claim their methods of horse training are the correct ones. I ...
Milk Goats - Know Thy Enemy
Patience may be a virtue, but laughter is the only way to survive goat milking. You can strive for the perfect fencing. You must aim for good nutrition. But, don’t kid yourself. When it comes to milking, you do not get the last word. When I decided to ...
The Secrets That Keeps Horses Trainable!
As you likely know already, horses have at least 10 times our strength. If they also had our intelligence, they would probably be riding us humans. Fortunately, horses cannot reason like human beings and therefore will never have superior intelligence. ...
|
|
|
| |
A major part of a horse's diet is hay or pasture. A horse weighing 1000 pounds will eat about 500 pounds each month. A horse needs roughly 28 acres of non-irrigated, dryland pasture a year if that is the only source of forage. However, a pasture that is irrigated will grow more forage than dryland pasture, requiring less acreage. The amount of irrigated pasture needed for one horse is roughly 1 to 2 acres.
Two acres of pasture for each horse are recommended. One acre of pasture will provide adequate grazing, but requires more pasture management. Manage your pasture as you would with any crop with soil testing, fertilizing, and managing manure. Horses will not eat trampled grass or grass with manure on it. Horses will also overgraze smaller areas very quickly. Therefore, a combination of pasture and small lot or barn is needed to help minimize overgrazing.
Do not let horses overgraze the pasture as this can cause grass to no longer grow. Keep pasture grass healthy--overgrazed pasture may never recover. To allow for re-growth, leave about 1/3 of the grass uneaten at any given time. The horse can be confined to the lot or barn and only allowed to graze for a few hours a day, reducing damage to a small pasture. Rotational pasture lots are one key to using small acreage pasture space to the fullest potential. Portable electric fencing provides an efficient and economic way to partition you pasture. Over-supplementing your horse with hay and grain will not prevent your horse from overgrazing.
Pasture grazing is not absolutely necessary for a horse. A nice green pasture is not always a reality. Horses can be properly fed without pasture. However, pasture has several advantages as it is the natural feed for horses, reduces the cost of feeding, provides your horse with exercise, and
generally speaking, horses are usually healthier when kept outside on pasture.
Establishing and maintaining a productive pasture is not too difficult. A few dollars spent on soil nutrients for your pasture is a good investment. Fertilizer will help your pasture to become more productive and produce more forage. Fertilizer costs will generally be offset from good pasture rotating and from savings in feed costs for hay and grain supplements.
Mowing is also important of pasture management. It minimizes the spread of weeds to help maintain higher quality forage. Mowing weeds before seed heads are produced limits the spread of weeds. Grass should be mowed to 3-4 inches.
No matter how well you manage your pasture, it will most likely thin. To help ensure pasture continues to produce good grass, new forage seed should be spread every year. It is recommended re-seeding be done in the spring or fall. In the spring, wet conditions will allow for germination and growth, but only if it is not too wet or muddy. In the fall, there will be less competition from weeds. Grazing should not be allowed on new grass seedlings for approximately 6 to 8 weeks after emerging from the ground to allow for proper root growth.
Caution! Turning your horse out on green lush pasture before conditioning him to a change in diet is dangerous and can result in sickness or possibly death. Start your horse out slowly by letting him graze for few minutes each day and gradually increase to a few hours each day.
About the Author
Randall Holman, site owner of Front Range Frenzy and horse enthusiast, is the author of this article. You will find other easy and practical basic horse care information on his website: http://www.FrontRangeFrenzy.com.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Officials Search For Two Stolen Horses (MyNC.com)
Authorities in Johnston County are trying to find out who stole two draft horses from a clayton, nc pasture. According to WRAL, the fence around the pasture had been cut.
Prosecutor alleges fatal neglect of horses (KTVQ Billings)
Associated Press - December 4, 2008 7:44 PM ET HELENA, Mont. (AP) - Volunteers are moving several dozen horses off a Blackfeet Indian Reservation ranch in northwestern Montana.
GLOUCESTER COUNTY: ‘Dancing horses’ fundraiser this weekend (Daily Journal)
LOGAN -- The Gloucester County Dream Park, 400 Route 130 South, will host the first Festival of Dancing Horses Challenge and Black Tie and Blue Jean Ball on Saturday. The evening starts at 5 p.m. with the Dancing Horse Challenge and concludes with a gala dinner and silent auction.
Wild horses couldn't drag 85-year-old from passion (Casa Grande Dispatch)
"When you have horses, you don't have time to sit in a rocking chair and get old."
Bowlers are horses while batsmen are jockeys (Grenfell Record)
THE new age of Australian cricket has arrived. It's horses-for-courses, announced Ricky Ponting, and no one is guaranteed a place. We'll pick what we need - be it swing, seam or spin - and fashion a team to suit the conditions.
|
