I often see the question “How much land do I need per horse”? There are lots of caveats in answering the question which can make the usual response of one acre per horse null and void.
(There is a video in the rotational grazing section that is called managing horses on small pastures which is worth a look and may help some).
A lot of us just don’t have the land acreage we need, but some lucky devils do.
The truth is how we manage our land, and how much we know how to do that effects our own situation very differently to the next person. Then there’s the question of what access to machinery we have and how deep our pockets are to maintain it or invest in loafing areas.
Our grass is going to vary from year to year dependent on weather conditions and even one or two weeks overgrazing at the height of winter can damage the sward for the following summer as we all know. Strip grazing fatties is murder for grass too. So again it comes down to management. Stocking density and compaction can also be a grass killer as well as soil type and whether or not you use loafing areas or sacrifice paddocks or even are lucky enough to have access to them! If we have been taking hay and not returning any organic matter back to the soil then our land will be depleted next year. If so, again that’s going to effect things as will the amount of invasive species which effect our yields. How do we manage those and do we overseed as part of our rotational grazing so that moss and clover can’t take hold too? Then there’s the worry of toxic species too ....
So basically the answer is “How longs a piece of string?” They’re all things for us to think about and we all get caught out by them sometimes. This year my lovely plan for letting it go to seed to fill in the bare patches got completely scuppered by the unwelcome appearance of dense patches of wall and meadow barley. Where the b’Jesus did that come from? And now my lovely grass track is compacted and I have weeds setting in! You got to laugh, haven’t you?
When all’s said and done, managing our land is a really, really difficult task because no two years are the same. Horses graze closer than sheep and they are heavy. Sometimes I wonder how on earth any of us get it right! And while sometimes we feel we are failing or barely managing other times we look around pleased as punch. But to end on a more positive note .... it’s always repairable, we can help each other and the answers are right here in the Land Management for Horses Facebook group and among us all when events, weather or problems present themselves.
Comments