# Horse pasture ?



## crp126 (Aug 11, 2010)

I'm not even sure this is even remotely possible but being inexperienced I thought I would ask.....
We have 9.5 horses (one's a mini so she only counts as half LOL!). We have 9 acres of ground, a lot of which is wooded. The soil is not deep, we are on the side of a ridge, lots of rocks. We keep clearing areas to make our pasture larger and hope to be able to fence at least half of our acreage when we are done. We are also selling two of our horses so that will reduce the herd a bit. We would really like to give them grass to eat, but have had no success in keeping growing. I'm not even sure if it would be possible given our limited space and soil conditions. Can anyone recommend what we can do if anything? Type of grass to use, method of planting, how long to keep horses off, etc.! Anything would be great!!!!


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## scrapiron (Mar 10, 2010)

9 horses on 9 acres = bare dirt. I don't know of any grass that will stand up to that kind of horse grazing pressure. My wife pastures 6 horses on 15 acres, 3 pastures, and we still have some bare spots even with a good weed control and fertlizer program.

scrapiron


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## OKHay (Jul 28, 2010)

Sounds more like a dry lot situation then pasture. The only way to get that grass to grow is to thin the herd way down.


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## mulberrygrovefamilyfarm (Feb 11, 2009)

After moving my cows out of a native grass pasture in early spring, Ive run 10 cow/calf pairs and 2 horses on about 15 acres for 3 months - June, July and August and maybe a little into Sept. I mob graze and graze hard but I won't go back and graze the same area again until next year. I also move the cattle/horses 2 - 4 times a day and vary the size of the paddocks depending on variables. Not sure if you can confine a bunch of horses like that though.


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

What you propose is possible with some planning. 
First off you will need a Pen to keep them off the grass, except when actually grazing. 
You will need a supply of hay and a system to feed the hay, for when they are not actually on the grass. 
You will want to subdivide those 9 acres into 4 to 6 small paddocks. This can be done with an electric fence and step in post.

Then turn the animals into one paddock for an hour or two grazing as the growing forage will allow.

It will be hoof action that will compact the soil and kill much of the grass. I have seen 100 acre stomp lots, where 100% of the nutrition the animals receive is from hay. *The hoof action is greatly under appreciated. *

Left to their own devises horses will spot graze. Some areas they will ignore, and other areas they will scalp down to the roots. 
An option not open to you is to run some cattle or sheep with the horses and they will eat the forages that the horses avoid.

Trees will reduce the total forage available to the animals. I HATE TREES !. On the bright side, that many horses in a stomp lot environment will eventually kill all those darn trees.


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

I agree with Scrapiron, OKHay and Hay Wilson. Unless you get rid of the trees, I'm not sure you have enough space for that many horses, although I see people try it all the time. They usually end up with bare dirt and a big hay bill. The hay usually gets them because they never have adiquate storage, end up buying 10 bales at a time, and paying a high price for it. Then they go to round bales, the horses only eat 60% and they have an even bigger mess to deal with.

I usually have 25-30 hayburners rotating between 14 paddocks (each about 3/4 acre). During the summer many are in the barn during the day, but some stay out 24/7. Every year I have to "rebuild" three or four paddocks by ripping, discing, and reseeding. I've got temporary paddocks on another piece of land when I need them, but I keep them out of my hayfields.

Grass will always regrow by resting the paddock, because they typically don't bother the roots. Compaction does that. The weight of a 1200# horse is concentrated on a few square inches of hoof. Shoes make it worse. The area around the water troughs and where we throw out hay is always the barest, 'cause that's where they spend the most time. Winter and rain only create more compaction. I usually rip down to 24" to break it up before I disc and it's pretty solid. I've tried ripping while I was resting a paddock but it does too much surface damage. Typically I've got more grass than most barn owners, but that's only because I have more land, resist the urge to increase the number of boarders, and spend so much time growing grass.


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

When it comes to grazing livestock too many look at how many animals & what kind and then wonder how they can feed them. 
I have had a lot of hay customers that fit that pattern. 
The proper way is to look at your forages and consider your grazing options. Then stock no more animals than that will feed. 
To be truthful with 10 acres you might have enough grazing for 9 Barbados Sheep. Here being Texas the two thirds rule should also come into play. Here it is dangerous to stock more than two thirds of the theoretical stocking rate. 
I say this because at least my part of Texas is in perpetual drought with intermittent flooding. 
Here we have an average of 37" of rain. Problem is only 28" of rain can be considered usable. Please realize any year with 37" of rain is unusual. We usually have 28" of rain with a few year of over 50" of rain. 
Pastures with over 12 inches of standing forages may keep 37" of rain inside the fence, but a 57" annual rain will send an awful lot of water to the Gulf of Mexico. 
Flood control infrastructure will not hold back all that water. Any stock tanks will over flow, BIG Time. There are 2 good sized flood control dams up stream from us and they both have run over the spill way, from time to time. 
It is normal for a 22" annual rainfall, and one year, during the drought of the 1950's there was a year with only about 18" of rain. 
HERE a well managed coastal bermudagrass pasture *System* will support one animal unit for one year per 4 acres. By well managed I mean never ever graze coastal or common bermudagrass shorter than 3 inches. Tifton 85 should never be grazed shorter than 8 inches. Each paddock should have 3 or more weeks just to grow before any animals are put in. Tifton 85 is a true wonder grass, if managed. It will yield 15% more dry matter and yield 15% more hide and hare per ton of dry matter. (With Management) 
That is a lot of fertilizer, a whole lot of fertilizer. The big advantage of Tifton 85 is it will cure standing and maintain feed quality. It is not unheard of for frost killed Tifton 85 to have 12% protein, or better, the last week of February. This you will not only use managed rotational grazing, but you will strip graze in each individual paddock. 
Here is something to consider. Free roaming grazing the animals will never graze half of the forage grown. Of the half they eat they will pass half of that out. In theory a 14 paddock rotational system they will eat all the forage and still pass on through half of what they put their mouth on. 
The question is just how emotionally attached are you to these 9 horses? Can you find a home for 7 of these horses and pasture just two? Can every one involved resist the temptation to save another neglected horse? 
That or dedicate some land to a large hay storage facility, and figure feeding 180 small square bales of hay to each horse each year. That is at least 1650 bales of 12% CP hay each and every year. Figure $5 to $10/Bale total cost and we are looking at $9,000 to $17,000/year for hay, plus the cost of the barn. Plan on the high figures. Just to be on the safe side you might want to each fall have enough hay to last for two full years.

Have a good day Mate!


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## Dolphin (May 21, 2010)

admin delete the ohnson account spam loser


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## Dolphin (May 21, 2010)

and all spam posts please


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Dolphin said:


> admin delete the ohnson account spam loser


Not obscene spam though, almost stays on subject even.

Anyways, simply put, you either need more land or less horses if you want to cut your hay bill by as much as possible. Too many horse on a pasture is far worse than too many cows it seems.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

There's lots of really good advice above.

Hereabouts, I figure 2 acres per horse, with (when possible) 2-3 weeks on; 2-3 weeks off. If your layout permits it, you might consider going to a track system, i.e, interior fencing that forces the horse to graze continually around the pasture. A track system helps avoid the bare spots and causes them to graze evenly.

I have 15 horses in 6 pastures on a total of 28 acres. One 6 acre pasture is dedicated to winter only and gets totally destroyed by hoof action. It is also used for special cases where several horses might be isolated over the rest of the year.

Ralph


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## scrapiron (Mar 10, 2010)

Just before dark finished baling one of wife's horse pastures for hay.







Horses are so good at grazing all the grass in a pasture that I only got 4 round bales ( 4x5 at over 1000lb each ) per acre. Going to do another pasture tomorrow, prob get 3.5 rolls per acre.If they don't want to eat it in the summer they can eat it in the winter as hay.

scrapiron


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