How To Improve Pasture For Horses

Do your horses have beautiful pastures to graze? Or have you ever thought that horses are grazing comfortably in your house's backyard?

Every horse owner wants wonderful pastures for their horses. Where they can happily eat grass and graze. But sometimes lack of management makes pastures unsuitable for horses. 

There are several steps to improve pasture areas for horses. Check the condition of the soil, fertilize to improve health, mowing in time, drag, rest, plant suitable seeds, control pests, and weeds, and limit grazing time. Managing horse pastures can increase their productivity. It helps to provide good quality grass with high fiber. 

Managing pastures enhances soil and grass health. The high nutritional value aids horses in maintaining a healthy digestive system. Besides, it is beneficial for horses to have a safe place to exercise as well as develop natural behavior.  

you may be wondering if there is any way to make a pasture healthier ? to be honest, yes, there is!

Let's hop on then!   

Current Condition of Pasture

Every horse tends to prefer immature or shorter grasses. To make sure, the first thing you have to do is check the condition of the pasture or grassland. Soil tests are an important management tool to examine pasture health conditions. Take a few samples of soil from random areas of the paddock and send them to the laboratory to find out the soil condition.

Consider the following factors when evaluating your pasture :

• Soil health: Assessing soil quality is important for sustainable pastures. Check if the soil is healthy or unhealthy. Because unhealthy soil will reduce the getting nutrients properly. 
• Drainage: Drainage protects the soil from erosion and damage to plants or grass. As well as balanced ground capacity and stability.
• Vegetation: It helps to hold nutritious material to balance the soil structure. To promote water seeping into the soil through plant roots. Otherwise, soil can dry out and decrease fertility.

Improving Soil Health

Soils are a living system, therefore, they change, adapt, and evolve to different environments. Misusing soil or excessive chemicals can alter its ecosystem. Because poor soil reduces plant nutrient availability. So soil health is important for seeding, fertilizing, and balancing plant health as well as quality.

There are some methods to improve soil health, which are-

• Aeration: This method helps airflow inside the soil. As well as helps roots to absorb the necessary nutrients and help to grow stronger grass.
• Liming: It allows control of soil pH value and structure which can help to increase productivity. An imbalance of ph value can stop the growth of plants.
• Adding fertilizer: Fertilizer helps plants grow by adding nutrients that plants need into the soil. It also helps plants by altering the quality of the soil, retaining more water and easy airflow.

Enhancing Drainage

Excessive water can be harmful to pasture health. It makes the soil damp and unusable to graze. Therefore, drainage can help to keep the soil dry and comfortable for horse grazing. So make sure you have a proper drainage system. 

To enhance drainage, some methods could be useful, such as grading and installing an extraction system. 

• Grading: The main purpose of grading is to control excessive water in the soil. It provides a slope at which your soil diverts additional water away from the land. This method is not only for storm water runoff but also for mother nature's rain.

Horses need a dry area to graze, but sometimes water overflow can make the pasture sloppy. So the grading system will help keep the soil dry.

• Established extraction system: Installing a drainage system is putting an extraction tube inside the soil on the grading side. This tube will drain your pasture and excess water. Make sure you put that tube to the grading side and water going down with sloping ground.

Proper drainage systems avoid water logging in the land that limits the aeration of the roots, which can lead to damage to the plants or grass. So examine the slope of the area where to drain out the water. Then apply to grade and establish an extraction line.

 Plant Selection

A high-quality pasture can provide all nutrition for horses. Having/however, different plants on land can generate more nutrients in the soil. 

“A rotten apple can spoil the bunch''. Similarly, planting the wrong plants or seeds can prevent the growth of other plants and harm soil fertility. So, it is important to know which plants are compatible with pastures.

You can plant different types of grasses and legumes that are well-suited for horses. Grasses contain high fiber and nutrients. Legumes also help horses' digestive systems and produce energy. There are different grasses that horses can eat safely, such as crabgrass, dallisgrass, and bermudagrass. White cover, trefoil, and alfalfa are types of legumes you can plant along with grass. This will improve grasses' nutritional values.

Establishing a diverse pasture can boost soil productivity, fertility, diminish erosion and hold proper moisture for roots. But you need to maintain the pasture accurately, checking the soil health, roots, growth of plants, and drainage system.  

 Management Techniques

There are different management strategies that can help you to maintain a healthy pasture.

One of the main strategies is to maintain the quality of a suitable grazing system for your horses. Because all livestock tends to prefer grazing, so do horses. 

Grazing rotationally improves the production of fertilization, as well as the source of soil nutrients. It may also reduce the overall amount of wasted hay. Besides, additional feeding costs, and uses of fuel or equipment are decreasing. But overgraze can lead to soil damage. Make sure to limit their grazing time.

Controlling weeds and pests can improve pasture health. These undesirable plants reduce other plants' growth, health, and quantity. To get rid of these plants, you can use natural methods such as lawn clipping, leaf mold, organic substances, etc. Some useful insects eat pests like ladybirds. So, make sure you don't use any chemical product in the pasture that harms those insects.

Enclosure

And finally, improving pasture for horses is delicate and challenging work. Examining soil health, improving the aeration system, adding fertilizer, enhancing drainage, controlling weeds, and limiting grazing time can turn your land into a healthy pasture. I believe all of these steps will help your horse to graze safely and comfortably.

I hope our small journey will help you to consider a proper way to improve the pasture.

Please share your ideas on how you want to make your pasture healthier.