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Discussion on Introducing to Spring Pasture
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Member:
vera
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Posted on Friday, Apr 24, 2009 - 11:24 am:
The protocol that I follow starts with an hour of pasture on the first day then increasing by an hour each day. Is that too fast?
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Member:
dres
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Posted on Friday, Apr 24, 2009 - 11:36 am:
Angela that is to fast for my horses.. I start out with 1/2 hour to 3/4 hour for a week! And then they can have some 'sloppy' poop... I add an hour the next week , wait for the 'sloppy' poop goes away.. Add another hour .. after i am up to about 3 hours the sloppy poop is not an issue anymore ..
Each horse tho is different.. I have one horse that never gets the 'sloppy' poop... he gets the same treatment tho..
On the first day God created horses, on the second day he painted them with spots...
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Member:
vera
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Posted on Friday, Apr 24, 2009 - 11:44 am:
Huh. I am only up to 2 hours, but haven't seen the sloppy poop. I guess I should slow down then.
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Member:
ajudson1
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Posted on Friday, Apr 24, 2009 - 12:10 pm:
I start out with 20 minutes for a couple of days, go up to 40 for a couple of more. That's if the pastures are really lush. If it's a dry spring, I might start out with 30-40 minutes.
I keep adding time every 3-4 days until they are up to 3 hours, then I go to the full day and start the summer grazing arrangements, based on temp and rainfall. In during the hottest part of the day, grazing at night, or switched if it's not too hot.
And always ALWAYS feed dry hay first before pasture for the first few weeks.
I also might do some hand grazing after working with a horse (a cool horse of course) especially years like this with a late spring, and temps going from 30 to 70s and back.
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Member:
vera
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Posted on Friday, Apr 24, 2009 - 12:58 pm:
OK. That answers a big question for me when you say that you are up to 3 hours then they can go the full day. I was wondering when I would ever get to a full day using 15 minute increments. THat would take me three months.
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Member:
stek
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Posted on Friday, Apr 24, 2009 - 1:58 pm:
On fresh very rich pasture, I start with a half hour and increase daily in 15 minute increments until they have reached 3 hours, then increase by 1 hour till they have reached 6 hours, then increase in 2 hour increments till they reach a full day, but my full day is more like 12-18 hours depending on schedules...
A lot depends on the condition of your pasture and whether or not you have a tendency towards laminitis too, some horses just can't take more than a couple hours a day on rich grass without problems. A grazing muzzle can be very helpful in those cases.
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Member:
amara
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Posted on Friday, Apr 24, 2009 - 3:04 pm:
When I managed up in New England we started by hand grazing for 15 minutes, then adding 15 minutes every few days, then turn out at about the 45 minute mark and increasing by a half hour every few days, till we got to the 4 hr mark, then we did full days, which for us was about 8 hrs.
They pretty much had hay in front of them all the time, and we never had any problems.
My guys now also always have hay in front of them, and a small "short grass" lot, so as the grass came up they were getting "some"...I am able to turn them out at about 2 hrs and move up an hour or so every 2-3 days, without any problems at all...and they are on fairly rich pasture...(i will have to muzzle the pony soon)..
i always figured that the 15 minute deal was waaayy too cautious (but that's what the owner wanted, so that's what we did)... i figured if you gave a horse some new hay you'd give him a flake or so at a time, 1-2x's day, and that it would take an hour or so to eat it all, and weight wise it about the same, so I always felt comfortable with starting at an hour or so with my personal horses...
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Member:
ajudson1
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Posted on Friday, Apr 24, 2009 - 10:21 pm:
Well, with horses there always seems to be a "but" or "only if" with all directions and guidelines! I don't think you can be too cautious introducing fresh pasture for the first time in the spring, yet taking 3 months to get to a full day would be silly!
And again, depending on the lushness of my pastures, my "full day" might be 3 hours after the dew dries, work in the afternoon, and 3 more hours after supper with lock in the dry lot at night with hay.
I love mid summer when it's dry and the horses can be out 24/7. My biggest concern then is switching pastures every day or 2 to keep them in grass.
It isn't just our children that give us those pesky grey hairs! 
(and now, in my jammies, wondering if there are severe storms coming or not, should I go out and lock the horses in, or not...I had them in for the night, with plans to see a movie. Then I let them out because the sun was out, now I am worrying...sigh, being a horse mom is so hard)
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