Northwest Horse Pasture Management
by Alayne Blickle, Horses for Clean Water
At this time of the year almost any horse pasture you look at will look like a poster candidate for a pretty picture – that is, until closer inspection reveals lots of yellow flowers and very short grass plants. Later on in the summer that same pasture is liable to become yellow, with the only remaining green plants being weeds with long taproots like Canada thistle or Tansy Ragwort. And if the same pasture isn’t given any help, eventually it will become a barren dust bowl. And dust in the summer becomes you-know-what in the winter – our Northwest adversary – MUD! None of this is healthy for the horse, good for our pocket book, nor does it make a pretty picture for our neighborhood. And when rain falls on poorly vegetated ground or bare soils, valuable topsoil and nutrients from manure are washed down slope into the nearest water body. Very bad news for the environment – and potentially a human health risk as well.
Wouldn’t it be better if, as the summer days roll around, your horses were out on lots of nice, green grass, benefiting from healthy forage? Your pocketbook would benefit, too, from reduced hay and vet bills. You and your neighbors could both enjoy the view of your place; horse frolicking on green fields with grass plants swaying in the breezes. The environment would be happy, too; abundant pasture plants put nutrients from the horse manure to good use, hold soil in place with long, healthy roots and soak up rain.
If you’d like to benefit from productive pastures let me give you some ideas of how you can have and maintain a healthy horse pasture for your farm – no matter what size place it is. In the first of this series I will start with the sacrifice area, the heart of any pasture management program. Next issue we talk about rotational grazing. In the third part of this series we’ll cover the regular components of good pasture management.
State-of-the-art horsekeeping no longer includes allowing horses on pasture year-round. Most horse owners are not lucky enough to have the hundreds of acres of open pastures required for such year-round practices. Even if we did, most of our horses don’t need that much grass. If they grazed that much most horses would be overweight, risking laminitis issues. For most of us in the Northwest, if we turn our horses out 24/7 we end up destroying our pastures. You can greatly improve the health and productivity of your pastures by creating and using a paddock or "sacrifice area" to confine your horses (see past issues of Northwest Horse Source or visit the HCW website at www.HorsesforCleanWater.com for more information on sacrifice areas). A sacrifice area is a small enclosure, such as a corral, run, or pen, which is meant to be your horse's outdoor living quarters. It is called a sacrifice area because you are giving up the use of that small portion of land as a grassy area to the benefit of your pastures. Your horses should be confined to the sacrifice area during the winter and early spring when grass plants are dormant and soils are wet. In the summer you utilize the sacrifice area to keep your pastures from being overgrazed (never graze below 3 or 4 inches) and to keep your horses from becoming overweight.
Stay tuned next month to learn about rotational grazing, the key to getting a high forage yield for any sized pasture. Until then, good horsekeeping to you!
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Alayne Renee Blickle, a life-long equestrian and reining competitor is the creator/director of Horses for Clean Water. HCW offers educational materials, courses & individual consultations on ways to care for and manage your horse and the facilities, with an emphasis on environmentally friendly techniques. For more information on HCW visit the website at www.HorsesforCleanWater.com.
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Join HCW at the following upcoming events:
We're in Deep Manure Now! At this workshop learn the latest techniques to manage manure, hear from a successful nursery grower who uses horse manure on his crop farm and get an update on the new manure management regulations. King County Library, Black Diamond, WA. Wednesday, May 5th, 6:30 - 8:30pm. For registration & details contact Horses for Clean Water at 425-432-6116 or Alayne@HorsesforCleanWater.com.
Commercial Boarding Stables Tour - Tour a boarding facility that actually has pastures in the summer and no mud in the winter! Cascade Stables in Auburn has won environmental awards & recognition for their excellent management techniques. See creative techniques for composting & managing manure, view wildlife enhancement areas. Auburn, WA. Wednesday, May 19th, 6:30 to 8:30pm. To register and receive a map contact the King Conservation District at 206-764-3410, ext. 125 or Roseanne.Campagna@kingcd.org.
Trees, Horses & Riding Trails! Visit this peaceful Tolt Highlands farm east of Carnation & enjoy the view of the surrounding stewardship forest. A riding trail is woven through the forest and pauses next to a wildlife pond. See excellent mud management techniques, beautiful barn and outbuildings, chickens, and wild pheasants. Carnation, WA. Wednesday, June 9th, 6:30 to 8:30pm. To register and receive a map contact the King County Conservation District at 206-764-3410, ext. 125 or Roseanne.Campagna@kingcd.org.
