Rewilding horse pastures?

[Radio]

Was told that a horse will spoil good pasture, but will improve very poor ground. Remember an old boy commenting that only a goose will graze lower , than a horse. Also if you don’t like your neighbour buy them a horse, if you want to break them buy them two.

 

[kfpben]

Was told that a horse will spoil good pasture, but will improve very poor ground. Remember an old boy commenting that only a goose will graze lower , than a horse. Also if you don’t like your neighbour buy them a horse, if you want to break them buy them two.

Is that why my wife has got a third coming next week!?

 

[Dry Rot]

I have to admit that my horse paddock at home is terrible. Overgrazed, I think of it more as an outdoor stable than a field as that is the only way I can bear to look at it.

A mature pony or horse turned out on pasture and not doing much hard work will soon put on too much weight and are then subject to various ills. Unlike sheep and cattle that are either growing, producing milk, producing young and so need plenty of nutrition.

So a horse doing lots of work, going to shows at the weekend, being ridden most days and expending a lot of energy can go out on a nice green field. Racehorses are turned out on good grazing in the summer when at rest, but they are soon going to work it off again.

I'm afraid that the majority of livery yard owners simply don't give their animals enough work to keep them slim and fit and able to eat a lot of grass (of course there are exceptions.) which is why the fields are overgrazed to prevent the animals getting too fat.

When I was young and had ponies we never heard of laminitis, it was something a small pony in a lush field would get. We would hack for miles, go to shows nearly every weekend and go hunting in the winter, sometimes hacking there and back too so they were always doing lots of work. Now the places I went have so much traffic some people are simply too frightened to ride on the roads and a few circuits of an arena isn't the same as going out for 2-3 hours.

Just to put the other side of the story, my few remaining Highland ponies have decent figures and aren't too fat. Over the last 12 - 14 years the herd has averaged about a dozen. None has ever had laminitis, or had any other disease come to that. My farm is regularly commented on for being neat and well managed. Oh, in reply to Clive, I don't owe anyone a penny but then I make my own hay on my own land. Horses are not difficult to keep in trim with a decent mains electric fence unit and a hard heart. For some reason, they don't mess with 7,000 volts. The 5yo 15.1HH Highland gelding below born, bred, and trained on the farm, will be advertised shortly and I shall be disappointed if his price is not nudging five figures.

 

[glasshouse]

Just to put the other side of the story, my few remaining Highland ponies have decent figures and aren't too fat. Over the last 12 - 14 years the herd has averaged about a dozen. None has ever had laminitis, or had any other disease come to that. My farm is regularly commented on for being neat and well managed. Oh, in reply to Clive, I don't owe anyone a penny but then I make my own hay on my own land. Horses are not difficult to keep in trim with a decent mains electric fence unit and a hard heart. For some reason, they don't mess with 7,000 volts. The 5yo 15.1HH Highland gelding below born, bred, and trained on the farm, will be advertised shortly and I shall be disappointed if his price is not nudging five figures.

View attachment 1054441

Cheaper to run than a Quadbike

 

[Chris F]

Cheaper to run than a Quadbike

One way to mitigate your carbon footprint! Get rid of the quad bikes.

 

[Highland Mule]

One way to mitigate your carbon footprint! Get rid of the quad bikes.

My quad is parked up and ignored in the garage for about nine months of the year. Not sure how I’d get a horse back out if I did that to one of them.

 

[had e nuff]

Just to put the other side of the story, my few remaining Highland ponies have decent figures and aren't too fat. Over the last 12 - 14 years the herd has averaged about a dozen. None has ever had laminitis, or had any other disease come to that. My farm is regularly commented on for being neat and well managed. Oh, in reply to Clive, I don't owe anyone a penny but then I make my own hay on my own land. Horses are not difficult to keep in trim with a decent mains electric fence unit and a hard heart. For some reason, they don't mess with 7,000 volts. The 5yo 15.1HH Highland gelding below born, bred, and trained on the farm, will be advertised shortly and I shall be disappointed if his price is not nudging five figures.

View attachment 1054441

Very nice pony.

 

[glasshouse]

My quad is parked up and ignored in the garage for about nine months of the year. Not sure how I’d get a horse back out if I did that to one of them.

Leave it in a paddock

 

[essexpete]

the penny has dropped, to late? farmers guardian mentioned that prime farmland about 13,000 acres a year is lost to development, that is, was land that could have grown food gone, while the UKs population grows by the highest rate ever, a perfect storm soon will come, not nearly enough land to produce food to feed the population ?

The problem is, I believe, urban areas have tended to develop around rivers and estuaries for transport and energy and close to productive land for food. Those two things are linked by geology. Urban expansion sprawls further onto that type of land. Also more easily developed due to being clear and often fairly level. As I look at our local "hundred", some of the best and productive land has been built on without a thought to long term food security. We can import food, it is cheaper!

 

[glasshouse]

The problem is, I believe, urban areas have tended to develop around rivers and estuaries for transport and energy and close to productive land for food. Those two things are linked by geology. Urban expansion sprawls further onto that type of land. Also more easily developed due to being clear and often fairly level. As I look at our local "hundred", some of the best and productive land has been built on without a thought to long term food security. We can import food, it is cheaper!

Where does the term “hundred” originate?
Seen it in australia but not here

 

[essexpete]

Where does the term “hundred” originate?
Seen it in australia but not here

Never quite sure, the areas are all different sizes. I think it may be an area that, historically, would have supported 100 Farm communities.