Educate me on putting horses out to pasture..*UPDATED WITH PICS* 4/24

[flitter]

Beautiful place! No wonder you are excited.

Just watch the poop and you should be fine. They look like nice pastures. Mine are on pasture 24/7 in the summer. When the grass starts looking tired I'll offer hay every few days and when they start eating it as if they really want it I start supplementing daily. Most summers I don't need to do anything until October. We bring them down in November (before hunting season begins) and they spend winter in a barn with doors open to an outside paddock unless it is very icy. They get daily turnouts to another pasture if the weather is decent.

This picture is my three in the winter:

http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c373/jwelshans/The Herd/?action=view&current=PICT0034.jpg

And here they are last spring (still in their winter turnout):

http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c373/jwelshans/The Herd/?action=view&current=4e19978f.jpg

 

[StrawHouseRanch]

One of the things to watch for when turning horses out to an area with more grass than they've been used to is gas colic. They will eat, and eat very quickly and then they get gas pains and runny manure. My Appy did that once, and he had only been on the rich grass for a short time, like an hour. But since he had been on pretty much a hay only diet for a long time, his system couldn't handle it. He was in such pain...grunting and groaning and rolling. The vet finally made it out and gave him some banamine which helped him get over it until everything worked out.

Paula
Missouri