[QUOTE=SpottedTApps;4544768]
And a recent article done on mine by Natural Horse:
http://naturalhorseresource.blogspot.com/2009/11/paddock-paradise-series-part-four-in.html
Also, be sure to check out http://paddockparadise.wetpaint.com/
Lots and lots of hands on info there. Mine is the Florida track.[/QUOTE]
Nice to see - and quick progress!
I like the concept, and like many others found the book to be a bit too flavorful of not my favorite taste. To each his own. At least I bought it with a gift certificate ;).
The concept is particularly appealing to someone who has lived in such a wet, damp climate for so long. I could see myself using such a system and using the tracks as a sacrifice area in the wet season to save the grass, and then use the grass during the grazing season, and continue to use the tracks for horses that can’t have too much grass.
Of course, I wouldn’t bury my salt blocks in the ground and I wouldn’t forgo deworming.
Well if I ever build myself a gallop track around the perimeter, I guess I’d have a paddock paradise.
We purposely leave all the grass along the borders of our property long because of the prarie dogs- they stay out of the long grass and we’ve been able to keep them off our property (with the help of one very keen little rodent hunting dog) although they are across the street in a prarie dog city. So, it’d be tougher to do a set up like this without dumping a lot of money in fencing.
I sort of have a paddock paradise most of the time. Barn (no stalls, just an overhang for horses to have shade and a little shelter) is at one corner of a ten acre field. Field is subdivided into 6 paddocks. Two open directly off the corral area that connects to the barn–then there is a “fairway” or long but wide lane that the other paddocks open off of. Water for the horses is at the barn. The 2 horses are rotated through the paddocks.
Now, they dont get as long a walk to grazing when they are limited to either of the paddocks closest to the barn, because that’s when access to the fairway is blocked to let it recover. But they are only in any one paddock for a couple of weeks at a time, and they are both ridden fairly regularly. Ideally, I would have water at several different locations, and make them travel further from the barn for a drink sometimes. But they cannot have water and shade and grass all at the same time, they have to travel at least some. The whole property is hilly, so they are climbing a good bit.
Neighbor’s horses are visible from all paddocks, but again, they will have to climb to the far top corner of the closer paddocks to see them, which also keeps them moving. Shade is minimal in most of the paddocks as there are no real trees in the field. But there are some tall trees outside the fenceline so some afternoon or morning shade, depending.
I know I get a workout when I have to hike from the barn to one of the farther paddocks to catch a horse. Might be a third of a mile corner to corner. They are never confined to the corral/barn area for more than a couple of hours, and then only if I’m expecting the vet or farrier and need for some reason to have them caught in advance. They move around a lot, probably least this time of year. They do hang out a lot at the barn in this very hot weather we are having at present. Starvation does send them up the hill, though.
I have more grass than I need. Paddocks dont look appreciably grazed down this summer so far. We have had abundant rain and plenty of heat for our tropical grasses.
I am confused about something-when the PP idea first hit the streets, the idea was to TOTALLY eliminate grass on the track-what an erosion nightmare.
Now, seeing some videos of tracks, I see many with just a fenced off track that still have grass on the track.
So what is the idea behind this? That this horses will still exercise?
I just envision this high cost of fencing and all of my horses nose to the ground standing every few feet eating grass?
Here is a recent article on the actualy movement on a track compared to pasture:
http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=16515
I guess the bigger appeal is less grass.
EquineLaundry and TLE-
Sorry- I haven’t been here for a while. I’ll PM you the info on the local PP person when I’m home and still awake!
(Yay fair season!)
I would love something like this form my IR mare. She gets turned out 14 hrs a day muzzled right now on a decent sized pasture (maybe an acre and a half?) The other choice is a small dirt paddock in which she never moves around. If I could have a dirt (even if it had a little tiny bit of grass/weeds) track where she could move around and not need a muzzle, I’d feel a lot better. Not sure she’d care one way or the other! She just gets too much grass even with the muzzle on all the time.
I can see where it could be an erosion risk, but we have a crushed stone/sand track at our barn that gets moderate use, and no problems on that front. I think the point is to have something that drains well - gravel, crushed stone, whatever.
I always wondered what people do with the MIDDLE of the property though? Graze occasionally? Grow hay?
Wow, I guess the barn we recently moved to is a paddock paradise. There are two huge pastures, one for geldings and one for mares with two older geldings in the mix. Each pasture is about 40 acres and holds 12-14 horses. There are trees on three sides, a small pond in the middle of each, and a covered round bale feeding station. At the end of the pasture (near the arena and tack room) are 12x12 stalls, one for each horse in the pasture. The only time the horses are shut in is when they are being fed, the rest of the time the stalls are open and the horses come and go at will. Because of the quality of the grass and hay, most of the horses are just being fed a concentrated supplement. In the heat of the day some horses hang out in the stalls because they have fans.
We moved my daughter’s mare from a less than ideal place but it wasn’t terrible. Our mare tells us she is in heaven and never wants to leave. now. 
bumping this up.
Anyone else have a Paddock Paradise?
Bumping up.
Anyone still have/use one of these setups?
Interested in this for our little 5 acres, but curious about it…would love some updated reviews/thoughts for those with this on smaller acreage.
I see how IR horses and horses with limited or no turnout transition to this nicely, but what about the other way around? Horses that are coming from large grassy fields 24/7 to a smaller 4 acre field that will need more maintenance to keep in good condition (i.e.: sacrifice fields, more rotation, Pasture Paradise??)
Bumping up. Thinking about doing this to encourage more movement and entertainment for my horses. What is the minimum width path recommended for a herd of five horses?
We considered it and knew someone that tried it with three yearlings.
They told us horses fought more and two started bullying the other.
There were more bites and kicks on them, they didn’t like how it worked for them.
May have been something wrong with their project, or just that more horse play is part of it and maybe not always pleasant when they have a cranky moment and are where it is hard to get away from others.
We saw where they did it and it looked like they had the widest 16’ paths, the smallest 12’ and a few larger short areas may have been 24’.
They had maybe 60’ long 14’ wide place with large steps, etc.
I would say with 5 horses you may need wider paths?
I expect how they do depends on how compatible your horses are and how active.
Forgot to add, the friend solved his problems by opening the arena up so they could go there also, where they had more space to get away from each other, while still able to use the track he had built, that went around two sides of the arena.
You can make any system work if you are creative, notice what is not working as it should and find ways to manage the situation so it works better.
Decades ago trying those systems became very popular, many looked at that and plenty tried them, whole web sites were promoting them.
If you try it, let us know what you did and how it worked for you.
I will have a modified PP on my wee 10 acres by November. Right now, the mares are on 3 acres of dirt and rocks, hay 24/7 via a net & hay hut, all on the north side of the property.
I’ve had a giant run-in built on the south side of the property and will fence it to connect it as a giant U to the back paddock and side 3 acres. It’ll be lined with pea gravel and the ground under the Run In will be M-10. The water is on the south side and the hay will be on the north. This way, they will be moving back n forth multiple times a day.
I love having no grass. No more worrying about who would come up laminitic.
Thanks for the responses! Serendipitously I have some fencing and gates that will allow a PP experiment this year, but I will be sure to start with more temporary fence to see if it works for our herd.
We have one arthritic oldster, (2) 3yos, and a yearling. Possible addition of 5th horse later this year. Current setup is drylot and (3) 1ac pastures.
Will target 24’ as narrowest width of the lane and include sweeping corners. I promise to report back with results in the name of science!
We have always let our horses go thru several pens and pastures, so they kind of wander around and learn to look for gates and that there is more than four walls around them.
We are sure not to have anywhere dead ends a horse can be trapped, always an open gate every smaller place they roam.
Similar principle to the paddock paradise without the extra entertainment stations.
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