I am in the design phase of developing my horse property and the land is about to be cleared and seeded. Does anyone know which is the best type of seed mix to use?
Where are you located?
Lmurf, this is the second time you have posted about this within the past 24 hours. Why don’t you respond to your first thread before you start posting the same question over and over?
Check out lacrosse seed. You really need to check with the local co-op or extension office though.
This is such a “how long is a piece of string” sort of question! :lol:
Lmurf, the US is HUGE. What works in, say, Dallas is not going to work at ALL in Helena. And we don’t even know you’re in the US.
Our little community of posters here is good, but not good enough to magically know what hardiness zone you’re in or what your soil is like or the special needs of your herd of horses.
There is NO way people here can help you without more information. The best we can do with the info at hand, probably, is to tell you to talk to your county extension people (which has been recommended on this thread AND your last one) or to walk into your local feed/grain store and ask for a “pasture mix” of seed.
Keep horses off it.
Best way to ruin perfect pasture is to put the horses on it.
I’m kidding. A little. 
I think paving the whole thing with either concrete or asphalt would be best as I can never kill the grass that grows in the expansion joints or the cracks of a driveway but cannot keep grass alive in a pasture
clanter :lol: Truer words never spoken!
Simkie said it best - no 1 answer for everyone.
For me it was drillseed the smaller pasture in the Fall of my 1st year on the farm, keep horses off over Winter, give in & let them back on in Spring, handspread the larger field & never keep them off.
12yrs later I have decent - not lush by any means - pastures that keep horses fat enough so I can practically stop feeding hay all Summer once the grass comes in.
YMMV
Many places, your local coops will special mix seeds for uses. I use a “champion horse grazing mix” that Purdue developed for my area. it has 3 kinds of orchardgrass, rye, a little alf, a little bluegrass, and a little of a few other things I don’t recall right now. It’s designed for different things to peak at different seasons and to maintain a hardy turf.
it doesn’t cost significantly more than the other stuff either, really and definitely not more in the long run. let the pros handle this stuff.
[QUOTE=RegentLion;8685046]
Keep horses off it.
Best way to ruin perfect pasture is to put the horses on it.
I’m kidding. A little. ;-)[/QUOTE]
Not kidding at all. That is the only way to make a pasture perfect. 
The other thing to consider, aside from obviously planting what will grow in your area, is to define “perfect.” My horses are super easy keepers. A “perfect” pasture would be larger, scrubby, have some trees and rocky areas, and some nice grassy spots but not too many. Four acres of lush green pastures for me would just mean that my horses have to be limited even more than they already are. Many (most?) horses cannot have 24/7 lush pasture, nor could you keep it “lush” if they had that much turnout.
So…it depends on what you want. If you want 4 hours/day of low-sugar, high quality grazing, that’s one type of pasture. If you want something that will allow for 24/7 turnout…that’s another situation.
Catskill Mountains NY
I apologize. I couldn’t find the original one, which I posted from my phone, so I thought that somehow it hadn’t posted.
Thank you. I will do that.
As you can all see, I am pretty new to the posting thing as I can’t even manage to reply to individual posts. Thank you all for the input. Please be patient with me. I’m just learning how to use the forum.
My perfect pasture is at least 5 acres and has a few scrubbier areas, lightly rocky areas, a stream large enough for a horse to play/lie down in, a sandy area with sand pile for rolling, and offers a buffet of different types of lower-sugar-ish forage.
Horse’s perfect pasture is acres of velvety emerald-green high-sugar grass.
[QUOTE=Lmurf;8685295]
Catskill Mountains NY[/QUOTE]
Your local Agway will probably have a pasture mix. Mine does, although I think it contains too much clover, which grows very easily in my low pH, clay soil, and takes over.
You would benefit by having a soil analysis done at the local Cooperative Extension; not sure where it is in your area but your closest 4H office would be the same place. It’s easy - dig a few scoops of dirt into a plastic bag they provide, and return to them. I think it cost us about $25.
In general, timothy and orchard grass with some clover would make a nice pasture in NY…I am a bit north of you but that’s basically what most people plant in pastures near me. But, without great maintenance, you will find the weeds and native grasses creeping in…I don’t care too much except for buttercups and foxtail grass. Weeds aren’t, by definition, unhealthy.
[QUOTE=RegentLion;8685046]
Keep horses off it.
Best way to ruin perfect pasture is to put the horses on it.
I’m kidding. A little. ;-)[/QUOTE]
I can’t tell you how many people I know who take this advice to heart a little too strongly…
I was chatting a with a horse “friend” the other day who made one of those passive insults in the form of a compliment:
“Friend”: I’m so jealous that your horses are so easy and you can just leave them turned out all the time.
Me: Why can’t you do that with your horses?
“Friend”: Because they appreciate that they actually have nice pastures.
:rolleyes:
But in all seriousness, what good is a perfect pasture if you never use it? I’ll take a used and abused pasture any day over mucking stalls and cooping up my horses for the sake of pristine paddocks. It’s just grass.
I started out with 2 acres fenced, then fenced the 2nd 2 or so acres. I only have 2 horses (so far, lol), one easy keeper 14h and one calorie - devouring, still ribby 17hh OTTB.
It’s a Pecan grove, previously owned by a lovely OCD mowing man. The grass is no special So MS mix, but freq mowing really helps. Knocks the weeds down and the actual grass thickens. Appropriate rainfall helps too of course. Last winter I despaired and paniced and drove ridiculous miles to get hay cause it was gone baby gone.
This, my first full summer of ownership and tractorship, will be different. I mow like the obsessed and overseeded one pasture hoping to improve the grass mix… I have too much grass for 2 now but hope I can figure out a way to stretch it into winter better. And of course, I shop the local adds for another skinny horse to help me. (But I know I’ll regret that this winter)
I really hate the stark difference in seasons here (for grass). I came from Central Florida, where grass was pretty much the same year round. Rotund pony is about to hate me, since I’ll lock him in the small paddock for his own good. Skinny man needs to eat more and worry less, but what can I do about that? He’ll always be a silly TB, all appropriate health checks have been done and he’s fine.
I really need a breed of “not TOO easy keepers”, instead of 2 opposite ends of the spectrum. It’s not the perfect pasture as much as the perfect horse I seek.
Your perfect pasture may really depend on the perfect horse, lol.
Lmurf, the Catskills appear to be in Sullivan County. You can contact Cornell Cooperative Extension. They can tell you what you need to know.
www.sullivancce.org/agriculture/livestock/horses
www.ccesaratoga.org/agriculture/cce-equine Scroll down to the bottom of this page. In the gray box it says contact Susan Ripley. Do that.
[QUOTE=Texarkana;8687861]
I can’t tell you how many people I know who take this advice to heart a little too strongly…
I was chatting a with a horse “friend” the other day who made one of those passive insults in the form of a compliment:
“Friend”: I’m so jealous that your horses are so easy and you can just leave them turned out all the time.
Me: Why can’t you do that with your horses?
“Friend”: Because they appreciate that they actually have nice pastures.
:rolleyes:
But in all seriousness, what good is a perfect pasture if you never use it? I’ll take a used and abused pasture any day over mucking stalls and cooping up my horses for the sake of pristine paddocks. It’s just grass.[/QUOTE]
actually, I agree.
Although I am constantly whining to my DH that the pastures aren’t perfect gorgeous pictures. He rolls his eyes and says “they’re PASTURE!”
with mowing, re-fitting and reseeding, however, and rotating we are able to have damn good pasture. Horses off it in the muddy spring and fall though.
But they aren’t picture perfect.
