Fall Transition to Grass

[oldernewbie]

Background: Horses currently boarded at a farm with 12+ hours turnout daily on grass that was great in the spring and most of the summer, then severe drought, then Helene, now drought again. One is retired, one is ridden 3-4 times a week.

I am moving my horses from the above boarding barn to my family farm in a couple of weeks. We made 2 cuttings of hay from the pasture at the family farm. Even though we did have a severe drought, Helene caused the pasture at the family farm to grow in after the last cutting as if it were spring. It is thick, not too weedy, and looks great.

Even though my guys have been on grass for several months now, I am concerned about moving them from a so-so field to my farm. I am almost considering using a spring introduction approach when I move them. What do you think? I know what to do in the spring but don’t usually have this issue in the fall. Opinions and suggested protocol welcome.

It’s been so spring-like here (SW Ohio) recently that we have a second bloom from our iris.

[Obsidian_Fire]

I think using the same as your spring intro would be fine. Maybe consider a muzzle? Keep an eye on them closely, as I’m sure you know.

[goodhors]

I would go with a slightly modified spring approach dealing with the new pasture. Turnout times would be limited for a few weeks as they get used to the abundance. Building up grazing time every few days. Your pasture grass may be different varieties than previous farm pasture. It takes time to develop stomach flora to digest grasses, with new/ different grasses perhaps needing different stomach flora for digesting.

So starting slow with half an hour grazing, adding 15 minutes every third day, as horses work up to a couple hours a day. Conservative approach is always safer with horses. They can consume an AMAZING amount grazing for very short times! Feed them some hay before letting them graze to remove any thought of “I’m starving” during grazing time. This is why you need to be prompt in getting horses back off the grass when their time is up.

Do be careful if the grass gets frosted, the sugars change. Recent information says to keep horses off pasture for 7 days after frost. So if horses have any issues, are overweight, better safe than sorry to prevent laminitus, colic, etc.

[oldernewbie]

The horses would never be on grass if we had to keep them off 7 days every time it frosts! I don’t have a sacrifice paddock at the farm so I don’t have anywhere to put them in any case. They would be climbing the walls after 7 days in. I’ll just be careful.

Thank you for the info!

[goodhors]

I believe it is seven days after the first frost. Sorry not to be clear on that. University of Minnesota Extension Service had the article on it if you want to look it up. I can’t post links with this tablet. They have a number of interesting articles on horse topics.

I am big on going slow, and horses do not always react now, like they did in the past. Kind of like weather! Ha ha

[PaddockWood]

You can’t go wrong to transition carefully. It is different forage and we know how exquisitely sensitive these beautiful creatures can be. You won’t regret it. I do muzzle with Thinline’s and my horses don’t mind them at all. Gives them more pasture time.

[oldernewbie]

Thank you for the clarification, that makes much more sense! We’ve had a couple of light frosts but not a hard one yet. Maybe by the time I move them we’ll get one, but it was 80+ yesterday so ???