I recently moved my Friesian mare to a new boarding facility. She is not able to have any pasture for grazing. Which I am a huge believer that they need to have access to grass and grazing as this is what they were built to do all day. To try & keep it short, I feel she is not that happy, nor am I with the current boarding situation. Now I have a option of moving her to a huge area with a abundance amount of pasture for her to graze freely. The only catch is there are no other horses at this location. Now this is another thing I am big on is them being in a herd. So what are your thoughts? I have already decided I will go with the pasture to graze. As the place she is at now is over crowded, w/not much room to work with her ext. But would you all lean towards the open pasture compared to being fed grain & bailed hay that is brought in from different farms? I know they get everything they truly need from free range grass grazing. So wouldn’t this be the better option? I guess I have never heard any stories about horses that weren’t in a herd environment. Thanks for any 411 you are able to give me!
There are many horses that get turnout on dry lots and eat a hay and grain diet only that do ok. Grass is preferable, but not realistic in all situations/climates. However, it sounds like you are unhappy there, and personally, my life and my horse’s life is too short to be unhappy when I can opt for something else.
There are also many horses that live by themselves. Yes they are herd animals, but some do ok. Is there any chance that other horses may move to this property in the future? Or other companions?
Or this may be a good spot to move to in the meantime while you scope out other options if you feel the need to get out of your current situation quickly,
Also, horses do not get everything that they truly need from just grazing. They can still have certain vit/min deficiencies or need more calories based on workload/hard keeper status.
Example: My horse lives off of mostly grass, and some hay. We tested the hay (from the neighboring field to his grazing one), and balanced his diet out with a vit/min supplement. He keeps well enough on that, with a handful of pellets mixed with the vit/min to think he is getting something. He’s the easy keeper. My WB however, would require more concentrated feed on top of 24/7 grazing while in work,
Put her on the grass find her a buddy to be with. Put out lick tub and salt. She’ll be fine mine live on pasture with a mineral /vitamin lick tub and salt fresh water.
Happy healthy horses living as they should.
All things being equal, I would choose a companion over grass. But are those really the only two choices?
I wouldn’t choose an overcrowded situation OR to keep a horse alone. So I’d be looking for an option C - ideally better than either of your options. What about shelter? Access to barn/stalls if injured and/or for farrier care? What about winter conditions? Etc.
There is nothing wrong with hay, and you can’t assume free grass turnout is good for all horses – mine don’t need 24/7 grazing as two of them are already fat on overnight turnout. I’d be careful putting a Fresian on lush pasture 24/7.
Horses aren’t required to have grass, at least not in the context of how many domestic pastures are set up. For a horse of a breed that’s generally pretty easy keeping, and prone to metabolic issues, I’m not sure I’d put a Friesian on free choice grass anyway.
I’m not sure if your “overcrowded” comment relates to how you are able to exercise her, or how her turnout situation is. So - what’s her current turnout like?
That would dictate how I’d feel about the current situation, vs finding a 3rd option. I realize there are some horses who survive as the only horse, but for the few who do, most would be much happier with at least 1 other, and preferably a small herd. They are herd animals, not solitary ones, by nature. And then there’s the issue of this particular breed on all that grass and the potential issues that brings. She’d need somewhere to come off the grass if/when necessary, or be muzzled frequently (and maybe all the time for a lot of the season).
I’m not clear if OP is riding or schooling her horse at all. IME the best pasture situations have no riding arenas, and often no access to trails, especially if there are no other horses there. A lot of nice pasture in farming areas is essentially land locked, with farms on either side and nowhere to ride. And scary narrow country roads with ditches.
If the horse is retired or not in work for some reason, 24/7 pasture turnout is a better and probably cheaper option than staying cooped up in a barn all day. But if there are no other horses, is there a shelter? water? salt block? knowledgable people on site? Is the fencing safe for horses, or is it cow fencing or barbed wire? Is the ground safe, or is there coils of wire, old auto parts, etc., in the weeds? Do you know enough to identify poisonous weeds common to your area, and make sure there are none? What kind of water supply is there, and who keeps an eye on it?
Is there truly enough grass to feed the horse without supplementing with hay over the summer? What is the quality of the grass, and how much is there compared to inedible weeds? What about winter? When will you need to start feeding hay in the winter, and is there a place to keep hay at the pasture? With one horse you will want to feed square bales not roundbales. Is there shelter on the pasture?
When I had my old pony retired for years, I had her on pasture 24/7 but in herds under the care of a knowledgable horseman (old cowboys in both cases who just wanted to have some horses on the property) who arranged for farrier and billed me, moved pastures as necessary, kept an eye on the water, and fed hay in winter as needed. I would not have just dropped her off on an empty pasture without a good careatker. Of course if the pasture had been next door to where I lived, I could have continued to do self care.
Individual pastures vary alot in their productivity, and there is some general ratio that takes into account size of land, productivity of pasture (how fast the grass regrows), quality of grass, and ideal number of horses. Get that wrong, and you have a skinny horse on a field that looks green but is full of inedible weeds. Or a foundered horse that’s eaten itself to death. Also if the field has been fertilized with manure horses won’t eat even the nice grass for a while. And even good grass varies in nutritional content and palatabiity over the course of the year. If it is ungrazed grass, by now in July it will be pretty tough and low nutrition but full of seed heads which are high starch,
However, if OP wants to keep riding her horse, the amenities at the new site and trail access to safe riding areas are both really important. If you toss your horse out on a big pasture but have nowhere to ride, that’s not much fun.
Finally I would ask how much experience OP has with self care of horses, and if she has kept the mare in question on pasture board in the past. Apologies if you are in fact very experienced, OP, but you are a new forum member and something about the wording in your post just sounds either young or like a new horse owner.
If you are going to put your horse on pasture board with no other horses or horse owners around, OP, do you feel competent to do basic first aid and trouble shooting? Can you deal with fly control, minor wounds, worming, and tick control on your own? Will you be able to organize regular farrier care and vet appointments? Is your horse barefoot now, or are you going to pull her shoes for the pasture, and if so how will this affect the work you plan to use her for? What will you do if your horse gets rain scald in the winter and needs to live in a blanket?
And, most importantly, how easy is your horse to catch in a field? I retired my old pony to pasture and after a few years she learned to keep about 20 feet away from me at all times (the old cowboys could always catch her and laughed at me about this). Current horse is more of a people person, and will come up to you even in nice green grazing.
I would suggest that if you want to try this out, continue to pay board at your current facility and take your horse on a month long “vacation” to the big empty field to see how she likes it.
Also think through how you will overwinter in the pasture, when you will likely need to feed hay. Also what if the horse destroys the pasture over the winter and it comes up weeds in the spring?
She can’t miss what she doesn’t have. I prefer mine to have pasture too ( and here they do) but I have also had them on small acreage that was nothing more than a huge dry lot with " green stuff" that they could pick through in hopes of finding grass. I have also been in a boarding situation where stalls and a small paddock was it. I hand grazed occasionally if I had time.
In every situation I have had healthy, happy horses who radiated good health. Do you have a backup plan for when she needs to come off grass? She needs to be transitioned slowly onto it to start. Does she handle being totally alone well?
You are not happy. She is probably just fine.
Sounds like you have a good pasture option. Bet there is someone in your neck of the woods who would love to find a pasture situation for a semi-retired horse or one that needs some time with Dr Green. I’d go with the available pasture situation and try to find someone to set up a co-operative arrangement.
I wouldn’t jump right to “good pasture option” - we haven’t heard if there is anything on site besides grass (shelter, water, etc.) I would need a lot more than just “grass” to make me want to board there.
