I live in Vermont. We are entering our mud season and I plan to pull the horses off the fields and keep them in a dry lot until the pastures dry/firm up and give the grass a chance to grow a bit. When does everyone turn out their horse - do you let the grass grow to a certain height?
As soon as the field is dry enough to tolerate horse traffic.
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I turn them out as soon as the grass comes up (now in northwestern MA), and no longer worry about them churning up the pastures. The pastures will firm up and heal, and the divots and skid marks may actually help prevent the pasture from becoming sod bound.
I do try to wait for a dry day to turn them out, to minimize the skidding around because I think that might help avoid slipping injuries…maybe.
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Heavy clay here…and two fatty easy keepers in addition to an older TB. I wait until it can be mowed at least once, if not twice. It it is too wet to mow its too wet for horses. Plus the early season grass is so high in sugar I worry about the easy keepers. I only have about 4 acres so the later they start grazing, the longer it lasts.
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Well…how big is your pasture and how long do you want the grass to last?
I’m also in VT - most of the state gets decent grazing if grass is available into early November, so if I have the choice I tend to put horses on it later and let the ground really dry out (which also allows me to get out there with the harrow and break up the manure, even get one mowing in) before I put horses out. Depending on the year and how wet the spring is, that usually falls somewhere in May.
Mine go out for LIMITED TIME as our mud recedes and things start greening up. Time limit is important in preventing colic, laminitus, because horse body is not used to eating grass anymore. Winter hay has his stomach flora set up to digest large amounts of hay, NOT GRASS. Takes time to grow grass stomach flora, does not happen overnight or even in a week or two!
Horse gobbling grass after not having any since fall, is going to get sick as grass blocks his digestive system that is unable to break grass fibers down. And it is amazing how MUCH grass they consume in even short time spans!!
So mine get fed their hay breakfast, eat it mostly gone, then get turned out for about 20 minutes on full stomachs. I time them, then round them up as time ends, pot them back on sacrifice paddocks. This is ONCE a day for about 5 days. After that they get 15 minutes added every 3rd day. When they get up to 1 1/2 hours, I let them out twice a day for about 5 days for the 1 1/2 hours because that is a big increase in grass. Usually at least 4 hours in the sacrfice paddocks between sessions. Then start adding 15 minutes every 3rd day to both grazing sessions. When they are up to 3hrs each session, I feel safe letting them out full time for grazing.
Again, the timed sessions, spread out over many days, let their body SLOWLY adapt to the change in diet, develop needed digestive stomach flora for grass so they do not get sick. I believe this is especially important with bred mares and geriatric horses in preventing digestive problems.
Other folks think I take way too much time adapting over, make it too much work, but we do not have grass problems with our horses. Our pastures are quite rich and productive, so why take chances with their health? They live SOUND into old age, no hoof issues from overgrazing in spring.
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I’m careful about pasture too, but have more hard keepers now who can be on pasture full time, so just put them out early enough so they can’t get much and let them adapt as the grass comes in.
The easy keepers go out for limited times so it doesn’t much matter when they start going out.
This is a great video put out by the U of MN on when to initiate grazing, which should also be applicable to New England.
They recommend waiting until the plants are 6-8" tall. This ensures there’s enough leaf matter to help keep the pasture plants healthy, and it also helps with the NSC levels.
I don’t know how applicable MN to NE is. I could abuse the SNOT out of my pasture there. It just came back! So lush. The soil was so awesome. It was so easy to have a good pasture.
The soil here is so sad in comparison 
This applies to the Mid West too. I actually never keep mine off, but do limit their time out ( 4 hours then up to 9 total) the first 2 weeks as the new grass grows .
My pasture is large enough they could never keep up with it. I find whatever damage happens due to muddy conditions seems to right itself as it dries.
Of course I only have 2 horses and they don’t run around much, just eat!
I was thinking it was applicable more along the lines of both MN and NE having real winters/seasons, than say something from Florida. 
