It’s getting harder and harder to maintain the pasture, and I have to feed hay to supplement anyway. A dry lot with free choice hay 24/7 would be much easier for me in several ways. I want to know if there is any compelling reason(s) at this point for me to continue with the pasture. It would either be an acre of pasture (10 hrs grazing during the day, then come in at night for hay and grain), or an acre dry lot with a large round bale in a feeder covered by a slow feed net, turned out 24/7. I would prefer the dry lot, but I want to do what’s best for the horses. I’m assuming that constant turnout and free choice hay is better, but is the grass better for their diet? I’ve done a lot of research but can’t find any info on how the two situations measure up against each other. Thanks in advance!
very hard to say without knowing what climate you are in, how many horses, what the pasture looks like, etc.
If you had multiple horses out ten hours a day on one acre in our PNW climate in December, the field would be a mud pit and nothing but buttercups would come up in the spring.
Here good pasture management means resting the pastures in winter unless there are only a few horses on a large and well drained pasture.
IME horses are much, much happier on a half-decent pasture even if it needs to be supplemented with hay than they are on dry lot with just hay. If I had land, I would make every effort to manage my pastures well, even if that meant a smaller dry lot in winter, and pasture in spring/summer/fall. Pasture adds some nutrients, but more importantly satisfies the horses a lot.
One acre for multiple horses is a tough situation and certainly less than ideal. If you want to keep a pasture (which is best for the horses), it might be prudent to section off a portion of the acre as a dry lot and turnout on the pasture only so much as the pasture can sustain.
Thank you for the great responses! I should’ve specified, it’s two 1,000 lb horses and one 700 lb pony. And I know that an acre of pasture is usually only sufficient to support one horse. :(Unfortunately, living on limited land means that this is the only space I have designated for turnout. The pasture is actually doing okay all things considered, and since we are in SoCal, we don’t get enough rain to make it muddy in the winter (but also don’t get enough rain to water it!). It’s just getting very, very overgrazed with the current turnout schedule.
Since we don’t have enough land to properly implement a pasture maintenance plan (resting pastures and rotational grazing-I wish!) without taking away all the horses’ turnout time, I began to think that since I can’t properly maintain the pasture, I should just forget it and go with the dry lot. But your responses have me thinking that maybe I should split it down the middle and keep half as a dry lot with free choice hay, and half as a pasture so they still get to graze a bit in the spring.
The pasture was perfect for one horse originally, but of course the herd has since grown, and I will have at least 2 horses here for the next few years.
My horses spend most of their time in a good-sized (room to trot and canter) dry lot with hay. They are easy-keepers, so shouldn’t be out on lush grass for the greater part of the day. When conditions are right (not pouring rain, not during a drought, etc.), they are out on pasture anywhere from a couple of hours to several hours.
During the drought years, so that they’d have a little green something every day, I split off a small section (roughly 50 x 75 ft) which I overseeded and kept irrigated – it holds up to 20 - 45 minutes of grazing by two small horses. Perhaps you can do something like that with your acre.
With 3 horses on just 1 acre you have to feed hay year round anyways, right??
I know up North I had the same situation as you and we just let it be turnout 24/7. They still had green stuff to eat during the growing seasons but I fed hay 2x daily and everyone was happy.
It did have a few weeds here and there, but I just brought the riding mower in and kept those cut so they wouldn’t spread.
I’d combine your plans in a way, as someone else suggested.
Section off 1/4 - 1/3 or so of the one acre you have available, and make that your dry lot that they can stay on 24/7 with a round bale. Let them onto the grass part just a short time each day in the dry season, a bit longer in your wet season (if you have one) or if you can irrigate.
I personally prefer 24/7 turnout with forage available 24/7, whether that be hay or grass makes no difference to me.
Is the 1 acre the TOTAL space you have to work with? If so, and I think I read that it is, then just make it a dry lot with excellent footing so it’s not just a “destroyed” pasture that turns to mud.
I see the value of having 1/4-1/3 of that as pasture, but the grazing would be so minimal, time-wise, if you wanted to keep it available for actual grass, that I don’t know if it would be worth the time and expense of being OCD about picking every manure pile, seeding and fertilizing, and mowing high spots, at the expense of more room to move/run/play where the spend the majority of their time.
I would do half as grass, half as a dry lot. Then you can put them on the grass when the growth is good and keep them off of it when it’s not. It’s not ideal but in Florida people keep 4-5 horses on one or two acre lots so if can be done.
If you gotta feed hay anyway, then just turn entire thing into a drylot and put out 24/7 hay. Makes it a ton easier then no pasture to maintain. Lot’s of horses live on hay only no grass,so wouldn’t fret over the no grass part.
Mine live on 180 acres and are still out grazing yet. Have hay out but they aren’t really eating it.
I’d also leave a small area of grass for periodic grazing, but also for turn out after baths 
I’m in California and most paddock/pastures are dry lot unless irrigated. I boarded at a barn that kept one paddock empty and irrigated so boarders could let their horses graze for an hour to two and it was great for letting them dry after a bath, because in dry lot they just roll in the dirt. Rolling on the grass keeps them somewhat clean, unless you have a white or gray horse
Thanks for all the feedback guys! I have found the perfect solution it seems. I am going to go ahead and turn their current acre turnout into a dry lot with free choice hay. However, we have about another acre of land at the back of our property, across a creek bed, that we currently do not use for anything important. I’m going to make my goal for the new year to develop that into a pasture. This way, I can let the pasture back there rest during the winter months, and let the horses out on the new grass in the spring/summer. I’m looking forward to trying this set-up!
