Schedule for transitioning onto grass

[WSS2012]

Hi All, curious how conservative or aggressive others schedules are to transition their horses onto spring grass. Our grass just greened up in the past week, and daffodils bloomed yesterday! I feel we are so late this year with all the snow we had. I have 3 horses all are medium to hard keepers that have no history of colic or laminitis. They have been on a dry lot all winter eating hay and grain. We started turning out yesterday with a whopping 20-30 minutes, most of which was running around and playing with the added space!

Typically I have transitioned over 4-5 weeks however I have a day job so the jump from 1-2 hours to 8 hours can be a little abrupt with 2-3 4-hour days over a weekend. As a kid I remember may 1 the gate to the grass field got open and that was that.

Thanks for the responses in advance!

[bdj]

Can you shift turnout times so that horses go out when you get home from work and come in late at night? That’s how I’m handling my pony’s limited turnout schedule now that the grass is in a serious growth phase. I usually get home around 5:30, so she gets turned out then, and then I bring her in at night, usually between 9:30 and 10pm. (Of course, this schedule only works because my pony lives at home with me…)

Ideally, I’d turn her out overnight (say, 10pm to 6:30am), but she can’t be out on the grass that long now.

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

[QUOTE=bdj;8139183]
Can you shift turnout times so that horses go out when you get home from work and come in late at night? That’s how I’m handling my pony’s limited turnout schedule now that the grass is in a serious growth phase. I usually get home around 5:30, so she gets turned out then, and then I bring her in at night, usually between 9:30 and 10pm. (Of course, this schedule only works because my pony lives at home with me…)

Ideally, I’d turn her out overnight (say, 10pm to 6:30am), but she can’t be out on the grass that long now.[/QUOTE]

This is what I do. I start when I get home from work.

Great article: http://www.extension.umn.edu/agriculture/horse/pasture/transitioning-horses-to-spring-pasture/

[jherold]

day 1 - 30-45 minutes
day 2 - 1 hour
day 3 - 1 hour 30 minutes
day 4 - 2 hours
day 5 - 3 hours
day 6 - 4 hours
day 7 - 5.5 hours
day 8 all day.

I usually go a bit more gradually, but I didn’t have anyone to let them out on Monday. My vet said my schedule was fine. After they are up to about 4 hours, they aren’t grazing constantly and it isn’t a sudden change in diet anymore.

It does make for some late nights when you have to do it after work.

[bathsheba8542]

I’m glad this conversation got started this year…I am obsessively paranoid about turnout on spring grass, and it seems this year the progress has been glacial. I am currently up to 6 hours but that’s taken me a month!

[knightrider]

I had my horses on a dry lot all winter. I started out with one hour for a couple days, then 2, then 3-4, then 5, then 7… they were on grass in a week or so for the full night. I did put a muzzle on the pony though.

My vet had told me once to start them out on 2 hours of grass at first but I am a bit more conservative.

[Kimchi]

I go very slow, because I am super paranoid

week 1: 15 min
week2: 30min
week3: 1hr
week4: 2hours
week5: 3 hrs

and so forth until she is grazing half the day

I do have reason for my paranoia I nearly lost my first horse to colic after I let her hand graze for an hour or so at a pony club rally. So there is method to my madness.

[WSS2012]

Thanks All for the responses! Id’e like to hear more opinions on this too!

It looks like schedules run from 1-2 weeks to 6 weeks to transition. So, I can shift hours somewhat, I tend to be in bed by 9:30 as mornings come early and ride after work, so 1-3 hours is easy enough after work. I do work Fridays from home, so I can normally string together 3 days of the 4-5 hours on grass. So, I’m feeling a bit better with a 2-4 days with 1-2 hours, then 3 days with 2-4 hours then the leap to 7-9 hours.

[DHCarrotfeeder]

We’re on a schedule similar to Kimchi. We don’t get them out every day but we’re on this pace.

This is also the best growing season for the pastures - we’re moving them weekly and the grass is lush and rooting more deeply. It feels a little mean to limit the use so much, but it’s going to help the pastures later in summer when they’re under full-time grazing pressure.

Ideally I’d have so many pastures I could fallow some at any point in the season but that’s simply not happening with our current setup.

[brody]

My guys get some grass immediately as their winter paddock was pretty big. I start hand grazing am and pm for half an hour or so as soon as grass is greens up Then open up a front field of grass for slowly increasing times. Just opened up a new section of field today and the gang is now on as much grass as they want. I will continue to lawn mow with my skinnies once a day on longer grass. I am very fortunate to have lts of grass from may to snow.

[starrunner]

My current barn has a schedule like Kimchi’s…super conservative which I like!

Many horses handle the adjustment to spring pasture just fine, but after owning one horse who is an extreme pig and has had gas colic more than once due to her amazing ability to stuff her face as rapidly as possible, I appreciate the extra due diligence.

[mzm_farm]

2 hrs a few days, 3-4 hrs a few days, 5-6 hrs a few days, then 8 or whatever. I fence off (with temporary but electrified fence) the section for the day - I just fence off what they will eat in about the time allotted for the day, move the fence next day.

Today was day 1 - all were ready to come in for rest and drink after that time, no trouble getting anyone to come up.

If stools are soft, I go slower. Never had a problem with my crew.
And I am kinda paranoid - have an 18yr old?(gah, how did that happen!!) welsh shetland cross pony in the mix.

[Wonders12]

I just heard a professor from the University of Minnesota speak on this. I’ll double check my notes, but I BELIEVE it was add 15 minutes per day until up to 4 hours. Once they are at 4 hours, they can go out all day.

[Scarlet_Gilia]

I had an incredibly Piggy Horse who would get gas colic when starting out, even slowly, on spring grass. It really helped to have him eat a flake of grass hay before turning him out, to take the edge off his extreme piggyness.

[goodhors]

The problem with the schedules above, is they go too fast to allow horse to develop the needed stomach flora to digest grasses instead of hay. It takes at LEAST 3 weeks to get stomach flora built up for food changes, so when you let horse graze for more than a SHORT TIME (like 30 minutes) you risk his digestive system shutting down. He can’t digest what he has eaten, no grass flora in his gut to manage the new food.

Going so quickly is a GREAT way for horse to colic or get laminitus!! So if you want to hurt your horse, just set them free for hours on grass. Certainly the older animals seem to get it worse, ponies are known for going laminitic on spring grasses. Many folks horses don’t have an issue THIS TIME, so they continue to think free turnout is “just fine”.

Talked to one of the local Vets, he is putting a ‘coliced on grass’, horse down almost daily. Problem has been going on a couple weeks now since grass took off growing. Getting plenty of Laminitus horse calls, with LOTS of “put the padding on hooves, call the Farrier and LOCK THE PASTURE GATE” advice, for trying to help the horses. Vet is running many hours each day for these PREVENTABLE cases.

We do the add 15 minutes addition plan. Horses get 3 days of each stretch of time, then add 15 minutes. Then 3 days of that time limit, add 15 minutes. I time it VERY closely, not allowing “extra” minutes on the grass. When they get up to an hour of grazing, I will then split the sessions, so they get an AM half hour, with a PM half hour. Then start adding 15 minutes to each of those sessions for 3 days at a time.

Horses still get PLENTY of grass, but not all at one time like grazing for two hours straight. In fact the horses see me coming to drive them in when time is up, lift their heads and start coming in! They are full on the one grazing session, glad to wait until several hours pass for the next turnout session.

Another suggestion is to feed hay before starting your grazing session, horse is partially full already, not so piggy on the grass. Then with full stomach at the end of short grazing time, quite willing to come in off the grass. Sure helps with the beginning 15 minute grazing sessions, as they start on turnout.

Don’t hurry, don’t speed up to longer sessions quickly. Horse body can’t adapt quickly, no matter how much you “wish for it”. Still takes TIME for body to adapt to grazing, at LEAST 3 weeks to have any kind of grass flora building up in the stomach to digest that grazing he is stuffing himself with.

Don’t let your horse become a statistic, permanently damaged by trying to hurry his pasture time, because YOU don’t want to invest the time to control his grazing. Lame horse is pretty useless, and a coliced horse is expensive to treat. Does NOT have to happen.