Natural Horse Pastures

If given the option, at equal price, every horse owner for their own consumption would select an organic salad mix over a conventional salad mix. They would buy the organic flour over the desiccated with Round-up flour. So not give our horses what we want to eat? We raise our vegetables this way. Why should our chickens, pigs, goats, and cattle have better feed/pasture than our horses. Why is equine health, pasture, and feed management any different?

We had horses growing up and my kids just started riding so we purchased a pony. I’ve been thinking a lot about how to take care of this investment and the pastures where she is located. I spent the weekend riding around Athens GA and the horse pastures, like pretty much every farm outside of Kentucky, are over-grazed, over-stocked, and poorly managed. My brother-in-law’s farm being a notable exception as he has a wonderful paddock and rotational system.

Instead of the Joel Salatin’ Salad Bar Beef; Why don’t horse farmers start thinking about Salad Bar Horses. Just because we don’t eat them doesn’t mean we should feed them well!

Natural, Organic Horse Pasture Management

• Intense Rotational Grazing-

  • Paddocks

  • Pasture rest

  • Pasture Management

• Soil testing

• Seeding

  • Consider an all around mix like Welter’s: Pleasure Horse II Mix

    • Note: This mix hails from Iowa so you may want to add some bahiagrass or bermuda if in the South

    • UGA Extension has an excellent Forage Program for Horses pdf.

  • SurgEnduro Mix- let the best “grass” win!

    • Russell and Common (better for the Mountains) Bermuda Grass- Seed in May

    • Pensacola Bahiagrass- not sure it’s going to grow well here in North Georgia Seed in June

    • Crabgrass

    • Ladino White Clover- Seed September

    • Alfalfa- Seed August-September

    • + Welter’s Pleasure Horse II Mix- Seed August-September

  • See my next post on North Georgia Pasture Plans.

• Weed Management

• Supplemental feed

More to come!