The Practice

Putting Natural Horsekeeping Into Practice

What I'm Starting With

I am very fortunate. I have several acres, twenty-eight to be exact, that I can mold as I see fit (within zoning restrictions). There is currently a 40x60 pole barn that houses the horses, the hay, feed, equipment and tools. There is an area in the barn that the horses can enter and leave at will (although there is a gate if I need to keep them in or out or separated). They have maybe an acre fenced in right now. That acre is divided by a drainage creek that cuts it almost in half. The field beyond the creek is rarely used. The horses don’t like to go through the mud to get to it and I don’t think the grass that grows there is to their liking. The area between the barn and the creek is basically a dry lot. The entrance from this dry lot into the barn is almost constantly deep, heavy mud. It’s on the north side of the barn which is shaded most of the day. This, I hope to use for my “rehab” paddock.

The other acreage? Well, I figure I’ll use the section behind the house. I
do apologize - I realize "behind the house" is completely meaningless. I will soon be adding pictures and drawings that will give a better idea of the orientation of everything. We may build a home next to the one we own and I don’t want to rip out fencing that takes so much sweat to install. And it DOES take an enormous amount of effort to put fencing in here! You go down about six inches and hit gravel or rocks no matter where on the property you dig. Even T-posts are exhausting.

Ron, the husband, really, really does not want me to fence the pond in. It sure would be fun to give the horses access to it and watch them play in it. Right now, nobody likes getting their feet wet, but I bet that Junior and Colt would do some splashing around on a hot day.

What I Hope To Attain

I have long been scattering flakes of hay all over the field so the horses will “graze” from one to another in an attempt to encourage exercise. I suspect any exercise came primarily from Junior making the rounds from flake to flake, checking to see if it was one he’d like for his own and chasing off the current diner. Jaime Jackson confirmed my suspicions in our Orientation. They’re not going to graze from flake to flake, they’re going to pick one and stand right there and eat it and then move on to another and stand right there and eat that. If you want them to move, you have to force them. Also, putting rough footing out in their turnout is not going to condition their hooves. They’re not going to walk on it if it’s painful; they’re going to go right around it.

How do you make a horse move? And further, how do you force him to walk over footing he doesn’t like? A wide open field with some piles of rocks isn’t going to work. I believe my best bet is to create a channel of sorts that they have to travel within. I can place various footing surfaces in the channel and they’ll have to walk on it to move forward through the channel. Of course, if they don’t want to move forward, they can just go back and forth between the piles of rocks. That means I have to provide some incentive to cross the rough patches. I’m thinking that this will be partially accomplished when the sounder horses cross them. The one or two left behind will start feeling more and more left behind. Another option is to put the day’s landmarks between footing patches. Walk through crushed gravel to get to the water. Have to walk back out over crushed gravel to get back to grazing. Or shelter, or whatever.

Now, I don’t want the horses spending much time in the lush grass. Possibly, I’ll have to keep it mowed very short, although this won't affect the sugar in the shortened grass. In fact, it could register as stress and increase the sugar. It would be helpful if their daily travels maintained this, but I would have to have either an awful lot of horses or minimize the grazing areas. For now, I’ll compromise by mowing it and keeping the channels narrow. So, how are we going to create all these channels? Sounds almost like a giant maze!

I have several options. One is to make the horses move through the channels in a serpentine pattern, like the lines we wait in for the rides at Darien Lake. Back and forth…

Or, I could put fencing around the “areas of interest” (e.g. water, shelter, hay, etc) and force them to walk down a chute of rough footing to access these points.

Or, I could make the pasture a wide path around the property. Since I want to leave lots of room for trail-riding, I choose this option.

The Journey To Date

Education. This is where I’m at. I came home from Jaime’s Orientation clinic with lots of ideas, but I need more research. Are the grasses he recommends native to the northeast? Where does one get calcium carbonate rocks for the horses to chew on? Yes, that would be limestone and thankfully, it can be found in abundance around here. Makes me wonder why I’ve never seen a horse munching rocks?

OK. I've been reading, reading, reading and should probably update even if briefly.

I read and re-read safergrass.org and I got a feel for when grass is highest-sugar and most dangerous. I've been using that information to determine my horses' turnout into their grass paddock. None of them have obvious sugar problems, but one gelding is rather well-padded and doesn't need more weight. My mare is due to foal soon and has significant calorie requirements.

It is late-May and we've been having pretty chilly evenings, temps often in the thirties. Plus, we could really use some rain. I am assuming because of these two conditions that the grass is pretty stressed and therefore, high-sugar. I put my mare out for a couple hours a day, but try to limit my geldings to no more than an hour.

I have also been reading Pat Coleby's "Natural Horse Care" about minerals, vitamins, supplements, etc. Great book! The interaction and dependencies are somewhat overwhelming. I want to try to make a graphical diagram that shows that minerals need to be in what ratios, what minerals lock up others, etc.

I'm going to have my soil analyzed and find out where I'm starting from as far as mineral content goes. It isn't in the near-term plans to put money into improving my soil so I will try supplementing to balance my horses' requirements. I'm going to have my hay analyzed, too - although first cutting should be coming along soon and I may wait for that. Finally, I'm going to have my horses' blood analyzed to see where I'm starting. Based on the soil and hay, I'm going to create a supplementation plan using Pat's book. I'll test their blood again in 4-6 months to see if I'm on the right path.

The problem to date is... I have no idea where to find some of the sources Pat recommends! I've been googling, yahooing and calling lawn and garden, feed and pet stores trying to hunt down crushed dolomite and seaweed meal. I'm trying to find out if there is another name we Americans use for these items. Nothing is ever easy!

So, I talked to my vet... I wanted to get Colt's blood drawn and analyzed. I explained to her why and she was very supportive of finding out what the horses need and supplementing accordingly. She recommended that, instead of bloodwork, I have my hay, oats and soil analyzed. She said it would cost me a fortune to get the level of detail and completeness I'd need from bloodwork. In the meantime, because Colt's coat is looking pretty shabby, she recommended I give him Nutrena's Safe Choice. Low carb and lots of fat, vitamins, minerals, etc. He and Junior LOVE it!

Anyway, I'm going to take her advice and not bother with the blood work. I was already planning on having feed and soil analyzed, so I tracked down the appropriate sources (our local Cornell Cooperative Extension in downtown Syracuse). I spoke to the woman who would be coming out to do the test on the hay and decided to wait until I get my first cutting, which will hopefully be within a couple weeks. She told me that in general the nutrition level of last year's hay was very, very poor.

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