Some people may think the Paddock Paradise or track system concept is anti grass and anti grazing. It’s true that some horses just cannot tolerate grass, but there are many horses who just cannot tolerate grazing modern improved pastures. Therefore, we can work towards safer grasses and more diversity and allow dormant native seed to sprout.
Overstocking is a common problem on agistment/boarding as well and also on small horse properties. We get a bit greedy with how many horses we want to squeeze on to small acreage. Private paddocking rather than herd living tends to create high intensity grazing with no rest for the pasture. Whereas keeping horses in a herd, on a PP, means we can rest and rotate paddocks.
There’s something really beautiful about letting pasture grow, mature, develop seed and reproduce and watch the whole cycle start again through the seasons.
We build diversity in plant life, healthy soil through attracting bugs and microbes that live and feed off the humous and we crowd out invasive weeds. Plant debris that falls to the ground creates a layer that traps moisture and creates its own little micro climate.
We slash regularly in spring, which encourages even more growth. This also contributes to organic matter to build up the soil profile and support all the little organisms living in the soil, that make it healthy for the plants and grasses.
Even if you don’t get a lot of native species growing straight away, many introduced species can be lower in sugar and starch and safe to graze during certain times of the year, when rapid growth has finished.
You can also be providing homes and protection from predators for various native pollinators, insects, small animals and we even have visits from turtles.
Hi there , a what height do you slash in spring and do you do it early and mid spring? Or just at the start so horses are not eating short grass which is higher on sugar? I have pastures that are quite high as havnt had many horses on it this year and trying to work out when to slash paddocks this year.
Hi Yvonne, I can’t give you any exact answer, it depends, every year is different, depending on how much rain, how much growth, how my horses are managing their weight as to how much grazing they can have that affects the height and the growth of the grass. In a good season, we may slash twice and sometimes late summer as well to reduce fire risk. My horses mainly live on a Paddock Paradise and only have occasional grazing or sometimes strip grazing, or only winter or very late summer grazing. As I said, it’s different every year.