too-large a turnout area for enough exercise?

["Jeff Brickson" <brickson@delanet.com>]

I guess what I meant to ask was, what is a good general herd density for
optimum self-exercise?  Suppose I bought a dozen horses, mixed ages, and a
huge ranch.

Could too much personal space for horses lead to horses getting out of shape
even if they got ridden regularly but didn't have enough buddies to motivate
them to move around a bit on their own in the pasture?

I would want to keep rotational grazing lots to 1) keep as much of the rest
of my property in hay production as I can 2) let plants recover 3) decrease
parasites 4)encourage defecation over a larger percentage of area and not
concentrate it, and especially 5) increase MOTIVATION to move more
constantly (ie, PACK 'EM IN so they move each other around more.

What do you guess would be the minimum #head in each herd/paddock to keep
the milling about going on so there is a *little* less camping around in the
shade all day getting out of shape?  Also what would be the minimum size
rotational paddock for this ideal number?  Assume plenty land and the main
objective is to increase self-exercise of the herd on their days off.

Sorry that I don't know how else to ask this question.  My limited
experience with putting small numbers of horses on huge good pastures is
that they tend to get out of shape even if they are ridden pleasure-to-LSD
speed every other day for 3-5 hours a day all year round, but I don't know
how obesity affects recoveries.  They don't move around much when not
ridden, even if they feel fresh.  I want to set it up for in case I won't be
riding for several *weeks*, yet my pasture potatoes will get some exercise
by not standing around excessively.

OTOH, maybe it's ok, maybe it's better for distance horses to be fat.  I've
seen only one I'd call obese, but even he was fit enough that he didn't puff
as much as any other horses in his group and he was perkier.

To start the discussion on this stupid question of mine, how about 4 horses
on an acre as being one rotational paddock?  Seems like that number might
keep moving more than two or three.