Re: Pasture's

["Drin Becker" <rainbow@montana.com>]

Jeff wrote ".  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."

I don't quite understand this thinking Jeff ?? The more room a horse has to
move around in the better shape they will stay in , if you have the option
of bigger acreage for them why in the world would you want them in 1 acre
lot's ? All of our foals are out in big pasture's so they can run,play and
develop , my endurance horse's are also out in big pasture's . Leaving my
horse's out in big pasture's means that they are legged up and ready to go
in the spring , and that is with say a 5 month layoff for the winter months
. I can start right in with conditioning (lot's of trotting) without any
worry of leg damage . The other benifit is that it keeps a good mind on them
, I have boughten stall/lot raised horse's with terrible vice's and once you
turn them out and let them be a horse like god intended and they usually
forget all those bad habits . Another benifit to larger pasture's is that it
keeps most horse's from tangling into fence's . Try it and see .
                                               Drin Becker
                                              Mtn. Region