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[RC] Paddock Paradise - Kristi SchaafI only have approx 4 acres available to my horses, and I'm always trying to figure out ways for them to get the most use out of the land, since self-conditioning is always a good thing for a distance horse! But since I live in Iowa, the small pastures I have are always very lush (even though we mow them) and I can't leave the horses out for more than a few hours without the risk of the sensitive one of the bunch getting gas colic (if you read www.safergrass.org, you'll be leary of lush pastures too). So they spend 95% of their time in a 2/3 acre dry lot, which they do tear around in quite comfortably, but they also stand in one spot a lot too. Anyway, I finally got my hands on Jaime Jackson's book "Paddock Paradise" and I had a great epiphany while reading it. THIS is what my brain had been searching for as an answer to give my horses the most use out of my land. In a nutshell, you create fenced 'paths' around the perimeter of your property or pastures, of whatever you can work out with your land layout, and it allows your horses to move along them at will, much like wild horses who follow their designated paths (contrary to popular belief, wild horses don't just wander around; they have specific destinations and 'paths' to them). Apparently domestic horses still have that 'urge' and will happily make circuits of whatever paths you are able to create. I was quite relieved when hubby agreed that it would be a great idea to build some of these paths so we're going to start soon (depending on how much ground frost we gotta deal with). Anyway, has anyone reading this post read the book and built a "Paddock Paradise"? If so, please share any ideas/problems/solutions that you encountered. I'm quite excited about the thought of my boys moving almost continually around their 'paths' instead of just vegging out in the paddock for hours on end. And I salivate just thinking about the self-conditioning this might create! Kristi Life's a journey, so enjoy the ride (and try not to fall off) ____________________________________________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta. http://new.mail.yahoo.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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