Paddock Maintenance Advice For Responsible Horse Owners
It is crucial that you frequently inspect the grassland of your paddock and respond to any problems as quickly as possible. The best way to prevent poaching of your land is to rotate any grazing animals as often as possible. If your paddock is of an adequate size you would idealy be able section off half of your land and leave it to rest for a period of six months. However, this is often impractical and thus in most cases it is best to section off small areas of grassland for a minimum of two weeks at a time.
Bald areas of the paddock can also be avoided by feeding the horses in different parts of the paddock and by ensuring manure is not allowed to remain on the grass for longer than necessary. Infection can be spread by manure and as such this is especially important. Where possible you should consider creating an extra entrance to your field as this will reduce the use of each gateway and allow you to rest one. Consequently this would reduce the use of each entrance, thereby reducing poached land.
Spring is the best time to analyse the soil in your paddock. The health of your paddock will be adversely affected by and infection or lack of nutrients within the soil. Soil analysis will enable you to make informed decisions regarding how best to care for you grassland. It is also vital that you pull out and treat all weeds as soon as possible. For this reason horse owners will require a weed control programme. Your paddock should be sprayed with safe modern pesticides which will tackle the weeds found by the soil analysis.
Maintaining a clean and safe environment for your animals is an important aspect of paddock management. This will normally involve keeping the grass reasonably short, and as a general rule you should aim for approx 5cm in the summer and 2cm in the winter. This will help to prevent weeds from going to seed. Hedges should normally be trimmed in the autumn and it is also important to keep all fences in good condition.
Of course fences also have the primary function of keeping your horses within the paddock. As a result all fences should generally be over 5 foot high. The fence must also be study enough to withstand the weight of your horse. As such it is crucial that you take in to consideration the size, breed, weight and agility of your horse when choosing an appropriately sized fence for your land.
About the Author
Enjoying the fressh air and riding with ponies and horses is great fun. Looking after them requires a sensible programme of paddock maintenance. Steve Phillips find his advice at: http://www.greenpaddocks.co.uk/ . They are reliable and give a high level of service all year round for anything from hedge laying to paddock topping: http://www.greenpaddocks.co.uk/paddocktopping.php
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