GRAZING. It’s the most fundamental equine food source. With feed prices ever increasing as well as a desire to be more ecological, a growing number of owners are looking at ways to maximise pasture. With prolonged wet winters and drought adding to the challenge of growing grass, landowners are experimenting with different systems.
Three years ago, farmer’s wife Ellie Smith, who lives on the Welsh border, decided to try regenerative grazing with a 16.3hh hunter and 13.2hh pony on two adjoining paddocks, of 0.9 acres and 0.8 acres.
Her husband has been mob-grazing his cattle and sheep for more than a decade. Both these systems are essentially the same, mimicking grazing in the wild.
It’s about short-duration, high-intensity grazing, moving your animals on average once a day, then leaving the grass to recover for between 40 to 100 days. It’s nothing new; strip and track grazing, even rotating fields, follow the same principle.
“The results are phenomenal,” says Ellie. “The huge amount of rest the grassland gets means it has enormously long root systems, so there is no mud, surface water or compaction. The grass grows nearly waist-high in spring and summer, so the soil is well protected and soil temperatures are lower than fields with shorter plants.
“We don’t fertilise. We leave the horse droppings where they fall and they feed back into the system. We have thousands of dung beetles and droppings disappear within 12 weeks. I used to worm regularly, but now do worm counts and don’t need to.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der February 01, 2024-Ausgabe von Horse & Hound.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der February 01, 2024-Ausgabe von Horse & Hound.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Jappeloup
A small horse who looked like two halves put together’, Jappeloup nonetheless proved to have a big heart and a huge talent”.
Collett takes two
A bumper fixture hosts 12 intermediate and open intermediate sections, as Paris contenders blow away the cobwebs
Capitalise on buyers' remorse
Equestrian properties might be in short supply, but prices are back to normal after the Covid frenzy as the capital lures buyers again
Games making
Equestrianism will be in the thick of the action in Paris, but the logistics of hosting Olympics in the heart of an iconic city are a challenge. Kate Johnson asks organisers, riders and grooms for their memories of urban Olympic sites
On the bench
Being picked as the \"fourth man\" to support a three-man Olympic team, ready to step in at any moment in the competition, requires a resilient and unflinchingly sportsmanlike mindset.
A brush with the Games
Want to know what really goes into preparing an Olympic campaign? Bethany Stone speaks to top industry grooms with star-studded CVs for the scoop
One moment in time
The Olympics is the zenith of an athlete's career but precious few scale those giddy heights. Sue Polley asks four British Olympians about their most memorable experiences
'Pride? I just felt relief
Blyth Tait on jumping barn roofs, \"freezing\" in the Atlanta heat and the day his eight-year-old prodigy won Olympic gold
Mental health advocate
Harry Dunlop retired from training in 2022, having held his licence for 16 years. He founded the Trainer Support Network in 2023
Hugo Simon
The six-time Olympian tells Bernard Bale about his \"extraterrestrial\" string of horses, changing nationality and his success at the boycotted Games