Mary Allen
In order to keep a horse pasture sustainably and permanently healthy, some maintenance measures are required. Unfortunately, strong soil compaction increased droppings, and an unpleasant multiplication of wild herbs can occur very quickly. Maintain the horse pasture properly – here are a few tips for meaningful and simple maintenance measures.
Collect Horse Dung Regularly
Regularly peeling off the horse pasture is very helpful for a long-lasting pasture. Above all, it helps to better protect your horses from unpleasant insects. Because horse manure in particular attracts flies and many other insects. In addition, the eggs and larvae found in the horse’s intestine are excreted with the feces. If the horse droppings are left lying around, there is a risk that the eggs and larvae will settle on the grass and be picked up again by the horse. If you remove the horse dung at regular intervals, the work is more manageable and is often easier to do.
Towing the Willow in Spring
When winter is over and spring is knocking on the door, it is time to tow the pasture. The old, partly matted grass is removed from the ground with a meadow drag or a meadow harrow. Moss can also be loosened and worked out with it. Since the pastures are dormant from winter to spring, moles can spread unhindered. The molehills can also be straightened with the meadow drag and the earth can be evenly distributed. However, to avoid damaging the tall grass and sward, towing and harrowing should be done before driving and on a dry day.
Reseeding – a Worthwhile and Sustainable Measure
It makes sense to re-sow the pasture at regular intervals. With the help of reseeding, gaps in the sward can be closed and the pasture can be upgraded with new grasses. Overgrazing, for example, can result in many bald spots in the sward. As the summer months are getting hotter and hotter, the pasture grass can burn in many places because it was either eaten too short or simply could not grow back. It is also worthwhile to complete these areas with new seeds after removing larger areas of weed. As a rule, it is advisable to overseed with a machine. If there were several pastures by hand, it would take a lot of time and it would not be precise enough. Many contractors offer overseeding with the appropriate equipment.
Mowing Out or Mulching?
If the horse pasture is grazed, you will find some places with tall grass and wild herbs. The horses usually do not eat everything and leave some places where they are. Here it makes sense to shorten these places in any case. In this way, the flowers of wild herbs and the remaining tall grass can be removed or reduced. The unwanted wild herbs are not given a chance to seed themselves. However, this only works if the shortening is carried out in good time before sowing.
There are two methods to shorten the unwanted areas. On the one hand, you can mow your pasture with the mower. The disadvantage of this method is that the mown green is very long. So you’d have to collect it so that the grass underneath can develop properly.
Another option is mulching. The green is also cut off, but at the same time shredded and distributed over a large area. This has the advantage that your clippings can remain on the surface. The organisms living in the soil are happy about it and decompose the many small residues very quickly.
Caution Poisonous!
You should of course also regularly check your pasture for poisonous plants. The unpopular and highly poisonous scallop, in particular, spreads very often. Unfortunately, it does not lose its toxicity even after it has been mowed and in the hay, which means that it has to be cut out and removed.
Fertilizer, Lime, Horse Manure, or Would You Prefer Compost?
Whether and how you should fertilize or lime your pasture depends on the composition of the soil and the use of the pasture. Some horse keepers don’t just let horses graze in their pasture. A cut of hay is also often harvested from this grassland. It is best to seek advice from a professional. After all, the choice of fertilizers is endless, and not every pasture can handle every fertilizer. Above all, if some of the pasture had been fed with fertilizer, lime, or manure in the previous years, there may be a different need this year. You will also find out when the right time to fertilize is and whether you should perhaps send in soil samples first. They can tell you exactly what your floor really needs.
Maintain Horse Pasture Properly in Winter
Pasture care also includes protecting it in winter. This allows the sward to recover and develop stronger in the spring. It would be ideal to send the pasture into the winter break as briefly as possible. If the grass is too long, it could rot. If it is too short, however, damage to the sward can occur, for example through frost. So in spring, the grass could not sprout properly. Here, too, it is best to get support from a specialist.