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The
Natural Horse Group was established in 2001.
It aims to provide
information that enables people to explore ways of keeping and managing
equines that enhance wellbeing and encourage a natural lifestyle
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Articles
The Holly Tree Herd
By Sarah Kay
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Four years ago, I moved to a run down 10 acre smallholding, formerly used for dairying and cattle, with a number of small concrete cowhouses and a hay barn. The four fields were bordered by old hedgerows patched with a variety of fencing. Closest to the house is a 2 acre hillside field, and dropping away from this is 8 acres of flat, well drained and quite level pasture.
The priority for making the holding "horse-friendly" was to remove, or at least prevent access to, all the old barbed wire fencing, and it also soon became apparent that the post and rail would not stand up to the daily strain of Dales ponies rubbing against it. Fence repairs in the half light before work became too regular an occurrence! That's when I discovered the merits of electric fencing, and I continue to use it increasingly. The first winter, I had about four separate portable electric fence units running from old car batteries (free from my local battery supplier), but they failed regularly especially in icy weather, and eventually I switched to a mains electric system. It's taken a while to set up fully, but now each field can be independently controlled, and almost the perimeter of each field is electrified. This system means that it is now incredibly easy to move field partitions either to allow strip grazing, or to keep ponies separately if this is needed for medical reasons.
I took Megz, my first Dales mare, barefoot after about a year, having seen increasingly that people were getting good results from "performance barefooters". Now all 3 ponies are barefoot and are doing well. I've noticed a reduction in field poaching since then, although there are still some days when it's too wet to let the ponies out to grass. Part of the reason for their success barefoot is the amount of time they spend on hardstanding each day. Initially I couldn't think of how I could provide this, but then I saw other people's yards and realized it was a matter of just adapting what was already there. There had always been some hardcore at the main entrance to the top field, so I put a portable electric fence around that, which created a yard for one or two ponies, whilst also giving them access to part of a building for shelter. Then I realized that the rest of the tarmacked yard would be suitable too, so I extended the electric fencing into there and partitioned it off using strands of wide hot rope with plenty of "gates" for easy access. The ponies now spend half the day yarded (individually, but adjacent to each other, and within full sight of each other) and half the day out at grass. The "yards" mean each pony has about 5 times the space of an ordinary loose box to move around in, and access to a stable when they choose. Mucking out has been reduced as a result because the ponies tend to do their droppings outside where it's easy to clean them up, and keep the stable floor (rubber matting) clean.
The ponies are kept more intensively in the summer months on the bankside field, and the rest of the land is let to a local cattle farmer, with one field being used for the ponies' hay. Over winter, they can run out over the other fields with some supplementary hay. The bankside field is poo-picked daily to reduce the worm burden and maintain the quality of the grazing, whereas the other fields (more distant from the house) are not poo-picked, as I rely on the cattle grazing and long periods of non-grazing by ponies to clean up these pastures. It certainly helps to be able to run the ponies on the hillside when it is dry, and the flatter land when it is wetter (the bankside does get churned up with skid marks quite quickly if it is very wet).
Temporary electric fence divisions in the bankside field allow the land to be grazed in rotation, strimmed, topped, and spot sprayed to check any weeds straight after the ponies have moved off. This gives a good break for the pasture to recover before the ponies come back.
The agricultural buildings have been altered to suit the ponies better. Concrete platforms in one cowhouse were leveled to give a slightly sloping concrete floor. The original partitions were removed, and replaced with 5 ft high concrete partitions. This is one of the best things I've done - the ponies love the fact they can groom each other over the partition, and I like the fact that even the least dominant pony has her own "safe space". I removed all the windows in this building, and left the gaps open, which has given much better ventilation to the building.
The other cowhouse has a hardcore floor. Initially I deep littered this, as full mucking out just kept loosening the hardcore. However, when I switched to rubber matting, I realized that this floor was preferable to concrete, in that it keeps well drained. I now have the whole floor covered with rubber matting, except a small strip which I put shavings on, and this is where the ponies urinate.
Alongside all this, I've been gapping up the hedgerows and gradually replacing fencing a field at a time. It's amazing how much shelter the hedges provide on really windy winter days. One of the most important things is having a good relationship with the local farmer who grazes his cattle here, makes the hay, tops, weeds, harrows, removes muck regularly in my muck trailer, does fencing and hedging repairs and generally offers good advice on land management. There's always plenty to do..... and the ponies just carry on munching away throughout! |
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