The grass is growing!

Well finally, after snow, hail and rain (and that was just last week), the thaw seems well and truly under way and the grass is growing. Even up here. Which means that nearly everyone who has barefoot horses needs to start being a bit careful of the grass.

Its a pain, of course, but think of all the lovely hay or haylage that you are growing by keeping your ponies off the green stuff :-) You have a much bigger margin for error if you let you horses out at night, rather than during the day, at this time of year, but I know that can be tricky for those on yards.

Its always worth investigating whether there are any areas of a yard which can be used as a dry lot, and in my experience this plus hay is preferable for most horses to a grazing muzzle. Better still if you can fence off a track, as its more interesting for them and encourages more movement than just being penned in.

Most importantly, if you are on a yard, try and educate your yard owner as positively as you can about the benefits of tracks - they save the grass and the fields, and keep horses fitter, without a huge increase in workload. Commercially as well, livery yards with tracks are few and far between and so putting in a track should give a marketing advantage, at least till other places catch on.