Sugar sugar everywhere and its all in the grass

Much of the grazing in the UK has been 'improved' for the benefit of the dairy industry. The leys have been selected to be high in sugar. This is not good news for horses and it is particularly bad news for horses that are insulin resistant.

The girls do suffer a bit from insulin resistance, although neither have ever had full blown laminitis. There is a huge amount of high sugar grass and plantain on the new large circuit, so my plan is to graze the horses on it overnight to about 10am. They will be on the old 'nursery' circuit with hay until late evening.

I will monitor them for signs of too much sugar and if necessary restrict their intake of grass even further.

I do give them two additional meals a day so that I can give them some supplements. At the moment they have Alfa A Oil, Epsom Salts (for the magnesium) and a general supplement. They also have a salt lick in the field.

I plan to move them onto free choice supplements as soon as I can find a supplier.

Hard days night

One month in and Madam is finding the 'circuit' training is hard work. Shetakes a much needed rest with Princess standing guard. I have yet to see Madam return the favour.

The work is paying off though - Madam's fat pads are disappearing and we are seeing muscles!

Paddock Paradise goes large

Madam suffers from sweet itch on her belly and groin. She is particularly sensitive to poo flies, so we poo pick the circuit twice a day. She went through a phase of creating poo towers a bit like a stallion which made it easy. Now, she tends to hide her droppings by the electric fence. If she were human I'd say she was trying to get me electrocuted. Madam finds most human activities intensely annoying, unless of course they are to her direct benefit.

An upside to all this labour has been improved, longer lasting grazing. The little half acre circuit has lasted for four weeks, but now it is time to move to the big time.

Our Paddock Paradise is going large and we are moving the girls onto their new circuit which is approximately 0.5km long.

Paddock Paradise UK style

My grazing is rented and the landlord wants it kept 'pretty' and 'no mud'. It is also in a conservation area, so overall I can forget about trying to change the basic nature of the grazing or introducing any pebble track areas.

But I am keen to find out what can be done and what will work within these strictures. We have started out with a 'nursery' circuit in roughly 1/2 an acre. Partly because my first circuit blew away - (lesson - long lines of tape between plastic posts do not work well on a windy hill) and partly because Madam has just finished 8 weeks of box rest and is still relatively fragile.

I have had to compromise between supplying a wide enough track to be safe and yet not providing so much grazing that the girls stop moving round the circuit. I have been careful to ensure no 'corners' which might stop movement or allow a horse to be trapped.

I have read some advice to put down hay, even when there is grass. I try this and find it works. The horses seem to like the change and it stops them getting upset stomachs (and maybe laminitis?) from gorging on too much grass.

The first day in paradise passes without incident.

Two horses, one trailer, four people and a Freelander

There was no way the Freelander was going to shift all our gear, the girls and four adults all in one go. Even if I'd been tempted to try, one of the helpers is a very tough copper who would probably have booked me on the spot.

So we moved each of the girls in turn. My other half (MOH) who is fantastic, but not horsey 'volunteered' to play anchor to the first horse we moved (Princess) whilst Madam was in transit.

This is not something I would recommend, but if you knew how well Princess and MOH get on you might worry a little less. I didn't, but then I worry about everything anyway.

Our biggest concern was the sheer foolhardiness of taking two horses out of 24/7 stabling and then moving them onto 24/7 grazing. We had done lots of preparation by introducing hand picked grass in increasing quantities into their diets, walking in hand and trial turn outs, but it was still risky.

At the new place we grazed the horses in hand for about 4 hours, it was hot and sunny and we were all dozing off. We had some Sedalin (sedative) for the release in case the horses were wound up, but we didn't think they would need it because they were so chilled.

Madam of course proved us wrong. She belted round the circuit 5 times squealing and bucking before settling to graze, definitely rather more lame than when she started - but not hopping lame. Princess kept up, but more in the spirit of companionship than any real desire to hurtle round.

And that was it. After 20 minutes you'd think they had spent their whole lives there. We had brought sandwiches, tea, blankets, torches - enough kit to camp out for a week if we needed. But we didn't need to. So far they seem fine. I ended up checking them a couple of times in the night and discovered Madam really dislikes head torches, but apart from that all is well.

Tomorrow we move to paradise

Have you ever noticed that sometimes random events connect and take you on a journey you had previously only dreamed of? Tomorrow I move my horses to 'paradise' and this is our story.

'Madam' is a half pint American Quarter Horse. What she lacks in stature she makes up for in attitude! On 31st May she suffered a serious, career threatening injury while walking on a flat, safe surface. At the end of July she was still on box rest, depressed and making very slow progress. I was exhausted from keeping her and her stable companion exercised and entertained. Then I spotted a tiny ad for grazing very close to where I live.

I have spent all my spare time for the last four weeks setting up a very basic circuit in honour of Jamie Jackson's Paddock Paradise. Then I spent most of the last 48 hours redoing it because the first one blew away in a storm... You can see a larger version of the plan for the Nursery Circuit at the bottom of this page.

But we are as ready as we can be - tomorrow 'the girls' move to paradise!