Introducing horses to lush green pasture...?

[Suki Balimoor]

I've got my horses back and forth between my place, which has no real edible pasture to speak of, so they've been getting hay - and my neighbour, who has acres and acres of the deepest, greenest pasture you could imagine. How long each day is it safe for my horses to be on that pasture, and how gradually do I have to increase that time until they can be on it 24/7? I know when they're in there they think they're in heaven!

 

[Ridingstar7]

I would go hour by hour to be safe. I've had a lot of horses founder on lush green grass and even if they love it, it's better to pull them away and monitor carefully when they first start on it

 

[Kaia]

Try it for an hour for the first few days then slowly hour by hour increase the amount of time. My horse is on pasture 24/7 but its not exactly "lush". Just make sure the horses aren't just sitting in the field all day every day.. If they're not being used then being on rich pasture all the time isn't a good idea.

 

[Wasabi]

I wouldn't put any horse 24/7 on lush pasture.
It's asking for founder and other problems.

Also...just because the grass is green, doesn't mean it's actually filled with nutrients. You need to do a soil check (done by professionals, you can google someone in your area) to see just what is in the soil, which means if the grass is rich or just 'filler'

if it's not filled with real nutrients, you'll still have to suppliment. Especially in the winter time.

Either way, it's a recipe for founder to put any horse on nothing but sugar filled grass in the spring, so during that time, you'll have to be careful, too.

Ideally, you should have a dry lot.... a good size paddock where they can be in during the night. Every night. So that pulls them off grass for 8-12 hours.

You can start with 2-4 hours a day, dry lot them after that. Give them some hay anyway, just not a lot.

then increase to where they are in the grass for up to 8 hours, so a whole day, then dry lot them at night.

If you do 24/7, I think you're asking for problems (founder, thyroid issues, etc)....due to getting too fat.