Depending on whether you and your horses live in Maine, Kentucky, Montana, or California, winter in each area manifests itself differently. Each region has unique patterns; winter pastures in Montana look whiter than those in Northern California, which might be soggy and green. Experts tell us one principle is the same for winter horse pasture management no matter where you live: Overgrazing and allowing horses on soggy, wet soils are the bane of winter horse pasture management.
The Off Season
“There is always an ‘off season,’ no matter where you live,” says Jay Mirro, senior resource planner for the King Conservation District outside of Seattle, Wash. Mirro develops farm plans for horse and livestock owners; farm plans are basically a road map for managing land and animals.
His tenet for winter horse pasture management is to never graze on wet soils and never graze below 3 inches of forage stubble height—the height of a plant after grazing or mowing.
“The off season is when you don’t put horses on pastures out of concern of degrading the health and productivity of your pasture,” he explains.
Wet Soils + Grazing = Compaction
“Ideally, it’s best for the pasture if you don’t do anything to it in the winter when the ground is wet and not frozen,” says Mirro. “Grazing ground that is saturated and soggy creates compaction. Compacted soils don’t drain as well and have less oxygen for plant roots to respire, creating an environment that promotes weeds instead of grass.”
All this reduces soil health, microbial life, and nutrient cycling of manure and urine, explains Mirro, who is himself also the owner of a 34-acre farm with seven acres of pasture for his beef cows, sheep, and goats.
“Grazing when the soils are wet makes for a higher chance that horse hooves will physically damage sod, tearing the grass out of the ground,” creating depressions and uneven pock marks in the soil surface, he says. “Next summer when you mow the field, you will curse because the ground is so uneven.”
Compacted ground is a bad deal if your intention is to grow a productive pasture. Compacted soils are much less absorbent, which causes water to run off, carrying soil sediment along with nutrients and pathogens from manure and urine. All of this is labeled as non-point pollution, and it can potentially harm waterways and the animals that live there.
“If the ground is wet enough that you wouldn’t consider driving [equipment] on it, then it’s too wet for animals to use it,” explains Marty Chaney, an agronomist and pasture management specialist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Olympia, Wash. She was named Pasture Conservationist of the Year in January 2023, and is fondly known as “The Grass Whisperer.”
The Cutoff Point
Northern climes that experience a white winter still need to be careful when grazing pastures.
“Snow insulates the soil,” says Chaney. “It’s possible that there is a layer of wet, unfrozen soil under the snow, which can be damaged. Even if there is no snow, frozen plant crowns can be subject to injury [from overgrazing].”
Pasture grasses do not grow during the winter months, so care must be taken to avoid animal consumption of available grass, as grass won’t grow back for months.
“By allowing horses to graze and harvest forage, you are reducing the insulation that grass provides, causing further chilling of the soil. Spring regrowth will be slower,” she explains, because of the required warming of the soil, which will be necessary after the lack of insulation during cold weather.
“If a pasture gets grazed down to the ground, it takes longer to regrow” once spring rolls around again, says Chaney. “Most grass species don’t like to be grazed below 3 inches.”
Confinement Areas
In the winter, you’re basically trying to protect the soil and plants. The two together will give you a healthier pasture throughout the year.
“Instead, create a good confinement area,” says Mirro. “This provides a great solution to horsekeeping in the winter.”
The confinement area becomes your horse’s outdoor living quarters, and it’s where you keep your horse when pasture growth has slowed, so your pastures don’t get grazed below 3 inches.
“A confinement area, roughly 1,000 square feet per horse with 6″ of a well-draining gravel product [for footing], will have stability,” he says.
Guidelines for Limited Grazing
This doesn’t mean no pasture in the winter.
“There are still opportunities when horses can graze in the winter,” says Mirro, as long as you are careful to keep horses off wet soils and keep turnout times short.
He offers a few guidelines for judicious winter grazing:
◆ Limit turnout time to 30-60 minutes max.
◆ Besides the concern for overgrazing or compacting wet soils, also be aware of significantly changing your horse’s diet, which can upset his gut biome, leading to metabolic disorders like colic.
◆ Choose your highest and driest fields.
◆ Be mindful of the weather; if it’s been dry for a few days, that’s the best time to do some limited turnout.
“If you absolutely have to use the pasture, it’s just 30 minutes twice a day,” Chaney agrees. “When you are starting to think about rototilling your garden” in the springtime when the ground is firmer, that is the time to slowly begin integrating pasture back into your horse’s diet.
Getting Help for Winter Horse Pasture Management
Both your NRCS office and your local conservation district can offer free, non-regulatory education and technical assistance (see “Know Your Resources” below).
Two other sources of information can also provide management guidance:
◆ Soil Type: The Web Soil Survey is an online database operated by the USDA that provides information about the unique properties of each landowner’s soil.
“The front page is self-explanatory, and they have links that explain characteristics of soils,” says Chaney. Some examples include texture, ability to drain, parent material, and distribution over a landscape.
◆ Soil Nutrient Testing: “It’s good to get one done every few years to see what’s going on,” says Chaney. “Most labs will provide advice, too, on how to manage your pasture based on your soil testing results.”
Contact your conservation district or NRCS office for more help.
“Take a walk regularly in your pastures to see what’s happening,” Chaney suggests.
She often tells landowners to photograph a section of their land and compare it over the years.
“You will more easily see the changes in types of plants and productivity, both positive and negative, this way. This will give you feedback on how your management is affecting the field.”
Know Your ResourcesAre you looking for help to improve your horse pasture? The following are two resources that offer technical assistance, education, and possibly even cost-sharing. Both of these agencies are located across the United States—even in Guam and Puerto Rico—and are here to serve you. They have planning and evaluation services to help land managers balance their goals with natural resources protection. Find your local USDA NRCS Service Center here. ◆ Conservation Districts are non-regulatory technical assistance agencies located in nearly every county of the United States. Many provide farm and ranch technical support to help land managers balance their management goals along with natural resources protection. To locate your nearest conservation district office, do an Internet search by using the name of your county and the words “conservation district.” Explore the great services these agencies can offer you and your horse property! |
Winter Horse Pasture Management: Key Takeaways
“We need to balance the needs of the horse with the needs of the pasture,” says Mirro. “Many horse and livestock owners treat pastures as turnout exercise areas, and we don’t want to get to the point where we don’t have any grass in a pasture, because that’s not ecologically sustainable.
“We need to be thinking about pastures with their effect on soil health, runoff, and the local environment. There are ways we can graze in the winter, but you just want to be mindful that you aren’t doing damage or increasing potential problems,” he concludes.
“Pasture plants in more northern climates actually start their annual growth in the fall, so how you manage them in the winter will have a significant effect on how they perform the following spring and summer,” adds Chaney.
Winter horse pasture management is critical to maintaining both healthy horses and thriving pastures, no matter where you live. While it’s important to provide winter grazing opportunities when appropriate, careful attention must be paid to soil and forage conditions to prevent harm to both the pasture and the horse’s health.
This article about winter horse pasture management appeared in the November/December 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!
