The Healthy Land, Healthy Horse field day for horse owners was hosted by Geoff and Mark from Manna Park Agistment Centre in Bywong> This provided a beautiful setting for Stuart Myers from Equiculture to share the Equiculture system of horse management. A range of topics were discussed from horse biology to the importance of maintaining a diversity of plant species on farm for grazing.

Key messages were:

• Horses thrive on a high fibre, low energy diet.
• Encourage biodiversity. Plant and encourage a wide variety of plants and pasture species on your grazing land. Horses are adapted to using various herbs and shrubs in their diet. A varied diet can have medicinal benefits for the horse and helps diversity on the farm. Encourage remnant vegetation by fencing it off and planting shelter belts of native trees.
• Running horses as a herd allows pastures to be managed productively. By using rotational grazing and planning paddock management, horse owners can reduce their reliance on supplementary feeding.
• Focus on ‘grass farming’ by improving your knowledge of pasture species and encouraging them to self-seed and proliferate. Horses can be used to spread mulch and beneficial pasture seeds by feeding them on bare areas of soil.
• Use the ‘stubby test’, graze the pasture when it reaches the height of a stubby standing up and stop grazing when the stubby reaches the height of the stubby lying down.
• Native grasses can be very beneficial to horse health and provide the low energy diet they need.
• Concentrate key activities in specially designed areas e.g. covered feeding areas and multi-use surfaces (grassed arenas that can be used for training and grazing). Watering points at a central site can reduce set up costs and encourage horses to get more exercise.

Resources

Information about moving horses in NSW

PIC information for horse owners

University of Maryland Rotational Grazing Institute

Weed information

Equiculture resources and books

Event partners

This field day is made possible with funding from the Australian Government. We also thank the following for their contribution:

• ACT Regional Landcare Facilitator and ACT NRM with funding from the Australian Governments National Landcare Programme
• Future PLANS and Small Farms Network Capital Region – volunteer committees
• Geoff, Mark and volunteers from Manna Park Agistment Centre