Wow, this is absolutely the best way to keep domesticated horses happy, relaxed and skilled. They learn to use their feet, intuition and mind. I've also never before seen a domesticated horse eat water plants and ice plates.
Thank you for your kind words. All horses still are in very close contact with their natural instincts. They just need the opportunity to live them and show them. It’s so wonderful to watch.
This track system was the inspiration for my own, love it! We have had it for about 2 years and the benefits for your horses; good overall health, always available limited pasture grazing, excellent feet, muscle development...
I've lived in places that had a number of paddocks separated by paths and thick bush, by accident, and I loved it. I see a big open 100 acre paddock now and I think, my horses would be super bored here!
looks lovely. one question: when introducing a new horse and not risk injury because of fighting how do you manage that? Especially those of us who have a variety of rescued equines with behavioral challenges do need a way to manage introductions wisely and cautiously, rather than let mother nature sort it out, which can easily lead to compound fractures, nasty bite wounds and other injuries and thus costs.
This is so thorough and engaging! Thank you, whole-heartedly, for creating and sharing your work and all the natural behavior of your herd over the years. It is truly a treasure to experience!
TrickleCreekFarm Thank you for your lovely compliments! It has been my pleasure to make and show this film. I hope it will give many horse owners new ideas about keeping horses and taking care them.
Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful paddock paradise. I have just started mine and yours is such an inspiration. We are actually on 10 acres but that in itself is a problem, so I am in the process of converting 1 paddock, approx 2 acres into a track system. I have two horses and I am confident already that it will make a huge difference for my metabolic QH.
This video was a chance happening for me today. I am designing a track on my property so that my horses can enjoy the same freedom. I love the hill and the watering hole. I have a spring so there is plenty of water for that. The hard part is grazing. I don't have much place for that. I love the confidence that this video gives me that I am doing the right thing. People around me don't understand the concept. I will share it with people so that they can.
Wonderful video! Wow! I could have watched all day. Thank you for illustrating the layout so well and allowing us to enjoy each aspect of your Pasture Paradise! It truly is. I also REALLY appreciate the rotational paddock system for grazing in the middle. Excellent!
Absolutely beautiful! I love every detail in this video. Love the pictures, the sensitivity of how delicately every scene of the film is chose, how the pictures melt with each other and with the music. Sometimes this beautiful music rise my soul to the sky and sometimes the nature's sound with all those birds singing bring my body to the ground. Love every movement of this settled herd and how they interact with each other and with nature, but the most I love in this video is how a person can be so caretaking with animals and nature and make the effort to share it with us. THANK YOU FOR SHARING! You have really got to my heart.
My one weird dream is to be on a horses back while it's just relaxing in the pasture and just sees where it goes. I'll keep an eye out for any crazy movements on lie downs. ETC. I think it would be fun, relaxing being on a horses back in the wild!!
Now THIS is the way to keep horses! BRILLIANT. I might rather use tape than wire for a better visual barrier. But this is really SWEET! A paddock the way a horse would design it. :)
Thank you. It's a beautiful life. You've really helped me with my paddock design. Happy horse, happy life. I can't wait to show my family so they can see the vision I have for our ponies. thanks again
Absolutely magical! Thank you for the tour. Your ponies have the BEST LIFE! So natural! We are putting in a Paddock Paradise track at our ranch here in CA. THanks for sharing
Thank you for your kind compliment :-). Actually I should make a new film because the PP has become twice as big and includes a 250 metre woodtrack now!
Dear Gydjulind, thanks so very much for sharing your video. It is extremely helpful. I am reading the book about Paradise Paddocks and seeing yours has been wonderful. Looking forward to make a paradise paddock in the land we just bought!
+xDoornroos Thanks for your comment :-). Yes, it has been quite some work, but the nice thing about a paddock paradise is that it 'grows organically' over the years. You keep seeing new possibilities and opportunities to improve the PP and it's a lot of fun to see it grow that way and to offer the horses more and more pleasure.
+Gydjulind Very cool! Your horses are very pretty and fun to watch. How do you prevent the tracks from getting super muddy? Paddock sand? It rains here quite a lot. I'm already fantasizing about my own PP, but I have limited space. Do you think it will work to have a water bucket at a dead end of a track or would that feel 'unsafe' to them?
+xDoornroos I am blessed with a very dry lot, with natural sand; I didn't add any sand anywhere. It can get just a bit muddy in some spots in the paddocks but especially the longest tracks are superdry! Just an occasional puddle here and there. In which country are you? I'm in Holland (and I guess you might be too, considering your name), which is usually very wet, so I realize I have quite an exceptional situation here. As to the dead end: I would never do that, as it is the principle of a PP that a horse can always escape if it wants to, so I would either make a circular route, or let the track end in a paddock with sufficient space for the horses to turn around, even at high speed, and without the risk of getting trapped by a dominant horse.
What a fabulous video!! The very best I've ever seen on this subject. I'm going to use it as inspiration for my own PP this Spring. I'm so excited to see the possibilities. Thanks so much for taking the time to put this together and share it!
I just recently learned about Pasture Paradise! I have been researching all about the concept so we can create one for our horse! Your's is amazing! I got so many great ideas from your video! Thanks so much! Your horses and property are gorgeous!
Elisa Livingston Thank you Elisa :-). Your comment is exactly the reason I made this film: to give people ideas on how to improve the lives of their horses. I would love to see how your PP turns out!
What an excellent video! I know I want a paddock paradise track for my rescued mini when I have my own property, but I got lots of good, new ideas watching this (like the strip grazing). Thank you!
What a wonderful video of a wonderful paradise for horses! Thank you for sharing the lovely videos and your ideas how to create a paddock paradise. I could ask a lot of questions now because there are so many details you show in this video. :-)
Lost track of how many times I have watched your video - just lovely and so peaceful. Can you tell me what the horses were eating from the waterhole? Looks a bit like tiny floating clover.
What a beautifully made film showing your paddock paradise set up. you've done so well with 2.3 acres! We have a track around a 2 acre pasture, with 2 horses on it.
Joyce MROZIELSKI This PP is 2.5 acres, and then we have another PP at the end of our street, which is approx. 3.2 acres. We usually take the horses there for summer, as in winter it's too wet and muddy there (so yes, we do have mud over there ;-)). The rest of the year we keep them in the high, dry PP at home.
Great work, what an awesome track. I have 8.5 acres, but it gets flooded and I would hate to have all my work washed away every year or two. They have been on track, but I'm working on them getting there again. My two aged horses really need the extra movement. Some great ideas on your track.
Thanks Ann :-). You mean really flooded, or 'just' very muddy? In the latter case you could try and apply paddock tiles or something (don't know what it's called in English, I mean something like this: www.paddockplatten.org/unsere-platten-produkte/die-paddockplatte/ ). That's what I'm planning on doing in my other track system, which is a lot wetter than the one in the video. Good luck with your plans!
+Gydjulind yeah I mean a river through the paddock type flooding. We had water through in Feb and had to pull all the pickets and electric tape cause they would've washed away.
Love, love this idea of paddock paradise for horses. Thank you for creating this video and showing your very happy horse lives. Would you use wood posts and hot braid or metal posts and no climb horse fence to do a track through the woods? Should I clear along the fence lines so fence doesn't touch or leave it and let horses take care of it?And how many feet wide for the track? For horse and mini donkey for approximately 1.0 - 1.5 acres of track that will join a .75 acre dry lot paddock.
Thanks for the compliment :-)! I can't give you advice on which posts to use, that's all a matter of your own preference. I only have experience with the wooden posts, but I'm in Holland where the ground is usually very soft. I can imagine that with e.g. rocky ground it's a totally different story ;-). Clearing along the fence line: just keep an eye on it. Sometimes horses will clear it, sometimes they won't, also depending on the plants growing there. Track width is also a matter of preference; my track is between 6.5 - 8.5 ft, but some people find this far too narrow. For my ponies it's perfect, but for a big horse or very wild youngsters it may not be. Just follow your own gut feeling ;-).
What type of cleanup do you do to keep the track manure free? (Scooping by hand/ tractor?) Also how often? I've been a barefoot farrier 10 years & I'd like to finally set a track up for my horses & dairy goats. The strip grazing would be ideal to mimic Allan Savory's land restoration with multi species (in my case horses & the goat herd) to better balance our pastures. For example, horses eat down the grasses they like, but leave the weeds untouched, which go to seed & spread. Eventually you have a lot more weeds than grass. Thats where the goats come in, as they eat weeds due to the weeds having longer roots to get the minerals goats require. It's so exciting to finally start this when spring comes!! Thanks for filming your set up!
Thanks for your comment. The combination horses-goats sounds great! We clean the tracks and paddocks twice a day, by hand scooping, and I use an electric wheelbarrow (Zallys Dumper Jet) to spare my back. Lots of luck with setting up your track!
@@Gydjulind - That's great! Sounds like you guys keep it maintained well! Are you in a warm climate? Where I am it gets -40 so manure quickly freezes to the ground. During the spring we collect all of the manure that's piled up over winter, then keep up during the months that don't freeze- usually scooping twice per week. We have a dump cart on our riding mower which is also a God send! Haha
Wonderful to see so many natural behaviours. I could watch them all day. Very soothing ! So i'm new to track turn out, so wondering if/when they get to graze the bit in the middle and what you do with that bit ! Is that saved for hay making ? Or do they get some limited time just in there ? Or do you sometimes move the track boundaries to allow them to graze a strip ?
Hi Claire, I can reply ‘yes’ to all of your questions, but it all depends on the horse, the amount of available pasture surface, the season, the weather, etc. etc. This video is a few years old and meanwhile we have doubled the size of our paddock paradise, which means we now have enough pasture to both let our horses graze and to make hay in summer as well. At the moment we have a herd of five; three 30+ aged horses, who get as much grazing turn out as possible year round because they need it, and two 20 yr old mares, who are both of the insulin resistant type (one of them even laminitis prone), who have very little pasture turn out, actually none at all during the past year since they were both quite overweight (Icelandic horses can be quite difficult to manage food-wise). After a year of feeding these two a limited amount of hay they are both in perfect condition now. We’ll have to see how to go from here with them; perhaps with a little bit of grazing time this coming spring/summer, with some added hay, we don’t know yet. It’s a matter of always keeping an eye on the individual needs of each horse. The BIG advantage of the paddock paradise system is that even when they are not allowed to graze, they are still able to roam around the tracks, find some hay and other little bits to eat here and there and have a good time. Much better than feeling bored in a small paddock! You can also find videos of the later addition to my PP on my channel. Best wishes, Mai
@Gydjulind thank you so much for your reply - I'll def look at the other video. I hear you re Icelandics - their breeding enables them to live through an Icelandic winter - I swear they thrive on lava rock, lichen and tree bark ! I used to work at an Icelandic Horse yard and rode a British Champion ! Used to make me laugh how the fouler the weather, the more game and forward going they would become. Seemed to particularly enjoy horizontal sleet ! Such fantastic horses, but yes, ridiculously 'good doers' to a fault !
Thank you for the compliment :-). We have never had problems with excessive amounts of insects around the waterhole, and it's only 10 metres or so from our bedroom window. We do have lots of barn swallows in spring and summer, so they probably help a lot to keep insects down.
I love my Paddock Paradise. I am actually expanding it. I would love to see how you did your gates for the pasture. I like that idea and can use that for mine.
Hi Lisa, I kept the gates very simple; just electric cord, grips and connectors. Grips like this one: 554cb3b75ce1cd4b4840-9d380db976cd044c222698ed983c0846.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/Universelepoortgreepzwart.JPG ----- and the connectors to connect the grips to the wire: postmagauw.nl/images/content/large/span/poortgreepankers-4st.jpg
Thank you the first link would not open but the second did. Now I get the idea but have never seen the insulator before Can you tell me where you got that?
Here you can see both the handle and the connecting insulator in one picture (if you can open it that is ;-) ) : l7.alamy.com/zooms/1afca9f96c664700925393f759617d9e/handle-on-electric-fence-to-allow-safe-disconection-for-stock-management-b5kn7j.jpg . I'm not familiar with the English terms for these parts as I'm Dutch, but perhaps you know the Gallagher company? They have everything for fences, so I'm sure you should be able to find these parts there. Good luck!
You are Dutch, de Kramer is suppose to be Dutch. How about that. Yes I do know the Gallagher company I will look for those insulators. I have the gate handles. Thank you so much
Hi Lisa, yes I had noticed your name, which is definitely Dutch! However I reckoned you were not Dutch yourself, from your perfect English ;-). I wish you lots of luck with your PP!
I really love this idea. I've watched this a couple times. I have a few questions ... curious what the size of the pasture is? And how big the strip grazing sections are? And how often they move to the next one? Do you water the whole pasture or just the section that has most recently been grazed? It would be awesome to know the rough sizes of the paddocks also. This is about the same size we have available for three horses so I'm trying to layout their track system to maximize the space. Thank you so much.
Very nice set up for small acreage. Land is so expensive here in the Denver, Colorado area that is what we will probably get. It is semi arid here, although this year we have received a lot of rain. I'm interested in the water hole. Is it spring fed? Do you supplement the water somehow? I had my horse at a boarding facility that had a water hole and it would turn into an awful , Mirey, yucky mess....dirty water and manure. I wouldn't want that. Would have to research plants and trees for this area. I would have thought chewing on wood left out would cause collick. What kind of logs were those on your property? Thank you for the ideas.
I love this! I'm in the process of building a paddock paradise boarding facility in Maine and am working on my website. would it be ok with you if i have a link to your video on the site to help illustrate what it is like?
Marja, I watched this video this morning when I got up and I felt so peaceful the whole time. I have been doing what I can here to make a track around the field. I have a out 2 acres as well, with only 2 horses. I am just about to level a place out for a small arena and my round pen. Is there an app you used to put the map of your place up and highlight the different areas. That made it so easy to see. I have a natural pond and woods around that I could include in the track as well. I wish you lived close so I could consult you. Maybe a vacation to beautiful Orcas island is in your future. You could stay with us and ride my icy's on our trails thru the woods!
+ritzydoodle Hi Ritzy (is that what you are actually called, or is it Ritambhara?). I'm happy to hear that it made you feel so peaceful! Please could you send me your email address through a Facebook PM?
Jo Heritage First we drilled a small hole in the dryest time of year (august/september) to see how deep the groundwater level was. Then I drew a plan with the depth of the waterhole about 80 cm lower than the groundwater level (so that the waterhole would never dry up), a steep bank on one side and a very gradual one on the other side. If you search for 'poel 9 september 2011' here on TH-cam, you'll find the video that shows how our waterhole was dug.
Hi Gydjulind! What an amazing video this is! Thanks so much for sharing! May I ask one question to which I haven't yet found an answer in the comments, please? How did you "fix" the hill? I guess just throwing soil onto one spot won't be enough, right? How does it get firm enough to hold the weight of several horses? Thanks again and greetings from Luxembourg.
Hi Laura, thanks for your compliments :-)! Yes, it is in fact as simple as throwing ground on the spot you have in mind for your hill ;-). In our case the hill was made the same day as the pool was dug, so it was made from the ground that came out the poolhole. Of course it takes time for the hill to set and get firm, but that happens naturally over time and of course the horses also help by climbing it and walking on it. In the case of the hill in this video, the digging machine drove over it once or twice after it was made, to make it a bit firmer, but it isn't really necessary. We had another pool dug and hill created just two weeks ago (in another part of our PP that is not in the above video). It is a much smaller and lower hill than the first one (because the ground was also used for other purposes) - towards the end of this video you can see how it was made: th-cam.com/video/5bwr4BfOqEM/w-d-xo.html
Hi! Thank you for the quick reply! I can't wait to get started now! :-) You really inspired me! Thank you again and all the best to you and your horses!
Sure you can ask ;-). To be precise, our whole lot is 2,81 acres (1,1374 hectares), included our house and yard. Without those - so the actual 'horse territory' as shown at 0:30 - it's approx. 2.5 acres. A few years ago we were able to add a second PP of 3.2 acres, connected to the first PP through a 250 metres long wood track, which you can see in several of my other videos. So now it's a total of 5.7 acres (almost 2.5 hectares). Thanks for the compliment!
@@Gydjulind ,the best set up I have seen yet as a retired studfarm manager I am still always thinking of how things can be improving for horses that are not involved in breeding. Looking forward to seeing the rest of your videos
It looks great. I would just worry about the horses ingesting sand. Also they are grazing even the smallest bit of grass coming through the sand or on the borders of the paddock. I have a little pony right now with laminitis, not even fat, but it seems rain on short grass can induce laminitis. I have been thinking in doing a paddock paradise more for winter use but I would use something more coarse than sand and even if it's an increase cost a better preparation of the ground to avoid grass coming through. This is not a critic of your paddock just stating how I would do mine, your paddock paradise is great, easy made and good use of space. :)
Anne-Marie GARCIA Thanks for your comment :-). I know a lot of people share your concern about sand ingestion as it's said to cause sand colic. I don't have the knowledge to say what the exact cause of sand colic is. The only thing I know is that my horses have been nibbling the short grass off the dirt ever since I started keeping horses, which was 25 years ago, and they never suffered from sand colic or laminitis. It's said that feeding enough fibres is necessary to transport any sand through the intestines, so I think feeding hay is important, even during the pasture season. I hope you'll find the right solution for your pony :-).
Gydjulind Thanks for answering. Sand in the intestine accumulates from horses eating on sandy ground. I have thought about it and I will say since your horses are getting hay from haynets not fed on the ground, sand ingested would be minimal. An easy way to know if they are eating sand is to have their manure checked :) If you horses are kept like you do, they have minimal chances to get laminitis. The problem is managing a horse/pony that has already got it before. Once they have had it they are more prone to it. Your horses are happy and move more and less bored than in a paddock. May I suggest to add salt lick blocks in different places so they move to get feed, then salt and more movement for water :) Good job. Thanks for sharing.
Anne-Marie GARCIA Yes, I know about the manure check. I believe there will always be a certain amount of sand in a horse's intestines, as it's very natural for a horse to 'graze the dirt' for edible things, and even with grazing in a pasture they will ingest grass roots and hence sand now and then. I think it's like with worms; a horse is never wormfree, but it's a matter of balance; a small amount is only natural and doesn't hurt the horse. An interesting thing is that there is a certain spot on the bank of my waterhole, where the soil looks kind of clay-ish, where my entire herd loves to lick the ground and even eat mouths full of soil during a period in spring. There must be something in that soil during that period that they love and crave. I trust their instincts and always just let them; I've never seen any negative side effects of it (b.t.w. they do get their mineral and vitamin supplements ;-) ). I believe that all kinds of excessive behaviour, e.g. ingesting lots of sand, often come from boredom and can be very hard to 'un-learn' once they have become ingrained patterns.As to the laminitis, which I believe is related to other metabolic diseases like insulin resistance, summer itch etc.: I'm a true believer of 'less is more'. I have a gelding who suffered from severe summer itch in the past (he used to be covered with bloody spots during summer). It was clear that something was wrong with his metabolism as he was also permanently overweight and nothing I did made him lose weight. Until I found out that fresh, green grass triggered his itch a lot! With the help of a book on solving summer itch with feeding, I took him off the grass for one whole year and fed him only hay. This completely reset his metabolism; he lost a lot of weight (and never got overweight again after that) and his summer itch decreased with about 80%. After that year I slowly re-introduced grass and found out that two hours of grazing a day is his limit to keep his itch under control. He lives mainly on good hay now and is a lot healthier and happier.I don't mean to tell you that this would work for your pony too, because I can not know that as each horse is a unique individual, but just to illustrate how well an approach of 'less rich food' worked out for my horse. And the nice thing of a paddock paradise is that I can always feed him hay on the track, closest to the part of the pasture where his herd mates are grazing (you can see him eat his hay on the track at 6:10 ) so they're still 'together' :-).Funny that you mentioned the salt blocks; I do have one in their run-in shed, but I was planning to add a few more in different places around the track, perhaps embedded in a pile of rocks or something :-).
Hey! I have heard putting fine gravel around the waterhole maybe once every couple of years is great for there feet and really good for barefoot strengthening.
I really love your paddock paradise...I hope to do one like this in the next year or two...couple of questions if you don't mind...in the winter time, do you take the Inner fencing down, thereby giving them access to the entire pasture?? and what do you do if it rains in the winter, then freezes and then snows on top?? are the horses able to still walk thru it without slipping??
Thanks for the compliment Pat. No I don't take the inner fence down in winter; during winter our pastures are not used, as they also need rest and also there's hardly any grass left in winter, so the horses would only ruin the pasture.I can't remember ever having had what you describe: rain, then frost and then snow on top of it. It doesn't snow very much in winter around here, sometimes there's no snow at all. And frost not that much either, although it varies from year to year. Anyway, usually I just give them the opportunity to find out for themselves whether they can walk the tracks or not during any circumstances.
I only have an acre, but need to do something for my Icie who is so sensitive to grasses other than just lock him up in a corral. He is not a fan of grazing muzzles and gets them off. They aren't really an answer. -- I'm going to try this idea.
Hi Meg, I hope paddock Paradise will be able to solve your horse's problem. Just a bit of advice: make sure you install the lowest electric wire of the fence around the pasture close enough to the ground, so that your horse won't be able to still snatch the grassy edges. This is something horses in paddock Paradise often get very clever at and keep themselves busy with for hours. You don't want them to eat a lot of grass this way after all ;-).
Maya Raza Thank you Maya :-). Yes, I think I can say that my horses are happy horses. You're right, the soil is very sandy and it's the natural soil, we didn't put anything else on top of it.
Great Paddock-Trail :-)))) The waterhole: Was that naturally there or did you place it there? If you placed it there, how do you manage to keep the water and even more important: How do you prevent it from getting mouldy and stinky in the summer? Greetings :-)
Bonnies Mondra Thanks for the compliment :-).No, the waterhole wasn't there at first, we had it dug in September 2011, and then the hill was made with the ground from the waterhole. You could see a waterhole as a kind of 'organism' and when it's big enough (and this one is) then it should be able to keep itself biologically clean. But it can take a few years before it reaches that balance. Over the years we have seen the water gradually becoming cleaner. At first it had a lot of algae on the surface and one summer we had weird pink flakes in the water which turned out to be some kind of bacterial pollution, but it disappeared and didn't come back. Last year there were no algae and instead we saw a lot of duckweed (which the horses loved!). So I guess the waterhole is going through all kinds of phases and slowly coming into a more balanced state now. B.t.w. the horses always have a free choice between drinking from the waterhole or tapwater from a tub. They usually prefer the waterhole.
Gydjulind Thank you for the quick answer :-)Did the horses drink the water even with the bacterial pollution or did they drink the tab-water then? And if they drank it, did it harm them in any way? Sorry for all the questions, but we are thinking of creating one too and experiences concerning that are very valuable! Greetings :-)
Bonnies Mondra While the pink flakes were in the waterhole we closed off the area for the horses, so they couldn't drink there, just to be sure. This is what the pink stuff looked like: th-cam.com/video/y0BfL_9D1gIG/w-d-xo.htmlood luck with creating your waterhole :-)!
+francine aubort If I'm right you're asking me about the time it took me to organize this place? (My French is not that good ;-) ). I really can't answer that question since a PP is kind of an 'organism' that changes and grows over the years. I can only say that I started it about 7 or 8 years ago I guess (not even sure).
+Gydjulind thank you for your answer. I'll start small , I think it will take me 10 years. I have a plot of 16'000m2 , c is not much but I'll try . what surface you ?
+francine aubort 16,000 m2 is great; I know lots of people who only have about 2,500 or 3,500 m2 and manage to build a PP. We just have natural sand here and put nothing else on the tracks.
Ken het filmpje inmiddels uit mijn hoofd, zelfs na een paar jaar haal ik er nog weleens inspiratie uit :) enig idee hoe groot je heuvel is Marja? Lijkt me de perfecte maat voor hier.
Hoi Linsey, leuk om te horen dat je zoveel aan de film hebt 👍. De berg in de video is ca. 45 m lang en ca. 10 m breed (onderaan). Een paar jaar geleden heb ik de berg wat speelser laten maken, met afwisselend hogere en lagere gedeeltes. Ik vond dat rechte, platte te saai 😁.
I obviously need to do a lot more research on this! Do you not need to put some sort of base down to stop them sinking? Or does it depend on soil type etc? Is ground water always clean enough for them to drink?
Jo Heritage You mean the horses' hooves sinking into the ground? We didn't do that and I never thought of it either ;-). I wouldn't know if it's necessary with certain types of soil, I only have experience with our own waterhole.Not every ground water is clean enough to drink I guess; my horses can choose between the waterhole and a trough with tap water and they use both. I trust their instincts on this.
I don’t know about all the ‘safe’ trees, so you would have to do a bit of research on the internet about that. We have willow, oak, birch and elder trees. The willows are the only ones we planted ourselves. I did not build an all weather surface; we are lucky enough to have natural high and dry sandy soil on this plot.
During winter we only let our oldest horses (27, 27, 32) graze (during daytime), as they have more problems chewing and digesting hay than the younger ones. We don't have enough pasture for all our horses during the winter, so we save the grass for the oldies, since they need it the most.
Wow, this is absolutely the best way to keep domesticated horses happy, relaxed and skilled. They learn to use their feet, intuition and mind. I've also never before seen a domesticated horse eat water plants and ice plates.
Thank you for your kind words. All horses still are in very close contact with their natural instincts. They just need the opportunity to live them and show them. It’s so wonderful to watch.
This track system was the inspiration for my own, love it! We have had it for about 2 years and the benefits for your horses; good overall health, always available limited pasture grazing, excellent feet, muscle development...
I've lived in places that had a number of paddocks separated by paths and thick bush, by accident, and I loved it. I see a big open 100 acre paddock now and I think, my horses would be super bored here!
Thank you so much for the tour. I wanted to grab a lawn chair and just follow your heard all over the place. What an Edenic place.
Thank you for your kind words!
looks lovely. one question: when introducing a new horse and not risk injury because of fighting how do you manage that? Especially those of us who have a variety of rescued equines with behavioral challenges do need a way to manage introductions wisely and cautiously, rather than let mother nature sort it out, which can easily lead to compound fractures, nasty bite wounds and other injuries and thus costs.
This is so thorough and engaging! Thank you, whole-heartedly, for creating and sharing your work and all the natural behavior of your herd over the years. It is truly a treasure to experience!
TrickleCreekFarm Thank you for your lovely compliments! It has been my pleasure to make and show this film. I hope it will give many horse owners new ideas about keeping horses and taking care them.
Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful paddock paradise. I have just started mine and yours is such an inspiration. We are actually on 10 acres but that in itself is a problem, so I am in the process of converting 1 paddock, approx 2 acres into a track system. I have two horses and I am confident already that it will make a huge difference for my metabolic QH.
This video was a chance happening for me today. I am designing a track on my property so that my horses can enjoy the same freedom. I love the hill and the watering hole. I have a spring so there is plenty of water for that. The hard part is grazing. I don't have much place for that. I love the confidence that this video gives me that I am doing the right thing. People around me don't understand the concept. I will share it with people so that they can.
I love it getting two horses and a donkey soon. Trying to figure out a design for dry paddock and pasture.
Wonderful video! Wow! I could have watched all day. Thank you for illustrating the layout so well and allowing us to enjoy each aspect of your Pasture Paradise! It truly is. I also REALLY appreciate the rotational paddock system for grazing in the middle. Excellent!
Thank you for your compliments!
Absolutely beautiful! I love every detail in this video. Love the pictures, the sensitivity of how delicately every scene of the film is chose, how the pictures melt with each other and with the music. Sometimes this beautiful music rise my soul to the sky and sometimes the nature's sound with all those birds singing bring my body to the ground.
Love every movement of this settled herd and how they interact with each other and with nature, but the most I love in this video is how a person can be so caretaking with animals and nature and make the effort to share it with us.
THANK YOU FOR SHARING! You have really got to my heart.
Thank you so much María ♥!! Your words mean the world to me, as you feel and understand this video exactly the way I hoped it to be :-)!
This is the most amazing and helpful video. Thank you so much ❤
You’re welcome!
My one weird dream is to be on a horses back while it's just relaxing in the pasture and just sees where it goes. I'll keep an eye out for any crazy movements on lie downs. ETC. I think it would be fun, relaxing being on a horses back in the wild!!
LOVE THIS VIDEO!! This has inspired me to do something similar for my own. Very thorough and I love how you include every season.
Thanks Megan. Nice to know that my video inspired you!
Now THIS is the way to keep horses! BRILLIANT. I might rather use tape than wire for a better visual barrier. But this is really SWEET! A paddock the way a horse would design it. :)
I've never seen such happy ponies!! I wish this was method adopted for cows too.
Just lovely! Thanks for sharing your track with us!
My pleasure 😉👍!
Sweet Inspiration. Thank you! Love the fat and woolly winter horses!
Thank you. It's a beautiful life. You've really helped me with my paddock design. Happy horse, happy life. I can't wait to show my family so they can see the vision I have for our ponies. thanks again
Elissa Bent You're welcome :-)! Thanks for your comment.
So lovely to see horses being horses, and all the better for it. Beautiful video.
Watching this was so relaxing, your horses are beautiful.
+Nora Koch Thank you Nora :-)!
Absolutely magical! Thank you for the tour. Your ponies have the BEST LIFE! So natural! We are putting in a Paddock Paradise track at our ranch here in CA. THanks for sharing
You're welcome Elaine - good luck with making your PP track :-)!
Thanks for sharing. Lucky horses. Very inspirational 🇮🇪🍀💚
This was such an incredible video! Thank you for taking the time to share with us and learn on how to make our equine landscapes a home to our horses.
Thank you for your kind words
How big is the land it covers?
such an awe inspiring video, great tool to show people considering such a positive change. thanks
Sure gives us something to think about. Thank you for filming this.
Your horses are beautiful
This truely is a paradise 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻😁
So beautifully illustrated. Your horses are fortunate to have you. And such nice movers too!
Cheers from Ottawa, Canada 🍁
+remedyfarm Thanks for your lovely words :-)!
Simply amazing Utopia for horses. So well thought out and your happy horses are the proof!
Thank you for your kind compliment :-). Actually I should make a new film because the PP has become twice as big and includes a 250 metre woodtrack now!
wonderful, thank you for this great job and your creative inspire.
Thank you for your kind compliment ❤️.
Just stumbled onto this video. Super use of space. Now I'm confident that 2 or 3 acres is plenty of room for two horses if done right.
For two horses that would absolutely be enough space. Have fun designing ;-)!
Dear Gydjulind, thanks so very much for sharing your video. It is extremely helpful. I am reading the book about Paradise Paddocks and seeing yours has been wonderful. Looking forward to make a paradise paddock in the land we just bought!
You’re welcome! Lots of luck with setting up your paddock paradise!
Absolutely beautiful. Thank you for sharing.
This is so great, thankyou for sharing
Thank you!
What a lovely peaceful place. Very inspirational video. Thanks for creating this
Thanks for the compliment :-)!
Thank you so much for sharing this amazing paradise for horses. Would love to live close to you :) I was really blown away....
You're really allowing your horses to be 'horse'! Very inspiring, must have taken quite some work but well worth it.
+xDoornroos Thanks for your comment :-). Yes, it has been quite some work, but the nice thing about a paddock paradise is that it 'grows organically' over the years. You keep seeing new possibilities and opportunities to improve the PP and it's a lot of fun to see it grow that way and to offer the horses more and more pleasure.
+Gydjulind Very cool! Your horses are very pretty and fun to watch. How do you prevent the tracks from getting super muddy? Paddock sand? It rains here quite a lot. I'm already fantasizing about my own PP, but I have limited space. Do you think it will work to have a water bucket at a dead end of a track or would that feel 'unsafe' to them?
+xDoornroos I am blessed with a very dry lot, with natural sand; I didn't add any sand anywhere. It can get just a bit muddy in some spots in the paddocks but especially the longest tracks are superdry! Just an occasional puddle here and there. In which country are you? I'm in Holland (and I guess you might be too, considering your name), which is usually very wet, so I realize I have quite an exceptional situation here. As to the dead end: I would never do that, as it is the principle of a PP that a horse can always escape if it wants to, so I would either make a circular route, or let the track end in a paddock with sufficient space for the horses to turn around, even at high speed, and without the risk of getting trapped by a dominant horse.
This is an awesome video highlighting the amazing benefits of track living 😊💕👍🏽
Thank you, Ursula!
beautiful job. You have given my creative mind a jolt of energy
Thanks for the compliment and lots of success with bringing your creative ideas into practice ;-)!
This is truly a superb video Marja. congratualtions!
+Mary Barrett Hi Mary! Thank you :-)!
This is so beautiful and inspiring!
miluc v Thank you! And yes, that is my objective with this video: to show what PP can do for horses :-).
What a fabulous video!! The very best I've ever seen on this subject. I'm going to use it as inspiration for my own PP this Spring. I'm so excited to see the possibilities. Thanks so much for taking the time to put this together and share it!
+Leigh Cowden Thanks for the lovely comment and good luck with your PP!
+Gydjulind I'm sure I'll be back here over and over as I put mine together. Your horses look so happy. All horses should have a life like this.
Great set up and so much fun to watch!!
Thank you :-)!
Extremely informational, thank you so much for sharing this! We are setting up our now.
I just recently learned about Pasture Paradise! I have been researching all about the concept so we can create one for our horse! Your's is amazing! I got so many great ideas from your video! Thanks so much! Your horses and property are gorgeous!
Elisa Livingston Thank you Elisa :-). Your comment is exactly the reason I made this film: to give people ideas on how to improve the lives of their horses. I would love to see how your PP turns out!
Smart and well designed set up
What an excellent video! I know I want a paddock paradise track for my rescued mini when I have my own property, but I got lots of good, new ideas watching this (like the strip grazing). Thank you!
Thank you Lacey, and good luck with building your own paddock Paradise :-)!
Wonderfull and peacefull video. Thank you !!!
What a wonderful video of a wonderful paradise for horses! Thank you for sharing the lovely videos and your ideas how to create a paddock paradise. I could ask a lot of questions now because there are so many details you show in this video. :-)
Lost track of how many times I have watched your video - just lovely and so peaceful. Can you tell me what the horses were eating from the waterhole? Looks a bit like tiny floating clover.
They were eating duckweed. Thanks for letting me know how much you enjoy my video 🙂.
This video is inspirational, thank you for sharing.
Such a great and inspiring video! Thank you
It looks beautiful! Happy horses !!
Beautiful. Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks for making this awesome video. It was very enlightening.
What a beautifully made film showing your paddock paradise set up. you've done so well with 2.3 acres! We have a track around a 2 acre pasture, with 2 horses on it.
Brilliant, really is a horse paradise :-)
Thank you!
Great video. The foal is sooo cut !
Can't love this enough!!
Thank you for a very good video.
Wonderful, thats a really paradies!
Great video. I regret not seeing the mud and how you deal with it.
Thanks Joyce. We are blessed with a very dry piece of ground here, so I don't have anything to tell about mud ;-).
Gydjulind Ohh, lucky you!!! How big is the PP?
Joyce MROZIELSKI This PP is 2.5 acres, and then we have another PP at the end of our street, which is approx. 3.2 acres. We usually take the horses there for summer, as in winter it's too wet and muddy there (so yes, we do have mud over there ;-)). The rest of the year we keep them in the high, dry PP at home.
Great video! And you have beautiful horses!
Love this ! You did a great job.
Great work, what an awesome track. I have 8.5 acres, but it gets flooded and I would hate to have all my work washed away every year or two. They have been on track, but I'm working on them getting there again. My two aged horses really need the extra movement. Some great ideas on your track.
Thanks Ann :-). You mean really flooded, or 'just' very muddy? In the latter case you could try and apply paddock tiles or something (don't know what it's called in English, I mean something like this: www.paddockplatten.org/unsere-platten-produkte/die-paddockplatte/ ). That's what I'm planning on doing in my other track system, which is a lot wetter than the one in the video. Good luck with your plans!
+Gydjulind yeah I mean a river through the paddock type flooding. We had water through in Feb and had to pull all the pickets and electric tape cause they would've washed away.
Wow... little to be done about that I guess....
Love this!!
Love, love this idea of paddock paradise for horses. Thank you for creating this video and showing your very happy horse lives. Would you use wood posts and hot braid or metal posts and no climb horse fence to do a track through the woods? Should I clear along the fence lines so fence doesn't touch or leave it and let horses take care of it?And how many feet wide for the track? For horse and mini donkey for approximately 1.0 - 1.5 acres of track that will join a .75 acre dry lot paddock.
Thanks for the compliment :-)! I can't give you advice on which posts to use, that's all a matter of your own preference. I only have experience with the wooden posts, but I'm in Holland where the ground is usually very soft. I can imagine that with e.g. rocky ground it's a totally different story ;-). Clearing along the fence line: just keep an eye on it. Sometimes horses will clear it, sometimes they won't, also depending on the plants growing there. Track width is also a matter of preference; my track is between 6.5 - 8.5 ft, but some people find this far too narrow. For my ponies it's perfect, but for a big horse or very wild youngsters it may not be. Just follow your own gut feeling ;-).
What type of cleanup do you do to keep the track manure free? (Scooping by hand/ tractor?) Also how often? I've been a barefoot farrier 10 years & I'd like to finally set a track up for my horses & dairy goats. The strip grazing would be ideal to mimic Allan Savory's land restoration with multi species (in my case horses & the goat herd) to better balance our pastures. For example, horses eat down the grasses they like, but leave the weeds untouched, which go to seed & spread. Eventually you have a lot more weeds than grass. Thats where the goats come in, as they eat weeds due to the weeds having longer roots to get the minerals goats require. It's so exciting to finally start this when spring comes!! Thanks for filming your set up!
Thanks for your comment. The combination horses-goats sounds great! We clean the tracks and paddocks twice a day, by hand scooping, and I use an electric wheelbarrow (Zallys Dumper Jet) to spare my back. Lots of luck with setting up your track!
@@Gydjulind - That's great! Sounds like you guys keep it maintained well! Are you in a warm climate? Where I am it gets -40 so manure quickly freezes to the ground. During the spring we collect all of the manure that's piled up over winter, then keep up during the months that don't freeze- usually scooping twice per week. We have a dump cart on our riding mower which is also a God send! Haha
@@renewyourmind1815 I'm in Holland, where we have a quite rainy, damp climate, not particularly warm, but not extremely cold either.
very well done!
Really inspiring, thank you!
You're welcome Andréa :-)!
Prachtige film geworden! Zeer inspirerend :)
Yolanda Timmermans Dankjewel Yolanda :-)!
Very nice video Marja!
Stina Herberg Thanks Stina :-)!
Wonderful to see so many natural behaviours. I could watch them all day. Very soothing ! So i'm new to track turn out, so wondering if/when they get to graze the bit in the middle and what you do with that bit ! Is that saved for hay making ? Or do they get some limited time just in there ? Or do you sometimes move the track boundaries to allow them to graze a strip ?
Hi Claire, I can reply ‘yes’ to all of your questions, but it all depends on the horse, the amount of available pasture surface, the season, the weather, etc. etc. This video is a few years old and meanwhile we have doubled the size of our paddock paradise, which means we now have enough pasture to both let our horses graze and to make hay in summer as well. At the moment we have a herd of five; three 30+ aged horses, who get as much grazing turn out as possible year round because they need it, and two 20 yr old mares, who are both of the insulin resistant type (one of them even laminitis prone), who have very little pasture turn out, actually none at all during the past year since they were both quite overweight (Icelandic horses can be quite difficult to manage food-wise). After a year of feeding these two a limited amount of hay they are both in perfect condition now. We’ll have to see how to go from here with them; perhaps with a little bit of grazing time this coming spring/summer, with some added hay, we don’t know yet. It’s a matter of always keeping an eye on the individual needs of each horse. The BIG advantage of the paddock paradise system is that even when they are not allowed to graze, they are still able to roam around the tracks, find some hay and other little bits to eat here and there and have a good time. Much better than feeling bored in a small paddock!
You can also find videos of the later addition to my PP on my channel.
Best wishes, Mai
@Gydjulind thank you so much for your reply - I'll def look at the other video. I hear you re Icelandics - their breeding enables them to live through an Icelandic winter - I swear they thrive on lava rock, lichen and tree bark ! I used to work at an Icelandic Horse yard and rode a British Champion ! Used to make me laugh how the fouler the weather, the more game and forward going they would become. Seemed to particularly enjoy horizontal sleet ! Such fantastic horses, but yes, ridiculously 'good doers' to a fault !
Inspirational!!
Love the video so well explained probably the best one I have see. I only have one question does the waterhole ever become a problem with mosquitoes?
Thank you for the compliment :-). We have never had problems with excessive amounts of insects around the waterhole, and it's only 10 metres or so from our bedroom window. We do have lots of barn swallows in spring and summer, so they probably help a lot to keep insects down.
Lovely video!
Fair Horsemanship Thank you!
I love my Paddock Paradise. I am actually expanding it. I would love to see how you did your gates for the pasture. I like that idea and can use that for mine.
Hi Lisa, I kept the gates very simple; just electric cord, grips and connectors. Grips like this one: 554cb3b75ce1cd4b4840-9d380db976cd044c222698ed983c0846.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/Universelepoortgreepzwart.JPG ----- and the connectors to connect the grips to the wire: postmagauw.nl/images/content/large/span/poortgreepankers-4st.jpg
Thank you the first link would not open but the second did. Now I get the idea but have never seen the insulator before Can you tell me where you got that?
Here you can see both the handle and the connecting insulator in one picture (if you can open it that is ;-) ) : l7.alamy.com/zooms/1afca9f96c664700925393f759617d9e/handle-on-electric-fence-to-allow-safe-disconection-for-stock-management-b5kn7j.jpg . I'm not familiar with the English terms for these parts as I'm Dutch, but perhaps you know the Gallagher company? They have everything for fences, so I'm sure you should be able to find these parts there. Good luck!
You are Dutch, de Kramer is suppose to be Dutch. How about that. Yes I do know the Gallagher company I will look for those insulators. I have the gate handles. Thank you so much
Hi Lisa, yes I had noticed your name, which is definitely Dutch! However I reckoned you were not Dutch yourself, from your perfect English ;-). I wish you lots of luck with your PP!
I really love this idea. I've watched this a couple times. I have a few questions ... curious what the size of the pasture is? And how big the strip grazing sections are? And how often they move to the next one? Do you water the whole pasture or just the section that has most recently been grazed? It would be awesome to know the rough sizes of the paddocks also. This is about the same size we have available for three horses so I'm trying to layout their track system to maximize the space. Thank you so much.
@Gydjulind
Very nice set up for small acreage. Land is so expensive here in the Denver, Colorado area that is what we will probably get. It is semi arid here, although this year we have received a lot of rain. I'm interested in the water hole. Is it spring fed? Do you supplement the water somehow? I had my horse at a boarding facility that had a water hole and it would turn into an awful , Mirey, yucky mess....dirty water and manure. I wouldn't want that. Would have to research plants and trees for this area. I would have thought chewing on wood left out would cause collick. What kind of logs were those on your property? Thank you for the ideas.
I love this! I'm in the process of building a paddock paradise boarding facility in Maine and am working on my website. would it be ok with you if i have a link to your video on the site to help illustrate what it is like?
Sure, no problem! The more this idea is shared, the better :-). Good luck with building your PP!
Bravo, super !!
Marja, I watched this video this morning when I got up and I felt so peaceful the whole time. I have been doing what I can here to make a track around the field. I have a out 2 acres as well, with only 2 horses. I am just about to level a place out for a small arena and my round pen. Is there an app you used to put the map of your place up and highlight the different areas. That made it so easy to see. I have a natural pond and woods around that I could include in the track as well. I wish you lived close so I could consult you. Maybe a vacation to beautiful Orcas island is in your future. You could stay with us and ride my icy's on our trails thru the woods!
+ritzydoodle Hi Ritzy (is that what you are actually called, or is it Ritambhara?). I'm happy to hear that it made you feel so peaceful! Please could you send me your email address through a Facebook PM?
Amazing. I love it. Such lucky ponies. How did you build the water hole?
Jo Heritage First we drilled a small hole in the dryest time of year (august/september) to see how deep the groundwater level was. Then I drew a plan with the depth of the waterhole about 80 cm lower than the groundwater level (so that the waterhole would never dry up), a steep bank on one side and a very gradual one on the other side. If you search for 'poel 9 september 2011' here on TH-cam, you'll find the video that shows how our waterhole was dug.
Thank you :-)
Hi Gydjulind!
What an amazing video this is! Thanks so much for sharing!
May I ask one question to which I haven't yet found an answer in the comments, please? How did you "fix" the hill? I guess just throwing soil onto one spot won't be enough, right? How does it get firm enough to hold the weight of several horses?
Thanks again and greetings from Luxembourg.
Hi Laura, thanks for your compliments :-)! Yes, it is in fact as simple as throwing ground on the spot you have in mind for your hill ;-). In our case the hill was made the same day as the pool was dug, so it was made from the ground that came out the poolhole. Of course it takes time for the hill to set and get firm, but that happens naturally over time and of course the horses also help by climbing it and walking on it. In the case of the hill in this video, the digging machine drove over it once or twice after it was made, to make it a bit firmer, but it isn't really necessary. We had another pool dug and hill created just two weeks ago (in another part of our PP that is not in the above video). It is a much smaller and lower hill than the first one (because the ground was also used for other purposes) - towards the end of this video you can see how it was made: th-cam.com/video/5bwr4BfOqEM/w-d-xo.html
Hi!
Thank you for the quick reply! I can't wait to get started now! :-) You really inspired me!
Thank you again and all the best to you and your horses!
love it!
can i ask is this really only 2.5acres or is it 2.5hectars? fantastic lay out.thank you
Sure you can ask ;-). To be precise, our whole lot is 2,81 acres (1,1374 hectares), included our house and yard. Without those - so the actual 'horse territory' as shown at 0:30 - it's approx. 2.5 acres. A few years ago we were able to add a second PP of 3.2 acres, connected to the first PP through a 250 metres long wood track, which you can see in several of my other videos. So now it's a total of 5.7 acres (almost 2.5 hectares).
Thanks for the compliment!
@@Gydjulind ,the best set up I have seen yet as a retired studfarm manager I am still always thinking of how things can be improving for horses that are not involved in breeding.
Looking forward to seeing the rest of your videos
It looks great. I would just worry about the horses ingesting sand. Also they are grazing even the smallest bit of grass coming through the sand or on the borders of the paddock. I have a little pony right now with laminitis, not even fat, but it seems rain on short grass can induce laminitis. I have been thinking in doing a paddock paradise more for winter use but I would use something more coarse than sand and even if it's an increase cost a better preparation of the ground to avoid grass coming through. This is not a critic of your paddock just stating how I would do mine, your paddock paradise is great, easy made and good use of space. :)
Anne-Marie GARCIA Thanks for your comment :-). I know a lot of people share your concern about sand ingestion as it's said to cause sand colic. I don't have the knowledge to say what the exact cause of sand colic is. The only thing I know is that my horses have been nibbling the short grass off the dirt ever since I started keeping horses, which was 25 years ago, and they never suffered from sand colic or laminitis. It's said that feeding enough fibres is necessary to transport any sand through the intestines, so I think feeding hay is important, even during the pasture season. I hope you'll find the right solution for your pony :-).
Gydjulind Thanks for answering. Sand in the intestine accumulates from horses eating on sandy ground. I have thought about it and I will say since your horses are getting hay from haynets not fed on the ground, sand ingested would be minimal. An easy way to know if they are eating sand is to have their manure checked :) If you horses are kept like you do, they have minimal chances to get laminitis. The problem is managing a horse/pony that has already got it before. Once they have had it they are more prone to it. Your horses are happy and move more and less bored than in a paddock. May I suggest to add salt lick blocks in different places so they move to get feed, then salt and more movement for water :) Good job. Thanks for sharing.
Anne-Marie GARCIA Yes, I know about the manure check. I believe there will always be a certain amount of sand in a horse's intestines, as it's very natural for a horse to 'graze the dirt' for edible things, and even with grazing in a pasture they will ingest grass roots and hence sand now and then. I think it's like with worms; a horse is never wormfree, but it's a matter of balance; a small amount is only natural and doesn't hurt the horse. An interesting thing is that there is a certain spot on the bank of my waterhole, where the soil looks kind of clay-ish, where my entire herd loves to lick the ground and even eat mouths full of soil during a period in spring. There must be something in that soil during that period that they love and crave. I trust their instincts and always just let them; I've never seen any negative side effects of it (b.t.w. they do get their mineral and vitamin supplements ;-) ). I believe that all kinds of excessive behaviour, e.g. ingesting lots of sand, often come from boredom and can be very hard to 'un-learn' once they have become ingrained patterns.As to the laminitis, which I believe is related to other metabolic diseases like insulin resistance, summer itch etc.: I'm a true believer of 'less is more'. I have a gelding who suffered from severe summer itch in the past (he used to be covered with bloody spots during summer). It was clear that something was wrong with his metabolism as he was also permanently overweight and nothing I did made him lose weight. Until I found out that fresh, green grass triggered his itch a lot! With the help of a book on solving summer itch with feeding, I took him off the grass for one whole year and fed him only hay. This completely reset his metabolism; he lost a lot of weight (and never got overweight again after that) and his summer itch decreased with about 80%. After that year I slowly re-introduced grass and found out that two hours of grazing a day is his limit to keep his itch under control. He lives mainly on good hay now and is a lot healthier and happier.I don't mean to tell you that this would work for your pony too, because I can not know that as each horse is a unique individual, but just to illustrate how well an approach of 'less rich food' worked out for my horse. And the nice thing of a paddock paradise is that I can always feed him hay on the track, closest to the part of the pasture where his herd mates are grazing (you can see him eat his hay on the track at 6:10 ) so they're still 'together' :-).Funny that you mentioned the salt blocks; I do have one in their run-in shed, but I was planning to add a few more in different places around the track, perhaps embedded in a pile of rocks or something :-).
Hey! I have heard putting fine gravel around the waterhole maybe once every couple of years is great for there feet and really good for barefoot strengthening.
Gravel and rock is a great addition to the track system to keep feet strong and used to rocky conditions:)
I really love your paddock paradise...I hope to do one like this in the next year or two...couple of questions if you don't mind...in the winter time, do you take the Inner fencing down, thereby giving them access to the entire pasture?? and what do you do if it rains in the winter, then freezes and then snows on top?? are the horses able to still walk thru it without slipping??
Thanks for the compliment Pat. No I don't take the inner fence down in winter; during winter our pastures are not used, as they also need rest and also there's hardly any grass left in winter, so the horses would only ruin the pasture.I can't remember ever having had what you describe: rain, then frost and then snow on top of it. It doesn't snow very much in winter around here, sometimes there's no snow at all. And frost not that much either, although it varies from year to year. Anyway, usually I just give them the opportunity to find out for themselves whether they can walk the tracks or not during any circumstances.
Tolles Video !!!
Fantastic how wide is the track
It’s between 2 and 2,5 metres wide, which is more than enough for our ponies.
I only have an acre, but need to do something for my Icie who is so sensitive to grasses other than just lock him up in a corral. He is not a fan of grazing muzzles and gets them off. They aren't really an answer. -- I'm going to try this idea.
Hi Meg, I hope paddock Paradise will be able to solve your horse's problem. Just a bit of advice: make sure you install the lowest electric wire of the fence around the pasture close enough to the ground, so that your horse won't be able to still snatch the grassy edges. This is something horses in paddock Paradise often get very clever at and keep themselves busy with for hours. You don't want them to eat a lot of grass this way after all ;-).
Wow what an amazing plot! Your horses look so happy :) The soil looks quite sandy is that the natrual soil type in your area or did you lay a surface?
Maya Raza Thank you Maya :-). Yes, I think I can say that my horses are happy horses. You're right, the soil is very sandy and it's the natural soil, we didn't put anything else on top of it.
Great Paddock-Trail :-))))
The waterhole: Was that naturally there or did you place it there? If you placed it there, how do you manage to keep the water and even more important: How do you prevent it from getting mouldy and stinky in the summer?
Greetings :-)
Bonnies Mondra Thanks for the compliment :-).No, the waterhole wasn't there at first, we had it dug in September 2011, and then the hill was made with the ground from the waterhole. You could see a waterhole as a kind of 'organism' and when it's big enough (and this one is) then it should be able to keep itself biologically clean. But it can take a few years before it reaches that balance. Over the years we have seen the water gradually becoming cleaner. At first it had a lot of algae on the surface and one summer we had weird pink flakes in the water which turned out to be some kind of bacterial pollution, but it disappeared and didn't come back. Last year there were no algae and instead we saw a lot of duckweed (which the horses loved!). So I guess the waterhole is going through all kinds of phases and slowly coming into a more balanced state now. B.t.w. the horses always have a free choice between drinking from the waterhole or tapwater from a tub. They usually prefer the waterhole.
Gydjulind Thank you for the quick answer :-)Did the horses drink the water even with the bacterial pollution or did they drink the tab-water then?
And if they drank it, did it harm them in any way?
Sorry for all the questions, but we are thinking of creating one too and experiences concerning that are very valuable!
Greetings :-)
Bonnies Mondra While the pink flakes were in the waterhole we closed off the area for the horses, so they couldn't drink there, just to be sure. This is what the pink stuff looked like: th-cam.com/video/y0BfL_9D1gIG/w-d-xo.htmlood luck with creating your waterhole :-)!
Gydjulind Something went wrong with the link, this is what it should be: th-cam.com/video/y0BfL_9D1gI/w-d-xo.html
c est magnifique, bien structuré, bien pensé. Combien de temps avez-vous mis pour organiser cet endroit ?
+francine aubort If I'm right you're asking me about the time it took me to organize this place? (My French is not that good ;-) ). I really can't answer that question since a PP is kind of an 'organism' that changes and grows over the years. I can only say that I started it about 7 or 8 years ago I guess (not even sure).
+Gydjulind thank you for your answer. I'll start small , I think it will take me 10 years. I have a plot of 16'000m2 , c is not much but I'll try . what surface you ?
+francine aubort 16,000 m2 is great; I know lots of people who only have about 2,500 or 3,500 m2 and manage to build a PP. We just have natural sand here and put nothing else on the tracks.
Ken het filmpje inmiddels uit mijn hoofd, zelfs na een paar jaar haal ik er nog weleens inspiratie uit :) enig idee hoe groot je heuvel is Marja? Lijkt me de perfecte maat voor hier.
Hoi Linsey, leuk om te horen dat je zoveel aan de film hebt 👍. De berg in de video is ca. 45 m lang en ca. 10 m breed (onderaan). Een paar jaar geleden heb ik de berg wat speelser laten maken, met afwisselend hogere en lagere gedeeltes. Ik vond dat rechte, platte te saai 😁.
Oh en de hoogte (zoals in de film, dus vóór de aanpassing) is ca. 2 m.
I obviously need to do a lot more research on this! Do you not need to put some sort of base down to stop them sinking? Or does it depend on soil type etc? Is ground water always clean enough for them to drink?
Jo Heritage You mean the horses' hooves sinking into the ground? We didn't do that and I never thought of it either ;-). I wouldn't know if it's necessary with certain types of soil, I only have experience with our own waterhole.Not every ground water is clean enough to drink I guess; my horses can choose between the waterhole and a trough with tap water and they use both. I trust their instincts on this.
What tress other then will is safe for surrounding the track , how did you build your all weather surface , so lots of questions 🤭
I don’t know about all the ‘safe’ trees, so you would have to do a bit of research on the internet about that. We have willow, oak, birch and elder trees. The willows are the only ones we planted ourselves.
I did not build an all weather surface; we are lucky enough to have natural high and dry sandy soil on this plot.
Hi during the winter, do you let the horses have access to the pasture 247 or do you still limit to 2 hours?
During winter we only let our oldest horses (27, 27, 32) graze (during daytime), as they have more problems chewing and digesting hay than the younger ones. We don't have enough pasture for all our horses during the winter, so we save the grass for the oldies, since they need it the most.
I would love to have something like this for my horses. How do you manage mud in the wintertime?
+Lisa Kitty We are lucky enough to have very little mud overall. The part that gets the muddiest is closed off during wintertime.