Home > Horse Organizations > USIHC > Principles of Pasture Management
March, 2008
Principles of Pasture Management
• Don’t overstock
• Graze young horses separately from older horses; the younger horses
have a higher susceptibility to parasites.
• Deep harrow or plow pastures that are badly parasite infested.
Deep plow pastures and reseed every three to five years. This also helps
break the parasite cycle.
• If you have smaller pasturage, rotate your horses to afresh area
every two weeks; this will break up the internal parasite cycle. One-to-two
acres of well-managed pasture can support one mature horse during the
grazing season with rotation. When the animal is rotated as frequently
as every two weeks, the acreage needed will be closer to one acre.
• Four-to-five acres of unimproved native grass pasture will support
one mature horse for the entire grazing season.
• Don’t spread fresh manure on pastures. Composted manure
will introduce the threat of additional parasites.
• When there is nearby cropland, consider tilling in fresh manure
when possible. This saves nutrients and alleviates storage problems. Fresh
manure should be applied to crops with long growing seasons, and is better
suited to clay and loam soils. Light or sandy soils benefit the most from
applications of aged or composted manure. Portions of the nutrients in
manure aren’t as readily available for plant food as commercial
fertilizer nutrients; however, slow release provides a continuing supply
of nutrients and less potential runoff.
• Do not apply manure to land that is subject to erosion, frozen,
or saturated. To protect water sources from manure runoff, do not spread
manure within 150 feet of a water source such as a well, creek, or pond.
Incorporate manure into the soil as soon as possible.
• The easiest way tp spread compost is to to use a manure spreader
and a tractor (or a strong riding mower) to load, pull, and spread your
compost. But you can also spread it without all that equipment; all you
need is two people, a shovel, a riding lawnmower, a small cart, or a pickup
truck. Have one person drive while the other spreads a thin layer of compost.
Pasture Management