This message is from: Marsha Jo Hannah <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Gail Russell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > we just completed our multi-zillion dollar, absolutely safe, strong, > sturdy lockable two acre field, only now I can't put Gunthar in it! > [...] The part I forgot is that Gunthar will not bother walking two > steps if he can be eating instead. So far our idyllic pasture is > getting 15 minutes a day of use.
Ah, yes---Fjord lawn mowers! I have 3 of them that'll mow a path from here to there---moving only when there's nothing edible in reach any more. My solution is electric fencing for strip-grazing. The first few days, I give them an area big enough that they won't chase each other around, but I limit their time. As they get that area stripped down, I gradually lengthen the time. When the area is down to stubble, I move the fence over 4'; iterate. Once the grass goes to seed (i.e. browns off, and drops its seed), I can give them larger areas, since they're mostly eating standing straw at that point. This effectively reseeds the main parts of the pasture for me; all I have to reseed are the areas that they strip---which are the areas that I'd otherwise have to mow, for a firebreak. Very useful, those Fjords.... > am considering shopping for a grazing muzzle so he can be safe in > the field (with some supervision). > > I presume I will run into the usual problems of owning a horse with a > draft-horse-forehead and a draft-pony-muzzle. Not to mention the strength of the critter, and its determination to get grass into the muzzle somehow, and enough intelligence to be really creative about it. Keep the camcorder handy.... I have a similar problem when trail riding. Sleepy spent some summers in pack- and dude-strings, being expected to forage while under way. I finally gave up fighting with him about it, and built him a trail muzzle. Essentially, it's a bag made out of fiberglas window screen material, which ties to the noseband of his bridle. He can breathe thru it, and even drink, just not get grass into it. (However, last ride, he bit so firmly on some grass that he ripped the screen mesh; guess I need to build a stronger one, out of the fly masks he and Rom have destroyed over the years.) Marsha Jo Hannah Murphy must have been a horseman-- [EMAIL PROTECTED] anything that can go wrong, will! 30 mi SSE of San Francisco, Calif. -------
