WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS ON PADDOCK PARADISE

the natural way to keep horses instead of regualar paddocks with just grass....

I personally think it is PERFECT for any horses that are sugar sensitive... because it allows you to control what they eat while they keep their bodies moving to burn off calories.

It is also perfect for someone keeping horses on a small acreage. It allows one acre seem like MANY acres to the horse... The owner can maintain some of the horse property easier and allow the grass to grow. less change for typical mud holes, etc, if the tracks are set up properly...

Main benefits are the horses get moving, less hay wasted...(It is meant to be spread out so the horses nibble as they travel the track..no more standing ON the hay in a big pile...lol)

the horses have mental and physical stimulation.

They stay in shape... no more sore muscles for them after the first spring ride... less chance of them being "bucky" on those first rides.

You can easily change the track up, add obstacles to it, scarey objects that the horse can "get over" on their own schedule....lol

I really like it... a win win situation for anyone interested in it...

For those of you not familiar with this concept TC has offered to help answer questions regarding the set up. :study:

Ditto everything TC said. The only downside in my opinion to having a track is the expense, you have to spend double on fencing, but its well worth it. Someone posted this site on equinextion not long ago, it has a lot of great ideas on how to save hay (less waste) and offers pics/blogs of various paddock paradise setups so it will give you visual leaners something to look at :)

http://paddockparadise.wetpaint.com/

I love the hay nets and the hay barrels, they look easy enough to build and inexpensive, I'm going to make some. We waste a lot of hay but our horses get a ton of movement.

Some of the slow feeder designs are really neat.

great gals, the more we post here the more good ideas folks can get to work some of them into their own place.

Wow BH! That's a great site, full of tips for hay feeding, mud management...etc.. Just spent 45 mins on there! lol Love the videos...
I wish my mother would get onto this with her minis...they don't have a lot of room for turnout, they are a tad chubby..(Did I say that outloud? lol) and of course minis can be sensitive to sugars...
I will have to send her this site... :D

TC did you see the round bale mover feeder.............that was really neat. :bounce:

With the hockey net? Would make for less waste! Neat idea... :!:

no, although I did like that.........but it was a neat little
round bale foldable trailer/feeder that also can be pushed by one person........it flips up, hooks on to the bale and flips back donw onto the frame.......it even has an entry gate...........pulls behind a lawn tractor..........so you can easily go along beside the track to drop off hay, or leave it on the feeder/trailer.....I think its an aussie invention. was on one of the videos

Love it...I can't wait til we can get one of our own set up....

TC and I are going to try the paddock paradise at our place. We placed the posts in and created a perfect track around the area we want to grow for awhile. The horses have grass, then sand, then a bit of gravel, and forest, then back to grass to travel on.
Should be interesting to see how this works over the next few seasons ....