Tips for lush pastures that provide your horse with healthy forage.

Your pastures can be a source of healthy forage.

From AQHA educational marketing alliance partner Country Living Association

Getting Started

Talk with a qualified expert (perhaps a county extension agent) about the number and types of animals you plan to have on your pasture and how much forage each would require. With the agent’s help, you can determine soil needs, conditions and appropriate grasses to cultivate in your area.

Walk the property and determine whether the existing plants are appropriate for grazing. Although you might want to preserve some brush for wildlife habitat, you need to eradicate growth that is either noxious or aggressive. Depending on where you are, noxious brush might include mesquite, salt cedar, tropical soda apple, multiflora rose, cocklebur, jimsonweed, musk thistle, yellow starthistle and many other plants that interfere with healthy grass growth. You might need to control weeds and brush; if so, there are many products on the market you can use.

Weeds and brush need to be controlled in your pasture and out on the trails. Stewards for Trails, Education and Partnerships is a program that encourages equestrian individuals and groups to participate in trail maintenance and restoration projects. Get involved by visiting AQHA’s STEP program.

Brush Control

For control of brush along roadsides, ditch banks and other noncrop areas, try waterbased Brush Killer or an oil-based product like Cleanout. Cleanout can be used in all four seasons; mixed with water, it provides foliar control and mixed with oil, it can be used as a cut stump, basal bark or frill treatment. If you have brush throughout your pasture and the plants are still young, many weed control products designed for pastures will kill these without the need for a specific brush control.

Weed Control

Eradicating noxious weeds in pastures can be important when grazing has been poorly managed or weather conditions have prevented the growth of healthy grasses and legumes. Many weeds are toxic to horses, cattle and sheep, even when dried and baled in hay.

The United States Department of Agriculture offers a list of federal and state noxious weeds.

If you have land that is going to remain empty for the season but you still want to control weeds, you can also use a 2, 4-D weed killer. However, fields treated with the product should not be grazed or baled for hay for 30 days.

Use your pasture management skills to help with AQHA’s STEP program projects and activities. Your efforts can help create and maintain beautiful trail riding land for equestrians in your community and beyond.