Paradise at Last!

I thought the day would never come, and I'll bet our horses were thinking the same thing. After months of clearing brush, trimming trees, seeding, installing posts, hanging electric tape, mowing, and erecting a run-in "shed," our paddock paradise project is finally finished!

The day after we completed the project, we led the horses down to the pasture. After months of living in a lot with no vegetation, they greeted the green field with snorts and snuffs. We led them around the entire "track," showing them all the amenities. The water is in a tub near the gate. The run-in shed is halfway along the grass strip. The minerals are located on top of the hill under the trees.

The only amenity they seemed to notice was all the GRASS.

The ideal paddock paradise track does not contain as much grass as ours does. Instead of stripping the grass off the track, we mowed it short and are allowing the horses to graze it down to near nothing. We prepared them for their move to our grass-filled paddock paradise by allowing them to graze in the yard (which is planted with similar pasture grass and clover) for longer periods each day. Still, they seemed to be unable to believe their luck when we turned them loose on the track.

I expected them to run. I envisioned our two horses flying down the track, manes and tails blowing in the breeze. Instead, they thrust their heads to the ground and immediately began to graze as soon as we pulled off their halters.

We checked on them regularly throughout the day and they seemed to be enjoying their new home. Our neighbors, who own the property, were ecstatic when they saw the horses had arrived. I have yet to see them do anything other than graze, but I know they explored the entire track as evidenced by horse poop piles in various locations along the way.

Since the pasture is not located near a water source we can use for filling the water trough, my daughter and I carted over two large containers of water via car this morning. We topped off the trough and I contemplated the idea of adding goldfish to the trough. Goldfish are supposed to keep the algae at bay and they also eat mosquito larvae. The thought of dumping the entire tub on a weekly basis to prevent it from being a mosquito breeding location was daunting. The dumping of the trough really isn't the problem. Filling it back up is!

We opted to purchase a few goldfish. My daughter and I found feeder goldfish at the petstore for the reasonable price of ten for a dollar. We carted them home in a plastic bag and dumped them into the tub. We gave them a couple of rocks for shelter and hoped at least one or two would survive. At the end of the day, all ten are still alive and swimming. You can see the tiny goldfish swimming around in the pic above.

All in all, I think the horses are happy and that's what counts. We'll have less cleaning up to do here at the barn, but more work to do away from the house at the pasture. The manure must still be picked up or dragged, and the horses will need water added to the tub on a daily basis. Pokey (aka Lightning) the pony is still in our paddock and is missing his friends, but he'll be able to join them as soon as they have the grass nibbled down to near nothing.

We'll keep them on the track until their water starts to freeze, and then we'll return them home. While they're at the neighbor's we'll be finishing up another fencing project here on our property to give them more room to run at home.

For now though, we can all enjoy paradise...