them on a sacrifice lot all winter? > > I was planning the sacrifice pen to be 100 x 200 -- is that big enough > for 2 ponies all winter? > > I don't want to ruin the pasture or let my ponies get sick or fat either....
V - I have 2 ponies on 2 acres and they have eaten it down to nothing (though I didn't have the greatest grass established to begin with) I have 2 other 1/2 acre areas that I turn them into for an hour or so a day to get something green to munch on. In our area the general rule is that you need 2 acres/horse of you want to keep your pasture green. I wouldn't call this ideal but it's what I have to work with and it makes it easy to control the horses weight. I'm with Karen - a lush green pasture is beautiful but it can be deadly to our ponies. The thing that baffles me is that I know horses (icelandics included) that are kept 24/7 on a pretty lush pasture and seem to do fine - a little plump but not dangerously so. In fact, that is how Doppa was kept the 2 years before she came to me. It was that farm owners contention that if they are kept that way all the time that they will regulate themselves - it seemed to work for him. -- Laree in NC Doppa & Mura Simon, Sadie and Sam (the "S" gang) "When you're young and you fall off a horse, you may break something. When you're my age and you fall off, you splatter" - Roy Rogers
