Janis, Visualize a track that kids run on with a Football field in the middle... that is what I did to all of my pastures that I use to use to rotate from my drylots... I use to just keep my horses in the dry lot, 24/7 basically... yes, they went out for a few hours everyday, but what kind of a life was that.. stand and stare at the house, waiting for us to go out and feed them or let them out, then they would run/buck/fart for a few moments and put their heads in the grass... I would let them out for the allotted time, then kick them back into the drylot.. I happen to have 2 drylots... mostly cause I kept adding to our area to give them more room.. or to keep a new horse separate from the herd, now I keep Duke and Molly separate from Charm and Jewel... it just is the way it is, when I keep these 4 together, something happens, Charm was kicked, Duke came up lame, so I just have the 2 herds, it is just easier... Jewel and Charm are more aggressive then Duke and Molly, so it works...
Now, back to your question... I use to have just squares of land or rectangles of land that we grew grass in to rotate the horses for their 2 hours on grass a day... they also get hay by the way..... but when I heard about the Track system and how much it benefited the welfare of the horses, I started to think about it and figure out how to make it happen... so, I simply started to put in circles/Ovals, Forming a track that goes all the way around the perimeter. I now have the Pasture on the inside of each track... so, I still put the horses out on grass for a couple hours each day, but, they have the tracks 24/7 now as well as their Dry lots... Pam, the hills are just a pile of compost for the one behind my barn... the one that is in the North pen, was a pile of Lime Road bunk that the company brought to me, I had ordered gravel.. but they just could not believe I wanted Gravel.. I Did, LOL.. so we just left it in a pile, the horses LOVED it... they brought me the 3/4 inch gravel that I asked for for my dry lots.. most people use Pea Gravel, but that simply did not work for my situation.. the Crushed Gravel works great.. The horses LOVE their hills... and their tracks.. I spread hay out on the tracks when it is not windy... as it also encourages movement... If it is windy and I have not spread it out on the track, they still go hunting.. I do still keep my horses off the tracks when it is really wet, cause I hate mud... so I do keep a stand of grass growing on the tracks... so yes, sometimes the horses are left in the dry lots for a few days, or when they were all a herd, they would only get one track area to wonder on, so I even rotate tracks, I still can do that, but tend to just pull them off all together to keep the grass viable... this too is a great incentive for them to walk around the track, looking for a nibble of fresh grass... I find they have Poop areas, rolling areas, playing and running areas, shady areas, and eating areas... I drag the poop into piles once a month, and put the fresh poop into the compost/hill... Or I mow the poop areas.. I do mow the whole property a few times a season, to keep weeds at bay... I hope this answers your questions... -- I and my horses love our track system, take a look~~~ http://picasaweb.google.com/dakota.charm/TrackForHorses
