Grass Day 2012

Grass day, the first day of the year that we move horses out to pasture, finally arrived this week. It was a little different than in years past, when we put the mares in one of the big long upper fields and the geldings in the adjacent pasture.

For the first time since we lived here, we got ahead of the rapid pasture growth by rotating our cattle to the fields we'd rested all winter long. These heavy hitting lawn tractors did an awesome job of containing the bolting grass and we couldn't be happier with the results -- a perfect stand of three to seven inch horse heaven in the small, divided pasture. It's the ultimate location for transitioning our horses back to grass: each run is large enough to allow for exercise and small enough to facilitate catching the horses.

Since the protein level in grass is high this time of year, and since horse can have severe heath issues if they overdose on too much of a good thing, we rotate horse pairs through the runs for an initial time of thirty minutes. Needless to say, our good steeds are always elated at the gourmet fare and a little more than reluctant when it's time to go back to their dry lot (grassless) paddocks.

The following is a snapshot of Whisper peacefully -- and voraciously -- grazing. She's wearing a fly mask to keep insects out of her eyes and she has standing wraps on her back legs to help prevent the tendon sheath swelling that often occurs when Whisper woo hoos. Gin, the Palomino Pinto/Paint gelding, is happily grazing in the background.