Equestrian Facility - Grazing and Open Space

Grazing and Open Space

Many horses are turned out in to fields to graze, exercise, or exhibit other natural behaviours, either on their own or more usually as part of a herd, where they may also engage in play activity and social bonding.

The area where the horses are placed can be of any size, from a small pen with room to run, to wide areas covering thousands of square miles. In the United Kingdom this may range from open moorland without internal subdivision, down to small, fenced areas of grass, called pastures or paddocks in British English. A large turnout of several acres is a paddock in Australia, a pasture is significantly larger. In the United States, similar large spaces ranging from a few to many acres are called pastures or, for larger areas of public land or private unfenced ranch land approaching 100 acres or more, rangeland.

Where the purpose of turning the horses out is to encourage activity and not for forage, for instance where a horse is stabled for a large portion of the day, or where additional forage is not desired, they may be turned out in to areas with no grass, to encourage activity and prevent grazing. In the USA, such spaces are called a paddock or, in the western United States, a corral, in the British Isles, a paddock, and in Australia, a pen. Sometimes the colloquialism "starvation" is prefixed to these grassless areas, though the intent is not to starve the horse, but simply to regulate diet. This also could include a space such as a riding arena, doing double-duty as a turnout area. Equine nutritionists and management specialists also recommend a grassless area, which they sometimes call a "sacrifice area," be fenced off from pastures intended for forage where horses can be placed when it is wet or muddy, to prevent the grass from being trampled, and during times of drought, to prevent or minimize overgrazing.