GRAZING. It's the most fundamental equine food source. With feed prices ever increasing as well as a desire to be more ecological, a growing number of owners are looking at ways to maximise pasture. With prolonged wet winters and drought adding to the challenge of growing grass, landowners are experimenting with different systems.
Three years ago, farmer's wife Ellie Smith, who lives on the Welsh border, decided to try regenerative grazing with a 16.3hh hunter and 13.2hh pony on two adjoining paddocks, of 0.9 acres and 0.8 acres.
Her husband has been mob-grazing his cattle and sheep for more than a decade. Both these systems are essentially the same, mimicking grazing in the wild. It's about short-duration, high-intensity grazing, moving your animals on average once a day, then leaving the grass to recover for between 40 to 100 days. It's nothing new;
