Pasture has the potential to provide
1. The horses nutrition
2. A Safe exercise area
Potentials rarely achieved, often neglected
All information given here is believed to be correct but the author cannot be responsible for any consequences of it's use.
by Denis Lindsell
Fertilizer may be classified as either organic or inorganic. Organic fertilizers
are those which are the products of plant or animals. Inorganic fertilizers (sometimes called artificial fertilizers)
are minerals that have been mined or produced in a factory.
Some people have the opinion that "artificial fertilizers" are bad,
but this a misguided attitude. Inorganic fertilizers are likely to be relatively pure, and we will know more precisely
what they contain than is the case with some organic fertilizers. Where organic fertilizers may have an advantage
for the horse owner is their ability to release nutrients more slowly than inorganic fertilizers, therefore requiring
less accuracy in the timing of application, and less need to split an application into several small doses.
The most common form of organic fertilizer is farm yard manure, the analysis
of which can be quoted in a similar way to that shown
on a bag of inorganic fertilizer, being approximately:
0.15 : 0.2 : 0.4
Farm yard manure has the disadvantage that it is bulky to handle and the paddock
will not be suitable for grazing for some time afterwards.
Horse muck should not be used on pastures to be grazed by horses as it is likely
to contain parasitic worm eggs.
There are also various fertilizers available labelled as semi-organic. These
should have the slow release properties of organic fertilizers but with the convenience of ease of handling.