Putting new horses on pasture

[Matthew]

Does any one have any experience with buying a horse that was fed only hay with no pasture and bringing them home to belly deep pasture. I can only imagine the horse would need to be started on the green grass slowly to avoid collic and founder. How mutch should they be allowed access to and for how long untill they are alowed full range of the pasture? I have seen muzzles that attach to the halter and only alow a limited amount of grass to be eaten but I have also seen them get pushed up or down and then the horse can eat all they want.

[sanhestar]

Hello,

I used to introdruce our horses to fresh grass after the winter in steps of 15 minutes every day until I reached two hours (day one – 15, day 2 – 30, etc.), then I would leave them out for 4 hours for several days, then 8 and then free range. The first weeks on free range I would offer some straw to add roughage in addition.

[Tim Harrigan]

I keep oxen but I would probably do with them as sanhestar described for the horses but I would send them out on a fairly full belly of hay.

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