




Over time we have made considerable investment in both machinery and staff training. We spend many hours working on the land. Equine grazing is complex being quite different to cattle and arable grassland care requirements. Grasses we sow are specifically suited to horse needs and we improve the grassland using low nitrates to avoid the causes of Laminitus.
Every horse can have individual grazing requirements, some being our fatter native ponies so need older less improved pastures but others need more grazing to keep in good condition. Some are in everyday work but others are retired.
Our aims are to manage land to prevent long term damage such as soil erosion, and poaching in winter, and provide the horses with good grazing for as much of the year as possible, thus keeping our horses healthly, happy and contented.
We continuously roll, harrow, lime, fertilise, overseed, aerate, weed-spray (particularly ragwort) and hoover. The hoover is handy for removing a high acorn crop falling off our oak trees which can be poisonous to horses. Our horses are first removed to enable us to treat and rest the field. We then move the horses back once the rest period is over, starting the process once more in another field and so on.
The first photograph above shows our Trilo Hoover / Sweeper. Staff regularly clear the land removing the horse dung which helps reduce any potential worm burden and stops patches of sour grass forming.
