Midwest, USA

by Judy Mentzer (Indiana, USA)

We had about 6 of our 20 acres set up in pastures where we rotated our 3 ponies & 3 horses. My QH’s always got fat on spring & summer pasture, but after we acquired the ponies, we begin to have episodes with lameness & tried keeping them on a dry lot with limited daily grazing in grazing muzzles when they were well. Unfortunately, the episodes kept occurring & when x-rayed we found that they all had some rotation.

My QH mare also came up lame this summer. I had read all of Jamie Jackson’s books & started searching for a person to create a ‘track’ for them.

Two weeks ago our track fencing was finished. It is just over 1/2 mile long & feeds into the corral that comes off of our small barn with 5 stalls for shelter. We did disc up most of the grass, but there is still enough on track & around the edges that I am limiting them to about 8 hrs a day of time on the track.

When we are down to only dirt, I plan to distribute hay in small piles & leave the gates open 24/7 into the corral & adjoining dry lot which has sand, rock areas & other areas that are wet when it has rained. We have a dedicated covered hay feeder in the dry lot by our big barn which adjoins the corral. They are ignoring that when the track is open.

I was amazed & excited to see that my horses do stay in perpetual motion when on their track. This is very different than their behavior when they would be on a pasture. On pasture, they would make a trip into the barn every few hours, but they did not move as they do on the track. I get them in easily whenever I go to the barn as I give them each a token amount of oats in their pans & then close the gates to restrict their access.

I have recently met a farrier who is trained in the AANHCP methods & he has trimmed my herd twice now.

Thank you Judy so much for this story – a great example of a Paddock Paradise system. Sarah

Update:- 6 months later, March 2009

Our 29 yr old Appendix QH who normally ends the winter a little lean, was lean before winter & I started feeding him equine sr & other supplements. His weight hasn’t gone up appreciably, so he is now using the dry lot, one pasture & the arena where he is just across the fence from my ‘track’ gang. My formerly overweight Paint mare & TW gelding & all 3 ponies are now at really nice weights appropriate for their sizes.
I continue to give them access to a round bale & daily spread bits of hay from round bales around the track.
I find the ponies are the most consistent in staying on track. I recently had my hay tested & then went to Dr. Kellon’s web site where she kindly gave me advice on having a mineral mix made up that exactly fufills what their hay is missing.
Most importantly, we have had NO episodes of laminitis since putting our horses on the track…