The Horse Pasture Parasite Problem

Parasites are on every horse owners radar. Read Veronica Collins’ article where she shares her thoughts on horse pasture parasite problems.

They are definitely not something we like to think about, yet as horse owners, they are something we’re acutely aware of.

Every day we take action against them, hoping to prevent them from doing harm to our horse friends. Yet despite our best efforts, they still persist- creeping around every corner.

I’m talking about the one enemy every horse savvy person knows about- parasites. These creatures take many forms, from flies that swarm our horses’ faces to worms that invade their bellies, and the damage they can do ranges from mere annoyance to an emergency vet visit.

Thankfully, it’s generally easy enough to prevent parasites, usually by giving our horses a deworming paste or adding supplements to their feed. However, is a simple preventative enough to truly protect our horse?

To understand the enemy, one must first know where the enemy comes from. And the sad fact is that parasites make their home in the same place that your horse calls home- the pasture and paddock. They’re in the water, in the soil, in the grass. Everywhere you can think of, you can usually find a kind of parasite…or ten… as the case may be. If you wish to learn more, this article posted in 2024 can be of help.

What makes it worse is that these creepy crawlies especially love to make their homes in what our horses leave behind. That’s right, parasites love horse manure poo pods. They feed off of it, make their homes in it, and even breed in it. Creating major parasite loads. A manure pile is a parasite’s dream, and as we discussed in our previous articles, one horse can leave behind a lot of manure. Which inevitably, can lead to a lot of parasites in your pasture and/or paddock.

Unfortunately this means that there is no true way to completely rid yourself of parasites. This is why it is so important to keep your horses up to date on their dewormers, and why it’s so important to keep your horse’s pastures and paddocks clean.

You can’t sanitize the Great Outdoors, but you can keep manure out of your pastures and paddocks and by doing so, minimize much of the parasitic threat. Less manure left in your pastures and paddocks means less places for parasites to find a foothold, and that means a happier, healthier horse, as detailed in this article.

Of course, you don’t have to completely rid yourself of the manure- in another article, we touched on the idea of using horse manure to grow your pasture and paddock forage. Manure is the best fertilizer you can ask for, and it’s completely free of charge! But how do we use it while making sure to keep parasites at bay? Why, it’s as simple as breaking it up well and spreading it out onto our soil.

Take a look at our graphic below for even more knowledge of parasites.

Until next time, enjoy your families and riding your amazing horses. We will touch base again soon.