The Horse Poop Paradox: Part 2 of 2

Let’s be honest, no one enjoys cleaning up after their pets. Whether it’s your beloved puppy’s latest accident in the house or shifting through your precious kitten’s litter box, it’s something that has to be done whether you like it or not, and in the end comes down to a labor of love.

And when it comes to cleaning a horse’s pasture, a lot of labor goes into that love.

As mentioned in the previous article, a single horse uses the bathroom up to 12 times daily. Sometimes even more. Meaning that there are at times more than 12 new piles of manure in a pasture each day. Depending on how many horses live in the pasture and the size of the pasture itself, that amount of manure can quickly pile up if not dealt with.

For smaller pastures and paddocks that hold one to two equine buddies, or stalls that house one horse, most horse owners will reach for their trusty shovel or pitchfork. This method is called ‘picking’ and involves a good deal of physical labor. The manure is shoveled up from the ground and placed into either a bucket or a wheelbarrow, where it will be transported to another location (likely a compost pile).

However, picking the pasture isn’t considered the best idea for those with larger pastures or paddocks that have more than one or two horses. That’s where tools such as a ‘drag’ or a harrow come into play, tools that can be used to clear large areas. 

This method is called ‘dragging’ or ‘brushing’ the pasture, and as the name entails, it involves dragging a tool behind a motorized vehicle or tractor. The manure is broken up by the tool, or drag, and redistributed through the pasture to fertilize the grass, which also minimizes the spread of parasites and encourages the horses to graze more evenly.

However, this method is not without its drawbacks. While driving around in a motorized vehicle sounds much easier than picking the pasture, getting your hands on a proper drag or harrow can cost a pretty penny. A decent tool can cost a person thousands of dollars, which is why a lot of horse owners instead choose to go the cheaper way of using a chain link fence weighed down by cinder blocks.

This is perhaps the worst way to drag a pasture, as the chain link fence can dig up groves in the soil and destroy the grass. But using the proper tools also has problems, as most harrows and drags only work to break the manure down onto the pasture greens. If you have a compost pile that you want to add the manure to, there’s no way for a harrow or drag to cart the manure to the pile.

And let’s not get into the issue of gas or electricity for the motorized vehicle or tractor.

So which method is best to clean a pasture? The answer depends on who you ask, and how big the pasture and/or paddock in question is. Both methods have their pros and cons, so it really depends on what you’re willing to do, how much money and time you’re willing to spend, and whether or not you need to move the manure out of the pasture.

What are you willing to do for your beloved pony pal? And what tools or drags have you been using up to this point? 

We would love to hear from you on your experiences in this area.
You can send in your responses here in the comments or you can email them to me at info@pasturetender.com ATTENTION: Roni Collins (I read and respond to all emails) 

Until my next blog post, a healthy pasture makes for a happy healthy horse :)

Roni 

*(Photo is of me at 17 years old on the day my dad took me to pick up my first horse Maybelle)*