Make your horse pasture safe with our safety checklist

Horses need outdoor grazing for optimal well-being. But is your horse pasture safe? Review our checklist to make sure.

Safe fence

Is the wire around the horse pasture in good condition and is there enough tension on it?
Are the pasture posts in good condition and adapted to the height of your horse?
Is the wire visible enough to your horse? Keep in mind that horses see the color red as a shade of green, and they have a hard time distinguishing between green and yellow.
Barbed wire around a horse pasture can seriously injure your horse. It is therefore best to replace it with rubber band, electric fencing, or wood.
Does the electric fence system work? Are the wires or ribbons broken anywhere?

Are there any poisonous herbs, plants and trees in the meadow, such as ragwort, sharp buttercup, yew, maple and plum?
Is the horse pasture free of stones, branches and other foreign objects that your horse can hurt itself on? Check regularly that stones do not get stuck in the horse’s frog.
Is the ground of the pasture clean and dry? A wet meadow can cause mud fever (pastern dermatitis).

Barbed wire around a horse pasture can seriously injure your horse. It is therefore best to replace it with rubber band, electric fencing, or wood.

Can your horse take shelter from the rain and wind? And also from the sun? Horses with white markings are especially prone to sunburn.
Does your horse pasture have a good shed or are there enough trees?

Check automatic drinking troughs daily to make sure they’re operating properly. Does the drinking bowl still work?
Also check daily whether the water in the drinking trough is still clean. Has your horse defecated or urinated in it?
Birds also drink from the drinking trough. If bird guano (bird poop) ends up in the drinking water, it can cause salmonella poisoning.
Birds or other animals can also drown in the water, which can lead to botulism. Therefore, clean the drinking bowl every two days with a hard brush.
In very hot weather, yeasts and poisonous blue-green algae form in stagnant water. The blue-green algae cause a greenish-blue to sometimes reddish-yellow film to grow over the water.
Some horses like to play with their tub and knock it over. Check this daily.
Finally, be careful with water in ditches and stagnant ponds. Rotting can occur in these places. Have this kind of water tested before using the adjacent pastures for your horses.