Healthy Horses Research Paper

Tennessee has over 206,000 horses, which ranks it sixth in the nation (Tennessee Equine Facts and Stats, 2012). In most cases, these horses reside on small acreage farms where they serve as pets or companion animals. Although a common practice, small acreage farms may nevertheless face challenges in providing a proper diet and safe environment for horses.
There are several reasons why farms with limited pasture capacity may find it demanding to meet the requirements necessary for healthy horses. First, horses can consume large amounts of forage while often grazing up to eighteen horses each day (Natural Resources Conservation Service, 2008). Second, unlike most livestock, horses bite instead of tear the grass when eating. Furthermore, the prehensile upper lip allows a horse to eat the grass down to ground level (Natural Resources Conservation Service, 2008). Lastly, horses are notorious selective grazers who prefer certain plants to other available forage (Natural Resources Conservation Service, 2008). Therefore, a horse pasture may have some areas overgrazed and other regions under-grazed. …show more content…
Without corrective steps taken, continual overgrazing the pasture will kill the grass while leaving bare spots subject to soil erosion and weeds. Additionally, overgrazing causes soil compaction that further reduces soil fertility that affects plant growth. Also, soil compaction can happen because horses are large animals with sharp hoofs (Natural Resources Conservation Service, 2008). Likewise, overstocking or too many animals for a pasture to support will produce similar outcomes as