The Jenny P Diet

Miss P and her companion, the Dratted Pony, are on the Jenny P Plan.

This is a lifestyle plan, rather than a diet, and is based on the Wild Horse model which also applies to hoof care. See Jaime Jackson (www.barefoothorse.com) for more info. Our local NZ expert is Jenny Patterson (www.horsemanshipnz.com) who travels the country talking about how to keep your horse happy and healthy.

Briefly, the aim is to keep the horse from grazing on lush, sweet grass all day long. Here in NZ, we tend to keep our horses on what is really sheep/cattle pasture with ryegrass and clover predominating. This is not ideal for horses who are designed/evolved to live on poor, stalky grass and move many kilometers in a day searching for food and water.

So to try to help them have a better diet and lifestyle, we put them on a track. I built a loop track around the paddock exterior about 5 meters wide, using electric fencing. This means they are not able to take the short-cut across the middle and have to walk all the way around to get to the water or salt lick. The grass has been grazed right down with the help of the sheep, and I feed out hay to keep their guts ticking along. This is usually pretty successful in keeping the girls in good shape. Except for the Dratted Pony lately, as she has been crashing through the electric fence to get to the good stuff in the middle of the track.

I have threatened her with murder and mayhem, but she just looks blonde and makes out she has no idea how she ended up in the the good stuff. There is some more power on its way to spark up the fence, so that might help.

Some days they have a good canter around, which is great. Unless you are trying to bring your old bay horse in to do some work. Then it becomes very frustrating as you try to take the short cut to get to the old bat. Some swearing may ensue.

Photos to follow.