# horses per acre

native prairie, tall grass, mostly "little blue stem".
how many horses per acre without ecological damage?

You did not fill out your profile so there is no way to tell where you are. If you are talking south or East Texas or Florida you might do 2 per acre. Here in Arizona it is about one per 40 acres. It is not just how much grass they eat it is how much they stomp to death. You are going to have to feed no matter what.

A lot of it depends on the amount of moisture you get, if you are getting steady amounts of rain, you can put several horses on 1 acre as long as you keep the output from the horses broken up. The way our grass is growing right now I could put both horses and the 2 cows and the bull in one of our 1 acre paddocks and I don't think they could keep up with it. We have been having pretty regular drenchings the last few weeks so lots of grass growth.

Nutrients in the soil, etc make quite a bit of difference.

Of course to many animals in to small an area will turn it into a dusty/muddy area so watch out for that.

If it starts to get dry, then the number of acres per animal goes up.

Agree totally with twstanley. One question, have you thought about shelter yet?

Ok, looked up in book yesterday, it says with good, thick grass 2 acres=1 horse.

Jim is on the right track here if I read your question correctly. If your question is about ecological damage you have to define what constitutes damage and identify what the environment is. Most people would think of it in terms of overgrazing but it’s really more than that.

If you want the land to be native you may not be able to sustain a horse on it if the native grasses don’t meet the horse’s dietary needs. You may find that the horses prefer one of the grasses over another which takes the pasture out of balance. If you are interested in it at that level then you might contact your local university with a good Ag dept or county Ag extension office.

The other things you might look at is stream bank erosion, killing trees by compacting the soil around them or chewing limbs/bark, creating wear patterns in the pasture that accelerate erosion and/or spreading non native invasive plant species through the horses feed.

Taking it one step further there are other things you might consider. We have taken the extra step of fencing pastures in blocks with large areas between them to allow the deer, foxes, coyotes the ability to get through.

Something to ponder….
Mark