Menu
You are certainly familiar with the discussion about whether one should clean up after their horse in the riding arena, in the indoor riding hall, and perhaps in the courtyard. Opinions are and remain divided, and there can be different arguments for and against. But what about the droppings in the paddock? Should they be left there, or should they be removed? For some, it might sound absurd, but according to veterinarian Klavs Rønn-Landbo, it's not always a waste of time. In fact, in some cases, it can save horse lives.
A large part of the Danish horses are on too little land. Therefore, toilet areas spread and eventually fill the entire paddock, so the horse cannot avoid grazing close to manure areas.
Veterinarian Klavs Røn-Landbo, Landbrugnet.dk
Horses try as much as possible to defecate within certain areas of the paddock for hygiene. This creates a kind of "toilet islands," where horses prefer not to eat the grass. And they are quite wise to do so. Areas with many droppings can indeed be filled with eggs from parasites and give horses worms. Even if all the horses in the paddock have been dewormed, there can still be manure from before the horses were treated, or maybe even from the year before. In it, there can still be thousands of eggs and larvae, which would very much like to return to the horses' intestinal system. This is not a problem as long as the paddock is large enough for the horses to find grass outside the toilet islands. But if the paddock is small, then the problem arises…
Read also: You'll recognize this if you're a short rider!
When the paddock is sufficiently small, horses have to eat the grass that grows around their dung – and then they can get worms. The larvae that have hatched in the horse droppings already lying in the paddock will crawl up the grass blades and sit ready for a horse to come by and eat them. In this way, the larvae can continue their life and reproduce inside the horse's intestines.
A paddock should never become a pure "toilet paddock" – a sewer, as Klavs calls it:
If you just let it be, it's a ticking bomb that can cause problems. If horses graze in one big sewer, it can lead to everything from mild, moderate to deeply serious symptoms that can end with the horse dying.
It is recommended to remove droppings from a small horse paddock at least every 14 days, but preferably once a week (if not more often). Fortunately, you don't need to get long arms and remove all the droppings with a fork and wheelbarrow. There is actually a special machine for this purpose – a horse manure vacuum cleaner – that can suck up all the droppings. You can also use an old grass cutter, but then it requires that you have a wagon to throw the manure into. If you make it a habit, the work isn't that big.
And then comes the big question: Do you need to remove droppings from your paddock?
Read also: 10 fun facts about horses and their breeds – did you know?
