Hybrid Horse Keeping Equicentral and Tracks combined

There are many ways to achieve what you want and just as many opinions on what is best when it comes to keeping your horses!

With so many variables and as each individual situation is different, it’s good to keep an open mind about horse-keeping models.

So let’s look at how a combination of two popular ways of horse and property management have combined.

My Experience

My own experiment with an Equicentral system has been successful in certain circumstances. I’ve also seen amazing changes in properties converted entirely and with great success.

In case you haven’t heard, it’s a method of sustainable horse & land management based on a central ‘sacrifice’ area with access to a number of grazing areas, that allow rotation to conserve pasture health.

Developed by Jane and Stuart Myers – UK residents who have also lived in Australia, they teach people better ways to manage both horses and land, via their workshops and the Equiculture website.

I found it easy to implement for horses who can cope with unlimited access to grass, like my 30+ year oldies. They benefitted from coming into a central gravel-surfaced yard for shelter, rest, water, and bucket feeds. Their hooves rarely needed trimming with walking back and forth on a 20m stretch of gravel 3-6 times a day.

However, with my ‘fatties’ (10 horses and a mule) I’ve had less success, as they’re prone to subclinical laminitis.

During spring and summer, the Equicentral system hasn’t worked for them because I don’t have a large enough area free of grass to confine them in. When they have access to our (high in sugar and starch) C3 grasses 24/7, my horses suffer from laminitis.

The Equicentral system works well in warmer climates where horses seek water and shade several times a day.

But in our cooler Tasmanian climate, my horses were getting enough moisture from the grass to have no need to return to a central area for water or rest.