It’s good to be home!
All about the grass…
With 70-80 horses turned out at Madden Mountain, many of the questions we get asked are about our fields and how they are maintained.
1. What do we seed with?
We actually have our own “Madden Mix” we use, both in our grand prix field to ride on and in our fields with retirees. This mix works for our purposes here in central New York, but may not be the right mix for your horses, farm, location, or usage.
2. When do we seed? How do we maintain the fields?
Before we seed, we drag the fields to break up any manure piles. We seed our fields in late summer or early fall and spread manure and straw from stalls on the fields after. This is only done in fields that are not currently in use. We try to build up any areas in the fields that are rocky or lacking topsoil and will spread heavier in those areas.
We shoot for getting at least two mowings done and at least a month from the last time we spread on the field before we turnout horses on the fields.
3. How do your horses handle all that grass?
We have enough fields that we are able to “sacrifice” some areas in the early spring when the grass is coming in. These fields get beat up and don’t have a ton of good grass in early spring, so we don’t have to limit their time too much. As the herds become used to the grass in the spring, we are then able to rotate them onto different fields with more grass and let the first field that was in rougher shape rest.
At the end of May or in early June, depending on the year, we rotate to our summer fields. Our herds stay in these fields for the next three to four months. Each herd has two fields that we rotate them between every 10 days during the summer. At the end of the summer, the herds rotate back to the winter barn, where the fields have had the whole summer to rest.
A quick video of rotating back to the winter barn is online here!
For the health of the grass and to knock down any weeds, we mow our fields just about every week. This also serves to break up manure.
What’s happening this week…
The weather is great in Cazenovia and we are setting up the grand prix field to jump! Check next week’s Madden Monday for some pictures of what we are schooling on the field.
As always, send any questions for John, Beezie, or the rest of Team JMS to JMS@johnmaddensales.com and we will try to answer your questions in future a future Madden Monday!