Information

Points to note:

• Wallaby Park is situated only 45 minutes from the Melbourne CBD, one of the closest rural areas to the city.

• Local equine vets are only 10 minutes away.

• Supervision only, or full care available!

• Access to safe, local trail riding off the property.

• Easy access to local pony clubs and Adult Riders.

• Magnificent river setting at the end of a No Through road.

NICHOLSON PADDOCK CLEANER

Pasture Cleaning and Horse Parasites

The management of horse pastures is complicated by the tendency of horses to defecate in specific areas of the paddock. This leads to a concentration of weed growth in these areas and overuse of the remaining grass areas due to the horses’ avoidance of their own faeces. This leads to the typical horse pastures with their roughs and lawns (Horse Sick Pastures). These conditions also assist the survival of horse parasites passed with the faeces. These grow as larvae in the faeces and then when they become infective they move to the nearby pasture to reinfect the horses. The higher the density of horses in a paddock and the poorer the nutrient availability in the paddock the more likely horses are to graze near their faeces and become reinfected with parasites.

Removing horse faeces from the paddock can remove the parasite’s eggs and larvae and thus reduce the number of infective larvae available to reinfect the horses. Studies have shown that removal of faeces twice per week can reduce the parasite burden in horses by over 95% compared to no removal (Herd 1987). This result was achieved without the use of any drug treatments. Most horse worms require a development period outside the horse lasting at least one week. If faeces are removed regularly at an interval shorter than this time then the reinfection rates should drop dramatically as shown by Herd’s study.

Drug treatments may still be required at certain times of year, or to protect foals or quarantine horses being moved or introduced to the farm. However, faecal removal can assist in parasite control and slow the development of drug resistance. Faecal removal also allows better pasture management and thus better nutrient availability to horses grazing the pasture.

The method of manure collection is a personal preference, providing the faeces is removed, but harrowing which is widely practised, does not remove the faeces. Harrowing spreads the faecal material around the paddock breaking it up and distributing it. Harrowing may not remove the parasite threat and under certain conditions can actually increase parasite contamination of the pasture.

Parasites would be unlikely to survive harrowing in hot dry conditions such as those found in most summers in non-tropical Australia. At other times the infective larvae would be more likely to survive and as they have been spread all over the pasture, horses would be more likely to pick them up in larger numbers. Thus harrowing is not an effective method of parasite control except when hot dry conditions dominate.

In conclusion, the management of horse pastures and of horse parasites is significantly assisted by the regular removal of faeces.

Dr Mark Sandeman PhD — Parasitologist.