Red Tail Arabians, LLC

10/28/2025

https://www.village.com/programs/naU2NN

10/28/2025

10/25/2025

November 2nd!

10/15/2025

🍂 When Should You Pull Horses Off Pasture for the Season? 🐴

Timing depends on weather and pasture condition—but here are a few key things to watch:

🌱 Forage Availability: Stop grazing when grasses average 3 to 4 inches tall. Overgrazing weakens plants and can cause horses to nibble on potentially toxic weeds or wilted leaves (e.g., maple).

🌡️ Air Temperature: Cool-season grasses thrive in the fall but stop growing after a killing frost (temps below 28°F for several hours).

💧 Footing: Wet, muddy pastures can’t handle hoof traffic. This can damage plants, compact soil, and reduce spring growth.

⏰ Transition to Hay Gradually 🐴

Microbes in the horse's gut need time to adapt to a new forage type. Aside from moisture content, hay and pasture may also differ in species and maturity, which affects nutrient content and digestibility. When possible, slowly add hay to your horse's diet across a two-week transition period to help lower the risk of colic or digestive upset.

For example, a healthy 1000-pound horse will consume about 20 pounds of forage daily. On pasture, they will graze about 1.5 pounds of forage per hour. Thus, during a transition period, 1.5 pounds of hay can be added and 1 hour of grazing time removed each day until 20 pounds of hay is reached on day 14.

Monitoring forage availability and weather will be key to timing out your transition. If pastures become too sparse, you will need to provide additional hay.

✅ Keep monitoring pasture conditions and weather.
✅ Provide clean water and free-choice salt.
✅ Protect your pasture for a strong spring rebound!

10/15/2025

10/11/2025

Yup

Some totally informal research, not backed up by any absolute evidence, has come up with some ideas about what it ACTUALLY COSTS to keep one horse for one year, whether it’s a horse in work or a complete pasture ornament.

I started by trying to figure out actual costs, hay, grain, board, vet care, foot care, dental care, labor, the most basic basics, and most of those I asked said that they felt that ten dollars a day was about rock bottom minimum in most places, which comes to $3, 650, a year.

So, going up by 5 dollars a day---
$15=$5,475 a year,
$20=$7,300 a year
$25=$9,125 a year
$30=$10,950 a year

And so on, up and up if the horse is boarded at a suburban barn, and so forth.

What triggered this was reading some of the comments about what a 4 year old should sell for, and what it probably took to get the c**t to the fall of its 3 year old year. And how many felt that ten thousand would be "too high."

So, one year while the mare is in foal, minimum, $3, 650. Then 3 years of the c**t’s expenses, minimum, comes to another $10,680. Then add the mare’s in foal year, and rock bottom minimum it has cost the breeder $14,330 to get the foal to this place.

That doesn’t include any extras like stud fee, handling, training, just the most basic of basics. So if the c**t got sold for, say $20,000 the owner is probably breaking even---MAYBE---For any hope of profit on investment, a price in the high twenties MIGHT deliver some profit, and that, right there, are some HARD REALITIES about USA horse breeding.

10/07/2025

❄🐴🌾 Is it safe to graze horses after a hard freeze? What do I need to consider before turning them back out on pasture? Also, what defines a hard freeze?

🌡 A hard freeze refers to a frost that is severe enough to end the growing season. The National Weather Service defines a hard freeze when temperatures fall below 28ºF for a few hours. Cool-season grasses commonly found in Midwest horse pastures go into dormancy for winter and conserve their energy stores (starches and sugars) following a hard freeze.

❄️ We recommend keeping horses off pastures for at least 7 days after a hard freeze. Frost-damaged pastures are higher in nonstructural carbohydrates (starches and sugars) because plants can not use up their energy stores as efficiently. It can take plants 7 days to return to more normal nonstructural carbohydrate levels. Higher levels of nonstructural carbohydrates can lead to an increase risk for laminitis, especially in horses diagnosed with or prone to obesity, laminitis, Cushings, and Equine Metabolic Syndrome.

The decision to graze again after a hard freeze depends on the condition of your pasture. After a hard freeze, no additional regrowth of the pasture will occur, even though the pasture might appear green in color. If your cool-season grass pasture is

✅ taller than 3 to 4 inches, then grazing can resume 7 days after a hard freeze and can continue until the pasture is grazed down to 3 to 4 inches.
❌ shorter than 3 to 4 inches, then no grazing should occur after a hard freeze. Grazing below 3 inches can harm the plant and lead to poor productivity next season.

🌾 Plants rely on stored nonstructural carbohydrates in the lower 3 inches for energy. Therefore, the 3- to 4-inch minimum height recommendation is necessary to help maximize winter survival and can help predict a vigorous and healthy pasture come spring. We do recognize horses rarely graze uniformly and pastures tend to have areas of both over and under grazing. You will need to base decisions on the average appearance of your pasture