Horse Pasture Seed Mix

Sow a horse-specific mix built on lower-sugar grasses and legumes rather than a standard ryegrass and clover pasture. Our Equi1st Pasture Mix is formulated to be low in sugar and starch, moderate in protein and highly palatable, using prairie grass, serradella, tall fescue, Rhodes grasses, cocksfoot, teff and lucerne. For comparison, prairie grass averages around 10 to 15% sugar and starch, against 30% or more in ryegrass. If your horse has a metabolic condition, plan its grazing with your vet.

Plant sugars build up on sunny days and usually peak in the late afternoon, so they are generally lowest in the early morning. Levels also rise in fresh regrowth, when cool nights follow warm sunny days in autumn and spring, and after frost or drought stress. Equi1st is formulated to be low in sugar and starch, but no pasture is sugar-free. For an at-risk horse, limit grazing time, consider a grazing muzzle, and get your vet's approval before turning it out.

Sow Equi1st Pasture Mix at 25–35 kg/ha. On a small block that works out to 2.5–3.5 kg for every 1,000 m², so a 25 kg bag covers roughly 0.7 to 1 hectare. The mix suits areas with 400 mm or more of annual rainfall, soil pH (CaCl2) of 5 or above, and soils from sands through to heavy clays. Get a soil test first so you can correct pH and fertility before you sow.

Sow Equi1st in autumn or early spring, once soil temperatures are 16°C and rising. Some species in the mix, such as the Rhodes grasses and teff, are tropical and need warm soil to establish. Make sure there's enough soil moisture, with follow-up rain likely. Sow as shallow as possible into a well-prepared seedbed. If you broadcast the seed, dragging a light rubber tyre roller behind improves seed-to-soil contact, but don't roll wet soils that may crust.

Rest the paddock, fix the soil and resow with a horse-suited mix such as Equi1st. Get a soil test, spray out persistent weeds, and apply lime or gypsum if needed before sowing in autumn or early spring. Take care sowing into sand: some seeding methods leave troughs that fill with wind-blown sand and bury the seed too deep. Once re-established, keep more than 50% ground cover, which DPIRD recommends to reduce wind erosion, and hold horses in a yard while paddocks recover.

Keep horses off a new Equi1st paddock for 4 to 6 months after sowing, and up to 8 months on very sandy soils, so the roots can anchor properly. This matters most with horses, which can pull poorly anchored plants out of the ground. Don't cut it for hay in the first year, as that helps the stand persist. When you do open the gate, introduce horses to the lush feed gradually over several days.

Horses are preferential grazers, so they keep returning to the patches they like and leave the rest. Rotating or strip grazing gives grazed areas time to recover, and mowing down the clumps they won't eat stops one species taking over the paddock. In an Equi1st pasture, avoid grazing the cocksfoot lower than about 5 cm so it can regrow. Paddocks grazed regularly also need a regular fertiliser plan, guided by soil tests and your fertiliser history.

On the Swan Coastal Plain and Darling Scarp, DPIRD's small-holding guidelines rate a 450 kg light horse at 10 dry sheep equivalents (DSE). Well-drained sands are rated at about 6 DSE/ha on rainfed pasture, so allow roughly 1.7 ha of pasture per horse. Loamy flats and gravel slopes carry about 10 DSE/ha, or around one horse per hectare. Count only usable pasture, not buildings, driveways or bush, and check your shire's stocking rules before you buy more horses.

It can be with some species, so choose summer grasses carefully. NSW DPI advises not letting horses graze setaria for more than a month in any one summer, because high-oxalate grasses can cause ill-thrift, lameness and 'big head'. The Rhodes grasses in Equi1st carry very low oxalate levels. Teff contains some oxalate, so it should never be the only species in a horse paddock; in Equi1st it is one of several grasses and legumes. Ask your vet about minerals for horses on tropical grass.

Yes. Equi1st Pasture Mix is designed for horses but suits all livestock, including beef cattle, sheep, goats, alpacas and chickens. It can be grazed or cut for hay once established. As a perennial mix, it produces year-round wherever soil moisture allows, and the serradella in it fixes nitrogen for the soil. Whatever stock you run, rotate or strip graze so the pasture can recover and store energy in its roots before the next grazing.