Pasture injuries are often called “bad luck” after the fact, but many are inspection failures in disguise. The same weak points show up over and over: fence trouble, plant risk, and water access mistakes.
Walk your pasture on purpose, not just in passing. Check gates, corners, and pressure points where horses push and crowd. Scan for toxic plants with seasonal awareness, not a one-time spring pass.
I’m direct about this because it causes avoidable injuries: a weekly 20-minute walk with notes prevents more emergencies than most owners realize, and skipping it because “nothing looked wrong last week” is false economy.
Water risk is underappreciated. Stagnant, contaminated, or unreliable access changes behavior and health quickly. If intake drops, everything else gets harder.
Pasture safety is not a checklist you complete once. It’s recurring maintenance that protects both horse welfare and owner sanity.
Pasture risk is cumulative. It is rarely one dramatic hazard and usually a stack of small ignored issues that finally align badly.
Fence checks should focus on pressure points: gates, corners, and areas where footing encourages crowding or slipping. Structural weakness in those zones produces a disproportionate share of injury events.
Plant risk control is seasonal. What looked clean last month may not stay clean after growth shifts or weather change. A recurring walk with photos and notes is more effective than occasional visual confidence.
Water management deserves the same rigor as fencing. Contaminated or unreliable sources alter behavior and can amplify other health risks. Treat water as a monitored system, not a static amenity.
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