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TheEquine : "Pasture for Horses
High-quality, properly-fenced pasture represents one of the best and least expensive sources of summer feed for a horse. In addition, a well kept pasture can provide the most natural and healthy environment for exercise and rest.
Productive, well-managed pastures can provide most of the feed requirements of horses at the lowest cost. In fact, good pasture alone is sufficient to meet all of the nutritional requirements for many classes of horses. Yet, poorly-managed pastures supply little or no feed, and are frequently the source of many internal parasites.
General guidelines for the pasture needs (if the pasture is to serve as a feed source) for horses which have a mature weight of 1000 to 1200 lbs are:
Mare and foal 1.75 to 2 acres
Yearlings 1.5 to 2 acre
Weanlings 0.5 to 1 acre
When acreage is very limited (less than one acre per horse), exercise may be the main use of the pasture. Pasture for this purpose will not supply more than a minimum amount of feed. However, with limited pasture pasture acreage, rotational grazing systems are the most effective method to maximise forage production and consumption. In this system, a group of compatible horses can graze a paddock (area of divided pasture) for approximately 3 to 6 days and then be moved (rotated) to a fresh paddock. "