Paddock Paradise vs. Power Paddock
I believe most horse owners have heard of “Paddock Paradise,” where pasture corridors are supposed to stimulate the horses to move more. Many years ago, when I gave a short talk (3 hours) on hoof function and hoof health, Prof. Ingvar Fredricson, the real inventor of the concept, approached me, and we had a very nice chat. He had experience from the world’s first “Paddock Paradise” that he had built for show jumpers at Hjelmskyl in Sweden years before the book about “Paddock Paradise” came out, and I had experience from two different Paddock Paradises that I had built on my farm for our herd of four. We agreed that the horses did move more when their pasture was built out of corridors, but also that this had no medical effects or health benefits. It’s easy to believe that more movement would make a big difference for horse and hoof health, but for this to be the case, they apparently need more movement than what a redesigned pasture creates. With this in my memory, I went home to rebuild the Paddock Paradise into a “Power Paddock”, and this changed everything and brought so much more fun to both the herd and me.
In 2010, I had 8 Arabians and part-breds plus one smaller pony together in one herd. Four of them were stallions (2 foals), three mares, and two geldings. It was a fantastic herd, but how do you exercise such a mixed group and still have time for something more?
The answer is: Build yourself a Power Paddock.
My first PowerPaddock was built on a grass covered field across a small gravel road from the horse’s large mixed vegetation pasture. The field was 200m long and 100 m wide (660×330 feet) and I fenced off a 3 m (10 feet) wide corridor on all four sides. 365 days per year, I rode my Yamaha 400, 4-stroke enduro, to the field and parked it in the corridor before I went to call on my horses. I just opened the gate, and they all followed me to the Power Paddock, no lead ropes needed. The oldest gelding was always first in line, and as soon as he entered the corridor, he looked to see if the motorbike was there; and then he took off in full gallop, and the race was on. I let the smaller pony into the middle and all the others stayed in the corridor togeher.
I had no chance keeping up with them, so when they came too close from behind, I had to take a shortcut straight across the field to be able to see them in front of me. Interesting was that it was the pony that made the Arabians run faster by cutting corners to make him come out ahead. This made the rest of the herd run faster, and faster, and faster. They ran 6 laps = 3.6 km = 2.25 miles before they wanted to stop. I was never chasing them; instead, I was a part of the pack, running together. They all loved it, and so did I. I soon discovered that the shape of the trac made it impossible for me to stop them if I wanted. Even if I turned around to stop them they would just turn around and keep running in the oposite direction. Altogether, it took me 45 minutes, door-to-door, to exercise 9 horses, and it was so much fun seeing the horses having fun that I did it every day, rain or snow.
Eventually I realice that a U-shaped track would give me much more control than than one where they could keep runing forever.
Right now we have 3 rehab horses who need to run slowly and one that prefers full speed, so we run them in small groups, and the L-shaped track got holding areas at the ends to make it easy to stop them when I decide they have had enough.
I don’t like having my horses run in circles since that means they lean the same way all the time. I want them to run straight forward and in balance, to perfect their gaits.