Paradise on earth

You’ll probably recognize this! Google Paddock Paradise or something else and you’ll see lots of adverts on Instagram and Facebook about that specific topic. And that’s how big names like Femke Dölle and Rianne Dekker come into the picture. Rianne offers a 5-day training course on housing for your horse, which I am following.

Coming from the Western sport, a whole new world lies at my feet. How am I going to bring that home? Uh, Theo, I have a question… I’ve actually come up with something and would you like to help me implement it?

At the kitchen table, plans are made, ideas are discussed, and an A5 sheet of paper is used. It is important that a strip remains free for irrigation. How creative is it to place the brushwood and edible trees in horseshoe shapes, and a big smile appears on my face 😃.

To measure is to know, and the ordered posts are carefully laid out on the site. Four lorries of prunings are ordered from the council, and a few friends are drummed up to come and help out on a Saturday. The sun is shining, sleeves are rolled up, and the mountain of pruning that you think you’ll never get trough is neatly stacked into a beautiful whole that same day. It’s starting to loo like something.

Plus sizes

The crane is started to excavate a wadi (short for water drainage and infiltration) at the lowest point of the Paddock Paradise, and the black soil is used to create a hill opposite. Thick tree trunks are laid down as an extra obstacle and a double palisade wall of sturdy tree trunks is erected to provide shelter for the horses is sun and wind.

Oh yes, of course I would also like to be able to mow with the tractor so that I have to manoeuvre as little as possible. That can be arranged. And then the search begins on Marktplaats for an old well ring in which herbs can be planted. Because we want to be able to offer a varied meal so that the horses themselves can choose what to eat. Roaming freely and looking for what’s on the menu.

Leaves, twigs and willow branches are added regularly to encourage nibbling behaviour and it certainly contributes to natural dental care. Just like the piece of paving laid in front of the paddock to promote blood circulation, strong corneas and even wear.

Bare feet

A mineral rock can be made from Moraine boulders, alternating with a herbal lick stone, zinc block, anti-insect or Mediterranean lick stone, which can be licked as needed. If I see that the horses are no longer using it, I opt for other lick stones such as biotin (good for the hooves) or magnesium. I have already offered spirulina in all four seasons and there is no need for it. This shows that offering it with their concentrated feed, because then it becomes a kind of obligation to eat it.

To encourage movement, there is a fixed connection for fresh drinking water at both the beginning and end of the Paddock Paradise, which can be closed off in winter to prevent freezing. The Suevia drinking troughs are super handy; they have two caps that pop out and are replaceble if the pipe does freeze.

It was a consious decision on our part to build the Paddock Paradise entirely on special Horsemaster horse pasture grass. This variety produces a finely rooted turf and is low in fructan, allowing the horses to eat, play and rest here day and night.

Guests who come to stay at BoksheideBuiten can indicate when booking that they would like their horses to take on the challenge in the paddock Paradise. You will be surprised at the wonderful insights you will gain, and I am happy to think along with you. Colonel, Triangles, Navida & Floris graze in a different pasture every week and, thanks to the fun they have in the Paddock Paradise, they adapt very easily.

And it’s also fantastic if you want to play with your hobbyhorse in this piece of nature. Avanti, Oswin, Gentle, Spraty & Buddy are in their stables, eager to be brushed, have their manes braided and go on an adventure with you.