Paddock grass seed

1. What is different about paddock grass?

Paddock grass seed has to be able to put up with extra wear and tear from happy horses and ponies galloping around, so you don’t have to worry about them causing damage to your field. To make sure your paddock can keep up, equestrian grass seed is more durable than conventional grass seed while also creating a fibrous sward that will add to your horse’s diet. Being a hardier mix, paddock seed is extremely good at tolerating wet conditions, meaning you won’t have to worry about getting a specialist mix when dealing with heavy soils.

2. Selecting the best paddock grass seed mixture

If you want your paddock to have a good base for grazing while producing swards of hay, we recommend sectioning off your paddock with one growing high-yielding grass for hay whilst the other offering nutritious grass for grazing.

Hay day

While any grass field can be used when taking a hay crop, to really line your pockets with hay while providing your horse with a lush new paddock at the same time, we recommend our NURTURE: Paddock seed which is a specially selected blend that will produce quality swards for up to 3-5 years.

Grass seed varieties within NURTURE: Paddock includes:

What does the seed do?

Perennial Ryegrass & Creeping Red Fescue

Perennial ryegrass is exceptionally hard-wearing and ensures that your paddock grass is sturdy enough to withstand whatever your horses and ponies can throw at it! Combining this with creeping red fescue allows your paddock to be drought tolerant while handling heavy soil conditions like clay.

Timothy

Timothy is great for providing a high-fibre, low-calorie forage for your horses and ponies to enjoy! With its high fibre content, timothy is also perfect for maintaining healthy digestive function for those snacking on your paddock.

Meadow Fescue

Meadow fescue produces high-quality grazing stock and is especially good for being cut, especially for hay.

Our NURTURE: Paddock overseeder is the same mix, but in a convenient 6kg bag, enough for repairing an acre of tired pastures and can be sown into an existing sward.

Grazing paddock seed

Our NURTURE: Paddock with herbs builds on everything amazing about our NURTURE: Paddock but also throws herbs into the mix! These are packed with natural vitamins to look out for your horse and ponies, ensuring they stay fit and healthy.

Grass seed varieties within NURTURE: Paddock with herbs include:

3. Do I need to think about herbs?

The herbs included in our NURTURE: Paddock with Herbs mix are Plantain, Agri Burnet, Yarrow, and Sheep’s Parsley. These are full of natural vitamins and create a versatile, palatable grazing mix for your paddock. So, while they aren’t necessary, adding them to your paddock mix will undoubtedly go down well with the horses!  

4. How often should I overseed my paddock?

When it comes to how often you should overseed your paddock, this entirely depends on how much use it will get. You should overseed your paddock as needed when patches start to form, keeping the grass healthy and giving your paddock better coverage. Over time, a paddock’s yield and quality will get worse, so as a guide, when using our NURTURE: Paddock and NURTURE: Paddock with Herbs, we recommend that you give your paddock a refresh every 3-5 years by reseeding the entire area, keeping the grass quality high and your horses and ponies happy.

5. Wildflowers in your meadow (be careful)

Although wildflowers make a pretty addition to any field they are sown, do not be tempted to put any near your horse paddock – they can be poisonous! Common wildflowers like buttercups, foxgloves and ragwort are all toxic to horses, and we would never recommend sowing any wildflowers near them.

All things paddock seed

Are you interested in finding the best grass seed for your horse paddock?

Or looking to find out how to manage the upkeep of your paddock?

What about checking out our guide to perfect paddocks?