How Biodiverse Paddocks Support Soil Health, Forage, Horse Happiness, Health and Wellbeing

Horses evolved to forage. Given the chance, they move, graze, explore, and interact with complex, ever-changing environments. Many modern paddocks are uniform, often dominated by perennial ryegrass, with little variety or stimulation for your horse. Limited How Biodiverse Paddocks Support Soil Health, Forage, Horse Happiness, Health and Wellbeingforage diversity can lead to digestive issues, metabolic problems, stress, and behavioural challenges, not to mention soil degradation and declining biodiversity.

With thoughtful management, your horse paddocks can be transformed into vibrant, multi-species habitats that:

• Support horse gut health and nutrition

• Encourage natural grazing behaviour (foraging)

• Reduce boredom and stress

• Support native wildlife

• Rebuild soil and ecosystem resilience to help fight climate change

A biodiverse paddock is not just good for nature,  it’s better for your horse too.

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Why Biodiversity Matters in Horse Paddocks

A paddock full of different grasses, herbs, and wildflowers is more than eye-catching, it’s a more natural diet that horses evolved to eat. Diversity supports digestive health, strengthens immunity, and encourages natural foraging behaviours. It can also help reduce stress related behaviours such as pacing, cribbing and windsucking.

Equine Benefits of Biodiverse Pastures:

A More Natural Diet

Herbs, wildflowers, and varied grasses provide a wider nutritional profile, rich in minerals and bioactive compounds to support horse wellbeing. Many supplements on the market contain herbs that can grow in pasture for free!

Mental Stimulation & Enrichment

A varied paddock encourages exploration, curiosity, and movement.

Improved Gut Health

Species such as Meadowsweet and Ribwort plantain contain natural anti-inflammatory, demulcent and anthelmintic properties through compounds like mucilage that forms a soothing, protective film over mucous membranes in the digestive tract (Self, 1996; Bone, 2013). Diversity also improves the horses gut microbiome, which can affect immunity, digestion, behaviour and cognition (Li, 2025).

Behavioural Balance

Choice and variety reduce frustration, helping horses feel calmer and more content.

Natural Shelter & Comfort 

Native hedgerows and trees provide shade, windbreaks, and protection during extreme weather.

Benefits For the Land and Environment

Biodiverse paddocks don’t just benefit horses, they create thriving ecosystems. Pollinators, birds, and insects flourish in these habitats, while deep-rooted plants improve soil structure, nutrient cycling, and drought resilience. Healthy soils fed organic matter don't need fertilisers. They absorb water like a sponge during heavy rainfall and release it to plant roots during dry spells and droughts. Healthy soil also sequesters carbon, reducing the carbon in the atmosphere which contributes to climate change.

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Practical Steps to Create a Biodiverse Horse Paddock

Rethink the Grass Sward in your field

Perennial ryegrass and other agricultural grasses are popular because its what the agricultural industry grows. It grows quickly and is durable but is suitable for cows that are ruminants and digest nutrients by “chewing the cud”, not for horses that are hindgut fermenters and can get more nutrients from forage. Grasses alone provide high levels of energy but poor overall nutrition. They have relatively shallow roots, and high sugar levels which aren't ideal for horses.

Grasses like cocksfoot, meadow fescue, sweet vernal grass, crested dogs tail, plus deep-rooted herbs and wildflowers like Ribwort Plantain, Sainfoin, Birdsfoot Trefoil, Salad Burnet and Common Knapweed. These species:

• Improve soil structure and root depth

• Are relatively lower in sugar content and higher in vitamins and minerals

• Promote natural grazing patterns

• Support wildlife and pollinators

  
  

To give your horses and soil more variety, introduce wildflowers and herbs. Sow an equestrian herbal ley (mix of non cultivated grasses, herbs and wildflowers) or overseed your existing paddock with a wildflower mix. These grasses and wildflowers don't need high nitrogen soil and will not need chemical fertilisers. Just feed the soil with some organic matter by spreading a very thin layer of well rotten manure, leaves or compost tea.

Use Rotational or Rested Grazing

Continuous grazing prevents plant diversity and damages soil. Rotating horses allows grasses and herbs to recover, strengthens roots, and encourages wildflowers to reseed naturally.

Don’t let your sward get shorter than 5-7cm. This is approximately the width of a

beer bottle or drinks can. This prevents overgrazing which will enable the sward to be healthier and more resilient. It will reduce the risk of bare patches and weed invasion, aid in natural parasite control and improve the variety and nutritional quality of the forage that grows.

If you dont have enough land to allow for suitable resting of the paddock, check out this blog which highlights ways to rest land without extra acreage.

Plant Horse-Friendly Hedging

Hedgerows give forage, shade, and sensory enrichment. They can help store water and carbon too. Native species such as hawthorn, hazel, dog rose, field maple, and hornbeam support wildlife while keeping horses safe.

Plant hedges and trees native to your area. Contact charities like the woodland trust for advice and financial support. If you need to, trim outside nesting season (March–August) so that you don’t disturb nesting birds. Allow hedges to flower and fruit to provide food for horses and the other insects and animals in the environment.

Avoid toxic species: For example, Yew, laburnum, laurel, privet, sycamore.

Add Microhabitats

Small features enhance biodiversity and ecological balance. Create log piles and stone heaps for beetles and amphibians, shallow ponds or scrapes (horses excluded) for frogs, dragonflies, and birds. Consider installing bird and bat boxes to posts, trees or stables. Leave rough grass strips or uncut hedgerows to connect habitats and create wildlife corridors.

Improve Soil Health

Healthy soil underpins all other efforts. Avoid using fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides  and intensive grazing. Encourage deep-rooted plants, composting, and dung beetle activity (alongside others) to maintain nutrient cycling naturally. Learn more about soil and how to keep it healthy on our upcoming course.

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The Result: A Living, Resilient Paddock

Rewilding isn’t about losing control, it’s about partnership with nature which increases biodiversity.

Diverse plants, hedgerows, wildflower strips, and microhabitats create:

• Healthier, happier horses

• Better soil and forage quality

• Enriched ecosystems and wildlife habitats

• A self-sustaining, low-maintenance paddock

  
  

Even small changes, like introducing a low-sugar sward or leaving an unmown corner, can improve nutrition, and provide mental stimulation for horses. Once established, nature does most of the work, giving you a resilient, biodiverse paddock that benefits horses, wildlife, and the planet.

References

A modern horse herbal by hilary page self and Tim Couzens (BVetMed, MRCVS, VetMFHom). First published in hardback 1996 (paper back 2004).

Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy, 2nd Edition by  Kerry Bone and Simon Mills

Li F, Kong X, Khan MZ, Wei L, Wei J, Zhu M, Liu G, Huang B, Wang C, Zhang Z. Gut microbiome regulation in equine animals: current understanding and future perspectives. Front Microbiol. 2025 Sep 24;16:1602258. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1602258. PMID: 41070119; PMCID: PMC12504203. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12504203/#sec20