Partner Farming with Horses: Goats

One of the core elements of regenerative agriculture is partner farming. Partner farming uses multiple species of animals together to achieve a goal. That goal can be pasture management, parasite control, and more. With horse management, there are many goals we have to enhance their environment. While much of it is managing their pasture, some of it may be companionship as well. This is when many recommend someone purchase a goat for lonely horses.

However, goats provide more than just companionship to horses (and entertainment to people). They are in many ways an ideal partner animal to horses.

Weed Management

While horses thrive on grass as grazers, goats thrive on brush, broadleaf weeds, and more as browsers. With horse pastures, managing weeds is always a challenge, especially since some weeds are toxic to horses. Others restrict the growth of the pasture, and some brushy weeds, like wild roses and wild blackberries, can be dangerous to eyes or simply a nuisance. Not all weeds are bad, however, and some should be encouraged (such as plantain, white or yellow clover, henbit, and man more), as they improve the soil, provide more variety to the horse’s diet, and support the ecosystem through their flowers and seeds feeding pollinators and other wildlife. Weedkiller is often used but is indiscriminate and will wipe out all but grass. This is not healthy in the long run, even if it makes for “prettier” pastures. Many weeds that are toxic to horses are not for goats, thus goats can be pastured with horses to eat the weeds. They also love the brambles that tend to grow on the edge of fences, and this makes for less maintenance in the long run.

Parasite Management

Goats and horses also share different parasites. This means the parasites that go through their life cycle in horses will actually die if consumed by goats, and same goes for goat parasites in horses. With parasites becoming more and more resistant to chemical dewormers, this is becoming something of a crisis for both horse owners and goat owners. Thus, partnering goats and horses can help reduce the parasites in each and reduce the need for dewormers.

Pasture Preparation

If you bought land and want to pasture horses there but have a pasture filled with brambles and weeds (or want to pasture horses in some trees but have a lot of undergrowth), goats are wonderful at preparing these sites. They love the underbrush and will gently clear the area, and you can therefore prepare a site for planting grass and pasturing the horses. While the brambles may try to come back, the goats can go back in those areas to repeat the clean up job as needed.

So, how do I add goats to my herd?

This is often the biggest challenge. Horses are relatively straightforward to keep in their pens, whereas goats are curious and intelligent and will escape from many enclosures. If you have no-climb fencing, that will likely keep your goats in. If you have 3-rail fencing, however, the goats will get out. Additionally, goats will often try to share the horse food and can be stubborn to get to it, and they’re notorious for climbing round bales and pooping in them. Horses can also injure goats fairly easily, whether by mistake or on purpose. So, what we prefer is to use electric goat netting and pasture the goats in the weediest and poopiest parts of the horse pastures (not always mutually exclusive areas… often the broadleaf weeds will come up before the grass in areas where the horses poop and kill off the grass). This is actually more effective for parasite management, as the ones left behind by the horses will dry out and die, and then once the goats are rotated off that area, the goat parasites left behind will also die off. Since goats in this kind of setup can’t share shelters with the horses, we use plastic calf hutches or even Dogloos as portable shelter for the goats.

What kind of goats should I get?

That is entirely up to your preference. We love our San Clemente Island goats because they’re hardy and deer-like, but that means our fencing has to be taller (48″), and they are not as friendly as other goat breeds. Other more conventional breeds, like Nigerian Dwarfs and Pygmy goats are much friendlier but therefore more mischievous curious. So, research different breeds and get to know several individuals of those breeds. It would be best to get wethers (the goat version of geldings) or does, as bucks can be smelly and obnoxious (if not occasionally dangerous toward people). Goats also do better with multiples of their own kind, so even if you’re trying to provide companionship to a lonely horse, it’s best to have multiple goats.

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Partner farming goats and horses together is a quintessential element of regenerative agriculture, and it can provide a number of benefits for your horse’s health, both through pasture management and through parasite control. If you’ve been looking for a more “organic” method of maintaining your horse pastures, consider adding goats to your rotation!