Cool-season perennial grasses and legumes are most commonly used for horse pastures in Kentucky. Select high-quality plant species that are adapted to your farm. Yielding ability is important, but with horses, one should also be interested in quality; hence, the more nutritious plants usually are preferable, if they are well adapted.

Grasses may be grown in pure stands or in mixtures with legumes. Both pure grass and grass-legume mixtures can usually be used to advantage, if in separate fields. Grass with nitrogen fertilization usually provides earlier spring grazing and later fall grazing. Grass-legume mixtures are more productive in summer.

Cool-season grasses for horse pasture include orchard grass, Kentucky bluegrass, or fescue. Each grass has both advantages and disadvantages. Kentucky bluegrass has underground stems (rhizomes) which send up new shoots and, if properly managed, it forms a dense turf. It also provides excellent-quality grazing. Orchard grass has yield potential higher than bluegrass and can also provide high-quality pasturage. It is a "bunch grass" and usually does not form a smooth, dense turf. Tall fescue has yield potential similar to orchard grass and considerably higher than Kentucky bluegrass. It does not have rhizomes in Kentucky bluegrass, but it usually forms good turf.

Although thousands of Kentucky horses are pastured on tall fescue, they sometimes do rather poorly on it. This is especially true of mares with nursing foals. Also, there are reports of abortions in mares grazing fescue during the latter stages of pregnancy. This problem has been reported even when mares were receiving adequately balanced grain rations. To avoid this problem, mares should be removed from fescue pastures during the last stages of pregnancy. Fescue-legume pastures are usually more desirable than fescue alone. It is important to keep fescue pastures clipped regularly to ensure that young, tender pasturage is available.

Any legume that is adapted to the soil and climate conditions of an area can be used in horse pastures. Legumes should almost always be used in a mixture with one of the previously mentioned grasses. Horses do not bloat, so there need be no fear of using white clover, ladino clover, red clover, or alfalfa. Sometimes an excessive amount of legumes in a pasture can cause slobbering. If the pasture is less than 50 percent legumes, this problem is rare.