April and May may well be the most beautiful months of the year. The soil warms up, everything begins to grow, and it’s the perfect moment to sow or plant herbs.

Herbs, whether fresh or dried, are a wonderful addition to your horse’s diet. They support the body, contribute to a varied intake of nutrients, and align with what a horse would naturally eat.

But within the concept of the Browsing Paddock®, developed by Femke Dölle, herbs take on an even deeper meaning. They nourish not only the body, but also the horse’s behaviour, curiosity, and overall wellbeing.

What is a Browsing Paddock®?

The Browsing Paddock® is based on five pillars: Movement, Soil, Bonding, Biodiversity, and Browsing.

The principle is simple yet powerful: a horse is designed to move while searching, choosing, tasting, and varying its food. In nature, horses live in diverse landscapes with trees, shrubs, herbs, and different soil types. They do not eat one single type of hay all day.

A Browsing Paddock® mimics this natural system. Not based on what is convenient for humans, but on the biological and psychological needs of the horse. That is precisely why it is one of the most effective ways to prevent boredom and support the horse’s mental wellbeing.

Vegetation plays a key role in this system.

Eating according to nature

Within her designs, Femke works extensively with woody plants such as willow, hazel, hawthorn, alder, and elm. These plants are edible for much of the year and stimulate natural foraging behaviour: leaves, twigs, young shoots, and bark.

Grasses and herbs are often added in other areas of the property. Not everything is planted in one large bed. On the contrary: herbs often find their place along ditches, near stables, in corners of the yard, or along pasture edges. This way, spaces that might otherwise have little function become valuable parts of the system.

This not only increases biodiversity, but also improves soil health, attracts insects, and creates a vibrant, green environment, for both horses and humans.

Why not give free access to herbs?

Herbs are valuable, but also vulnerable. When horses have unrestricted access, plants are easily trampled, the soil becomes compacted, and root systems are damaged. What takes a full season to grow can disappear in minutes.

For that reason, herbs in a Browsing Paddock® are often harvested rather than freely grazed. Fresh herbs are picked and offered in the paddock or scattered around the area. This approach keeps the system sustainable in the long term while still offering horses variety.

The power of variety for the gut microbiome

As equine nutritionists at Metazoa, we are particularly enthusiastic about this concept. The variety of herbs, shrubs, and fibre sources perfectly aligns with what a healthy horse needs.

A diverse range of fibres supports the gut microbiome, the billions of bacteria that are essential for digestion, immunity, and overall vitality.

But there is an important nuance to consider.

The “why” of a balancer

Although a Browsing Paddock® offers a great deal of natural variation, our horses no longer live on wild, mineral-rich soils.

Modern soils are often relatively poor in nutrients. Forage does not always contain the full spectrum of vitamins and minerals that horses would find in the wild. And even with herb strips and diverse planting, it is simply not realistic to recreate hundreds of plant species on one property.

This is where a balancer plays its role.

A high-quality balancer provides those small but essential nutrients that may be lacking, including:

• zinc
• copper
• selenium
• manganese
• and other micronutrients

These minerals are essential for processes such as:

• building a strong immune system
• maintaining healthy skin and hooves
• recovery after exercise
• cellular metabolism

Even a small deficiency in a single mineral can affect a horse’s wellbeing over time.

A balancer helps complete the daily requirement of vitamins and minerals, allowing your horse to maintain its natural reserves regardless of the quality of the soil where the forage grows.

By combining natural variation in the paddock with targeted supplementation through a balancer, you create a diet that not only looks natural, but is truly complete.

At Metazoa, we have been working with balancers based on pure ingredients such as esparcette, timothy, and lucerne for many years. We intentionally rotate these ingredients so horses are not fed exactly the same thing year after year.

Start small

If you would like to start using herbs yourself, keep it simple.

A strip along the pasture.
A corner near the stable.
An edge of your garden.

Sow herbs in April or May, water them well, and harvest them yourself. Offer small amounts and observe what your horse chooses and what it leaves behind.

This way, you combine natural curiosity with thoughtful nutritional support.

Conclusion: nature and knowledge

A Browsing Paddock® is not a trend, it is a vision. It restores natural behaviour and supports both the body and the mind of the horse.

And when you combine it with:

• high-quality forage
• sufficient movement
• biodiversity
• and a well-formulated balancer

you create a system where the horse does not merely survive, but truly thrives, from the inside out.

This blog was created in collaboration with Femke Dölle. With a pioneering spirit and a deep passion for equine welfare, she developed the Browsing Paddock®: a living environment based on Movement, Bonding, Soil, Biodiversity, and Browsing.

Want to learn more? Contact us!