Horse feed or wildfire fuel?

It can feed two things: 1. Horses, or 2. Wildfire

What a contrast! On our side of the fence the grass is munched down to almost nothing. On our neighbor’s side it gets up to four feet (1.2 m) high. Something must have gone wrong because our neighbor has probably 60 horses on his place versus barely more than 30 on our side. Trouble is, his place is divided into many sections by fencing and some of the gates must be closed, keeping the horses away from this lush feed.

Last fall a friend of ours, John, was lamenting the fact that drought had left him with almost no feed on his eight hundred or so acres. Our neighbor Bob owns probably near a thousand acres (400 hectares) and wanted to clear off the grass for protection from wildfire. We got the two men together and they worked out the current plan for grazing. But nobody told either of them that we want protection too! A fire right next door is way too close for comfort.

Oh well. Maybe next year.