Chewie has been wearing her Tractive tracker on and off for a few weeks now. So, I thought it might be fun to share some screenshots of some of the data I am collecting!
Here’s 24 hours of tracking data from a recent day.
Chewie and her donkey buddy, Liberty, live on approximately two acres.
They always have free access to the barn, which is in the middle of the photo above. I have been doing some rotational grazing this summer. So, on the day shown above, they did not have access to three of the pastures, which are shaded in the photo.
You’ll see a couple of data points that are in the off-limits pasture in the bottom of the photo. Occasionally, the tracker does send a data point that I know is inaccurate. I think this may sometimes happen when Chewie is in the metal barn — the tracker does not get great reception when she is in the barn.
At the top of the property is the road and also the pond. Chewie likes to drink from the pond, and she also likes to splash in the pond when the weather is hot! As well, Chewie and Liberty sometimes like to hang out near the road and watch what’s happening in the neighborhood.
On the right side of the photo, in the middle, is a small run-in shed. I have been putting their hay in the shed as we’ve been getting a lot of rain on and off. Chewie and Liberty are spending most of their time grazing these days, but they do also have free-choice access to hay in several slow-feeder nets.
The photo below shows this same data, but it is now broken up into six-hour chunks.
Midnight to six am: Chewie spent time grazing in the pasture in the bottom left corner of the first photo. I gave Chewie and Liberty access to this pasture the day before this data, and they were enjoying grazing on some new grass! Chewie may have also been sleeping during part of this time. (Horses generally only sleep for several hours a day.)
Six am to noon: More grazing in the bottom left pasture. Chewie also spent quite a bit of time in the barn while I was at the property. She made one brief visit to the shed and two visits up to the pond/road area.
Noon to six pm: Chewie spent a chunk of time near the shed during the mid-afternoon. Otherwise, this period of time looks pretty similar, overall, to the previous six hours.
Six pm to midnight: Chewie spent most of her time grazing in the lower left pasture. She also made one trip down to the pond.
Note: The tracker sends a new data point every several minutes. So, it shows overall movement patterns and an overall distribution of activity. However, the lines may not always be accurate, especially if Chewie is moving a lot or moving quickly.
Overall, I’ve found it interesting to watch where Chewie spends her time at different times of the day. As well, it’s been interesting to see how her activity has changed when I have given her access to a new pasture, shut off a previous pasture, moved the hay to a new location, or made other changes to the property.
Long term, I’m hoping that some of these observations can help me make more informed decisions related to pasture rotation, enrichment activities, and more!
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