A paddock is a small enclosure for horses. In the United Kingdom, this term also applies to a field for a general automobile racing competition, particularly

Formula 1 Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

Description

In Canada and the United States of America, a paddock is a small enclosure used to keep horses. In the United Kingdom, this term has a similar meaning, and also applies to a field for a general automobile racing competition, particularly

. The most common design provides an area for exercise and is often situated near the

stable A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the ...

s. Larger paddocks may have grass maintained in them, but many are dirt or a similar natural surface. In those cases drainage and a top layer of sand are often used to keep a suitable surface in the paddock. In the

American West The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...

, such an enclosure is often called a corral, and may be used to contain cattle or horses, occasionally other livestock. The word paddock is also used to describe other small, fenced areas that hold horses, such as a saddling paddock at a racetrack, the area where race horses are saddled before a horse race. Horse breeders may let stallions loose in a paddock or field with mares that they would like the stallion to impregnate. This allows the most natural form of mating to occur and the regularity of mating using this method promotes the chances of a mare becoming pregnant. However, high-value stallions are rarely used for breeding in this manner, as uninterested mares may severely injure them.

References

{{wiktionary, paddock Horse management Buildings and structures used to confine animals Agricultural land