Anyone else with "well" looking horses?!

Was listening to a podcast the other day and someone who does courses on land management was talking about short grass and the sugar vs fibre content. Apparently horses stomachs use the fibre content to signal when they are full, rather than calorie content or even volume, so when short grass has little to no fibre they just keep eating. Seems to track to me 🤷‍♀️

I still have a muzzle on in a very short field and weight is keeping steady but yeah, pony thinks she is being starved. The poo volume is exactly the same as it was 3 weeks ago when they went in there so I know she isn't actually starving but I guess she is living on haribo. Nothing to be done unfortunately as other fields are out of action, I'm just making sure she comes in for an armful of haylage every day before we do anything.
 
We’ve have plenty of grass up north. Rain hasn’t been a problem at all.

Big horse is looking slightly well but she’s on ad-lib grass and will lose a lot over winter so happy for her to stock up a bit. Small horse is far too fat even being on restricted grazing all summer.

Come the end of winter I can do a switch and worry about the big lassy instead of small 😂
 
smolmaus said:
Was listening to a podcast the other day and someone who does courses on land management was talking about short grass and the sugar vs fibre content. Apparently horses stomachs use the fibre content to signal when they are full, rather than calorie content or even volume, so when short grass has little to no fibre they just keep eating. Seems to track to me
Click to expand...
That does actually make sense, I made a track for mine last night with them on an older, stalky/scrub paddock, and watching them on the camera (when I'm meant to be working!) shows they are munching less than they were on the short grass. Heads up and chewing between mouthfuls too, so eating slower all round it seems
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top