Are reeds in horses field poisonous?

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sparky1981

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We are moving to our new place soon&some of the horses field have reeds in.I'm trying to findout what their called to see if the horses will eat them&if they do whether its poisonous.the fields have been used for sheep before and to make hay.please help!
 
Poisonous, no, but means fields are wet and probably poor. If horses are good-doers then poor may be ok, but wet not so good.
 
Hi the ground isn't overly wet unfortunetly all the ground where we are moving to seems to be like it!yet there are lots of horses.we are going to do something about it but won't b able to imediatly.
 
Reeds grow where the soil retains moisture, and the soil is acid. High rainfall areas are prone to acidic soil and the growth of reeds as the soil is easily leached in these areas.

Reeds are not a problem and horses enjoy eating them, especially the new growth.

I like to see reeds in the grazing fields as it normally means that there is less improved grasses in the sward such as perenial rye grass, which are not good for horses as they are too high in sugars and certainly detrimental to horses in danger of developing laminitis.

You don't want reeds in grass you are going to make hay/haylage out of ideally, so an application of lime will improve the soil pH and restrict the growth of reeds.
 
I suspect you mean rushes. Not poisonous and if you really want to kill them, use a weed wiper and Roundup. But you are really wasting your time as horses enjoy nibbling them and will completely eat them out in time. If you can. stock the field with horses over winter and feed your hay/haylage in the same field. By spring they will be gone, if not in the first year, then certainly after a few years of similar treatment. As has been said, they are a symptom of poor drainage which in turn usually means a deficiency in lime.
 
We have them in two small areas that drain badly & often are wet. We keep an eye out for poisonous plants but on the whole our grazing is very natural.
 
We had reeds in a particularly marshy field we had once. It was clay soil and it was a nightmare.

The ponies ate the reeds and that was no probs but it's what the reeds are telling you that's the problem, and that is, it's burluddy wet!!

We stuck out one winter and then moved as soon as we could find somewhere.
 
Thanks so much for replies.its one huge field of 33 acres at the moment and its not all ove just in places so was hoping to section into 4 bits.will also have sheep on it.that's good its not poisonous
 
Wet marshy ground and sheep can mean liver fluke(it needs a certain kind of snail to complete its life cycle).

Most farmers would worm their sheep and cattle for this and it isn't common in horses, but not unknown. Mine had it once, we had rented a field from a less than modern farmer and my horse seemed a bit under the weather after a while, I think I had sent it away to do some harder work. The old fashioned vet dosed him with liver fluke medicine and it cured him. We also gave up the field. Just something to bear in mind.
 
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