Can your barefoot TB tolerate grass?

muff747

muff747

Well-Known Member
Joined
8 June 2011
Messages
973
Location
Fullers Earth
Visit site
I'm a bit worried about spring coming as my TB is very sensitive to sugars but my yard hasn't got any grass free areas. Currently, he is turned out for six hours and is brought in for me, so that is too long to be in a muzzle. Can your TB tolerate grass or have you found a way of giving enough exercise without access to grass? I only see him in the mornings when I'm working three days a week and he's on full livery on Fridays.
 
I don't understand why 6 hours is too long foryour horse to be in a muzzle? My shetland is in one 24/7 if need be and never less than 14 hours a day in summer.
 
My TBx must have a grazing muzzle on at all times at grass (often 24hrs a day) from 1st April (sometimes earlier if mild), often till November/December. 6 hours is definitely not too long!! I use a shires grazing muzzle. The key is to make sure it is big enough. I often see people with their horses noses crammed into muzzles that are too small and wonder why they rub!!
 
cptrayes said:
I don't understand why 6 hours is too long foryour horse to be in a muzzle? My shetland is in one 24/7 if need be and never less than 14 hours a day in summer.
Click to expand...

I dont need to restrict him because of his weight, his feet go to pot and he goes footy. He has lost some weight this winter so I dont want him to lose any more. Also, really I need to block the hole up so he can't get anything to eat so 6 hours is too long wiyh nothing going thr his stomach.
I've just remembered, last year he even went footy after being out in his muzzle with the hole open after only a couple of days in the field so he definitely has to have the hole stopped up.
 
Last edited:
I think it's a very individual thing and also depends on the grass you have access to. Any chance of taping off a track or strip and feeding hay (possibly soaked) if you're worried about the muzzle?
 
angelish said:
:confused: why don't you just put shoe's on him and allow him to eat grass as he was designed to do ? :confused:
Click to expand...

Angleish he wasn't designed to eat grass. He was designed to walk for miles a day trying to fill up on dry scrub.

Putting shoes on him might stop him feeling stones, but it wouldn't stop his liver and the rest of him being compromised by the toxins that are still in his blood because of eating stuff that he wasn't genetically designed for.
 
amandap said:
I think it's a very individual thing and also depends on the grass you have access to. Any chance of taping off a track or strip and feeding hay (possibly soaked) if you're worried about the muzzle?
Click to expand...

I would love to have a track for him but I'm on a livery yard and the owners haven't seen the benefits of that system yet.
When I had my own strip of land on a DIY yard, I had my own PP and his feet were quite good at that time, he got loads more exercise wandering up and down the track. Y
This yard has many benefits for us as most of the horses are barefooted, the grass seems better, or rather not as bad for him as it is on high ground, and their haylage was cut nearly into October so I don't want to move him again. He's 24 now and I'm hoping this is his final home.
 
angelish said:
ah right i get it now ,he wasn't designed to eat grass at all then and he was designed to stand about with nothing to eat or drink for half the day then

yep that makes lots of sense to me
Click to expand...

He had his shoes off because they were making his feet deformed and he would have been shot by now otherwise.
Also he has Cushings, so what would you have done-let him get laminitis and have his coffin bone penetrate his soles, just so he can eat grass as designed?
 
cptrayes said:
Angleish he wasn't designed to eat grass. He was designed to walk for miles a day trying to fill up on dry scrub.

Putting shoes on him might stop him feeling stones, but it wouldn't stop his liver and the rest of him being compromised by the toxins that are still in his blood because of eating stuff that he wasn't genetically designed for.
Click to expand...

ok then that me told :)

horses were designed not to eat grass after all and need to be kept in a grassing muzzle for half the day with the whole blocked up :eek: so he can't drink either
so his gut is designed to be empty half the day too ,even though he looses weight anyway


well i think ill just keep nailing them terrible steel shoe's on mine and let him be happy eating grass and being able to have a scratch with his mates in the field and have a drink whenever he feels the need to even though thats not what he was designed to do
 
Sportznight said:
If we're going down this route, then he wasn't designed to be ridden, eat cereals, be clipped, wear rugs, live in a stable, pull a cart, jump obstacles on command.... Oh, hang on, he's a Thoroughbred, so was designed for something, running very, very fast :D
Click to expand...

If I had fed him cereals, he would have been dead by now - we did do plenty of galloping though, even when he was barefooted:eek:
My vet says he looks fantastic for his age, so I must be doing something right:p
 
angelish said:
ok then that me told :)

horses were designed not to eat grass after all and need to be kept in a grassing muzzle for half the day with the whole blocked up :eek: so he can't drink either
so his gut is designed to be empty half the day too ,even though he looses weight anyway


well i think ill just keep nailing them terrible steel shoe's on mine and let him be happy eating grass and being able to have a scratch with his mates in the field and have a drink whenever he feels the need to even though thats not what he was designed to do
Click to expand...

He can drink easily and does so freely without any problem.
If I put shoes back on him, his feet would become deformed again and he would have to be shot, which would you do?
 
Angelish, how old is your horse, is it a TB?
Until six years ago, I loved seeing him knee deep lush grass - but it made him very ill.
If you are interested - wild horses live mainly on rough scrub and brush and live on higher ground, they don't spend all their time ambling around the plains where there is lush grass
Cows need lush knee deep grass to produce milk, putting a horse in that environment is like letting a child eat sweets for every mealtime.
Some horses are lucky and can tolerate eating grass until it's coming out of their ears, but for most it causes all sorts of health problems.
 
Muff - can you turn out at night and bring in with hay during the day? It's what I'm considering doing with both of mine this year....first year without shoes, so not sure whether they will be footy or not, but if they are, then it's what I plan to do....
 
Holly Hocks said:
Muff - can you turn out at night and bring in with hay during the day? It's what I'm considering doing with both of mine this year....first year without shoes, so not sure whether they will be footy or not, but if they are, then it's what I plan to do....
Click to expand...

No, fraid it's not possible, all the horses are brought in at night and he panics out on his own. Hope it works for yours, Thanks
 
angelish said:
ok then that me told :)

horses were designed not to eat grass after all and need to be kept in a grassing muzzle for half the day with the whole blocked up :eek: so he can't drink either
so his gut is designed to be empty half the day too ,even though he looses weight anyway


well i think ill just keep nailing them terrible steel shoe's on mine and let him be happy eating grass and being able to have a scratch with his mates in the field and have a drink whenever he feels the need to even though thats not what he was designed to do
Click to expand...

ok, whats your solution for my TB? Shoes caused the navicular, taking the shoes off revealed the low grade laminitis he'd most probably been suffering from his entire life and the pain from that was mistaken for bad behaviour.
Should I shoe him and turn him out onto a lush field or just shoot him now...???


OP - I think there are far more TB's than we realise that are sensitive to grass, I can't muzzle mine as he never gets fat so he'd never manage to eat enough with a muzzle on. I can just about manage him on overnight turnout with ad-lib hay (I figure whilst he's eating hay he's not eating grass). Is there anyone who could be talked into putting theirs on overnight turnout? Anyone with a lammi horse? as a bonus they make less mess in the stable during the day and they're clean and dry if you want to ride in the evening after work ;-)
 
I don't understand what you mean about blocking the hole of the muzzle? If you mean completely I definitely advise against that. If you cannot restrict his grass anymore then I'd try feeding soaked hay when in his stable to get sugars down that way. With a muzzle the grass must be long enough for them to be able to get some. Close cropped grass and a muzzle means little to no intake risking colic and much frustration.

Shoeing is an option but as you know may not be the best in the longer term.

I think the suggestion above of seeing if anyone will swap to night time grazing with you is a good one. What about having a chat with a few liveries and see if you can work something out together.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
amandap said:
I don't understand what you mean about blocking the hole of the muzzle? If you mean completely I definitely advise against that. If you cannot restrict his grass anymore then I'd try feeding soaked hay when in his stable to get sugars down that way. With a muzzle the grass must be long enough for them to be able to get some. Close cropped grass and a muzzle means little to no intake risking colic and much frustration.
Click to expand...

I agree, you absolutely CANNOT leave a horse out in a grazing muzzle with the hole blocked up. Treating colic and ulcers is not fun.
 
This is why I can't leave it on all the time he's out, I've had to put it on him before but I only leave him a max of four hours.
He has a history of being very sensitive to any sugar in his diet, so I am between a rock and a hard place.
Unfortunately, I don't think the YO would agree to him being out overnight, they don't even have 24/7 turnout over the summer.
 
Try a website called safergrass.org. Some real good info.

Try and find some stabalized flax and give him a little of that on a nutritionists advice. It helps with limiting the "sugar rush". Not a miracle cure obviously but it will also keep some weight on your horse. If you are worried about toxins then you really need to do feed research and google soy, not soya. It should link you to the COTH thread on what it can do to horses.

If your horses feet were deformed in shoes you had a very bad blacksmith. I had a thin soled flat footed TB cross. Pour in pads not only changed the thickness but gave her the shape so that she is not flat anymore and has a healthy frog. She would be much happier barefoot now if I chose.

Shorter growing grass is much more dangerous than longer grass.

Do you have any of those barefoot boots to help him out a little? It's not my thing but I respect others choices.

If you feel it's best for him to not be eating grass than find a stomach buffer for him to keep the acid at bay.

Good luck,
Terri
 
angelish said:
:confused: why don't you just put shoe's on him and allow him to eat grass as he was designed to do ? :confused:
Click to expand...

Good sensible advice ^^

muff747 said:
Because he wasn't designed to have steel shoes nailed to his hooves:rolleyes:
Click to expand...
WTF^^

Sportznight said:
If we're going down this route, then he wasn't designed to be ridden, eat cereals, be clipped, wear rugs, live in a stable, pull a cart, jump obstacles on command.... Oh, hang on, he's a Thoroughbred, so was designed for something, running very, very fast :D
Click to expand...

Very true TB's are a man made breed designed to run ^^

I have quoted all of these because I really cant understand this whole my horse must be unshod at all costs attitude.. What ever happened to doing whats best for the HORSE.

My 2 are unshod 1 is a field ornament the other is about to be re-backed after a winter turned away & if he should ever be sore or wear his hoof too quickly then he will be shod because I will not cause him pain for the sake of a set of shoes.
 
Are you on the equine Cushings and insulin resistance yahoo group? It's world wide got thousands of members. They even had their own conference in USA this year, so you can search and find the website which will lead you to the yahoo group. I've got the safer grass CDs/power points if you want to pm me i can drop you my phone number is you want to know more about them. Juliet Getty does some good telephone seminars which you can download and listen to on an mp3 whilst doing chores, she's doing a laminitis one soon. Have you had your hay tested? If you can find some forage that tests really low for sugars you could soak for an hour to reduce further and *may* be able to have that as free forage in the field providing the sugars low enough. If they could eat at piles of that in a wide holed muscle that may work, best wishes, hang in there, Hannah
Barefoot can be a lot harder work as you literally do see the bare truth and any problems are visable but this has got to be healthier for the horse.
 
M_G said:
I have quoted all of these because I really cant understand this whole my horse must be unshod at all costs attitude.. What ever happened to doing whats best for the HORSE.
Click to expand...


Sometimes its more complex that that, putting shoes on a footy horse only treats a symptom. The problem is still there but masked, my TB was always classed as naughty, when we took his shoes off we realised that he became footy on nice summer grass, after we restricted his grazing his behaviour altered for the better. Coincidence or naughty because he was in pain with low grade lammi?

Then there are the horses for whom shoes have caused problems, imbalances, navicular etc etc... the absolute last thing you ant to do is re-shoe and create the same problem again.

So you see, it is about doing whats best for the horse in the long term.


OP - have a chat with the yard owner. you're not asking for 24/7 turnout just to swop daytime for night time. our yard has horses in at night over winter but the YO has let me turn mine out overnight and bring in during the day instead, its no more stress on the fields.
 
Ignoring some posters, who have don't appear to be able to contribute anything helpful to the OP
blahblah.gif


There is a time and a place for shoes - but they aren't the only answer and they shouldn't replace the appropriate care for a metabolically challenged horse.

Have you got the minerals balanced?

This may provide an extra bit of leeway with the grass?

Some boots to keep him comfortable enough to exercising during the danger times may help too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top