Cow Parsley

SuperCoblet

SuperCoblet

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I've always fed gypsy cow parsley every now and then for a treat off the country lane verges as he completely loves it and will do anything for it.
I was completely shocked when someone told me today it was bad for them and it could kill them :O
Can someone please confirm for me if it is good or bad for them, any nutritional value or harm it does to them. Thanks!x
 
Are you sure you mean Cow Parsley and not "Alexander" (think that's what it's called!) Alexander looks a bit similar and my horses love it and I will often pick it for them.

Cow Parsley will burn pink noses and can also burn your skin when pulling it up so would never feed it to my horses although they do like to eat it.
 
Blimey I had a fright then, I often get a bit of Cow Parsley from the hedgerow for my lad. Glad to see it isn't poisonous however if it causes sunburn then he'll have to do without.
FDC
 
pricklyflower said:
Cow Parsley will burn pink noses and can also burn your skin when pulling it up so would never feed it to my horses although they do like to eat it.
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My ponies go mad for cow parsley, my sec B has a pink nose and it has never burnt (doesn't even get sunburnt) and I have never burnt my hands despite having regularly picked it to feed to ponies since I was a small child.
 
If your horse has a pink nose I'd just keep an eye out for a rash. Although if no-one else has a problem with it then maybe my horse had some sort of photosensitive reaction to that particular plant.

My brother got a terrible rash on his arms from strimming it from my field once, he still has the scars about 5 years later from it. For this reason I don't let mine eat it and will pull it up if it appears in the field. If it can do that to your skin I dread to think what it can do to their insides!
 
pricklyflower said:
If your horse has a pink nose I'd just keep an eye out for a rash. Although if no-one else has a problem with it then maybe my horse had some sort of photosensitive reaction to that particular plant.

My brother got a terrible rash on his arms from strimming it from my field once, he still has the scars about 5 years later from it. For this reason I don't let mine eat it and will pull it up if it appears in the field. If it can do that to your skin I dread to think what it can do to their insides!
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Does sounds like giant hogweed! :)
 
The plants never get huge that grow on the hedgerows of the field, i can pull it up with my bare hands but my hands feel "stiff" after I've handled it, if that makes sense! I'll perhaps try and take a pic of it later and compare.
 
Every horse I've owned has loved cow parsley and never had a issue with it.

My mare will try and snack on the stuff if we're stood in the hedge waiting for a car to pass. Naughty lass.
 
My mare has gone mad for cow parsley this year, I found this link when I was checking out if it was safe:

http://your-natural-horse.com/2010/05/cow-parsley-a-great-free-herb/

Chris Dyer’s book, Plants, potions and Oils for Horses: He says “…with properties similar to fennel. You can feed as much as you like…aids digestion, has calmative properties and speeds the healing process.”

So, my girl can eat as much as she likes :D
 
I think we need to take close notice of the pictures of the 'normal' and the 'giant' - it seems that the giant is the dangerous one (not native). All I know is that all the horses at our yard love the short version for a treat - but it's soon all eaten up!
 
Ted loves a bit of cow parsley.

9d6f36ff.jpg
 
I wouldn't worry too much, horses are very smart and don't tend to eat poisonous plants unless they have nothing else left or it is in hay and dried.

If they love a plant as well it's normally because they know it's good for them. :)
 
Be aware that Hemlock, a tuberous rooted plant found in waterways look like some pictures of cow parsley which are hedgerow plant.
Hemlock is deadly poison, which was used in times past to kill off inconvenient philosophers like Socrates.
 
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mine love the stuff, cow parsley is fine to eat and touch its the hogweed you want to watch out for! My old horse grabbed abit of hogweed, i thought it was cow parsley, pulled it out of his mouth as i was riding him at the time! The milk from the hogweed burnt my hands and i ended up with blisters all over them for 2 days. Not nice.
 
Cow parsley has thin spindly leaves BUT has the same type of flower as hemlock ( Sometimes known as cowbane ) Paddy took a mouthful of this whilst i was messing around in the river last week , fortunately he actually let me pull it all out of his mouth so i think it may have tasted pretty bitter , i must say my heart skipped a beat. Anyway i'm pretty sure i got it all out and we've had no affects from it. I looked into the cow pasley / hogweed and hemlock thing when i first moved here as we have all three growing along our river banks ( horses safely fenced away from it ) and it seems that all three are poisonous the further down towards the root you go , so for horses picking cow parsley tops there wouldn't be much problem but make sure you know one from the other as hemlock roots would be fatal. Google cowbane and you'll see how similar it looks , paddy didn't seem to know the difference!
 
I would walk mine along bridleways for a munch on this and to get natural herbs etc not growing in field, pretty much know what to eat, never had any probs with it. I encourage it in our field edges etc
 
I've taken the liberty to take some pictures today of what I thought was cow parsley - can you knowledgeable peeps confirm whether this is or not please? There wasn't any in flower but when it does flower they are white and small:-

photo-1.jpg


photo2.jpg


This is what I call Alexander, the leaves are shinier and greener than the above plant, with more yellow flowers, the plants seem to be coming to the end of their flowering season now:

photo3.jpg


(if you can actually see the plant amongst all the sticky things!)

Thanks
 
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