Crazy idea?

[HaffiesRock]

So please tell me if i'm being crazy!

Can you grow herbs at home to feed to your horse? I'm not talking a massive quantity, but enough to give him a treat here and there.

He's kept on bare grazing with hay to monitor his weight, but i'd like to give him something else.

So if it is possible, what would you suggest I grow for him?

Thanks

 

[Mongoose11]

Of course you can! Why not try him with some bought ones to see what he prefers before you spend weeks tending to something he then turns his nose up at!

 

[SCMSL]

I've actually done this myself and as long as you don't expect to feed a horse solely on what you can grow, its wonderful!

Top herbs, for me, would be:
- Mint: spreads like weeds, and always a plus when feeding a picky eater
- Dandelions: From root to flower, this plant helps to eliminate any issues in the digestive tract, specially with liver and kidneys. My horsey tells me its also very tasty!
- As weird as it may seem, alfalfa. Its also super easy to grow in a garden, looks beautiful with all the little purple flowers, and its great for the horses.

 

[tallyho!]

You can grow mint, nettle, clivers, roses (for the rosehips), dandelion, chamomile, marigold, burdock, milk thistle...

Although I imagine your gardening friends would laugh at you for growing weeds

 

[kerrieberry2]

I was looking at packets of carrot seeds today, thinking about growing them, not sure how many you get from one little packet though! haha!

 

[Fjord]

We grow mint and my OH dries it to sprinkle in my mare's otherwise boring oat straw chaff.

 

[WelshD]

Nettles are good.

Kerrie - you get loads of carrot seeds in a pack, they need sandy soil to grow in ideally and no stones. A rub trug (with drainage holes) or an old bath filled with compost mixed with kiln dried sand is ideal to grow them in

 

[MerrySherryRider]

As already suggested, nettles (wilted) are good, willow bark, dandelion, parsley, fennel and mint are all good.

Mint is easy to grow and many kitchen herbs are too, but foraging for weeds like nettles and sticky weed is very welcome too.


Horses confined to a paddock have a very limited choice of supplementary forage, we used to ride out for the day and stop for a picnic by a river and allow the horses to picnic on hedgerows for a change.

Heres a link with a list of horse friendly herbs as a starting point;http://www.naturallyequine.com/herbalindex.shtml

 

[Dubsie]

We've lots of wild mint on our bottom paddock (very wet) amd theylove it