do you know exactly what your horse is eating?

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Marilyn

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I extended my horses' area this morning into some grass with some random leaves in it. Now, I;ve seen these leaves loads of times before and the horses eat them but I wondered what they are and also if you know exactly what all the different grasses and weeds are that your horse eats
 
No I don't know exactly what mine eat but all you can do is illiminate the bad stuff...acorns and their leaves, ragwork, ivy, st johns wort, laylandi etc.
 
Nope, he has 20 acres to eat, and there are many different plants in there. I check for things that are poisonous, but other than that I have to trust his judgement - there's no way to avoid it really!
 
Not really. My lot are in 10 acres with various trees and hedges round the borders and there's also a pond with reeds and stuff growing at the edge. Obviously I make sure there's nothing poisonous there but other than that I have no idea what they eat and what they don't. They're all pretty healthy beasts though so I doubt they've been nibbling anything nasty!
 
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As for the plants - we ragwort pick but the rest is left to the horses. Henry is on 20 acres with lots of woodland edge etc... I trust that he'll be too busy eating grass to go looking for other things!
 
that was my theory! we have loads of oak trees and although we try and keep the horses away from the acorns, I'm sure they get the odd leaf or two...especially at the moment as all the leaves are falling from the trees...should I be worried?
 
Well acorns can be addictive to horses, and some will actively seek them out once they've tasted them. But we have oak trees in our fields and in 5 years of keeping horses there we've never had a problem. I think as long as there's enough grass (or supplemented with hay) the horses should be happy enough!
 
they seem happy and we don't let them reach the trees (fenced off with electric tape) but I can't spend all my life raking up leaves...it would drive me totally potty! They have plenty of food and hay and they certainly aren't starved by any stretch of the imagination...it's just we havwe recently moved to a new house with new stuff in the fields and I've gone a bit hyper with it!
 
It is difficult with acorn rees, I have a couple and have to fence them off because my horse loves acorns and will search for them and gorge on them if given the chance. He does not bother so much with the leaves though. I have also caught him seeking out ivy that grows in the hedges too...so I have to check that all the time too and rip it out before he gets to it. He is never short on grass either!
 
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