escapee sheep in my horses field!

[pippixox]

Hi, I have googled and seem to find a lot of mixed information about the effects of sheep being grazed with horses.

I'm not meant to have sheep in my horses field!!! But currently there are about 70 in the field next door but they keep breaking into my horses field. had about 40 in my field yesterday.

the owners do get them back into the correct field (which they are just using for a few weeks) and luckily my horses don't seem very bothered by them. But I just wanted to check if I needed to give my horses any different wormers to kill anything they could of picked up? I know lots say how sheep can help with horse pooh worms, but I'm not sure what else the sheep could cary?

it has certainly put me off the idea of ever having even a handful of sheep to eat the grass down as they are such escape artists.

 

[HashRouge]

They should be fine. Mine shared there field with sheep for a couple of years and never had any problems.

 

[YorksG]

We graze horses with sheep and when the one livery we had moved and her new YO insisted on a worm count as she was sure there would be a problem, the mare had a count which did not register and she did not require worming

 

[mcnaughty]

Sheep are great for horse grazing unless you have no grass! From what I can remember without googling it - they break worm cycles and eat all the crappy grass the horses don't like!

 

[Snitch]

Embrace the sheep!

 

[DJ]

Horse worms can`t survive through a sheeps stomach, and sheep worms can`t survive through a horses stomach. They work really well grazing together in this way for parasite control. The only one thing you do have to keep and eye out for is Liver Fluke as this is interspecies parasite, though that is pretty rare now a days, it`s well worth knowing about.

 

[Cortez]

Yes, cross grazing with sheep (and cattle) will disrupt worm cycles as the "horse" worms cannot live in sheep stomachs, however there is one parasite that thrives in sheep and can also infest horses and that is liver fluke. Fluke are a particular problem on wet land (they are a weird type of worm as they also need to transfer their eggs via a certain kind of snail which inhabits watery areas). Ivermectin kills fluke, so if you worm with that it will cover any possible contamination.

*Cross posted.

 

[dominobrown]

We had this recently.
4 lost sheep were put in my field. None of the 'local' farmers claimed them.
Turned out they came off one of the high fells, obviously enjoying being slighlty lower down as it was when there was heavy snow so ontop of the higher peaks must of been quite grim for them.
Poor things got a shock when my event horse took offence to them... jumped into the paddock they were in a careered around. Nutter!

 

[limestonelil]

Often graze mine in with sheep no problems with worms, like others have said. However the sheep sometimes took a fancy to horse tails and made them very straggly through nibbling.

 

[Dave's Mam]

Sheep & horses are rotated on our yard.

 

[hollyandivy123]

Only problem I had was sheep eating tails but then the horse was the god of sheep...they use to follow him round like a flock ..............

 

[rabatsa]

Sheep poo is good fertiliser and they naturally spread it around. If you ever get your own you can choose a calm breed which does not wander.

 

[pansymouse]

As many other have said, sheep and horses are complimentary grazers. They only thing you may have to worry about is ticks - I find when sheep have or are being grazed with horses the horses tend to pick up more ticks.

 

[Clodagh]

I would be annoyed on the basis that 40 sheep are probalby eating all your grass, but in fact they don't damage the sward roots like horses and cattle so apart from eating what you would rather your horses did they are good for the grass.

 

[Antw23uk]

Ooooh how exciting, keep a couple ... I would, lol I love the idea of having a couple of sheep at home but the reality is they do like to escape and generally like to kill themselves and I've no time for that nonsense ....... If I did I would have a thoroughbred

 

[turnbuckle]

Happens quite often with us, first I usually know about it is cross "Oh REALLY" neighing at the gate, followed by a mixture of resigned acceptance and the discovery that being a sheephorse is quite fun. He's pretty good at moving 'em around.

 

[pansymouse]

I would be annoyed on the basis that 40 sheep are probalby eating all your grass, but in fact they don't damage the sward roots like horses and cattle so apart from eating what you would rather your horses did they are good for the grass.

12.5 sheep eat the same as an average sized horse so with 40 you're basically hosting a couple of horses, a pony and a mini!