Fun poll about Grass

Which grass do you consider safer for your horse?

  • Total voters
    0
  • Poll closed .
B

brucea

Well-Known Member
Joined
2 October 2009
Messages
10,457
Location
Noth East Scotland
Visit site
What grass do you think is "safer" for your horse? Assume strip grazing is allowed....neither been fertilised...

Grass A
DSCF0593.jpg


Or Grass sample B
DSCF0594.jpg
 
I know that A's lower sugar but I'm unconvinced that it's much safer since both of mine would get so much more of it down them. Also one of mine is very prone to gassiness & gas colics & I dread to think of how his tum would react to a few hours on field A (& that's assuming I could catch him!). The field he's on is even shorter than field B that suits me just fine because he hardly bothers to graze & instead mooches around, nibbles hedges, rolls & herds his companion - the only real grazing he gets is a bit of time in hand.
 
Well it depends on the time of year, but both grasses have fructans in them but I would say A is safer as there is more to eat without eating as many fructans which are at the base of the grass (I think??!)
 
Well I do not think it is as simple as saying A or B...on the face of it most people that are worried about laminitis would say A was better, however A will still have loads of new young growth high in sugars underneath the longer older sward. You also have to think about the stems in longer grass...the stalky stuff also contains high levels of sugars too...this was proved to me a couple of years ago when my lad got laminitis. I had always waited for my grass to mature and do a late cut of hay believing it was less sugar rich than early meadow hay. I sent a sample off to be tested when he was ill with laminitis...just to be safe and it came back at 11 Energy MJ/kg and 10% sugar – which is really not suitable for a laminitic. I actually bought some other hay and also fed him Marksway high fibre haylage as that scores much better for a laminitic!
With example B…yes they are eating new growth constantly, that will be high in sugars but they will be getting much less volume of grass overall.
I do believe that volume has a lot to do with triggering laminitis…a build up on a regular basis that the guts cannot cope with will trigger it in grass induced laminitis and I personally would prefer my horse to be picking and scratting around for grass – even if stressed short grass than being let out onto a paddock where he will eat and not stop…potentially overloading his system.
 
Interesting thing is that I am fonding my rather senwsitive boys are doing OK on A as long as I move the tape regularly - if I leave it unmoved for a couple of days then they go for the small, growing sweet stuff at the bottom of the growth column.

They are definitely not OK with B.

I think A is better - the plants are mature, not under stress and not trying to grow as fast as they can to recover from intense grazing, weedkiller or any other stress.
 
Now if we knew that, we'd have to charge you for it. Plus a call out fee :D

Answer is - it depends. Sensitivity of the horse, the way it is managed (stripped) and the history of the sward.
 
There is more sugar in stem than leaf. Sugar content also varies depending on grass variety, its age and the level of stress the grass is under. e.g rye grass is higher in suagr than timothy. Young grass will also be higher. Most grass on farms is too high in sugar and protein for many horses as it is grown for livestock and growing meat or producing milk.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top