grass sickness

[Marilyn]

I'm really confused by grass sickness. I've been reading about and am now even more concerned. I am moving house soon with my two horses, one is 11 and the other is three. Somewhere I read that moving pastures is a trigger factor but surely, in many cases this is unavoidable...any useful advice?

 

[vicijp]

I think if you thought about it too much youd never let your horse even see grass agin!
It will either get you or it wont, and until there is more known about it, it is pointless worrying.

 

[Marilyn]

I think you're right on many levels but thought it was worth asking

 

[Tia]

Useful advice? When your time is up.....it's up!! Until then, try to keep risks low and just get on with life.

 

[arkov]

there was an item about grass sickness on the radio 4 "pm" program...

 

[MagicMelon]

I think the only thing Id be very wary about is putting any horse onto a field which has had a grass sickness case happen on it. I know of a field locally to me where 2 horses have gone down with it..... Everybody I know would never graze their horses on a 'grass sickness' field! But if there's no history then I wouldnt worry, like you say, there's not much you can do about moving! Grass sickness is not common luckily, and even if your horse were to get it - some horses do pull through and make a full recovery.

Anyway, there is absolutely NO evidence to suggest that moving horses to new pasture can trigger it - its just a theory of which there are a few!

 

[pidgeypony]

Moving onto a field that had previously had a GS horse wouldn't bother me. I had a pony with GS, no other animal has ever been affected in that field to date and my hubby used to work on a farm with 40+ shires, one got GS but, to do this day, many years on, no other horse has yet been affected.(and I hope it stays that way)