grazing advice?? cheers

[vickyguns]

hello again! Was just wondering, I am resting my paddocks for a while and have been given a paddock about a hundred ft by thitry/fourty ft. It was re-seeded last year and was very long, but has been topped and had sheep on it for a while, the grass is quite long still. I have turned out the 15 hh mare, my young mule and the fatty pony, it's him I'm worried about, he has been in a very short paddock and is looking great as he lost all his 'wadges', he is still a thelwell type though and I'm paranoid about lami! Do you reckon he'll be alright? or am i being paranoid!?

cheers (he's never had lami before and is ridden every dry day!)

 

[hadfos]

hard to judge,what you have to remember the dodgy weather we are having you are gonna get some seriously strange growth spurts of grass,it as dry as hell and then we get downpour and grass goes mad(spring spurt again

)!!
The longer the better for fattys,however when it been eaten down ya back to stage 1 again

,bloody hardwork!!

 

[Leah3horses]

Have you got a grazing muzzle for him?That might be the best compromise.Most horses don't like longer grass, they prefer the short fresh stuff, as that is where the most nutrients (or sugar) is.Also depends what sort of grass the paddock has as to the sugar content.The paddock isn't very big so that's a bonus too.

Lami isn't always 'fatness' induced but obviously it's much better for him to stay slimline so a grazing mask, as much as they don't like them, will give you some peace of mind.

My mini shetland has never had lami either and I'm a bit paranoid about it, like you, as I'd like to keep him that way!At the moment my grass is definitely looking a bit 'tired' but he still has his mask on at least during the day.Hope this helps.

 

[vickyguns]

that's great, it's good to get some other thoughts, I know most of it is down to common sense, it's just easy to second guess yourself!