Horses on topped grass

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happyhacking:)

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Debating letting my mare loose on the farm to eat some of the longer grass that's on the walkways ect. Only thing is that will give her access to recently topped fields (done bout 72hrs ago) the cuttings are fairly dry and it is windy here do cuttings being blown away. Dont think she will particularly go onto these patches but would she be ok if she did?
 
The farmer topped our field a few days ago and left the grass lying on top... As usual he didn't tell me he had done it!!!! I just went up and found my horse nibbling the fresh shoots underneath - he has a grazing muzzle on so I guess he can't eat the cuttings anyway but his fieldmate wasnt interested in the cuttings either. So I don't think horses will eat it. It's up to you if you want to risk it - I stood watching them for ages just to be sure they weren't!
 
Miss L Toe said:
Not sure why you are worried in any way, topping is just like haymaking, as long as there is no ragwort there is no problem.
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Hay is made in dry weather so that there's no danger of it rotting and fermenting and generally turning rank on the ground. In weather like this, horses consuming large amounts of wet grass toppings will colic.

I wouldn't worry too much - if there's nice grass available she should just have the odd nibble of the topped stuff, not enough to do herself any harm.
 
Mine have been turned out on topped fields before and they tend to ignore the cut stuff , just to be on the safe side though I do keep kicking over any large piles just as they would heat up - just to be on the safe side.
 
Thanks guys.I wouldn't have questioned it had one of my mates on the yard not been insistent that they should not be out on it for at least 3 weeks.
 
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