how do horses know...

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harrihjc

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what they should and shouldn't eat? I was watching my gelding and the mare next door happily devouring a hawthorne tree this morning, Flash literally strips the leaves off every branch he can reach on any tree, and it got me thinking/worrying, can these things do him any harm?? do horses just 'know' what they shouldn't eat, like ragwort etc??
 
I always pull the ragwort up too, but I was just wondering on my horses choice to eat a tree rather than the grass, and whether hawthorne in particular could cause problems?
 
No you are fine with Hawthorne...when it is just sprouting they really like it and my horse has a Hawthorne Breakfast every morning!
 
Hawthorn doesn't do mine any harm - They eat a fair bit of it when the mood takes them as one side of the field is fenced with it. Never had a problem. As for knowing what to eat & what not to eat - they do know to a certain extent. Generally speaking, a horse will only eat ragwort if nothing else is available to them. Also, my horse is a greedy pig when we are out hacking & loves to grab a bit of cow parsley or anything else that's going, but certain plants / crops he will always ignore / leave
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I'll let him continue munching the hawthorne then, he certainly seemed very pleased with himself this morning! He seems to eat anything and everything tho, I caught him eating a chocolate muffin the other day that had somehow got in his field, and he stole a burger off the people next door when they had a BBQ, but he is slightly crazy about bread!
 
Horses won't eat ragwort if it is growing in the field, Sheep will eat it when it's small, that's why runnig sheep over the land in spring will clear up and weaken any ragwort plants.

The problem comes when it gets into hay or haylage and they can't see it and it's eaten along with the hay.

We have declared mass chemical destruction on Ragwort, thing possessed now!
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Horses won't eat ragwort if it is growing in the field,

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We had some in our field a couple of years ago. There were 2 big tall yellow flowers in the middle of the field, but I didn`t know what they were, until someone said.
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They must`ve been over 18" high and the horses didn`t touch them, so perhaps they do know what not to eat within reason.
Needless to say, I got them out straight away, had no more since.
 
Ragwort tastes horrible! That's why they don't normally eat it. The act of drying it removes some of the bitter taste - which is when it becomes dangerous. Some horses do have a liking for bitter things. If you watch your horse eat he will almost certainly bite off some grass and weeds and then drop out of his mouth the nasty bits.

Hawthorn will do no harm. It used to be called "bread and cheese" and the youngest shoots and buds were eaten as a little snack by farmworkers if they were peckish and had no sarnies with them.
 
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