How nutritious are rushes?

[Poingsettia]

I have a mini Shetland and dhp yearling on mixed grazing. Old grass, gorse, thistle patches, two elderberry trees, and rushes. It’s about an acre, split in half. (Summer field) One half is possibly 80% rushes now. Are they high in sugar, or ok? Both ponies happily eat the tips and graze between the clumps for grass when in that paddock.

 

[Reacher]

I think they are ok, but not an expert so hopefully someone else will be along to confirm

 

[PurBee]

Im in rush country - horses eat young soft growing tips but normally leave the thick old tall stems. I looked ages ago about their nutrition/toxicity and the overall consensus was for horses not to eat lots of rushes. Most were talking about the old tall stems - and ive had my horses on some low grass paddocks with rushes and they wont touch them, even if hungry.

They’ll eat the younger shoots, which seem to have a good chlorophyll content. Theyre more fibrous than grass. I dont know about sugar, but rushes have never induced excess sugar symptoms in mine. One local horse owner said a rushy field caused his horses to have reddish poops - maybe due to high insoluble iron in them, which is common in many irish soils of a wetter type.

If you can, top the big clumps before they form the seed head. if you keep cutting them, grass can take-over instead of rushes.
I had some 2 fields that were mainly rushes, and ive regularly cut them annually - now i have 95% grass - without even bothering to re-seed.

Cows dont eat rushes, neither do wild deer or feral ponies - id say theyre nutritionally defunct and arent useful except for use as bedding. So best keep getting the buggers cut down about this time of year, to stop them taking over the entire field.