Patches of grass that horses won't eat

Wagtail

Wagtail

Horse servant
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Why is this? The grass looks lovely and lush, is regularly poo picked, but there are patches that the horses leave to grow long and never touch. Could it be where they urinate? Or could it be something in the soil? Even the fatty in the bare paddock does this. He has grazed the rest of the grass down to the bare earth, but has huge swathes of it that he just leaves. They all do it. :confused:

Funny thing is, if I top a bit of it (not much for obvious reasons) he will gobble up the toppings.
 
i get this same problem too, but what i have noticed is that in the big paddock that i used over winter, farmer spread cow muck on early in the year and then it was rested until 6 weeks ago i have no rough patches at all, but in the paddocks that are grazed in quick rotation there are rough patches.
I'm sure it is to do with it being toilet areas and for me the key seems to be how long you can rest the field:)
 
Yes, they are latrines. The horses should be doing all their poos there and it saves the grazing for the important eating part. Makes it much easier to clear the field as all poos are concentrated in those areas.

ETA horses much prefer short new shoots rather than long grass. Must be a higher sugar content in the short stuff.
 
There's research gone into the fact that horses won't eat where they've gone to the loo for up to four seasons. However with cows in the field this can be shortened to within 1 season. (Very chuffed with OH's research as now investing in some Jerseys :D)

Pan
 
I think you will find it is where they generally poo, they will continue to eat grass that has been wee'd on.
 
Even the padocks that have been rested for over 6 months have these patches in. Seems that they remember where they urinated even after many months have passed. Strange though that they will eat the toppings.
 
Wagtail said:
Even the padocks that have been rested for over 6 months have these patches in. Seems that they remember where they urinated even after many months have passed. Strange though that they will eat the toppings.
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It's shown to take up to four seasons before they'll touch it again.

Also they're creatures of habit, if that is their toilet, why change it? The grass obviously wasn't the tastied there in the first place.

We have several herds, always interesting to see that some herds have their very obvious toilet patches and others will cover a field.

Pan
 
I have one pony who must think she's a sheep as she will go in to a paddock and graze these areas that others have been more fussy over.

She's on restricted grazing, but the other restricted pony won't eat it either.
 
Wagtail said:
Even the padocks that have been rested for over 6 months have these patches in. Seems that they remember where they urinated even after many months have passed. Strange though that they will eat the toppings.
Click to expand...

perhaps it's the smell of the ground rather than the grass then, which is why they'll still eat the grass if it's topped:) could explain why mine were happy to eat everything in the big field, the cow muck that had been spread and washed in may have covered the original smell enough:confused: will have to get farmer to go spreading in one of the smaller paddocks to test the theory:)
 
Horses are usually quite clean animals and I was always told that its because of their pee and the grass although lush looking ie the best bit in the field it tastes bitter(not that I will be trying it)!
 
All livestock are fairly reluctant to graze over patches where they defecate or urinate. Naturally they would roam and it would be months before they came to the same area again. However, as we keep them in fields or even worse paddocks on predominantly one type of grass the selective grazing of different types of livestock is limited.

Its called the rejection factor and this gets higher as the grass growing season progresses.

The rejection factor can be reduced by mixed grazing, topping and rotational grazing.

Horses tend to use specific areas where sheep and cattle don't, but different species don't appear to be phased eating grass that grows through the faeces of other species, only their own.
 
Ibblebibble said:
perhaps it's the smell of the ground rather than the grass then, which is why they'll still eat the grass if it's topped:) could explain why mine were happy to eat everything in the big field, the cow muck that had been spread and washed in may have covered the original smell enough:confused: will have to get farmer to go spreading in one of the smaller paddocks to test the theory:)
Click to expand...

There's a lot of research into cow muck making the toilet areas more palatable.
 
Pale Rider said:
All livestock are fairly reluctant to graze over patches where they defecate or urinate. Naturally they would roam and it would be months before they came to the same area again. However, as we keep them in fields or even worse paddocks on predominantly one type of grass the selective grazing of different types of livestock is limited.

Its called the rejection factor and this gets higher as the grass growing season progresses.

The rejection factor can be reduced by mixed grazing, topping and rotational grazing.

Horses tend to use specific areas where sheep and cattle don't, but different species don't appear to be phased eating grass that grows through the faeces of other species, only their own.
Click to expand...

That's interesting, thanks. I have noticed if I move the horses around the paddocks more, then when in a different paddock they sometimes will eat the grass rejected by its previous occupants.
 
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