Ragwort safe for horses, says rewilding authority ...

[Mrs B]

In today's Telegraph:

Ragwort has been unfairly branded as lethal to horses, Isabella Tree, an authority on "rewilding" has claimed as she has allowed native species to grow alongside grazing animals on her 3,500 acre Sussex estate.
Ms Tree said: "We should love our ragwort. It's indigenous. There's a danger to horses if it is cut in hay, it's dried and they can't recognise it. But they would have to eat pretty much their own body weight to die".
The BHS countered that ragwort was "incredibly toxic".

Hmmm ... I have enough problems with the concept of 'rewilding' in the first place ...

 

[ester]

I love that that is her name

 

[HEM]

I hate this, I hear so many people say "oh the horses don't eat it!" "Ragwort is really bitter so even they do eat it they wont eat alot!" "It's ok, it's only poisonous when it's dried out"

Even if that may be true I wouldn't want it in a field where mine are grazing!

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

I suppose she'd have to spend a fortune to rid her little patch of 3,500 acres of the plant. She'd wear her rag fork out! All she's done is said what we all know, horses don't eat it when it's fresh & growing but when cut, wilted & in hay it's very dangerous. I'll still be removing it from out paddocks as I've always done. Woman's an idiot!

 

[milliepops]

well it's safe so long as they don't eat it.... just as arsenic is safe if you leave well alone

I have seen horses eat the fresh, still growing stuff when they have plenty of grazing. Why would you want it to compete with your grazing anyway?

 

[ester]

Presumably if you have 3500 acres you can allow it to cultivate on non-grazed areas anyway?

 

[ycbm]

I suppose she'd have to spend a fortune to rid her little patch of 3,500 acres of the plant. She'd wear her rag fork out! All she's done is said what we all know, horses don't eat it when it's fresh & growing but when cut, wilted & in hay it's very dangerous.

But some of them do!

I've had two horses who have clearly eaten ragwort in my field before I've spotted it and pulled it out.

 

[milliepops]

Presumably if you have 3500 acres you can allow it to cultivate on non-grazed areas anyway?

well, quite.

 

[Equi]

Having tried to hold up a 5yo rescue from a field of ragwort as he was dying from twist induced by his liver being so enlarged it pushed his guts over themselves, I would disagree.

I’m aware that ragwort is required for certain species and I’m all in favour of it being allowed to grow in ungrased areas - animals owners are going to have to manage it themselves as part of their animal care - putting out a statement like that can be very dangerous.

 

[Orangehorse]

Isabella said she had a lot of hate mail after writing this!

Her animals have, as others have said, a great deal of ground the roam over, so they are not in danger of eating ragwort, plus there are other animals there. She is right about mostly being consumed in hay, she is wrong about the amount a horse/pony eats before it becomes toxic.

 

[WandaMare]

Its totally irresponsible, imo she's not qualified to make a public statement to that effect, unless she is a vet as well as 'an authority on rewilding'. I hope no horses get ragwort poisoning as a direct result of her comments.

 

[Widgeon]

well it's safe so long as they don't eat it.... just as arsenic is safe if you leave well alone

I have seen horses eat the fresh, still growing stuff when they have plenty of grazing. Why would you want it to compete with your grazing anyway?

agreed, I've seen ponies eat it even when there is grass. Then others show zero interest. Who knows what they're thinking but I'd still rather not risk it.

 

[Silver Clouds]

Some horses will definitely eat it when it's growing, particularly if they're on restricted grazing- I've given up trying to explain this to several horse owners around here who use it as an excuse not to clear their grazing. I suppose that like humans, bitter tastes are more pronounced for some horse's palates than others (and some are greedier than others!).

 

[Reacher]

I love that that is her name

Out if her tree more like 😳

As as kid we had a pony that would eat it growing.

 

[Kat]

Wonder if it is that same person who used to post on here regularly in defence of Ragwort

 

[MotherOfChickens]

ahh rewilders-gotta love them, sea eagles dont take lambs and lynx wont eat sheep and ponies wont eat ragwort.

https://news.sky.com/story/sea-eagle-seizes-lamb-and-carries-it-off-in-scotland-11716231

 

[MotherOfChickens]

Wonder if it is that same person who used to post on here regularly in defence of Ragwort

were they not Dutch? I think if you say ragwort three times in a row they will appear

 

[Melody Grey]

I would hate to be her neighbour- can you imagine the seed blowover from 3500 acres! 😬

 

[ester]

yes I think they were dutch too.
I still be the MOD has more

 

[JillA]

It's still listed as injurious under the Weeds Act so no matter what she says it is irresponsible and against the law to allow it to grow unchecked

 

[Nicnac]

She's got 14000 hectares! That's 140 km sq - do they own most of West Sussex?

I rode in a NT park yesterday and they had signs everywhere saying they had sprayed the ragwort and to keep childerbeasts and dogs off. Good to see at least somebody upholding the law about controlling the growth.

I think Is a bell a Tree is well meaning but a little (a lot) naive in her statement.

 

[Goldenstar]

I had to deal with a ragwort lover when I was a welfare officer he wrote loads of letters to the local papers on the subject and I had to write letter and counter them I also did radio pieces ,we did a fun one looking for ragwort in my hay field and the journalist found one much to my horror.
All very well except , the ragwort lover was our next door neighbor.
Do you all remember our HHO ragwort lover we have not heard from her in a while .

 

[Micky]

Do you reckon she’s vegan....🙈

 

[TPO]

Wonder if it is that same person who used to post on here regularly in defence of Ragwort

I was wondering the same thing...

At the end of the day good, responsible owners will continue to be vigilant for ragwart and practise good grazing management. Lazy, ignorant owners who don't care about the welfare of their horse will continue to allow ragwart to grow and spread while trotting out the same old excuses that "horses don't eat it anyway" and now they'll have "a re-wilding expert said...".

 

[TheresaW]

I wish I’d read this before I spent over an hour going around my paddock last night pulling the bastard stuff up!

How comes when I’m poo picking, it practically jumps up and down waving at me, but when I go out armed with gloves, fork and rag bucket, I can’t find it?

 

[JillA]

I wish I’d read this before I spent over an hour going around my paddock last night pulling the bastard stuff up!

How comes when I’m poo picking, it practically jumps up and down waving at me, but when I go out armed with gloves, fork and rag bucket, I can’t find it?

I take the ragfork across the handles of the barrow and a tub of salt in my pocket a few times a week when I am poo picking - the salt kills any remaining roots, although the bl00dy stuff does keep reappearing. Works for me.

 

[conniegirl]

I've lost a childs pony to ragwort poisoning and it was fresh stuff that he had eaten.

 

[Mule]

I put some that I had just picked on the ground and when I looked up one of the horses was munching them

 

[DabDab]

Ho hum. Environmental science is becoming a seriously important and pivotal part of our societies so it would be really great if qualifications in that field started to become far more science focussed. I struggle to remember the last time I encountered a graduate of that ilk who wasn't a walking accident waiting to happen, while being impervious to learning and development because they consider themselves to be so terribly misunderstood.

Oh dear, I seem to have become a right grumpy cowbag 🙈

 

[HufflyPuffly]

Ho hum. Environmental science is becoming a seriously important and pivotal part of our societies so it would be really great if qualifications in that field started to become far more science focussed. I struggle to remember the last time I encountered a graduate of that ilk who wasn't a walking accident waiting to happen, while being impervious to learning and development because they consider themselves to be so terribly misunderstood.

Oh dear, I seem to have become a right grumpy cowbag 🙈

I'll join you, I did an AS in Environment Science thinking it would be interesting, it was like a watered down geography course with a bit of vague science thrown in 🙈, massive let down!

Ended up doing a Chemistry degree after collage and one of the modules in it covered environmental chemistry (not title of the module cannot remember it's proper name sorry!), and it was a massive, varied and very interesting topic, just wish the collage course had contained as much science/ interest as that one module, though obviously there is a big jump between a degree course and A levels...