hairycob
Well-Known Member
So if when you say grasses you don't mean grasses, how is anybody supposed to know what you do mean? Obviously the people who pm, but don't respond on the thread, are clever mind readers - unlike the rest of us thickos.
Real pasture appreciation society
- Thread starter lazybee
- Start date
PolarSkye
Well-Known Member
Sigh. So we're in agreement that multi-flora grazing is good for horses then eh?
Truly, it amazes me that grownups can't have a conversation without descending into sarcasm and one-upmanship . . . and I'm not pointing the finger in any one particular direction btw.
From what I've observed, my horse (who certainly isn't unique) likes to pick and choose what he eats . . . sometimes clover, sometimes tall tussocky grass, sometimes cleavers, sometimes hedgerow material, sometimes thistles. Common sense would dictate that as wild horses have a varied natural diet, then their domesticated counterparts probably do too.
P
Truly, it amazes me that grownups can't have a conversation without descending into sarcasm and one-upmanship . . . and I'm not pointing the finger in any one particular direction btw.
From what I've observed, my horse (who certainly isn't unique) likes to pick and choose what he eats . . . sometimes clover, sometimes tall tussocky grass, sometimes cleavers, sometimes hedgerow material, sometimes thistles. Common sense would dictate that as wild horses have a varied natural diet, then their domesticated counterparts probably do too.
P
siennamum
Well-Known Member
Interestingly I have had a clear choice this Winter between my usual hay off our big hay field, which is pretty much all Rye & really good quality and some lovely bales of proper meadow hay which is fully of timothy, flowers and much greener - and preferred by the horses.
Aside from the fact that I stopped with the meadow hay when I found ragwort in it - it made the horses cough and I suspect it was due to pollen or similar. they hay had no dust (less than the rye hay) and is really fresh & lovely, but all the horses coughed on it.
My normal seed hay is dustier & has never started the horses coughing, go figure.
Rose Folly
Well-Known Member
Everything seems to be getting very tetchy!
I think Leviathan made a very valid point in saying that if you have only a small acreage you would rather see grass (in the purest sense) growing on it rather than clumps of thistles or docks.
On the other hand, I actually belong to the other camp. The pasture we own is true permanent pasture, probably going back to when the Romans had a farm on the site. Before I owned it, or had any idea that I would own it one day, I was talking to the farmer who it belonged to, and he told me he always put any sickly or 'backward' calves onto it, as the field was a "real medicine chest".
I've owned it for 20 years now, and the variety of plants amazes me, plus hedges on 3 sides, and a brook bordered by banks of cowparswley, meadowsweet etc. I LOVE to see my horses standing in the running water, very carefully selecting which tasty herb they're going to try next. (The one I in my ignorance call water peppermint is wildly popular). These horses range from a 17.2 TB steeplechaser through to a Dartmoor pony. They never have supplements, and only very very basic feed. TG they are rarely ill, and the vet always asks is they've 'been doctoring themselves?' (on the willows).
I think if you have the chance to let your horses graze nature's way, you should take it. It doesn't mean you work any the less hard (getting rid of the nasties like ragwort and dock) but your gees have the chance of a varied menu.
NB Don't forget that strimmed, dying, nettles, in large quanities, can cause iodine poisoning - not talking of 5 or 6 heads, but where a bulk strimming has been done of a big patch.
I think Leviathan made a very valid point in saying that if you have only a small acreage you would rather see grass (in the purest sense) growing on it rather than clumps of thistles or docks.
On the other hand, I actually belong to the other camp. The pasture we own is true permanent pasture, probably going back to when the Romans had a farm on the site. Before I owned it, or had any idea that I would own it one day, I was talking to the farmer who it belonged to, and he told me he always put any sickly or 'backward' calves onto it, as the field was a "real medicine chest".
I've owned it for 20 years now, and the variety of plants amazes me, plus hedges on 3 sides, and a brook bordered by banks of cowparswley, meadowsweet etc. I LOVE to see my horses standing in the running water, very carefully selecting which tasty herb they're going to try next. (The one I in my ignorance call water peppermint is wildly popular). These horses range from a 17.2 TB steeplechaser through to a Dartmoor pony. They never have supplements, and only very very basic feed. TG they are rarely ill, and the vet always asks is they've 'been doctoring themselves?' (on the willows).
I think if you have the chance to let your horses graze nature's way, you should take it. It doesn't mean you work any the less hard (getting rid of the nasties like ragwort and dock) but your gees have the chance of a varied menu.
NB Don't forget that strimmed, dying, nettles, in large quanities, can cause iodine poisoning - not talking of 5 or 6 heads, but where a bulk strimming has been done of a big patch.
Enfys
Well-Known Member
Screwed up with that last photo didn't I
Because our fields are boringly flat, we have water meadows too, and every field floods (sandy though, so they also drain very well) but in winter they are just sheets of ice, which holds no fear for the horses...
The only bonus with having land that floods is that every horse that leaves here is water proof, even if they weren't when they came
Because our fields are boringly flat, we have water meadows too, and every field floods (sandy though, so they also drain very well) but in winter they are just sheets of ice, which holds no fear for the horses...
The only bonus with having land that floods is that every horse that leaves here is water proof, even if they weren't when they came
Oberon
Well-Known Member
Clivers are great for the circulation.
I don't have a reliable supply here, so I have to buy them in dried form. You are lucky to have them
Horses are great at self medicating and never over dose themselves on one particular thing unless it's a simple choice of eat it or starve.
Which - when there is nothing but rye grass, buttercups and clover in the fields...they will eat themselves into laminitis.
If you were on a desert island with only Mars bars - your diet would consist of Mars bars. You'd eat them to keep you alive, even when diabetes takes hold
To me, 'weeds' ARE valuable grazing. I wish I had more of them
.
Enfys
Well-Known Member
We have many types of bushes and shrubs round our fields. One of there favourite things is climb on our cross country bank and reach up into the trees like giraffes.
What you get in the field depends allot on surrounding pasture and land.
Down south you get allot of gorse etc like New Forest.
Ha! Yes, they will find a way to reach things they want don't they? This one will rear up to browse the trees (he is double fenced because he is a bugger for standing on his fences and I have replaced his gate three times
)
Gorse is another thing that I haven't seen here, back in Wales it was all over the place, I was told that in the days of working horses they used to make a chop with gorse. The stuff is a pita otherwise if you get it in your paddocks, the only way to get rid of it, permanently, is to put pigs on it.
FairyLights
Well-Known Member
my fields have all sorts of old type mixed pasture grasses and flowers. I do keep ontop of any thistes and docks which appear though . We have yarrow;buttercup;birdsfoot trefoil;purple vetch;ladys smock;sheeps sorrel;ox-eye daisy; yellow rattle; cats ear;self heal;sweet vernal;timothy;cocksfoot;meadow bent; to name just a few.
Mrs B
Well-Known Member
I rented, a while ago, a field on the edge of the village that hadn't been grazed for a good few years. It had a fair mix of plants and some wonderful, ancient hedges.
The horses picked and chose what they wanted and as it wasn't a huge area, I had to strip graze and pretty soon, it looked like a pasture again.
Anyhoo: following spring, I followed what my Mum had taught me, on our old yard at home: I got some wild flower/herb seed mix and sowed the whole lot by hand. Later that season, it was such a wonderful sight and smell! Such a joy to see the horses selecting what they most fancied and I have to say, they looked fabulous in their coats....
The horses picked and chose what they wanted and as it wasn't a huge area, I had to strip graze and pretty soon, it looked like a pasture again.
Anyhoo: following spring, I followed what my Mum had taught me, on our old yard at home: I got some wild flower/herb seed mix and sowed the whole lot by hand. Later that season, it was such a wonderful sight and smell! Such a joy to see the horses selecting what they most fancied and I have to say, they looked fabulous in their coats....
ILuvCowparsely
Well-Known Member
Gorse is another thing that I haven't seen here, back in Wales it was all over the place, I was told that in the days of working horses they used to make a chop with gorse. The stuff is a pita otherwise if you get it in your paddocks, the only way to get rid of it, permanently, is to put pigs on it.
That's what ours do rear up or just stretch their necks up to grab the upper branches.
Our cross country bank used to be part of a course. The horses love to graze on it as they have a gr8 view from the top and they are closer to the juicy branches.