Silly Question ???? Help needed ?? Minimal Grass Paddock for Lami !!

[treacle86]

Have a small ish paddock fenced for my 12.2hh Pony , he has had touch of Laminitis recently , (3 weeks ago approx ) has been locked up in his stable with limited turnout , tiny tiny mouthful of grass in bare pen .
He is fine now and I hope to put him in his paddock , it is approx 10metres by 20 metres ?? but suddenly the grass in this paddock has gone crazy , wild , very long and lush looking ???!!!! is not usually !! so I have mown the grass down quite short , so is quite short now, QUESTION 1 :

How long to leave the cut grass to dry out / blow away etc before I can put pony in his paddock ??? Or should I rake it all up and dispose of it ???

Question 2 : I can only imagine in the last couple of weeks this grass has grown like crazy due to our erratic monsoon / tropical weather , SO , Is there something that I can put down on the grass to calm it down a bit ???

Like the opposite of a fertiliser ??? I dont really want to kill the grass , but something to slow the rate its growing at down a little !! Weedkiller / grasskiller type thing ?? obviously a horse safe product if there is such a thing available ???

Question 3 : Also I was thinking to incorporate a sand part to his paddock to limit his grass area again ,wat should I put down before The sand ?? Grass / weed killer all the grass , and lay sand on top ??? or put down gravel first or a membrane etc ???

Sorry if this seemed a silly post , but I am keen to get him into his little paddock and i know hes desperate to be out more !!

Thank you guys xxxxx

 

[joeanne]

Grazing muzzle?
Would solve most of your problems in one hit.
3 weeks is very soon to be back out after an attack though(albeit a mild one)

 

[brighteyes]

Firstly, doing radical stuff to grass (close mowing and yes, grazing to bareness) stresses grass. Stressing grass causes it to produce fructans - the very thing which is so bad for laminitics!

I suggest you invest in a grazing muzzle (Best Friend/Shires pattern with a webbing 'basket' around a central hole in a rubber base) and restrict his intake that way. You need to accustom him to wearing (for reasons of panic and rubbing his nose, chin or lips) and eating whilst wearing it. Do not fall for the 'I am going to starve to death in 30 seconds if you don't take it off' looks and also watch him for removing it without your help. Feed a buffer of Dengi Hi-Fi Lite or Happy Hoof to calm the hunger pangs prior to the time at grass and I'd say membrane then surface following weedkilling - but you are looking at allowing a couple of weeks after spraying - by which time the rest of the grass will be off again...

Can you borrow some sheep? For a little while, just to trim the grass more naturally?

A touch of laminitis is never really a touch - it could come charging back with a vengeance the moment you drop your guard. So don't!

www.safergrass.org is the website to read. And your questions are ANYTHING BUT silly. Hopefully the suggestions will stop another pony falling victim to this awful condition. Diet and proper management is the key.

 

[treacle86]

Thanks so much guys , I know Lami is pretty horrid , it can just bounce right back again cant it !!
He had a lovely muzzle , wore it fine for couple of months and then got it off , and wrecked it and was very smug with himself , that is how he got the Lami , he escaped , tore muzzle off and was off to find the best grass round the farm !!

He has had anothe rone back on again couple times, but had it off also !!! grrrrr . thanks again guys will read up on websites andsee how we get on .

xxxx

 

[amycov]

Green guard muzzles seem pretty secure as they have lots of straps to attach to headcollar. Also my friend that uses one plaits some of her horses main on each side around the top of the headpiece so that the pony can't get the headcollar off.

 

[Skippydo]

Just a thought on converting half the paddock with sand or gravel, even if you do put a membrane down you will still get weeds growing like crazy on it, the seeds blow in on the wind and set in a very short space of time. You can spray it with weed killer (on a very calm day) but again you'll have to exclude the pony from it.
I'd also rake the grass up that you've cut.
I've got sheep in one of my paddocks, they are a good idea but remember sheep only like short grass, they don't just eat anything, they are very fussy eaters, i have to top their paddock regularly.
Could you maybe put a bit of electric fencing across to cut the paddock in half?
It's very difficult but hopefully the bl**dy grass will stop growing soon

 

[teddyt]

Grass that has been mowed has more sugar in it unfortunately, as the sugar is stored in the stem. Sheep would be the best thing. If not then other horses would get rid of the grass pretty quickly. Rake up the grass and dispose first though.

For you sand area you could put hardcore down under the sand as this would be better in the winter, to avoid mud.

Thank you for going to such lengths for your ponys' quality of life

 

[mtj]

Given that this is a starvation paddock, I would be very dubious about sand. to my mind there is a high risk of sand colic in this situation.

I would stick with the hardcore idea. also make sure the grass around the pen is also cut back as this is an extra grub source.

a pen of that size will soon get hammered and have little grass once it is in regular use. my 2 have 12mx12m pens that they have access to from their stables when they come off the grass for the day. iif you can put another horse on it for a few days it will get knocked backed swiftly.

i agree that the muzzle is an excellent idea when the pony is first allowed access to the pen.

 

[Honeypots]

As others have said..the longer grass wouold have been better than the short grass.
Can you use electric tape and strip graze your pony although agree that a muzzle is your pest bet. Can you try a different type to the one he got off?
Have you got a bigger horse around that could go in first and eat the paddock down perhaps?
I have made a track for my lami ponies. It works wonders

 

[Jericho]

|f you do want to use a muzzle perhaps make the area even smaller and let him graze it down a bit at a time. I actually rake my starvation paddock to pull the grass up by the roots.
I would nt put sand down as he might ingest lots of it when trying to get to the grass. Have you got any grass mats which you could put down (the ones with holes in)?

 

[kellyeaton]

i would take the grass cuttings off the one that you have cut have him in in the day with soaked hay then out at night either muzzled or strip graze. i dont think you can buy anything to stop the grass grwing but i like your idea of you sand paddack before the sandgoes down take the grass away put a layer of membrain down to stop the weeds then apply your sand!

 

[BSJAlove]

i always thought the part of grass that will trigger a lami attack is the steam, meaning either way, long or short, depending on the grass quality, it doesn't really matter. as everyone has said, grazing muzzle.

 

[treacle86]

thanks everyone !! its pretty frustrating , lami is getting quite out of hand these days , not with my boy , just in general, of course it is the climate , my vet has said they have had soo many new cases in ponies that have never been suseptible to lami and also big horses, and lami much later in the year , had cases last year until december !!!

its crazy , honeypots i love ur grazing track !!!lol great thinking , keeps them on the move as nature intended !!

teddyt , thanks , I really want to try and let him live as normally as possible and be close to the big horses, / in with them occasionally , instead of having to be starved, and locked up every so often !!!

I have toyed with having a couple of sheep , but not sure , they may just end up being pests ??? farmer along road has jacobs sheep , and one of them is mad, so friendly, it comes galloping over when it sees me , maybe it would like to come live with us !!!

xxxx

 

[PeterNatt]

Horses must not eat mown grass (as in lawn mower mown as it can cause an attack of colic or even poison them. So remove all the lawn strimmings before letting your horse graze the area that was mown.

Be aware that aminitis can be caused by a number of different things so it may not just be the grass that triggers it off. (i.e insulin intollerance, Cushings Disease, infection, emerging encysted small red worms, stress, concushion etc.). Keeping your horses weight down is a good first step but your vet needs to determine what is causing it.