Spring grass and footiness. How long to improve?

[MDB]

Hi all. My mare has been on limited grass for a year now due to being on a diet last year and very little grass available over winter, but in the past 3 weeks she has had limited access (gradual build up to 3 -4 hours) each day to the paddocks which are growing rapidly.
Last week I noticed she has become footy over gravel tracks and stones when ridden. Kicking myself now! She has been off grass now for 4-5 days and not ridden since last week. Just wondering how long it normally takes for sensitivity to settle. She is fine on tarmac and hard ground. Just the large chunks of gravel she doesn't like.

 

[OLDGREYMARE]

If she is like my mare she will be alright after she has been off grass for a day or two. Unfortunately I think spring grass is not a good idea for horses like this. Can you put her on a track?

 

[MDB]

If she is like my mare she will be alright after she has been off grass for a day or two. Unfortunately I think spring grass is not a good idea for horses like this. Can you put her on a track?

Thanks for your reply. She is on a track system already with the others. They do stick their noses under the bottom wire to nibble what green they can reach, but there isn't much. Hoping she will be better by the weekend as we have an organised ride on Saturday and the route is gravelly. Will just need to see how she goes.

 

[stencilface]

Same here, a day or two off. Depends how bounding his pulses are, they come up quickly! Atm thankfully they're on our poorer field which they've had access to for a month. He's ok with no muzzle or restriction til they move in a couple of weeks.

 

[stencilface]

I am trying to work out how much a gravel circuit track wpuld cost, vehicle width across, about 50m diameter

 

[SEL]

We had pulses after just 2 hours on what I thought was a pretty well eaten paddock. Muzzle back on and she was already looking better this evening.

 

[Birker2020]

Hi all. My mare has been on limited grass for a year now due to being on a diet last year and very little grass available over winter, but in the past 3 weeks she has had limited access (gradual build up to 3 -4 hours) each day to the paddocks which are growing rapidly.
Last week I noticed she has become footy over gravel tracks and stones when ridden. Kicking myself now! She has been off grass now for 4-5 days and not ridden since last week. Just wondering how long it normally takes for sensitivity to settle. She is fine on tarmac and hard ground. Just the large chunks of gravel she doesn't like.

instead of rationing her daily intake of grass to time i.e. hours why don't you strip graze her. THis will be more effective as she will be consuming less but be able to be out for longer periods. THis would be a better solution all round.

 

[MDB]

We had pulses after just 2 hours on what I thought was a pretty well eaten paddock. Muzzle back on and she was already looking better this evening.

Amazing that they improve after such a quick time. My mare doesn't have raised pulses. So fingers crossed.

 

[MDB]

instead of rationing her daily intake of grass to time i.e. hours why don't you strip graze her. THis will be more effective as she will be consuming less but be able to be out for longer periods. THis would be a better solution all round.

Well she is already out 24.7 on a track system with her buddies. From everything I read I understood that short grass was more stressed and had higher suger levels, unless I misunderstood something. I was under the impression not to let them graze grass shorter than 4 inches. Anyway, she is having plenty of hay and we will see how she when I ride her this weekend.