Thistles?

ThePinkPony

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I always thought and was told that horses do not eat thistles, you know the tall ones. the feild is pretty thistly but i havent been able to get hold of a strimmer yet to get them down.

Well, i just watched pink eating thistles. not the heads, but the whole darned plants, pulling them up and chomping them.

Is this normal or just down to the fact she is pretty gutsy, theres grass everywhere, but usually she strips the trees so maybe she just likes variety?

Its not going to harm her is it? ive never heard/read anything saying it is...
 
I heard they were good for horses! Especially Nettles, Ladys always munching them and ive seen other horses eating them happily too. Shouldnt do any harm, ive seen suppliments with nettle extracts in them :)
 
One of my shetlands delicately eats the heads off of them but he won't eat the bodies unless you cut them down for him, then he stopmps on them and eats them. Spoilt pony lol!
 
lol, i was worried about her getting a sore throat... well if its like that then she can chomp away, saves me getting the billhook out thank god!
 
Yep that's fine, in fact I was grooming at a show and pony had colic, gave him some bute, and walked and walked and walked him round but still wouldn't pass anything, wasn't that happy, next thing he after a good hour he put his head on floor, (I was slightly worried by this) ate a thistle and literally 5 mins later, was a lot comfort, passed a dropping and wanted some grass, if I hadn't been there wouldn't of believed how quickly that thistle seemed to make him better! If you look into some homepathy and old remedies etc, then thistles are meant to have some natual painkilling effect, my spotty pony loves sow thistles.
 
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