What do we all know about grass,Lami and Barefoot

soloequestrian said:
Has anyone tried to encourage things like nettles, thistles and especially clivers in their fields? How would you go about it? I had a big patch of clivers growing on some old bales, but it's all gone now. Mine are a bit rubbish at eating standing plants, but they'll eat them if I pick them!

With regard to the semi-permanent track fence, why wouldn't you leave fence posts in the field without a fence on?
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I have a big bank of thistles, nettles, clivers etc which I wont let my YO loose on! and I regularly cut stuff for them.

wrt the fence posts, I feel it would be more dangerous to leave them up without a fence on-less visible and having seen some awful staking injuries I am loathe to leave them that way. I might be being a bit overprotective and I havent totally made my mind up yet!
 
I have the problem of keeping weight off too. I have four - 1 welsh x arab, her daughter who is stockier, 1 anglo arab and a shetland. Shetland wears a muzzle and is too fat despite this, the others are all over weight but mostly huge bellies, not overly fat anywhere else.

My summer grazing spent the winter under water (!) and is very lush, but with plenty of nettles, clivers and thistles. Winter grazing in much more sparse with less of a mix of plants. We have been there 1 year. They wintered out for the first time last winter and did very well, only having hay when the grass ran out and the odd small hard feed when the weather was really bad. All looked great going into spring but gorged themselves stupid and now are as described above. Grazing took such a battering from flooding I had to move them onto summer grazing as soon as ground allowed (3rd week of April) so was couldn't have them on crappier grazing at night until first paddock had been grazed down. Suspect this is where the fat got laid down quick, now having trouble getting it off. They go into a shorter sparse paddock at night, ono longer lusher one during day.

The next twelve months will be interesting, as I should have stables available, on the whole they will be living out 24/7 but I do have the option of bringing them in, even if it is just to limit their binge eating hours next summer!!!!!!!!!!

so much conflicting advice around now....
 
Yes it is so hard to know what to do for the best, especially once they have had laminitis. My lad got it in August last year and took 8 months to fully get over it and remain sound. He had been out 24/7 on restricted grazing prior to getting it and always looked 'well'.
He is now out during the day on a bare paddock that he nibbles at all day and things grow through and is in a field stable and corral of wood chip ouside his stable at night on soaked hay.
He lost a lot of weight whilst on box rest mainly through stress and I have managed to keep his weight the same on this routine. The vet came to do his jabs the other week and is thrilled with his weight and happy with the paddock he is on. Her belief is very much to get them off the grass completely for the day or night to give their stomachs a chance to rest and get over the grass and to keep them on a sparce paddock even though the grass that they do eat is fresh new shoots.
I could not contemplate putting my lad on even tall stalky rough grazing as he would stuff his face until he popped...me personally...I prefer short sparce grass as they are tsking in less overall.
I had my field cut for hay one year and it was mature stalky grass at the time of cutting...I had it analalysed and it turned out to be megga high in all the wrong things...in fact D&H said that I would be better feeding high fibre haylage to a laminitic than that hay!! You can never tell.
 
pottamus said:
I had my field cut for hay one year and it was mature stalky grass at the time of cutting...I had it analalysed and it turned out to be megga high in all the wrong things...in fact D&H said that I would be better feeding high fibre haylage to a laminitic than that hay!! You can never tell.
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Wow that's interesting Pottamus, I never would have thought this :eek: ! I WAS thinking of cutting my big summer field for hay next year but didn't know whether to as it's very lush. What sort of hay do you think this would produce and am I right in saying it will make the field even richer for grazing after?? (Although I could probably wait quite a few weeks after cutting to graze it, so think the goodness level might have dropped??) :confused::confused:
 
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I have succombed today with my little fatty (pure welsh b). She's been out on overgrazed paddocks with my other 2. They're looking ok,she has got frighteningly big!!

She is now in her stable (begrudgingly) with soaked hay ,double netted. She will have a walk out in hand daily for a stretch and then be confined to barracks again with soaked hay.

Whether this be a few days,a couple of weeks or the rest of the summer,so be it. I'm paranoid about lami and she is a prime candidate. Cruel to be kind and all that.

Anyone else this harsh??
 
it may not be because it was stalky but because of the type of grass it was as the different species of grass have different nutrients. i imagine also soil makes a difference too?

pottamus said:
I had my field cut for hay one year and it was mature stalky grass at the time of cutting...I had it analalysed and it turned out to be megga high in all the wrong things...in fact D&H said that I would be better feeding high fibre haylage to a laminitic than that hay!! You can never tell.
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I wonder if people realise that it matters what time of day the hay is cut. Accordign to Australian research, if you get the bale that was cut when they started at seven am, it could contain less than two thirds of the sugar of exactly the same patch of grass cut at 7pm. I guess the only safe way to feed hay is soaked.

I have ten acres at 1100 feet, two big horses and a shetland. The Shetland is fat, almost worryingly fat, but is completely solid on his feet. I have deliberately not fertilised the land for 19 years, and the last two years I have deliberately not grazed it with sheep, so it has gone very rough. I very, very often see the Shetland belly deep in rough grass eating the roughest toughest stuff he can find. I figure he knows what he needs.

All the horses are barefoot, but one of them will feel the stones in the summer unless he is taken off the grass from mid morning to 7pm.

I suspect the explosion in laminitis cases is two things - feeding sugared food and grazing land originally designed for milk cows (or feeding hay/haylage cut from the same).

There is certainly SOMETHING going on!
 
This thread is proving to be a most interesting discussion, thanks all!
Well, when I move our horses to our Highland croft some time in the future, we will have 37 acres of which about 15 acres is rough grazing and the rest woodlands.The fields have not had any fertilizers or crop in over 20 years and the one of the two horse paddocks at the front of the house has been grazed by sheep periodically. ATM the grass is all over a foot and a half high, mature and seedy. There is a very good mixture of wild plants thistles and nettles on the edges near the woodlands. Goodness knows there is more than enough grazing for my two. I can just see me having to use only about 4 acres and two of those will have to be pretty scrubby and poor to make it safe for them!
Sounds like any hay we cut will have to be soaked too as the nutritional content will be very high.
 
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