Quality of grazing/ponies/laminitis etc

[~Perdita.M~]

My problem. We keep our two in a field that wasn't used for a long time and had grown long. Due to the urgency of moving them ( when woody moved in and the owner with the elderly horses didn't want two young lads in her field anymore) it wasn't possible to get it topped or anything done to it, they had to go straight in. It's still quite long and tufty, but most of it is dead and there is sparse pickings of the shorter green stuff. We thought, that with two smallish ponies, it would be best to keep it like that ( although even if we wanted to chop it down there is nowhere else to put them) as the longer dried grass and minimal green stuff would be better for them for weight reasons and possible laminitis risks, as there isn't actually that much for them to gorge on, but enough to graze if they look for it. However, have just chatted with a friend, showed him a photo, and he said in no uncertain terms that half the horse he knew would die if kept in that field, as it was too rich, needs topping immediately, and I was lucky sham was arab cross other wise we'd be in trouble! He said that natives naturally live on very closely cropped grass, so they don't get too much. Well, we can't get very short green grass here I'm afraid, unless I went out and bought a herd of 15. It's got to be either this long rough stuff, or short juicy green stuff with two ponies in a decnt sized field by themselves! Anyway, so now Im panicing, is our *rough* grazing not rough enough? Are we sensible to keep it like this ( I know it looks awful ) or is it just as bad or worse as having it cut short?

Sham and Woody today, happy to be rugless for a while

 

[Esther.D]

Personally I would say you are fine - if there was that much juicey green grass then you would be in trouble but most of that looks like last years dead grass with new stuff coming through, so I would have thought you would be fine, keep an eye on them of course but it doesn't look like there is too much goodness there.

 

[Bebe]

Topped grass is stressed grass so it will always be higher in sugars. Close cropped grass is also stressed grass. Plus short grass will have sugars closer to the tip simply because thats the only place for it to go.

I think you're far better off with the long & dead grass (essentially hay??).

 

[eventerbabe]

Topped grass is stressed grass so it will always be higher in sugars. Close cropped grass is also stressed grass. Plus short grass will have sugars closer to the tip simply because thats the only place for it to go.

I think you're far better off with the long & dead grass (essentially hay??).

completely agree with you there bebe. the grazing looks fine. if you are so concerned about the long bits of grass, borrow a few sheep. our neighbouring farmer offered us a sheep if we found we were getting long bits of grass in our field.

 

[artemis]

I've got a poy that gets laminitis & that looks fine to me. It's the short juicy stuff that you have to worry about.

 

[~Perdita.M~]

Thanks guys, you have set my mind at rest that we were thinking along the right lines! It is really, mostly that hay/grass. Hopefully the green new stuff won't be able to get through too much, but enough, if that makes sense Will keep an eye on them though and revert to strip grazing and or sheep if we need to

This is the second time this person has given me dodgy advice and won't listen to what I have to say. The first time was regarding physios/chiros and that they don't do any good and the only back problems horses get are due to the saddle, so change th saddle and then they are fine I know I am a novice owner, but I do try to do a lot of reading, listen to people that I know are experienced, and I'm also not stupid, although they seem to think I am

 

[diplomaticandtactful]

my vet said that the worst grass was newly topped, as all the sugar would be in the stem, which is all that you would have left, so it would be sugar rich. plus it would encourage growth by topping it.

my field is like yours only barer as it has been grazed on all winter by 5. there are some longer rough areas where they tend to poo, and leave, but in a few weeks it will begin to green up and get back to normal. i have to watch it as it is commercial grass ie has been fertilised for dairy cows in the past, so it grows well.

rough grazing with rough, weedy, herby grass is better for lamnitis than nice 'lawn' paddock grass which is richer.