Building up necks

[elmere]

How much of these amino acids are provided by just grass as I keep my broodmares and youngsters out most of the time and they don't get any hard feed unless they're in which is rare?

[GinaGeo]

Grazing varies hugely, it'll depend on the grass species present, management, how many horses etc. Some will fulfill their requirements some won't even come close. The only way to be sure is to have it analysed. You can then feed only what is required to truly balance the diet.

ETA: It will also depend on the variety of foods the horse has access too. They're browsing animals, so the more trees, herbs and shrubs the horse has availabe to him/her the better chance the diet will have of being balanced - without the need to add anything else. As well as access to a big variety of the more old fashioned (not ryegrass) grass species.

[sarahp]

I'm glad you've addressed that one GG so that I don't have to!

I can only add that I do the same elmere, and have never had any issues with their health from it, athough I do find that feeding a balancer (which I do if preparing for showing) does add a "polish" they don't have from living totally on my grass so presumably something is slightly less than ideal. I do though cultivate what a farmer would consider dreadful grassland, managed to encourage the older grass species and discourage ryegrass: unfertilised except for liming to keep the pH in the right range, only spot weedkilled to try to discourage docks, thistles and nettles, and topped once a year to prevent the big weeds seeding. If timing doesn't fit for weedkilling/topping, some weed patches may be strimmed but I do then find they will eat the dried (so no prickles or stings) thistles and nettles. Most fields have woodland round them so browse is available too, and we throw the hedge trimmings into the fields for them when they are trimmed back.

It seems to work! And I also get very very little laminitis in spite of some ponies getting too fat - Ds fine, As can be a problem but I rarely get one in to slim, only if I have reason to worry about it. I know ryegrass has a high fructans (which is a starch) content, I wonder if the old grass species are lower in sugar content too, so they get fat on mainly fibre and not starch and sugar so less likely to get insulin resistance? Purely speculative, so please no-one take this as proven scientific fact, particularly when managing laminitics.

[elmere]

Well I think the field I use for the mares is rye grass although not certain, its newly sewn 2 years old ago and previously used for farming so not many shrubs about at the minute except for thistles which the ponies love. It'd be interesting to learn which plants supply what in the diet.

[GinaGeo]

I've been trying to find out, but it's not as easy as I thought it might be. Nettles are high in Iron - but my boys aren't interested in them at all, alive or wilted, so I presume they don't need that. Chickweed's high in copper, which they love. Cow parsely and Cleavers are known for their medicinal properties and are fantastic for laminitics - they increase blood flow.

Mine seem to go for different things at different times of year and even prefer to eat in different parts of the field at different times of the year.

In spring they go mad for the banks, which have old grasses, hawthorn shoots, ash trees. In early summer it's Cow Parsely, Cleavers and elm they like. In winter they strip the bark off the Cherry trees along with any fallen Ash branches, which they strip of leaves first. My fields aren't that big but do have a variety of pond, wood, hedge and grass species. They're also seen knee deep in the pond in summer, grazing on the pond weed, the pond reeds and grasses. They're currently devouring thistle heads.

My three only have access to about three acres and we have to manage it carefully so as not to overgraze it. But as long as I don't let my father cultivate, fertilise and weedkill the fields into bowling greens as he'd like to, the variety will stay. It makes it harder, as we pull the dock leaves by hand instead of spraying, but the ponies love it. We had one field overseeded in Spring and whilst the mix did include some Ryegrass it was mainly fescue's and Timothy; my unhorsey father could not understand why I wanted this and nor could the unhorsey contractor, but they seem to prefer it anyway. It's flourising nicely now and they've certainly not ballooned on it.

They seem to go for dandelion's after being wormed or sedated, otherwise they're not interested. Dandelion's a well known diuretic, so presumably it's to help flush any toxins out the system quickly.

Horse's are fascinating creatures, if you can give them option to self help they will and seem to do so with great glee,mine are seen grazing down very steep almost bare banks to get to one plant they obviously desire - it keeps them fitter too It's just very unfortunate that we can't provide them with the hundreds of acres of variation they need in order to do so fully. So we have to compromise and do the best we can for them with the help of science and add balancers to try and ensure the diet is the best we can provide.