Now that the spring sun is shining brightly, it's time to give your horse pasture a thorough inspection. Don't just check the fencing, but also be sure to check for any poisonous plants growing in your pasture, and if so, remove them NOW.
If your horses spent the winter in pasture, there probably won't be much grass left by the end of March/beginning of April. This is also the ideal time to identify and easily remove poisonous plants.
There are two super dangerous culprits in the pastures where our two herds are kept, but perhaps there are even more in your pasture… Be careful and take immediate action is the message!
Ragwort
Ragwort poses a significant risk to horses, ponies, and donkeys. Eating this herb can be fatal for these animals. Even if they survive poisoning, they will never fully recover.
To learn more about the dangers and how to recognize the herb, read the Ragwort File from the Horse Point Flanders.
In spring there are no flowers yet and the ragwort doesn't look like much, but it is still easy to recognize by the flower-shaped rosettes.
To remove these, it's best to use a three-pronged weeding fork so you can easily grab the entire root. Personally, I prefer to wait to pull them out until the diameter is about 10 to 15 cm; that's when they're easiest to remove. With even smaller plants, you often end up with more soil than plant material, and it's not a good idea to leave the pulled leaves lying around, as horses also eat them dry (including hay and haylage!).
This is the result of an hour of productive work in the pasture! Weed management is just like horsemanship. As Pat Parelli puts it: "Do less sooner rather than more later."
:-)
Regularly checking and removing poisonous plants certainly pays off – even in the long run. Year after year, we've noticed that ragwort is growing less and less here.
Seedlings of the maple
It is crucial to prevent horses from eating maple seeds or seedlings to prevent maple poisoning (atypical myopathy). It is now known that the toxin responsible for atypical myopathy is found in the seeds, seedlings, and leaves of certain maples, including the Acer pseudoplatanus (sycamore maple). Maple shoots remain toxic even when dried, including in hay. Research on year-old hay showed that the shoots remain toxic!
Atypical myopathy is a very serious, often fatal, muscle disease in equines. More than 75% of affected animals die from this condition, usually within three days of the onset of symptoms. There is currently no cure. The rare horses that survive the disease can recover fully. They may be left with cardiac arrhythmias.
You can read more about it in the Maple Poisoning File from the Horse Point Flanders.
Maple seedlings from the meadow at the shop.
When the grass is still short, you can easily spot them and pull them out by hand. So don't wait too long to check your pasture.
In this photo you can clearly see the growth stages.
Good luck and stay safe!
Give your horse social contact in a herd on a pasture and enjoy it!
