TCJpart62: Supplimentary Feeding

HERBS & WEEDS:

Just because we might not want them in our lawns, there are some herbs and weeds that are beneficial to our horses, and in some cases just plain tasty and good for them too!!

This is Henry, grazing the flowers of the White Clover, very tasty.

White Clover

John buys a specially blended Horse Paddock Mix with a mixture of herbs and grasses to emulate the diversity found on the wild planes (where horses rarely suffer from obesity or laminitis).  This broad species mix is not only very palatable to our horses but they are also beneficial to their health.  Anyone who recognises the need to duplicate as near to wild conditions for their horses as possible can find a wide selection of grass seed mix on the market.  But first you'll need to get out into your own paddock to ascertain what grasses and herbs are already present.

He selects a blend each year to suit our own land, some years' grass blend only when the herbs seem to have done very well from a previous sewing.

Some seed mixes that we look out for include the following herbs, grasses and wild flowers, if you wander your own land you'll undoubtedly find some of these herbs and 'weed' exist there already, and that perhaps, like me, you assumed wrongly they were unwelcome.  Just a little investigation and research can help you identify these plants.  If anything, it'll prepare you for the skill you'll need to weed the good from the bad,

Here are the good:

Meadow Fescue

Smooth Stalk Meadow Grass

Timothy Grass

Kentucky Blue Grass

Cocksfoot

Creeping Red Fescue

Rough Stalk Meadow Fescue

Sheep's Fescue

Chewing Fescue

Sheep's Parsley

Yarrow

Sheep's Burnet

Ribgrass

Chicory Herb

Salad Burnet

Dandelion

Ladies bed straw

Tom & Henry's fields are a mixture of several

species of grass, herbs or meadow wild

flowers.

Tom & Henry also have access to their very own hedgerow, and planted in there are several tasty and beneficial plants and trees.

Here you will see Tom pruning the hedgerow, he is quite horticultural, he is particularly fond of the new leaves of the hawthorn, the wild rose leaves and the apple too, with a sprinkling of field maple.

...you can see from the photos how John has had to put a protective tape around the newly planted hedgerow to save it from equine pruning, but they seem always to find a sneaky place where the tape doesn't stretch both sides of the fence.  A hedgerow is very good varied mix of forage.

Not quite so harmless the oak, but it's the acorns that our horses mustn't eat, so Henry's few mouths full of leaves won't do him any harm.

 

A few things they probably shouldn't eat however, the handle of the poo-picker....or your husband!!!

Oh, Tom & Henry, you do like a varied diet!!!