Comments on: Grazing and Browsing? Forage Trees and Shrubs for Horses

By: Cynthia Cooper

Cynthia Cooper — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 04:49:48 +0000

My horses love to eat willow and sometimes hawthorn trees. They also browse on natives we call ‘Dolly Bush’ and ‘Fireweed’ when out on the trail.
In their pasture they will eat the black berries, thistle heads, gorse and rushes. A good reason to have native, weedy pastures!
Thanks for a good article.

By: A. Jacobs

A. Jacobs — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:43:59 +0000

I found this article quite interesting, and I myself feed my horses legumes: carob, alfalfa, peas, nettle etc.. as well as browsing. The only thing you may need to check on is the information you gave about carob and laminitis, because is not quite accurate. It has been a proven fact that carob actually helps balances the blood sugar levels and this is one of the reasons why it is used to make diabetic chocolate, hence diabeties is similiar to laminitis etc. None of my equine have ever suffered from laminitis, and I’ve fed my equine on legumes as a main feed for many years. Carob has become more popular in recent years in the equine world, because not only do horses really enjoy eating it, but it’s a very natural source of vitamins and minerals too.

By: Janice Eaton

Janice Eaton — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 20:53:29 +0000

Thanks for the article! Recently had a fabulous hoofcare clinic with Peter Laidely, who emphasized the importance of horses having 5 to 10% browse in their diet. Suitable species include wild roses (which my horses were enthusiastically munching yesterday), and raspberries (Rubus idaeus). When my mare was about to foal she selfmedicated herself by browsing Poplar species (which contain anti-inflammatory populin and salicin) and she had a very easy delivery. I’ve also fed birch browse when horses were dealing with pain. Along the forestry track, the horses browse both gorge and broom and thistles, and though I won’t DELIBERATELY introduce any of those here in NZ, they happily take advantage of the wildlings.

By: Anne Gray

Anne Gray — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 06:59:23 +0000

I am in SE Queensland and have tried to grow tagasasta from seed. The plants got to about 5 ft high and then died. They grew all through the winter and spring an then as soon as summer came that was it. Was it the humidity perhaps?

By: Chris Dixon

Chris Dixon — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 07:29:22 +0000

European Gorse was traditionally used here in Cymru (Wales, GB) as a fodder crop. We’ve used it as cut fodder for horses for several years- you can find some details here

http://www.konsk.co.uk/resource/gorse.htm

I believe gorse does quite well in an aussie climate (!)

We use willow extensively as animal fodder here at Penrhos, along with ash and lime. Elm was the traditional one but there’s not much of that left now after Dutch elm disease.

By: Chloe Wolsey

Chloe Wolsey — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 09:08:33 +0000

This might help, a list of helpful herbs in pasture:

http://www.alternativevet.org/Beneficial%20Plants%20WS019-07.pdf

By: Chloe Wolsey

Chloe Wolsey — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 08:56:04 +0000

I read that some horses enjoy eating blackberries which contain vitamin C. Brambles may be left in hedges many horses enjoy eating the young leaves of these plants. Dandelions are another highly nutritious plant for horses. They are also easy to seed.

A variety of herbage in the sward is valuable for grazing horses. Deep-rooting ‘weeds’ can bring up all-important minerals from deeper soil layers. Dandelions, for example, are very good at this and are very palatable. Nettles are a good ‘weed’ to have around the edges of the pasture. They act as host to various butterfly species and, when cut, offer wonderful nutrition, including minerals, to horses, being very palatable when wilted.

Interesting fact on laminitis: ‘Herbicides appear to be very dangerous for horses. We have even had several bad cases of laminitis following application of a common ‘livestock safe’ herbicide to nettles. The problem appears to occur when horses eat the wilting nettles.’ (From: http://www.alternativevet.org/pasture_management.htm)