This message is from: "Mary Ofjord" <ma...@boreal.org>
The questions I know I have are around vegetation. We don’t know the
property well as we just moved here and have not had a year in which to
see what grows. Will a fjord have any common sense about what to eat or
not eat (assuming she has good hay etc.)?
Alice -
This was a concern of mine also when we first moved to our farm. You can
Google ‘plants toxic horses’ and see what comes up. I know Cornell
University had a lot of good information regarding plants that may be toxic
to horses.
For the first year or so, I tried pulling up all the bracken ferns, and the
pesky little buttercups, to no avail – they happily came back despite all my
efforts. Our horses have grazed their pasture to the bare nubbins over the
fifteen years or so we’ve had them on the same pasture. Yes, the buttercups
are still there, and the bracken ferns in the other pasture, but the horses
do not bother them. We feed good quality hay all year long. It has been
suggested by our farrier-hoof care practitioner and veterinarian that horses
such as ours – Fjords, should not be on lush pasture, so what we have for
them it ideal.
There are some plants that are an absolute no-no’s for horses; some of them
are the yew, black walnut trees, red maple trees, Tansy ragwort, oleander,
poison hemlock and water hemlock (we have it up here) and the dried leaves
of the prunus species, such as choke cherries.
Horses that are well-taken care of usually will not touch toxic plants as
most have a bitter taste, but it's wise not to take chances.
And as much as everyone wants to be green right now, I LOVE MY ROUNDUP! It
takes care of a lot of unwanted plants that grow in over grazed pastures.
Mary Ofjord - In cold sub-zero (wind chill today at around minus 33 degrees)
northern Minnesota, where all the toxic plants are happily sleeping under
the snow.
Okay - Jean Ernest - I know you're going to come up with a lot colder temps.
that will make me seem like a wussy - but for me, this is cold enough! I
have to clean the barn later in the day anyway.
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