Spring time!!! Founder!!!!
Yes, it’s that time of year when the new grass comes up and our horses want to eat themselves into blimps. Who can blame them? If we all had to live on dried food all winter when spring came and the fresh foods arrived we would gorge, too. In fact, I’m quite sure that from time to time I’ve “foundered” myself by indulging in too much rich food when I should have been held back limited grazing.
This time of year it’s important that we pay attention to how much grazing time our horses get. The spring grass is full of sugar, and it can play havoc with the horse’s system.
Make sure that you introduce your horse to the grass slowly. We like to feed our horses some hay first, and then turn them out in the pasture. Early in the season, if you feed the horses first, they’re less likely to feel like they have to gorge on the grass. Naturally they will still eat as much as they can, but we’ve found if they aren’t “starving” when they get to the grass they have a tendency to eat slower. The hay already in their stomachs also assists with the processing of the sugars in the fresh grass. We typically start out with no more than twenty minutes for the younger horses 5-15 years of age, and less for the older boy. At thirty-one years of age (and with a history of Cushings) he just can’t handle much grass at the beginning of the season. Of course if you want to see how young a thirty-one year old horse can act, turn his younger paddock partner out on the grass and leave him inside. I swear I might have to increase the height of Sandy’s paddock fence.
By sticking to a regular timed schedule of “grass time,” you can monitor the horse’s intake and catch things early if there is a change. After a week or sometimes more, we will increase the grass time to 30-40 minutes. Depending on the spring weather and the grass, we adjust the time for the horses. If the grass is coming in slower than usual due to a rainy spring, they might be able to stay out a little longer, as the grass seems to change a little slower. But a couple days of sunshine may make the grass sprout like crazy and suddenly green up and grow inches over night – and then we have to limit pasture time again and cut back the grazing duration.
As the spring season continues to bring on the grass, we continue to let the horses out for longer periods of time, we do this gradually and it may take four to six weeks before they see two or more hours of pasture time.
During this time we also make sure that the horses have plenty of free choice minerals in their stalls -- and access to lots of salt. During this change in their feed (and change is exactly what it is), they need access to the things that can help regulate their body and the new food they’re taking in. Having 2-to-1, 1-to-1, Trace Mineral Salt and Izmine are important to keeping them healthy. We will also use DynaPro (a high quality probiotic) during this time. It’s important that their guts are working to full capacity to deal with the fresh grass, and Dynapro helps accomplish that. You can read more about these products at www.horsethink.com and also at www.perfectanimalhealth.com.
Please take your time in letting your horse back on the fresh grass and prevent the possibility of founder.
Copyright © 2004 HorseThink.com