Interesting on restricting grass

[Lucyinthepie]

www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/397/306541.html
I thought this might be of interest.

Interesting indeed. I have noticed that ponies on limited turn-out time turn into eating machines when they are out, I didn't realise by how much though. Personally, I prefer to limit grazing by making the turn out area smaller though I know this isn't always possible. I also used a nose bucket thing on DD's pony last year, but he still seemed to eat plenty on grass even with it on.

Mmm a bit obvious I'd have thought. Our shetland is kept off the grass in a bare paddock during the day when fructan levels are at their highest but she's never allowed to get starving hungry. Apart from anything else it's good for laminitics to keep the gut moving. She always has some coarse hay to pick at when she's in the paddock (plus it helps curb her bids for freedom ) and she has a small feed of chaff and chopped apples to fill her up before she goes back out. Seems to work for us as she isn't overweight like all the other shetlands I see round here.

Strip grazing is good too, because we can move the fence after we bring her into her paddock and by the time she goes back out the other horses have eaten the bulk of it so she never gets the really lush stuff.

I don't think it's obvious. Prof Eustace didn't seem to think so. He says restricting grass is the only way to prevent lammi, this article questions that.
Strip grazing depends on how it's done. If it's not done carefully it actually creates a situation where the horse is constantly eating new growing grass, full of sugars.

The study this article is about confirms what I had already thought, although plus a bit of more sciency detail! It is obvious that if they get hungry they will then eat a lot to compensate, although there may be ways around this such as using a paddock with poor quality grass, or stabling and letting them eat straw if they will.

I also suspect that if they are kept off the grass for periods of time with nothing else to eat then it also messes about with their metabolism, and when they do have their grass binge, they store the weight.

Interesting point in the article about the ponies learning to moderate their eating habits over time, this is also something that I had thought was happening at our yard when we only had every other day turnout for a while.

I have a non-laminitic pony, but one who gets grossly fat if left to his own devices. Over the winter he is in a yard with hay and then out at night, and in the summer is in during the day, and on a small bare patch at night - usually situated where the really manky grass is (docks, nettles etc) which means that he has to work for his food. It is a perpetual battle though, and this article made me think again about what is best for him - he doesn't lift his head when he is out, even whilst peeing!

However, when I've been away on holiday he has been out in his starvation patch 24/7 and managed to blow up like a balloon so I can think restriction is our only option. I've tried a muzzle, but he spent so long trying to get it off that he rubbed his nose so that's a no go. I'm so wary of him getting laminitis, 'tis a perpetual worry!