December 2011 Articles

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Horse Pasture, Seeds Help Your Pasture Management

Horse Pasture, Seeds Help Your Pasture Management Story by Heather Smith Thomas Weeds often plague horse pastures, especially areas that are overgrazed or trampled by horse traffic, such as near water sources, shade or gates. Horse pasture seeds may help rebuild your pasture when weeds take over. It doesn’t take much grazing pressure to change the dynamics of a plant population within a horse pasture, especially during drought. Horse pasture management requires constant vigilance to balance grazing use with grass growth, making adjustments depending on weather (rainfall or drought) or availability of irrigation water. Poisonous plants, problem weeds, and vegetation that crowds out desirable forage plants should be eliminated from horse pastures. Toxic Plants Every geographic region has different problem plants, though some—like poison hemlock or wild cherry (chokecherry)—grow almost everywhere. To know which ones are in your area, check with your vet, county extension agent, or weed specialist. Dr. J.D. Green, an extension weed science specialist at the University of Kentucky, says buttercup, usually found in overgrazed pastures, can be a problem in his state in the spring. "Horses tend to avoid it, but may eat it when they are short of grass," he says. "Plants we see in summer that are known to be toxic include hemp dogbane and butterfly milkweed." Dr. Anthony Knight of Colorado State University says toxic plants in the West include locoweed, Russian knapweed, yellow star thistle, water hemlock, houndstongue, some senecios or grounsels, and narrow leafed milkweed. "Other plants that can cause problems for horses in our area include sagebrush species (such as sand sage and fringe sage)," says Knight, "especially on winter pastures when snow covers the grass and hungry horses eat sagebrush." Just because the plants are there doesn’t mean they will be a problem, unless horses get short of feed or are the type to nibble strange plants. Some horses won’t touch potentially toxic plants, but others will try them. If hay is your horse’s only source of food, he’s more apt to eat a harmful plant because he can’t be as selective as he might be in a pasture full of grass. Hemp dogbane and milkweed, for example, are still toxic when dry, so when they are harvested in hay, it’s a definite problem. If a bale of hay contains strange weeds, don’t feed it. Even if the weeds aren’t toxic, they may spread seeds that end up on your horse pasture. If you are feeding hay out in the pasture, this will also be the area trampled more, inhibiting the grass plants and making it easier for weeds to get started.