Grass Length Matters

Short, medium or long. These all represent different ‘stages of growth’ of the grass. Each stage being quite different in its nutrient composition.

Because many people don’t have control over the stage of growth of the grass their horse is grazing the following information will help to know why and what you need to feed to help your horse .

Short Grass

Fibre: Horses on short grass ingest less quantity of grass per mouthful. On the surface this would appear to be desirable for ‘good doers’ but not so, as the equine gastrointestinal tract has evolved to process LARGE AMOUNTS of fibre.

Horses on short grass won’t meet their daily requirement for fibre. This is why grazing muzzles are not advised for more than 2-3 hours/day

Sugars: Short grass is lower in sugars but high in potassium & nitrogen which cause disturbances to nerve and muscle function and all the various manifestations of being ‘grass-affected’, prompting the need for supplements to target these issues.

Daily Essential Nutrients: If short grass is the only source of forage/feed horses can suffer from inadequate overall nutrition because intake of quality protein, vitamins, minerals & salt are insufficient.

This is where the size and age of the horse matters.

Kaitoa - a rescue Kaimanawa

Kaitoa was a Kaimanawa whom we rescued when he was 4 years old – his ONLY food was short grass because he lived on the same paddock all that time, no supplementary hay or feed for the previous 2 years.

Kaitoa about 6 weeks later!

Daily supplementation of plenty of hay and a bucket feed covering ALL these aspects can make up for the shortfalls.

Kaitoa went on to fabulous people who carried on his education and career as a jumper.

Kai, happy and healthy!

Medium/Lush Grass

Horses on lush grass are ingesting larger quantities per mouthful.

Fibre: Lush grass has a high water content BUT because it is mainly leaves and not much stem it still lacks fibre and won’t fulfill daily fibre requirements.

It is higher in nutrients than either short or long stalky grass which works for pregnant and lactating mares and growing or elderly horses.

Sugars: High Sugars, Potassium and Crude Protein (Nitrogen) are excesses that cannot be removed from fresh grass. While the equine metabolism is adapted to handle temporary spikes, relentless excesses inevitably take their toll, causing a variety of issues.

They can only be reduced by limiting quantities the horse consumes necessitating restricting access to lush grass.

This is when a Dry Lot is a real advantage as you have somewhere safe to keep the horses until the grass reaches a more mature stage of growth.

Long,Mature/Stalky Grass

Marshall Art & Zephyr out on their mature grass. Zephyr is busy picking off the delicious seed heads.

Allowing grass to grow to maturity is the natural way to both increase fibre content and lower soluble sugars, potassium and crude protein/ nitrogen.

Grass that has more stem than leaf is overall the better option for the equine digestive system.

You will still need to add a daily feed to augment quality protein, a broad spectrum multi vitamin with high levels of Vit E and salt.