Pesky Spring/Autumn Green Shoots!

They can literally appear over-night in your ‘grass free’ area!

When rehabbing horses and ponies from laminitis, head-shaking and many other issues we categorize as ‘grass-affected’, these new ‘green shoots’ can cause a relapse.

Check the table below - you can see how this very young green grass is so imbalanced even a small quantity can cause trouble for compromised horses and ponies. Hence the best strategy is to ‘COVER THEM UP’ – having a pile of spare sawdust is very handy, otherwise use straight salt. (No harm for them to ingest the salt)

Grass shoots covered with salt

The following Forage Analyses we conducted clearly show that there are other aspects besides sugar levels that contribute towards laminitis and head-shaking and many other issues afflicting our domestic horses.

To determine exactly why they are extremely ‘potent’ – we had some Autumn & Spring shoots analysed:

Autumn Spring

Dry Matter………….22% …………19% - way too low

Crude Protein (CP)...26% ………...36% - way too high (should be <12%)

Sugars………………...8% …………8% - not too high

Potassium …………3.4% ……….. 3.8% - way too high (should be <2%)

Sodium……………..0.138% ……. 0.07% - (normal readings)

DCAD………………..594 ………… 508 – way too high (should be <100)