Spring grass! Is it affecting your horse? What helps?

What’s all the fuss about?

1. Weight gain

With the grass containing higher energy levels and increased fructan (non-structural carbohydrates), it is more appetising than summer grass and of course they haven’t had that much grass through winter, this new sugary grass is very tasty to our sugar loving companions. As mentioned above we also tend to turn our horses out for longer periods, meaning that they can eat more as well. To help your horse and possible weight gain, you want to make sure that they do not come of our winter carrying too much weight. So many of us these days wrap them up with heavy blankets and probably overfeed them for the amount of work they do during the winter months. Thus when the spring grass comes through they are already on their way to be obese, causing so many other issues including an increased risk of laminitis. Coming into spring your horse needs to be a healthy slim weight, as they will put on weight with the change in grass unless they are in hard consistent work. 

2. Digestive issues

A lot of people get to ‘spring’ and quickly turn the horses out 24 hours a day as we have all mucked out too many stables and are looking forward to a summer routine, however making a quick change to your horses diet can be detrimental. Just remember that you horse has been on hay/haylage for five or so months, so turning them out for a diet of 100% grass will upset your horses digestive health. As we all know when we change our horses feed, introduce gradually – however we don’t all think about this when it comes to the field. 

Spring grass can cause digestive upset, caused by an imbalance in the microbial’s in the gut as these sugars are not digested in the foregut, but pass through into the horses hindgut where is ferment and produces a build up of lactic acid, which reduces the pH of the hindgut, affecting the microflora that help digestion. 

• The grass in spring is quite low in fibre, which is very important for good digestive health, I therefore recommend that you continue to supplement your horses diet with hay during this period of time. You will find that you horse will naturally balance its own diet with how much fibre it needs.
• If you don’t already, add a probiotic to your horses diet. – There are many balancers on the market that now include pre and probiotics to support your horses ‘friendly’ bacteria in the gut. 
• Add activated charcoal into your horses diet when you notice digestive issues. Charcoal absorbs toxins and helps balance your horses gut.

3. Behavioural changes

4. Top Tips

• Make sure your horse isn’t overweight coming into spring – it is natural for your horse to loose weight over winter.
• Don’t go straight into 24 hour turnout. 
• Increase the amount of time your horse is out on spring grass gradually, providing time for your horses gut to adapt to the changes.
• Choose the best time of day to turn out when sugar levels are low – early morning and late evenings.
• Supplement with hay in the field, so your horse continues to have good fibre levels. 
• Avoid frosty morning turn out if you can.
• It might be a good idea to have any horses prone to laminitis in a small patch and substitute with extra forage of hay or oat straw and use another horse to graze down the area if possible.
• Add pre and probiotics to your horses diet to support your horses ‘friendly’ bacteria in the gut. 
• Horses can gorge themselves on fresh grass, leading to the horses hind gut not being able to fully digest the grass, which could cause colic.
• Monitor your horse for any adverse changes then could lead to colic or laminitis. 
• Key point to member is not to starve your horse, or restrict their grazing (with no forage), as when they do reach the spring grass they are likely to overeat, which if they have an empty stomach can cause additional digestive issues. 

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