Winter grazing for Lami pony

[happyhacker101]

Ok, we managed to get through summer with Robbie on bare grazing and all appears to have gone well (touches wood, fingers crossed) I've never owned a lami pony before and am now wondering about winter grazing. Obviously, I'm not going to turn him out into the big field with loads of grass but, how should I manage him from now til spring grass comes through?. The bare paddock is now churned up and needs resting - should I just make him another bare paddock and keep the feeding the same all year and just watch for loss of weight etc?. The vet saw him last week and gave him a score of 2.5/2.75 so he's an awful lot better than the 2 that he was when he first arrived but can't get any fatter - but vet said he was great weight for going into winter.

[redcomet]

please bare in mind that grazing on stubble type grass can b worse! also turn out on frosty grass is dangerous cos of the high levels of fructins in the grass! There is a really great book all about laminitus which i found to b a great help! its on ebay at the mo. its a small green paperback called all about laminitus. hope this helps. hav loads of info i researched on lami if u would like me to send u any, nat x

[Roofio]

the two lami prone ponies at the old yard go out on a small section of the winter field. usually j, or this year it'll be someone else, eats it down for 4-5 days to get the 'lushest' off. they then go on it and stay on it till we move back to summer fields, and someone eats that off before they go on it. our vet reccomends this sort of arrangement, then hay when the grass is gone and whenever its frosty etc.

i guess you need to be a bit careful if the grass is still growing that hes not getting too much new growth, but if he hasn't actually had lami this year you should be in a better position.

sounds like youve done really well with him so far, good luck :)

[happyhacker101]

thanks for the replies - I think we'll stick to making small paddocks and hubby cutting the grass before letting him in - grass cuttings will be collected! - hubbys favourite job!. Robbie hasn't had lami for a couple of years now (or so i was told) and i'd obviously like to keep it that way. i'll watch for the frost ..... (already had some of that this year)

[martini55]

You just need to be vigilant. I still restrict my horse's grazing but then she is really sensitive to changes in the grass :rolleyes: I also just want to ask what scale you use for condition scoring, is it 1-5? As if it is then I'd watch and not let him get any more weight on as 3 = fat :).

What you could do is keep them in a small paddock and put hay out for them. Spread it out, rather than put it in piles and they will move around and graze naturally :)

[happyhacker101]

Redcomet - thanks for the book rec - no longer for sale on ebay as its winging its way to me as i type !!