Cut nettles

[ponypinkyp]

Hi,,, my ponies field is topped every so often,,,, theres plenty of grass but lots of nettles,, are ponies okay with eating these as mine have taken a liking to them,, also, once they are cut 'by a ride on field cutter mule' are they okay to eat?,,,,

The field is owned by a Mountain pony breeder and they are quite hardy rugged ponies, i have a welsh mountain called danny and a Welsh B x Arab,,,, is it okay for my welsh x to eat nettles cut or uncut?

Advice needed x

[Gruntfuttock]

Nettles are actually quite nutritious, i believe. I've eaten nettle soup and nettle ice-cream myself (the ice-cream was a bit weird but nice enough), so as long as the horses aren't getting badly stung around their mouths, there doesn't seem to be any reason why horses shouldn't eat nettles.

[Shian89]

yeah its totally fine......i feed it to my horse as it supposed to be good for arthritis.....which she has......its also supposed to act as a blood cleaner and also be good for anaemia and rhuematism:)

[Dooley]

Horses don't tend to eat them uncut, but once they start to wilt a lot of horses LOVE them!
I cut them on purpose and let them wilt for however long it takes (when they look properly dead basically) and give them to one of my horses who is on boxrest as a special (but natural and healthy) treat! He is a very well-mannered horse who never barges you for food or treats but when I give him nettles he sometimes forgets himself and mugs me and pushes me out of the way ! :eek:
When I take him for a hand graze he always goes looking for dead nettles too. The blacker and more horrible they look the more he likes them. :p

[Wally]

Yup, cut nettles are relished by a lot of horses, good for them too.

[coss]

my farrier recommended nettles (and thistles) to me. said cut them and leave in the field, if they feel they need/want to eat it they will :)

[Jakandy]

All of our boys love wilted nettles but one of our boys is violently allergic to them.

If yours haven't had them before keep an eye out our lad had to have vet out:eek:

[Lucyad]

We have just had our field topped - unfortunately they took all the cut stuff away, including the nettles (and the ragwort!), but some of the thistles just got squashed instead of chopped - the horses are all mad for them!

[pagan]

Nettles are full of iron and vitamins

[capalldubh]

Ours went through a phase last year of eating the nettles that grew on an old midden in the field, fresh. They were young nettles, so probably not as stingy but they just loved them.

Mind you they eat all sorts of odd things - nettles, thistles, gorse, hawthorn hedge, raspberry leaves, the flowers of blackberry bushes. I don't know how they do it, honestly :rolleyes:

All of them like the nettles and thistles when cut and dried.

[coyote]

My field has recently been topped and on the days when he has his muzzle off, he likes to eat the cut nettles too.:D

[ponypinkyp]

Thanks everyone!

Im off chopping x

[Dooley]

Thistles - yep - them too! One of mine is really funny with thistles ; he pulls his lips back and very daintily with his front teeth gets hold of the thistle and pulls it off.
The other one eats the whole lot, stingy bits and all.

[gingeremmie]

Mind you they eat all sorts of odd things - nettles, thistles, gorse, hawthorn hedge, raspberry leaves, the flowers of blackberry bushes. I don't know how they do it, honestly :rolleyes:


Why is that odd? Remember naturally horses are browsers rather than grazers. A small green square field is NOT their natural environment. It's much more natural for them to be browsing hedges and bushes, eating trees and travelling miles each day eating things which are actually fairly low in nutrition, like different species of grass, not just rye grass. We think in this country that a square of rye grass is the perfect place for a horse to live, but really, it's nothing like what is natural for a horse.