restricted grazing - how much??

[raggydoll]

It has finally happened - the grass is here and bim is starting to look rather well again! Her ribs are just visible i'd like her to put a little more on eventually but for now shes about perfect. Having had laminitis in the past i think i should now cut down her grazing but im unsure hown much i should put her on??

 

[artemis]

Depends on her size & the quality of the grazing.

 

[eventerbabe]

Depends on her size & the quality of the grazing.

echo artemis. if its scrubby grazing then you can get away with giving her a slightly larger patch. my grazing is good. we restrict Bonnie to an area approximately 30m x 20m and use a muzzle because the grass is so good.

 

[Wally]

When our grass comes in and the Shetlands need keeping slim, we have about 3/4 of an acre which we shove every horse in for a day to eat down, then once it is down to the "wood" we put the Shetlands in there. They then seem to manage on the re growth and, so far we have not had any with laminitis.

 

[Pickles]

My lami prone mare shares about an acre in summer, with my good doer of a cob, but I find the best may to prevent the laminitis is to give her about 6 hours a day (daytime when the sugar content of the grass is supposedly higher) shut in.

I give her some hay just before she comes out as well, so she doesn't come out starving and immediately fill her face with grass.

Are you keeping an eye on her pulse?

 

[Showjumper]

Dolly and Moon are in a field which is just under an acre. They're sharing happily and both look great!

A friend's mare had a severe bout of laminitis in November and has only just been allowed out into a completely bare 20m by 15m patch and is getting soaked hay.

 

[raggydoll]

Are you keeping an eye on her pulse?

I am aware of the digital pulse thing but not 100% clear on where i should be feeling and exactly what im feeling for. I check for heat everyday but bim always has quite warm feet presumable i will still feel a noticable difference if there is a problem.

As i said she is still a tad underweight so its not like shes massively overweight like last year. The grazing is very good now. She currently has about and acre. I was going to cut that down to around a half to a third of an acre and that would be the worst of the grazing but still pretty good. The setup of the field is quite difficult so that it limits how i can break it up without taking away either her shelter or her horsie neighbour. Do you think that amount of land will be ok?

I do have a grazing muzzle i could put on her if i need to but she hates it and just cant work out how to eat in it!