Just Because it's Greener, Doesn't Make it Grass!

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photo copyright Christine Church all rights reserved

Grass! That green stuff (or brown, depending on the weather) everyone associates horses eating.

Let me give you a scenario; You look out at your green one-acre field and see your three horses out there, heads down, picking at the grass. You wonder, however, why they have lost a bit of weight in recent weeks. After all, they have grass, right? It's all green out there and some looks pretty tall.

I can tell you right now, your pastures are overgrazed! You NEED to start supplementing with hay right now!

photo copyright Horse Journals


I can't tell you how many times I have heard people say, "I don't need to throw hay out there. He/she has grass!"  Ugh. 😧🙄

Upon easy inspection, however, it is plain as day that the "grass" is mostly weeds that horses don't eat and the edible parts of the paddock or pasture were eaten to a nub (see photo above).

Don't forget, horses on their own will eat about 2% of their body weight in forage EVERY day! If the grass is 1/2" high or less all over the area where your horse(s) live, THEY DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH FORAGE TO SUSTAIN THEIR BODIES!  Chances are, if your horse is not on several acres of land that is planted with good grass, kept maintained and weed-free, you NEED to put out GOOD hay! If they are picking at the hay and grass back and forth, that's good!! If they don't touch the hay at all, then there's enough grass. If the hay is gone like a flash, give them MORE!

The below photo and the one above, are excellent examples of overgrazed pastures. Anything actually growing is a weed! The green, edible-looking parts... eaten down grass. This is fine for horses to pick on so long as they have plenty of good hay to supplement them.

photo copyright Horse Journals


Often, you will see horses switch between eating their hay and picking a bit at the grass. My horse is a good example. His paddock where I board him is not big, but good enough for his needs, as I feed 24/7 free choice high-end hay. I will see him out there picking what he can grab with his front teeth on the grass, but the bulk of his diet is hay.

The below photo is of my horse, Kobeejo in his paddock. Looks green enough, right? Wrong. He will pick a bit on it, but it's not enough, nowhere near enough, so I offer hay in bins around the area to keep him moving (natural grazers move continuously, which aids in digestion). He pushes it out looking for "the good stuff," he thinks is at the bottom for some reason, but it gets eaten! Anything left over that gets rained on or not eaten is removed and fresh hay always kept out there.

photo copyright Christine Church



So, the bottom line: please give your horse(s) hay. Even if you think you have enough grass, offer some hay. If they don't eat it, then great, they are living on what a horse was meant to live on... grass.

I will get into the importance of water next... for some reason, as obvious as it seems, too many still believe it's ok to deny their horses water.  🤷




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