Why Do I need to Know About Grass?

Grass is one of those things we take for granted if we have it and wish we had it if we dont especially in times of drought.
If we have a paddock full of lush grass we think our horses are lucky.
But did you know grass can be just as harmful for your horse as much as its helpful in providing nutrients?
Recent research by people such as Kathryn Watts from Colorado has revealed that grass can cause our horse to show slight lameness shortness of stride tieup azoturia after exercise contribute to Cushings Syndrome and hoof abcesses and of course cause laminitis and founder.

Many of our horses probably die early or are put down because of the problems they develop from eating grass either at the wrong time of the day or year or the wrong type of grass. In fact it has been proven that animals who have their intake of calories restricted by 3040 live a lot longer.
In other words people love their horses so much they feed them to death.
One of the most common reasons for horses to be retired or euthanaised is irreparable lameness and its estimated that 80 of horses in the world show some form of clinical lameness.
Most of these lamenesses originate in the lower 13rd of the leg with a very high percentage in the hoof from diseases such as navicular and laminitis abcesses and seedy toe or white line disease.
While some stresses to the hoof such as navicular are related more to the hoof form being out of shape due to shoeing and badneglectful trimming most others can be controlled through diet. Laminitis seedy toe and the abcesses that result from the hoof trying to rid itself of toxins can all be fixed with a careful diet that controls the damage done to the laminae inside the hoof.
Damage to the sensitive laminae cause them to seperate and destroy the bond between the inner hoof structures and the outer hoof wall. When this bond is broken lameness occurs as it is a bit like us tearing a fingernail from the skin below it gets pretty sensitive until it can grow more tissue and heal.
As the torn laminae grow down with the hoof wall towards the ground the dead tissue spaces seperation of the hoof wall allows bacteria to enter and then you have seedy toe or white line disease
Abcesses commonly occur to rid the