Grass/pasture questions

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Canteringgallop432

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I'm prepping my property for a mini or two, is there a type of grass that has low sugar/carbs(pretty much just empty carbs), my dad doesn't want to cover the grass with gravel haha, so is there any "breed" of grass that maybe either doesn't really do anything weight/insulin-wise, like I was talking about before, or maybe even something that's safe for horses to eat but doesn't really taste good to them so they might just not eat it? Thanks! Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated:)
 
There aren't any grasses that I know of that they don't like or won't put weight on them. Grazing muzzles and a track instead of a paddock are my best ideas for keeping weight off. It's a great idea though, someone needs to come up with a strain of grass that's really hardy and low cal. Let us know when you get them 😊
 
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I second the track. Grazed-down grass becomes stressed, which increases the sugar. Sometimes "crappy" hay can be high sugar for similar reasons (drought stress). Best is to have an area of healthy grass (whatever type is native to your area, so that it isn't typically stressed in your usual weather conditions) and only let the horses out on it in the early morning when the sugars are lowest. If they're only out for an hour or two a day then they hopefully won't get too much, and the grass can stay healthy and more likely to be low in sugar. Plus, it will be easy to just keep them totally off it if you need to without changing your whole setup.

Another plus of a track is that it's a small enough total area that you can augment/maintain the footing to make it mud-free and easy to keep clean, without breaking the bank. Just make sure it's wide enough for the two horses to have enough room to get away from each other even when running up at feeding time - lowers the risk of someone getting cornered and beaten up!
 

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