Ask the Expert: Fall Grazing

Owners and caretakers of metabolically challenges horses are often aware of the health hazards ingesting lots of fresh, spring grass can bring on their charges, but grazing horses on lush pastures in the fall is fraught with its own set of perils.

Frost damaged pastures can have higher concentrations of nonstructural carbohydrates, leading to an increase in the potential for founder and colic, especially in horses diagnosed with or prone to obesity, laminitis, Cushings disease and Equine Metabolic Syndrome. To help prevent these health issues, at-risk horse owners should wait up to a week before turning horses back onto a pasture after a killing frost. Subsequent frosts are not a concern as the pasture plants were killed during the first frost.

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Why do nonstructural carbohydrates increase during the fall? During the day, plants carry out the process of photosynthesis. In this process, they make carbohydrates as an energy source for the plant. A second process, respiration, is carried out when the plants use up the carbohydrates they produce during the night for energy. Plant respiration slows down when temperatures are near freezing. As a result, the plants hold their carbohydrates overnight. Freezing can stop respiration and lock the carbohydrates in the plant for over a week. Thus, plants tend to contain more carbohydrates in colder temperatures or after a frost. Often, horses will prefer forages after a frost due to the higher carbohydrates levels.

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Webinar Addresses How To Help At-Risk And In-Transition Horses

Join the American Horse Council (AHC) on Thursday May 27, 2021, at 1 p.m. EST to learn about some of the many resources available to help owners, horses at risk and horses in transition.

Register in advance for this meeting here. Registration deadline is noon EST on Wednesday, May 26.

Ashley Harkins, Program Director for the United Horse Coalition will demonstrate the UHC Equine Resource Database, explore safety net programs available nationwide to help owners in need of assistance, share the UHC's COVID Resource site, and reveal new initiatives planned for 2021.

The mission of the UHC is to advocate responsible ownership through education. One of the many facets of this mission is to inform owners about assistance options, not only during the pandemic, but in any type of hardship.

Included in the discussion will be Emily Stearns, Program Manager of the Equine Welfare Data Collective (EWDC). The EWDC is a program of the UHC to collect, analyze, and report data on at-risk equines, those in transition, and the multitude of equine welfare organizations working diligently to help those in need.

The webinar will conclude with updates coming from UHC Members A Home For Every Horse (AHFEH), the ASPCA/Right Horse Initiative, and the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) about some of the programs and initiatives they have been working on to help owners, at-risk horses, and horses in transition.

Read more here.

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