Ragwort and horses

[Littlesparrow]

If young horses are kept in a field with a lot of ragwort, how likely are they to eat it? they are being fed hay.would they show any obvious symptoms if they have eaten any?

[Brocakat]

Please, - I hope this ain't '"spamming" - go to Ragwort - Is it as bad as you think?

- also http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2003/031124c.htm and
Defra, UK - Error page and
http://www.buglife.org.uk/html/proje..._fact_file.htm and
http://www.nationalinsectweek.co.uk/...th_ragwort.htm

Defra will also give you a "Code of Practice on how to prevent the spread of Ragwort| " I think this is listed as PB9840, from Ergon hose, 17 Smith Square, London, SW1P 3JR

[Jim Ford]

So how have horses and their ancestors survived long before humans were preventing them from eating ragwort? Why haven't horses evolved to tolerate or avoid ragwort?

Jim

[animartco]

Originally Posted by Littlesparrow

If young horses are kept in a field with a lot of ragwort, how likely are they to eat it? they are being fed hay.would they show any obvious symptoms if they have eaten any?

Are they your horses little sparrow? Hope they're well insured!!!!! ALthough insurance might refuse to pay out for horses deliberately placed in a field of ragwort.

[Spectrum]

They will probably avoid it. If it is dry/dead, they will eat it. Need to remove it quickly though to avoid the spread of seed. My daughter has just spent ages removing it from her pig paddock!

[vole-woman]

My understanding is that they won't touch it if it's growing fresh in the field with them.

It only becomes a problem if it's plucked and dried and baled up with hay - horses will eat it then, and it's poisonous.

[Kayleigh]

I have seen a notice on a gate from the rspca in a field where horses are grazing where there was an excessive amount of ragwort and they have the right to remove the animals.
The field was full of ragwort and very little grass so the horses have little option but to eat it..

[animartco]

Originally Posted by Jim Ford

So how have horses and their ancestors survived long before humans were preventing them from eating ragwort? Why haven't horses evolved to tolerate or avoid ragwort?

Jim

OK Jim . Hi. They DO avoid it, but wild horses roam over a larger area than domestic horses, and would therefore be unlikely to trample it and THEN eat it. By the time it had died down and lost it's odour they would have moved on. In any case the plant would not have been common in natural surroundings. It only grows on overgrazed land or land that has been artificially cut. In other words it is only the pest it is today due to the interference of man.
You know if predator prey ratios got out of kilter and the grazing animals got too numerous in the past, perhaps ragwort would have played an important role then in killing off the grazing animals more quickly and humanely than starvation. Just a tthought.

[John_M]

Originally Posted by animartco

OK Jim . Hi. They DO avoid it, but wild horses roam over a larger area than domestic horses, and would therefore be unlikely to trample it and THEN eat it. By the time it had died down and lost it's odour they would have moved on. In any case the plant would not have been common in natural surroundings. It only grows on overgrazed land or land that has been artificially cut. In other words it is only the pest it is today due to the interference of man.
You know if predator prey ratios got out of kilter and the grazing animals got too numerous in the past, perhaps ragwort would have played an important role then in killing off the grazing animals more quickly and humanely than starvation. Just a tthought.

That's just rubbish. I see it often on land that is neither grazed nor cut. Furthermore I think it is neither a threat nor a pest. How many horses are there in the UK? How many documented cases are there of horses dying because they ate ragwort?

[Littlesparrow]

Hi animartco and others, they are not my horses. They are cob type horses bred in quite large numbers and moved around the area, they are well fed, but left most of the time to their own devises.
The RSPCA are either not interested or not able to act on horses kept in a field with loads of Ragwort, they can only investigate the lack of water in the field.
If you surf the net on Ragwort you get conflicting advise, from it is not as bad as people make out to get it out from the field and anywhere near straight away.
There is far too much in the field for me to do anything about it such as pull it up and take away, it would take a truck.