Safergrass FAQ

These are my personal opinions, and these opinions should never be followed when conflicting with advice from an attending veterinarian.

Q:What is a safe grass I can plant for my metabolic horse?

A: Unfortunately, just planting a different kind of grass in your current pasture is probably not an option unless you are wealthy and patient enough to wait a couple years carefully nurturing your less vigorous low sugar grass and then managing intensively with rotational grazing for 2 week intervals.   Most people will have to find ways to manage the grass already in their pastures.   The most practical way is to limit the amount of grass available by use of a muzzle, strip grazing or using a dry lot most of the time.  Other ways are to fence off an area of shaded grass.  No common commercially viable species of grass are completely safe, which is why these website is called ‘saf-ER-grass’ and not ‘safe grass’.   For more information, read the article Why Growing Native Grass is so difficult. https://www.safergrass.org/s/nativedifficult.pdf

Q:How much grass can my previously laminitic horse eat?

A: No one can answer this question for you.  Every horse must be managed as an individual. The conditions that effect the NSC content of grass change constantly, so the amount your horse eats should change as well.  It’s something that you will have to figure out by being very observant.   Things you need to watch closely are soundness, abnormal fat deposits, insulin levels and overall body weight. All these factors need to be good for you to begin even minimal grazing.  I watched my mares trot everyday on their way to the grass paddock.  If they did not trot big and sound, I worked them in hand until I was sure they were not getting sore footed.  For more info on assessing soundness read  https://www.safergrass.org/s/Signs-of-Laminitis.pdf   When conditions occur that cause sugar in grass to increase, like cold nights,  high risk horses should be removed completely from pasture to the dry lot. 

Q:But I don’t have a dry lot?  What should I do?

A: Make one.   It’s easy.  Just put a lot of horses that get along well in a small paddock and let them eat and trample it to dirt.  While it takes longer, you can smother with old carpet or plastic, use herbicide or repeat applications of vinegar.  Don’t use salt or the horses might eat the dirt.   Horses must have turn out.  Living in a stall long term is not acceptable.   If you board and a dry lot is not available, find another boarding facility.   If you live in a wet climate, the area for the dry lot must be slightly sloped or install a base layer of crushed stone for drainage.    If you can get it, smooth river gravel (pea gravel) or washed sand is the best footing. 

Q: What supplements are good for laminitis?

A: For most horses with laminitis, adding things is not nearly as important as the things you remove from the diet.    Very few supplements targeted to horses with laminitis are backed by good science.    Your money is better spent on testing hay and feeds for NSC, buying hay in bulk when you do find a source that tests low, and testing for insulin and ACTH to assess your horse’s response to diet and medication.   AFTER you have minimized NSC in the diet and stabilized PPID, when they have it, consider trying a supplement with chromium.  All equine diets should be evaluated and supplemented with appropriate minerals as needed.  

Q:When is the best time to graze?

A: When growing conditions are good, sugar is lowest from about 3AM to 10AM, in mid latitudes like Europe and North America.   Sugar levels peak in late afternoon, and start to go down very slowly after dark.  If you live in an extreme latitude like Alaska, Norway or New Zealand and daylight in summer lasts 18+ hours, sugars may stay too high around the clock for sugar sensitive horses. 

Q: My horse has PPID, but normal insulin.  Can it graze?

A: High insulin is the factor that causes laminitis.  For those horses with PPID and normal insulin and lean body condition, they should be able to graze like a normal horse.  However, do not get complacent.  PPID is a progressive disease with more symptoms presenting over time.   I have seen some PPID horses that grazed 24/7 year round for several years before they got laminitis.   Be especially careful in autumn when hormones rise and cooler nights raise sugar levels in grass.

Q: Isn’t it better to just never risk grazing a horse that has had laminitis?

A: This is a personal choice that I struggled with myself.    Green grass is the perfect food for horses.  It’s a good source of omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin A and E, and for many of us, the most economical source of feed.  I made the decision to accept some risk because I worked from home, my horses lived at home, I made daily checks for soundness, felt their necks constantly, kept my horses in regular work, in appropriate body condition, and checked insulin levels several times a year.  I paid attention to environmental conditions that could elevate grass sugar levels and eliminated access to grass when conditions warranted.  I got very good at gait analysis, and am very observant by nature.   When I saw very subtle changes in trot, I changed the routine, and they would recover within a day or two.  They wore therapeutic shoes constantly that cushioned and supported the boney column.  I felt that a couple hours per day of grazing green grass at dawn had enough benefit to accept the risk.  They loved it.  I loved that they loved it.  Their hair coats stood out in a crowd.  You will have to make your own decision based on your management options and your horse’s current condition and response.