Educate me: Very short grass is sugary?

[cyberbay]

I heard today that very short grass – as in, overgrazed paddocks and pastures – can be very sugary. From the stress of being under assault by the constant grazing, I guess? In any case, my question is: since the grass is SO short, resulting in just tiny mouthsful for the horse/pony, does such short grass net out to be any more sugary, and therefore more “dangerous” for say, an IR or Cushing’s horse, than regular-length grazing?

And a second question is, what would be the ideal grazing situation for an IR horse, if one exists? My hope is to let the horse eat fresh grass both for its mental health that comes from grazing as well as get to have some real nutrition that grass provides far more than hay? Thanks for any input…

[tbchick84]

That’s an interesting question. Grass does store nutrients in the blades in the form of sugar. (forget whether it’s fructose, sucrose, glucose, what difference does it make since it’s all sugar). Anyway, yes a short lawn will suffer in heat and periods of no rain since it has much less space to work with to store energy. With no place to store the energy, the short grass will be working overtime to generate it. A lawn that is kept at a higher height will do much better in adverse conditions since it simply has more storage space available. Which height would hold more sugar content is a tough question. One is constantly generating it while the other has constant stores of it. I would think the end result would be the same in terms of output to a horse.

[Lord_Helpus]

Owning a horse on a low starch/low sugar diet I have a little understanding of of sugars in grass (I have just enough knowledge to be dangerous).

Based on my reading, I heard that grass has the most sugar in the bottom of each stem. When horses only have the lowest part of the stem to graze on, they are getting the most sugar. Horses grazing in lush pasture eat more, but they never eat the bottom 4" of each stem.

LOOK! I found where it says that!: http://www.equinews.com/article/horses-grass-and-fructans

[JB]

Where the sugars are stored depends on the type of grass.

www.safergrass.org has some good information on C3 and C4 (cool season vs warm season) grasses, where sugars are stored and when, how light and temperatures affect accumulation and usage.

Over-grazed pastures also tend to have more weeds, and weeds can be extremely high in sugars.

So it’s not really black and white, and much of what ends up working depends on the individual horse in that specific environment.

[stb]

This is an interesting question. We have had lots of rain this year, and my dry lot has sprouted lots of weeds and a bit of grass, which is getting grazed down to very short levels since it is small and the horses are on it during the day. Would the horses be better off turned out in the regular pastures full time? Pasture grasses are in the 6" height range. The horses also move much more on pasture.

PS - I hate worrying about this stuff;). easy keepers aren’t so easy.

[paintedtrails]

@stb

PS - I hate worrying about this stuff;). easy keepers aren’t so easy.

So agree! I’ve had two hard keepers before this guy and while it might be a little more expensive in upkeep on “grain” it way less worry! My guy is currently muzzled, gets just a RB and supplements and I still worry!

[Abbie.S]

For an IR horse, a grazing muzzle is your best friend. Even if they don’t tend towards chubbsters, it means you can leave them on a pasture for several hours and their intake is much less and much more spread out than if sans muzzle.

This is, of course, if your IR horse doesn’t need to be dry-lotted, which many of them do.

The general rule is stressed grass sends more sugars to the blade. The ideal grazing length for grass is between 4 and 7-8 inches, so when mowing it’s actually wise to set your deck a bit higher or, even better, mow down to encourage weeds to be overtaken by grass and then let the pasture grow in for a week or so. Fresh cut grass is also stresses, so if sugars are a huge concern, don’t put ponies out on freshly mowed pasture, either.

[Lord_Helpus]

Also, there is much more sugar in grass from about 5 - 9pm when the grass is using the sugars it has accumulated during the day. The low point in sugars is at dawn, when the sugar is depleted – and right before the grass begins to make sugar during the day again.

So, if you are worried about sugars, bring the horse in for dinner and only turn him back out when it is dark.